The Business of Magazines

[vogue28]

thanks for posting. Intresting because I used to think Vogue was doing better than Elle. Vogue seemed more higher, and have more about fashion than Elle.

 

[BettinaBuffe]

I think Elle has more fashion. It covers EVERYTHING whereas Vogue is for 'prestige' and they are very selective and highly edited.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

WOW that is lots of changes at Bazaar. ^^I think so.

 

[fashionatic]

Probably ELLE´s more for common people who are interested in fashion, but don´t want to research to understand VOGUE?

 

[LUXXX]

Anna should take a page out of Carine's book if she wants to make things interesting at American Vogue again. She needs to be more daring with her editorials and cover subjects...

But I agree Elle is a bit more commercialized, like how Bazaar has become. They incorporate pop culture...

 

[BettinaBuffe]

vogue russia, imo, is more interesting than american vogue.

seriously... vogue usa imo exists only for 'prestige' and nothing else.

 

[kimair]

this isn't a rumour...
and it's not about which is the better magazine, it's about advertisers...
it was reported in wwd that vogue's ad pages are down for the year along with some other condé nast titles...

moving to the business of magazines...

ETA: here is the article from wwd...

September Falls Flat for Most Mags
By Stephanie D. Smith


September is the make-or-break month for fashion magazines. This year, there will be more broken than not. Write it off to a troubled economy, dramatic erosion in consumer confidence and unpredictability in the stock market. According to Publishers Information Bureau, ad pages declined 6.4 percent for magazines in the first quarter and 8.2 percent in the second quarter of this year compared with 2007. And by the looks of ad page performance through September, those declines are likely to continue. Some of this year's declines reflect hangovers from the giddiness of September 2007, when many titles, including W, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour and Vogue, touted the biggest issues in their histories. But this year, even with additional paging that some of the Hearst Magazines and Condé Nast titles receive from their corporate marketing programs, "30 Days of Fashion" and "Fashion Rocks," respectively, most publishers were not able to beat last year's ad page performance.

Based on publishers' estimates, the few magazines that will print fatter September issues this year include Elle, which added 26 pages to its September edition, its largest ever at 420 pages. Elle's year-to-date pages are 1,802, up 6.6 percent. Lucky, which welcomed new vice president and publisher Gina Sanders in January, increased pages 7.2 percent in September, to 299. However, pages year to date through September declined 8 percent, to 1,184. Marie Claire added eight pages to this year's September issue, which carries 178 ads. Year to date, Marie Claire's pages are down 3 percent, to 943. Harper's Bazaar managed to increase ad pages nearly 3 percent, to 373, and for the year has increased paging 7 percent, to 1,410. Bazaar's luxury and accessory advertising has remained steady, and the magazine has seen gains from travel. The fashion title also spun off "Runway Report," covering looks from the fall fashion shows in New York and Europe, and 10 of the magazine's 81 pages of advertising will count toward its September page count. The title joins a growing competitive list of runway-oriented spin-offs and will hit newsstands July 29 with 100,000 copies and an additional 100,000 to targeted subscribers.

Most of the larger fashion and lifestyle titles saw September issues shrink. At Vogue, senior vice president and publishing director Tom Florio and his team attempted to top last year's record-breaking 725 ad pages. Instead, this year's September carried 50 fewer pages. Year to date, Vogue's pages have declined 4 percent. At Glamour, pages for its September issue fell 10.6 percent from last year, while year-to-date pages have fallen 10.5 percent. "For us, 2007 was a 20-year high, so to be down 10 percent from the best issue in the last 20 years, we're OK," said senior vice president and publishing director Bill Wackermann. In Style is down 13.7 percent in September, to 341 pages, and off 11 percent, to 1,969, year to date. W is down 17.7 percent in September, to 396 pages, and year to date is off 7.1 percent.

Vanity Fair reported a 5 percent drop in pages for its September issue, to 335, and a 12 percent drop in ad pages this year compared with 2007, when Vanity Fair produced its July Africa issue. It featured guest editor Bono and 20 separate celebrity covers, an event that advertisers clamored to be a part of. "The Africa issue picked up 55 pages of business that we didn't normally carry," said Edward Menicheschi, the magazine's vice president and publisher.

Among the teen titles, Teen Vogue reported a 19 percent drop in ad pages. Nevertheless, said publisher Laura McEwen, who succeeded Sanders when she moved to Lucky, the magazine has broken new ads from Nike, Burberry and Shiseido. Year to date, pages are off 5 percent through September, to 814.

