The Business of Magazines

[surrealseven]

The Grand Plan

When it was announced earlier this week that Katie Grand, the London-based stylist and founder/editor in chief of Pop, would be launching a new magazine with Condé Nast U.K. in the spring, speculation among fashion types spun into overdrive. What would it look like? Would Grand succeed in bringing her famously outré vision to the masses? Will Madonna repeat the bondage cover shoot that graced Pop a few issues back? All that remains to be seen, but in the meantime, Grand is moving full steam ahead with her biggest project to date. We caught up with her between shows in Paris for a quick chat about magazines, what she wants to buy for spring, and what’s soundtracking her life at the moment.

You probably can’t say too much about the new magazine, but give us a hint: What’s your vision for it? Will it be like Pop, or something completely different?

I think it will be different, though not completely different. I hope it’s a positive move forward, and that we will be able to work with people we’ve not worked with before. The climate is very different to when we launched Pop eight years ago—I don’t know that I would put all my friends on the cover now—but it felt like the right thing to do then.

Do you know who’s going to be working with you on it?

The team is pretty similar to the one that works on Pop, and we’ll have lots of contributors I have worked with over the years, but some people will be new, and I’m very excited about that. I made a real effort in the last year to work with new photographers and stylists, and it has been great to work with a whole new generation of contributors.

You haven’t worked with a major publisher before—are you nervous? Excited about the budget?

Yes, I am nervous. Emap was a pretty major publisher, but just not recognized for its fashion titles, really—with the exceptions of Grazia and Homme Plus—so it’s going to be thrilling to go to such a powerhouse of fashion titles. I’m really looking forward to it and of course want it to be the best thing I’ve ever done! It’s going to be amazing to have support with distribution and marketing. We’ve never had that before. My aim is to do something as cool as Pop but with a much wider circulation, which I think we will be able to achieve with the incredible marketing budget they’ve given us.

You’ve been in Paris for the shows—what’s stuck in your mind for the upcoming season? Have you made up your spring shopping list yet?

To be honest, I’ve been working flat out at Louis Vuitton, so the only shows I’ve caught have been a few on the Internet. I am desperate for a pair of Marc Jacobs raffia shoes, though—and the Vuitton accessories are pretty exciting.

If you had to run out of your house because it was on fire, what item from your wardrobe would you save?

A 1966 Balmain couture dress from Didier Ludot.

After clothes and accessories, what do you spend your money on?

Errrm. Not much, really—I am a complete clothing junkie. I have all of my magazines bound, though, which is a pretty indulgent expense.

Let’s go over some culture stuff. What’s the last book you read/film you saw/song you downloaded?

I am in love with the soundtrack to The Wackness. I didn’t love the movie, but the soundtrack is ace. And to keep the mood up at Louis Vuitton this week, we’ve been listening to show tunes! When I’m working on a show, I really like to watch television when I get in—no matter what time it is. So I watched Point Break on Saturday night, which was a good release. And I’ve just finished reading Mark Frith’s The Celeb Diaries.

What’s something the world doesn’t know about Katie Grand?

That’s a hard one—I’m pretty open about most things. I slammed my fingers in a door last night and cried quite a lot!
—Nancy MacDonell

style.com

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^^Fantastic thanks for posting.

I am very excited for her new magazine, sounds promising, i would sooo love to see Katie take Anna's place someday, i think she could be the right person to bring back that excitment and fresh ideas to Vogue.

 

[Style-Addict]

Lovely interview, thanks!

 

[surrealseven]

^^Fantastic thanks for posting.

I am very excited for her new magazine, sounds promising, i would sooo love to see Katie take Anna's place someday, i think she could be the right person to bring back that excitment and fresh ideas to Vogue.

^ Yeah, ME TOO

I cant wait to see her fresh new ideas and a brand new magazine she planned, everything she said makes the magazine sound so exciting!

Yeap, I agree! Then it would realise her childhood dream of editing Vogue!

 

[tigerrouge]

Media Guardian ran this on Monday:

What Katie Did Next
Why is Katie Grand, the ultra-cool editor of Pop, leaving the title she founded to launch a new magazine for Condé Nast?
By Alice Wignall

Katie Grand is on the phone from Paris, where, as an in-demand stylist, she's working at fashion week. "It can be a bit glamorous," she concedes, "but by 3am it's usually just quite a lot of work and eating sausage rolls and drinking coffee." Things are a little more exciting away from the catwalk: Grand is shortly to leave her day job editing the ultra-cool fashion mag Pop for Bauer, and decamp to Condé Nast with her entire team to launch a new title.

