The Business of Magazines

[envogueforever]

Condé Nast Plans French Vanity Fair
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

Vanity Fair magazine, which has been battling declining newsstand sales in the United States, is looking for more readers in Europe. Next year, Condé Nast is starting a monthly edition of Vanity Fair in France. The magazine will share the name of the American publication, but nearly 90 percent of the content will be original.

“When I sit down with the owner of a fashion house or someone in the French cultural life, the first thing they say to me is ‘When are you going to start Vanity Fair?’ ” said Jonathan Newhouse, chairman and chief executive of Condé Nast International.

Over the last 18 months, Condé Nast editors created samples of the new magazine and showed them to focus groups in France. Anne Boulay, the magazine’s new editor in chief, who had been editing French GQ, also a Condé Nast publication, said that women in those groups said they liked “this combination of hard news and glamour.” She said the women felt “they were taken seriously and not just stupid women buying Manolo boots and makeup.”

Other prominent hires have been made for the French magazine. The journalist and television personality Michel Denisot, whom Mr. Newhouse called a French mix of Barbara Walters and Mike Wallace, will be the editorial director. Condé Nast also hired Le Figaro’s fashion editor, Virginie Mouzat, to run the fashion and lifestyle coverage and Hervé Gattegno from Le Point to oversee investigative coverage. Condé Nast has already hired half of the 25-person team that will run the magazine.

Vanity Fair has long been expanding its brand into other countries as it has faced flat circulation and a tough advertising market in the United States. While total advertising revenue for the United States edition rose by 5.9 percent in the second quarter of 2012 from a year earlier, the number of advertising pages declined by 1 percent.

Mr. Newhouse emphasized that Vanity Fair in France was a “completely different different business proposition.” He added that Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair in the United States, would not be actively involved with the French magazine.

“That is one of the biggest challenges we have, how to have the French touch,” said Xavier Romatet, president and chief executive of Condé Nast France. “We need to have the French point of view. We need to be much more close to the French culture, the French people, the French way of life.”

For example, Mr. Romatet and Ms. Boulay said that it was unlikely that French Vanity Fair would feature the former Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, on the cover as Vanity Fair did on its September 2012 issue in the United States. “We have a very different relationship with royalty,” Ms. Boulay said. “We cut off our queens’ and kings’ heads.”

source: nytimes

 

[Thefrenchy]

^Virginie Mouzat ?! ?! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!

ETA: Funny how the numbers changed between the NYT article and the one from Le Nouvel Observateur. 25 people vs 20 in LNObs, and 90% of original content vs 80% for LNObs

 

[Thefrenchy]

More details...

Condé Nast France Chairman Xavier Romatet confirmed the French launch of Vanity Fair this morning, set for 2013. Seasoned journalist Michel Denisot will head the editorial team with Anne Boulay, previously of GQ, as editor-in-chief.

A savvy mix of excellent reporting and entertainment, with the undeniable glamour of a glossy magazine, VANITY FAIR represents the introduction of a magazine concept to France that has long proved its worth in the United States. The move is especially important at a time of economic morosity and an increasingly uncertain relationship between the French public and the press: "With VANITY FAIR, we are aiming to bring back a certain prestige to the magazine market in France. By igniting a burning desire to investigate, pleasure in writing, and pride in publishing in our journalists; enabling readers to enjoy informing themselves, providing them with exciting, thorough, contextualized stories, VANITY FAIR is re-appropriating time and making it an ally as we offer the public new hooks to help them understand the complex, moving, instantaneous, times we are living through," declares Xavier Romatet, Chairman of Les Publications Condé Nast, France. French journalist Michel Denisot will lead the Vanity Fair editorial team, bringing with him a huge wealth of experience, fair analysis, high standards and an in-depth knowledge of the areas the magazine is set to explore.

"It's a huge honor for me to head this legendary magazine, I'm looking forward to taking this next step with enthusiasm and humility," says Michel Denisot. Anne Boulay will be behind the editor-in-chief's desk, with over 10 years' experience at Condé Nast and success with GQ since it launched in France, plus the magazine expertise and deep knowledge of high-end press required to make a new title work. "VANITY FAIR is legendary in the States. It's the only magazine able to successfully mix entertainment with in-depth reporting of unrivalled quality, and we are aiming to offer a French version with the same strong identity," she explains. "We're are interested in stories that directly impact the French public, without ignoring some of the major investigative work published in the US VANITY FAIR." An editorial team has already been put together, and "the journalists who are joining us are probably the best at what they do around today," continues Anne Boulay. Virginie Mouzat will take on the luxury & lifestyle editorship, Hervé Gattegno is investigating editor. Olivier Bouchara has been named head of reporting, Anne-Laure Sugier, culture editor, Sibylle Grandchamp fashion editor, and Francesca Colin has signed up as publisher. Anne Boulay will be replaced at GQ by Emmanuel Poncet, her deputy since the magazine launched. "Emmanuel Poncet knows the magazine inside-out, wand what has made it such a success over the past five years, with more than 100,000 readers a month," concludes Xavier Romatet.