 

[tigerrouge]

It's going to be the same story across the board, for newspapers and magazines in most sectors - but given that people's approach to the economy is as much about what's in their head as what's in their wallet, there will come the moment when people will get fed up with thrift, they'll hunger for glamour, and the upturn will start, but it's hard to say when that imperceptible shift in attitude will sweep in, could be 2010.

Writing '2010' as a valid year makes me feel like I'm living in a sci-fi novel.

 

[Style-Addict]

I wonder what's going on at Bazaar- that's a lot of people quitting, new hires, more departures. I'm sure that's turning their department upside down for the time being.

 

[tigerrouge]

Some news about US Esquire from Media Guardian:

Flashing mag covers: Saviour or stunt?
Caitlin Fitzsimmons, July 23, 2008
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2008/07/flashing_mag_covers_saviour_or.html

Getting a magazine noticed on the news-stand is no longer a simple case of a strong image and tantalising coverlines - these days it's all about holographic covers and poly-bagged flip flops.
For its October issue, the US edition of Esquire is now putting out a cover with a flashing cover line saying "the 21st Century Begins Now", powered by a special battery pack. Is this anything more than a stunt?
Esquire's publisher Hearst believes the cover could ultimately end up in the Smithsonian Institute, alongside American icons such as Dorothy's ruby slippers and Neil Armstrong's space suit.
It's a bold prediction - but a flashing cover doesn't really sound that exciting, does it? Yet there are good reasons to pay attention.
Firstly, this is more a proof of concept than anything else - the flashing technology will be used on 100,000 copies out of an overall circulation of 720,000. The publisher has invested seed money to develop a battery small enough to fit inside a magazine and has exclusive use until the end of 2009.
Secondly, the technology provider is E Ink, which has a good track record in innovation including the supply of technology within Amazon's e-book reader Kindle. David Granger, editor-in-chief of Esquire, told the New York Times: "In two years, I hope this looks like cell phones did in 1982, or car phones."
With the circulation of magazines and newspapers declining and the seeming unstoppable rise of digital media, some industry observers believe print is doomed. Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, has famously said that the most recent purchase of printing presses might well be the paper's last.
Print technology is more innovative than most people think, with constant upgrades to colour, format, cutting and finishing. The newspapers and magazines of the future will undoubtedly look different as print and paper converges with digital media. For example, the Sun is among the print titles using so-called QR codes to integrate newspapers with the mobile world - the paper prints a barcode in a story or advertisement and if readers take a photo of the code with a web-enabled phone, they are taken straight to a site on the mobile web. Meanwhile, the growing success of e-paper, while not strictly speaking printed material, does show that people like the look and feel of paper.
So could technology save print or is all this just rearranging the proverbial deck chairs?

 

[tigerrouge]

And a bit more about the subject from nytimes.com:

News Flash From the Cover of Esquire: Paper Magazines Can Be High Tech, Too
By Tim Arango, July 21, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/b...1216800045-4+5bgZaGnba1fD2IbACiPQ&oref=slogin