Her new project? A twice-yearly, as-yet-unnamed style magazine that, according to the official announcement, is going to be "edgy", "experimental" and "high-end". Which doesn't sound a million miles away from Pop, which Grand founded in 2000. Condé Nast was in fact initially keen to buy Pop lock, stock and barrel - but Bauer declined. "We have been considering having a magazine in this very edgy style sector for some time," says Nicholas Coleridge, the managing director of Condé Nast in the UK. "We kept hearing that they [Bauer] weren't very committed to Pop but eventually they decided it was no dice, they didn't want to sell it. But by that time Katie had come into our lives. I guess we've been flirting, in a career sense."

For her part, Grand says she was happy either way. "I kind of knew that Condé Nast had put in bids for Pop. I thought, if it happens, great. If not, it would also be great to do something new ... Maybe it's better just to do something that's completely a fresh start."

According to Bauer, the changing of the guard at Pop is just a regular bit of staff turnover. "We publish many magazines," says David Davies, managing director of Bauer's women's magazines division, "editors do change and we're used to that." Except this is an editor who has invented and defined the title she works on, and who is taking her whole team with her. It's hardly run-of-the-mill HR.

Bauer insists there is no doubt that Pop will continue to exist. "Of course," says Davies, "why would it not?" He argues that Condé Nast is "copying" a Bauer idea. "We'll continue in the more maverick role," he adds. "Katie has probably achieved what she's going to with the title. Pop will be very different going forward and it's very exciting for us. Condé Nast is more of an institution, and that's not our role."

As Coleridge puts it, Bauer has a "centre of gravity" weighted towards its weekly titles: Heat, Closer and Grazia. According to industry gossip, Bauer wasn't especially interested in Pop and failed to look after the title or the team. "There was a definite feeling of being a square peg in a round hole," Grand agrees. The magazine had been moved back into Bauer's main office, from its old home in Clerkenwell. "We were acutely aware of doing something different from everyone else," says Grand. "By the end, to be walking through radio advertising or whatever and be openly called 'the weirdos', it was just unpleasant."

But, she says, "those things are pretty insignificant compared to all the great times I had there." She calls Davies a "super-enthusiastic" publisher and singles out Mark Frith, the ex-editor of Heat, who "behind the scenes, has been very supportive over the last few months". And, clearly, Condé Nast is hardly an any-port-in-a-storm bolthole. Coleridge is openly gleeful about having secured Grand and the team. That despite Condé Nast's last foray into edgy style territory, Trash magazine - a joint venture with Ministry of Sound in 2003 - being a failure. But there's a sense it's not the launch that's important, it's having Grand. "We are more interested in the talent joining the company," says Coleridge.

Grand's fashion acumen is legendary. She has worked as a stylist for Bottega Veneta and Miu Miu, and currently works for Louis Vuitton, Loewe and Giles Deacon. Her fashion reach has led the London Evening Standard to say, "What Katie does - and Katie says - is as influential as it gets." But she can, however, do commercial as well as cool: Pop has a circulation of 125,000 and - as Grand points out - has been one of Bauer's 10 most successful titles in business terms. She seems eager to keep focused on commercial realities. "It's really important to have a large circulation and following," she says.

It's also a canny attitude in what is hardly a friendly economic atmosphere ("It's not an ideal time to launch a new magazine," Grand admits). "We've launched magazines in many difficult, turbulent times," says Coleridge, who (perhaps unsurprisingly) thinks the signs for high-end titles are good: "We're feeling pretty confident."

Plans are still in very early stages, partly because Grand didn't want to start working on the new title - which will launch in March - before it became official. "There was something about starting to commission for the new title ... I couldn't do it," she says. There were all these rumours flying around before I had resigned. It was a bit like having an affair. I was getting like: 'Can we just announce it? Can I resign now?'" She is still working on the December issue of Pop.

It demonstrates, if nothing else, that after eight years as an editor, after enjoying commercial and critical success in the job, the siren call of lucrative styling gigs around the world (small-hours sausage rolls thrown in for free) isn't strong enough to tempt Grand away from magazines completely. "I still think of myself as an editor before a stylist," she says. "I like that thing of going into an office and being bossy, saying, 'Let's do this'. It's what I've always wanted to do."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/06/condenast.pressandpublishing

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Loving all the new articles about this, thanks for posting Tigerrouge.

Its sad to hear that Bauer wasnt very comitted to POP, and very interesting that she managed to take all of her POP team with her.

I am soooooo curious what the title will be.

 

[tigerrouge]

I get a bad feeling about it - I have NO idea why, and I certainly don't wish her any ill, I've greatly enjoyed her work.

But none of the magazines in the UK Conde Nast stable is renowned for inventive, streetwise, visually experimental output. If that's why they wanted her - to pep up the portfolio with her proven success - then that sounds sensible, but are they ready to accommodate her making the most of their resources and taking her ideas even further? I get the feeling it'll be the other way around, and she'll have to comply to Conde Nast's way of doing things.