- VOGUE.FR

 

[MissMagAddict]

So then I guess that means ELLE's artistic direction is potentially going to be interesting, both good and bad... Marie Claire US' layouts are fairly high standard, but the covers are always so text ridden...

Suzanne Sykes is going to UK Elle. Joe Zee is the Creative Director of US Elle.

 

[ohmycolin]

Suzanne Sykes is going to UK Elle. Joe Zee is the Creative Director of US Elle.

I know that, we were talking about UK Elle

 

[GlamorousBoy]

Czech publishers want VOGUE

In recent weeks, rumour has it about the interest of the local media owners to bring to the Czech Republic the Vogue magazine. But the question is if this plan can be successfully finalized.

Vogue is one of the few magazine brands which Czech readers do not have available in the mother tongue. Not because its expensive license fee, but because Vogue has quite strict rules for licensing. Condé Nast did not find Czech (+ Slovak) market interesting enough. In other words, the owner of the license has not been convinced that czech market presents a sufficient number of advertisers in the most luxurious segment as well as an adequate number of consumers with high-above-average incomes who are ready to invest considerable amounts of money for luxury branded goods.

That means that czech publishers must convince the licensor that the situation has changed and there are enough creditworthy advertisers and consumers for Vogue.

According to unofficial information, there are three publishers who wants to bring Vogue to the Czech Republic. The most likely is Zdenek Bakala, which has a majority stake in the company BXR Media which controlls Respekt Publishing and Economia.

Although neither Respekt Publishing nor Economia publish the lifestyle titles, Vogue could help in Bakalas business activities. Bakalas wife Michaela is the chairman of Luxury Brand Management company which exclusively represents several luxury brands in the country and wants to acquire another luxurious boutiques in the most expensive shopping street in Prague - The Paris Street. These expansion would bring to Luxury Brand Management the considerable influence in business of luxury brand goods in the Czech Republic and getting a fashion magazine like Vogue could be another logical step.

source: mediaguru.cz

 

[jmrmartinho]

^No. Please no!!

 

[Flashbang]

I love them both and pleased to hear this news. I have a high expectation from this

UP THE MASTHEAD: Details has made a pair of promotions, naming Matthew Marden fashion director and Eugene Tong style director, both reporting to editor-in-chief Dan Peres. Marden was previously market director and Tong was previously senior style editor. In their new roles, Marden will oversee all fashion coverage for the magazine, including conceptualizing cover shoots and the fashion well, while Tong will assume responsibility for the front-of-book “Style” section. The fashion director post had been vacant for several years and style director is a new position at the title.
-wwd.com

 

[Miss Dalloway]

LAWRENCE DEPARTS: W magazine has struggled to recover to its prerecession heights, when it could command more than 400 pages in a September issue. But it has begun to find its footing recently. So on Thursday afternoon, it came as a surprise to Condé Nast management and W staff that the magazine’s loudest cheerleader, publisher Nina Lawrence, said she would be departing to become The Wall Street Journal’s new vice president of global marketing, advertising sales.

She broke the news to Condé Nast chief executive officer Charles Townsend earlier that day.

“My message was, I’ve loved this company and I love my job, but I’ve been fortunate to be offered a huge opportunity at the most monetized brand in the world, a company with huge scale, and uncompromising journalistic authority, and it’s the right time for me to take this opportunity,” Lawrence said.

Townsend was taken aback, she said, adding, “Everyone was.” The timing was especially curious because W has its national sales meeting in two weeks, though it now may be postponed.

Lawrence, who got her start at Time magazine 25 years ago, had also grown into the role of a Condé lifer. She’d been publisher of Mademoiselle and Brides and, in 2005, became the publisher of W, for a career at Condé that altogether spans 15 years.

When she joined W, the title was a powerhouse — its September issue that year commanded 388 pages, according to Media Industry Newsletter. This year’s September issue had 246. The high-end magazine struggled after the 2008 recession and only recently has begun to regain traction. Even as pages slipped, Lawrence survived a change in editors when Stefano Tonchi succeeded longtime editor in chief Patrick McCarthy in 2010.

Some of the credit for the resurgence goes to Tonchi, who is something of a shadow publisher. But also, to some extent, W had nowhere to go but up or it would have been in real trouble. The November 40th anniversary issue is fat with ad pages — 191, versus 93 the year before, according to MIN.

The magazine is up 12 percent through November, according to MIN.

“I’m not leaving out of any negative element,” she said. “I’m leaving because the opportunity is so great ahead of me.”