On the third floor of the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan rests a tribute to Esquire’s glory years — a collection of 92 covers from the 1960s and early 1970s that have become, in the museum’s words, “essential to the iconography of American culture.”
David Granger, Esquire’s editor in chief, now has all the pieces for an electronic cover after tracking the technology for years.
That illustrious history hangs over the magazine’s effort to celebrate its 75th year. Its attempt to add to the annals of museum-worthy covers includes a nod to the digital age: an electronic cover, using admittedly rudimentary technology, that will flash “the 21st Century Begins Now,” when it appears on newsstands in September.
“I hope it will be in the Smithsonian,” said David Granger, Esquire’s editor in chief, in a recent interview while showing prototypes of the cover — an early version has a cord sticking out that attaches to a battery pack.
If it does wind up in the Smithsonian, it will need a power source; on its own, the magazine will run out of juice after 90 days. Mr. Granger knows some will see the cover as a gimmick — but he says he thinks the technology behind it, which has been used for supermarket displays but never embedded in a magazine, speaks to the possibilities of print.
“Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years,” Mr. Granger said. “I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine industry.”
Pointing to the prototype sitting on a conference room table, Mr. Granger said, “The possibilities of print have just begun. In two years, I hope this looks like cellphones did in 1982, or car phones.”
The company that produced the cover, E Ink, has a track record of innovation — its technology is used in Amazon.com’s e-book device, the Kindle. E Ink, a private company based in Cambridge, Mass., counts Hearst, Esquire’s parent, as a major shareholder.
“In 2000 or so, we went to Cambridge to see if they could demonstrate the technology,” Mr. Granger said. “They were doing store displays, so it was premature for a magazine.”
Two years ago, at a Hearst management retreat, Mr. Granger again raised the idea. This time it would be possible, he was told, if Hearst invested seed money to create a battery small enough to fit in a magazine.
“This is really the 1.0 version,” said Kevin O’Malley, Esquire’s publisher. “Imagine when the consumer walks by a newsstand and sees that it is alive.”
Digital technology holds the promise of making the dissemination of information much easier and cheaper — no paper, no trucks — but this experiment by Esquire was the opposite.
“The whole chain had to be reinvented,” said Peter Griffin, the deputy editor. “The interesting thing is it has almost nothing to do with the normal way of putting out a magazine.”
First Esquire had to make a six-figure investment to hire an engineer in China to develop a battery small enough to be inserted in the magazine cover. The batteries and the display case are manufactured and put together in China. They are shipped to Texas and on to Mexico, where the device is inserted by hand into each magazine. The issues will then be shipped via trucks, which will be refrigerated to preserve the batteries, to the magazine’s distributor in Glazer, Ky.
“We are trying to combine a 21st-century technology with a 19th-century manufacturing process,” Mr. Granger said.
All of this, of course, is expensive. Which is why it was necessary for Esquire to find a sponsor. In stepped Ford Motor, which will have an advertisement on the inside of the cover that will use the same technology to promote its new minivan-sport utility vehicle, the Flex.
“We wanted the marketing plan for this vehicle to include motion as much as possible,” said Usha Raghavachari, communications manager for S.U.V.’s for Ford North America Marketing. “We had a desire to make our marketing launch as unique as the vehicle. This makes our print plan a little more energizing.”
Esquire has exclusive use of E Ink’s technology for use in print through 2009, and Mr. Granger said he hopes to come up with new ideas for it. “This is probably just a limited view of its use,” he said.
The electronic cover will be used in only 100,000 copies that go to newsstands — its overall circulation is about 720,000.
What Esquire is doing harks back to a big splash National Geographic made in 1984 when it introduced holography to the mass market by placing a hologram of an eagle on its cover.
Holograms did become widespread in things like greeting cards, even if they did not upend the publishing world.
“Part of the iconic DNA of the magazine is our covers,” said Mr. O’Malley, Esquire’s publisher. “I fully expect that in 25 to 30 years, this cover will be in a museum.”

 

[kimair]

source wwd, 07.28.08

Wasting No Time Making Friends

Though Nina Garcia serves as editor at large at Elle through season five of “Project Runway,” it seems she’s already getting a head start on her fashion director duties at Marie Claire. Her new gig officially begins Sept. 2, but sources close to the magazine say Garcia has already moved into her office, the former digs of Tracy Taylor, who was dismissed in May to make way for Garcia. The “Project Runway” judge also is said to be conducting “run-throughs” for fashion shoots for the January issue. Sources said Garcia’s requests for high-end designer wares to be featured in fashion spreads can at times be at odds with Marie Claire’s more mass-market sensibilities.

A spokeswoman for Marie Claire said, “Nina is on contract with Elle that prohibits her from working for Marie Claire before Sept. 1. She has been in the office only to work out her travel schedule for the European fashion shows this fall.”

Garcia’s move to Marie Claire happened before the “Project Runway” judge finalized her contract to appear on the show’s sixth edition, which will air on Lifetime instead of Bravo. On Friday, a Weinstein Co. spokeswoman confirmed Garcia has re-upped, meaning all of the principals — herself, Michael Kors, Tim Gunn, and Heidi Klum — will move to Lifetime with the reality program. Does that mean Marie Claire has been confirmed as the official magazine partner? Sources close to the show say the deal has been done, but the Weinstein spokeswoman declined to confirm Friday.

 

[moussemaker]

'Oprah,' 'Vogue' Among Major Newsstand Losers

The official semi-annual magazine circulation report won't be out until next month, but thanks to the Audit Bureau of Circulations' new Rapid Report system, this year we'll get an early look at how top monthly titles sold in the first half. And the answer is...not well, for the most part.