Michael F. Rooney, the Journal’s chief revenue officer, approached Lawrence about the job. The two of them had known each other since their days at Discover magazine.

At the Journal, where she starts Nov. 1, according to a spokeswoman, Lawrence will be responsible for creating marketing and business development efforts for the publication’s global sales team, which handles print and digital sales for the Wall Street Journal Europe as well as several other international editions.

A spokeswoman for Condé Nast said there were no plans to name a publisher in the interim.

wwd.com

 

[Mat Cyruss]

OMG!!! Carine Roitfeld is Bazaar's Global Fashion Director

Breaking News!
source: twitter/harpersbazaarus

 

[Mat Cyruss]

^Details

Carine Roitfeld Named Global Fashion Director of Harper’s Bazaar Read more: Breaking: Carine Roitfeld Named Global Fashion Director of Harper’s Bazaar

Harper’s Bazaar is thrilled to announce style icon Carine Roitfeld as global fashion director for the magazine. Roitfeld will produce a limited amount of editorials for the magazine to run across world wide editions, it was announced today by David Carey, president, Hearst Magazines, and Duncan Edwards, president and CEO, Hearst Magazines International. Roitfeld will collaborate with Stephen Gan, creative director of Harper’s BAZAAR U.S., on several stories a year starting in the March 2013 issues of all 26 international editions of BAZAAR, which have a combined audience of more than 11.3 million worldwide. The special project may include covers of many of BAZAAR’s international editions. Roitfeld, who has recently published the first edition of her new magazine CR Fashion Book, will give her own unique take on the key fashion trends each season. Edwards commented, “This collaboration marks the first time anything like this has been done and we’re very excited about what Carine will bring to BAZAAR editions around the world. She is a visionary in the fashion world and we are so happy to be working with her.” Carey said, “Hearst is the world’s largest publisher of monthly magazines, and we’re always looking for powerful ideas that can play out across the globe. Carine is one of the fashion world’s most influential tastemakers and we look forward to seeing what she does with BAZAAR. Her contributions will help lead the company to new heights on the creative front.” “I am thrilled to be contributing to BAZAAR, a brand with a rich history of creativity,” said Roitfeld. “Working with Stephen and a roster of talented photographers will be a wonderful collaboration and one that will give these stories a truly global audience.” Roitfeld will continue to work on her various other projects including her newly launched biannual, CR Fashion Book.
*glossynewsstand.tumblr.com

 

[loladonna]

Does this mean U.S. Bizarre will now have more breasts and cigarettes?

 

[honeycombchild]

I imagine everything is going to have to be tailored to the edition it appears in. Her VP esthetic wont fit in British Bazaar too well either, but it's certainly quite exciting to think of a global fashion director doing bits for all editions.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^ Ya totally, but she, i think, can also bring the much needed better direction of the eds, within that HB look. I didn't enjoy her last few years at VP, and her mag debut did not impress, however this is a woman that understands the power of a good image. And i know its super predictable with this news to go there.....but it really makes me wonder if she might take over Bailey eventually.

 

[jmrmartinho]

This is just an excuse for the magazine gaining hype.
Why not to put her as editor-in-chief of the american Bazzar, I mean, Glenda is destrying the magazine and the only single way to put the magazine up is to have another editor in chief and why not Carine?
This role is just very random...

 

[Modelo]

They're probably building her up for the EIC position. I wonder if her fav models will start appearing on the covers of US HB.... Since she left VP she's making serious bank tho. Styling top campaigns, various collaborations which carries her name, her magazine, and now this. I'm excited!

 

[honeycombchild]

Sally Singer, who left her job as editor of T Magazine in September, has been named the digital creative director of Vogue. She'll head back to 4 Times Square to take the newly created position on Oct. 29. Singer, who had been the features director and fashion news editor at Vogue before she took over T Magazine in 2010, will report to Anna Wintour and will work closely with Vogue.com Editor Caroline Palmer.

Fashionologie

 

[blueorchid]

I wonder if her fav models will start appearing on the covers of US HB....

As if Glenda would allow that!

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Interesting turn of events for Singer, i always thought she was the one that might take over from Wintour, and i guess she still might.

 

[ohmycolin]

A Hearst spokesperson has confirmed that both Kate Davidson Hudson and Stefania Allen, Elle‘s Accessories Director and Senior Accessories Editor, respectively, have left the company, leaving the magazine with essentially no senior accessories editors.

There’s no word yet on where Hudson or Allen are going, or why they left the magazine, though we have a feeling it might have something to do with the recent relaunch of Elle Accessories. At the time of the relaunch, The Daily reported that the Elle Accessories masthead would be the exact same as the current Elle masthead–which means no new hires were made to take on the additional workload the twice-yearly mag would have created for the Accessories team.

We’ve reached out to Hudson and Allen for comment and are waiting to hear back.

Fashionista.com