Hearst took some big hits, with newsstand sales of Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire and O, The Oprah Magazine all tumbling by double-digit percentages. O's newsstand average was down 16.4 percent, to 742,500, which certainly casts the supposedly voluntary departure of editor in chief Amy Gross in a new light. Marie Claire's average of 291,059 is down 11.7 percent from last year, and down an alarming 29 percent from two years ago, when Joanna Coles took over as editor in chief.
Meanwhile, Hearst's most profitable title, Cosmopolitan, was "only" down 6.7 percent; I use scare quotes around "only" because that represents a disappearance of around 124,000 copies per issue.
Not that the news is especially sunny outside Hearst Tower. Vogue and Glamour, two of Condé Nast's major cash cows, are both down double digits on the newsstand as well. (Condé Nast publishes Portfolio.) Vogue skidded 15.1 percent to 383,833, while Glamour dropped 10.4 percent to 676,466. Teen Vogue was off 15.7 percent in the first half, compared to an 8 percent decline for rival Seventeen.
One of the few newsstand gainers was Vanity Fair, which was up 5.8 percent for the half, averaging 375,666. And we all know who's to thank for that.

Ladies' Home Journal posted a massive gain of 24.5 percent, but that appears to be due to a program of selling discounted copies at dollar stores -- a program that was recently shut down.

www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2008/07/29/oprah-vogue-among-major-newsstand-losers

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Oprah is the queen but i cant belive Teen Vogue outsold Vogue? And no Bazaar?

Thanks for posting Moussemaker.

 

[Style-Addict]

I agree Miss Dalloway, Teen Vogue outsold Vogue?!?! Wow! I didn't know GQ sold so low and I didnt' know Glamour and Marie Claire sold so much.

 

[mishahoi]

I agree Miss Dalloway, Teen Vogue outsold Vogue?!?! Wow! I didn't know GQ sold so low and I didnt' know Glamour and Marie Claire sold so much.

they didn't. You'll notice how the magazines that are listed at the top were the lowest sellers, as the charts shows losses and gains in circulation, starting from those that lost numbers.

The winners here are ladies home journal and vanity fair.

I`m not surprised about vogue. its bo-ring. I can get through a whole issue reading only the insightful columns and finish in 30 minutes.

 

[MissMagAddict]

I`m not surprised about vogue. its bo-ring. I can get through a whole issue reading only the insightful columns and finish in 30 minutes.

US Vogue is marketed to appeal to a very specific demographic... which is the woman over 35 years of age.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Source | WWD

Wasting No Time Making Friends

Though Nina Garcia serves as editor at large at Elle through season five of “Project Runway,” it seems she’s already getting a head start on her fashion director duties at Marie Claire. Her new gig officially begins Sept. 2, but sources close to the magazine say Garcia has already moved into her office, the former digs of Tracy Taylor, who was dismissed in May to make way for Garcia. The “Project Runway” judge also is said to be conducting “run-throughs” for fashion shoots for the January issue. Sources said Garcia’s requests for high-end designer wares to be featured in fashion spreads can at times be at odds with Marie Claire’s more mass-market sensibilities.

A spokeswoman for Marie Claire said, “Nina is on contract with Elle that prohibits her from working for Marie Claire before Sept. 1. She has been in the office only to work out her travel schedule for the European fashion shows this fall.”

Garcia’s move to Marie Claire happened before the “Project Runway” judge finalized her contract to appear on the show’s sixth edition, which will air on Lifetime instead of Bravo. On Friday, a Weinstein Co. spokeswoman confirmed Garcia has re-upped, meaning all of the principals — herself, Michael Kors, Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum — will move to Lifetime with the reality program. Does that mean Marie Claire has been confirmed as the official magazine partner? Sources close to the show say the deal has been done, but the Weinstein spokeswoman declined to confirm Friday.

 

[mishahoi]

US Vogue is marketed to appeal to a very specific demographic... which is the woman over 35 years of age.

but the fact they've lost so much in circulation points to something that is amiss; they havent changed formats, moved people around, gotten a new editor in chief, so why would they lose so many readers?

I personally think Vogue should go even more niche...a little more aspirational and a little more catered to the wealthy woman..then they could charge more for advertising. currently there is no magazine on the newsstands which cater to that market anyway...seems they are on the fence now in this economy.

 

[Style-Addict]

Thanks for that last article MissMagAddict!
I always love reading insider things like this- although I am not a regular reader of Marie Claire, I want to see what the magazine is like under her. I wonder how she'll change it.