I think Bauer, quite rightly for the company, are probably more committed to their publications which sell around ONE MILLION issues EVERY WEEK, not a triannual style magazine.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Um ya but treating someone badly and going as faar as openly calling her, and her team, weirdos is just rude and disrespectful.Sure its all down to buisness for them, but POP was one of the 10 best selling titles of theirs....

Lets hope it is UK CNs intention to use her potential and proven suceess for this new title, we will see how it works out.

 

[tigerrouge]

The Bauer management team will be the ones sitting in nice offices far away, not the people - likely salepeople - sitting like cattle in an open-plan room, who'll call you worse things when you're not there to hear. If the worst her team has heard is "weirdo", they've been in editorial playgroup.

Disrespect is a daily working condition when working in a lot of publishing companies, you have to have a thick skin, or don't work there at all, because a human rights petition isn't going to change it, and somebody else will gladly have your job. Part of succeeding is making it clear you're to be respected. And in practical terms, if you can't deal with people heckling you, how are you going to be an editor and keep everything in line and get things done? Because you're dealing with people every day who will be bull****ting you, and trying to work things to their advantage. Part of being an editor is to have a firm hand on human nature, and you'll meet a lot of unpleasant people in your job.

Also, best-selling doesn't automatically equate to 'profitable', you can't blame any business for attending to profits first. Bauer produces market-dominating weeklies that POP can't compare to.

 

[prosperk]

That's very revealing, isn't it? I'll bet there were more than a few wry grins amongst industry people reading that piece.

PK

 

[prosperk]

I get the feeling it'll be the other way around, and she'll have to comply to Conde Nast's way of doing things.

Shades of James Brown's move from Loaded to GQ...

 

[Miss Dalloway]

The Bauer management team will be the ones sitting in nice offices far away, not the people - likely salepeople - sitting like cattle in an open-plan room, who'll call you worse things when you're not there to hear. If the worst her team has heard is "weirdo", they've been in editorial playgroup.

Disrespect is a daily working condition when working in a lot of publishing companies, you have to have a thick skin, or don't work there at all, because a human rights petition isn't going to change it, and somebody else will gladly have your job. Part of succeeding is making it clear you're to be respected. And in practical terms, if you can't deal with people heckling you, how are you going to be an editor and keep everything in line and get things done? Because you're dealing with people every day who will be bull****ting you, and trying to work things to their advantage. Part of being an editor is to have a firm hand on human nature, and you'll meet a lot of unpleasant people in your job.

Also, best-selling doesn't automatically equate to 'profitable', you can't blame any business for attending to profits first. Bauer produces market-dominating weeklies that POP can't compare to.

Very true, i guess i was just surprised that they were "open" with it, and that she said on the record "it was unpleasant" , usually all of that is kept under wraps even after leaving the company.

 

[surrealseven]

So the current POP issue isn't Katie Grand's last issue for POP?

 

[MissMagAddict]

So the current POP issue isn't Katie Grand's last issue for POP?

Did you read the article tigerrouge posted surrealseven? The answer is in there.

 

[surrealseven]

Well, I read somewhere POP is published triannually but I'm not really sure, but it's like the current issue is like a fall issue so I thought it might just be the last issue of the year

 

[lucy92]

CosmoGirl Folds

Hearst Closes CosmoGirl

Brand Follows Teen People, ElleGirl Out of Print, Will Continue Online

By Nat Ives

Published: October 10, 2008
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Hearst Magazines is shutting down CosmoGirl magazine after its December issue, the company confirmed this morning. Its subscribers will receive issues of Seventeen instead; its brand will continue at CosmoGirl.com.

The CosmoGirl brand will continue at CosmoGirl.com.



CosmoGirl, the Cosmo spinoff introduced in 1999, follows Time Inc.'s Teen People and Hachette's ElleGirl out of print. Ad pages in the first three quarters came in 14.4% lower than in the same period last year, according to Media Industry Newsletter. Circulation slipped 1.4% in the first half but sank 18% on newsstands, where advertisers often look for signs of a magazine's vitality, according to reports filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

"This was a very difficult decision, and I want to extend my personal appreciation to Editor in Chief Susan Schulz, who joined CosmoGirl shortly after its launch, nearly a decade ago, and has been its editor for the past five years," said Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines, in an internal e-mail this morning. "She is a highly talented editor and will continue to work with us on a special-projects basis."

Vicki Wellington, CosmoGirl's publisher, is being named publisher of Hearst's new Food Network magazine.

 

[jf813]

That is really unfortunate. I like CosmoGirl better than Seventeen. And if they love her so much as an editor, why on a special projects basis?

 

[Trista]

It was only a matter of time...a lot of the girls in the mid-teen demographic just go for Cosmo instead.

 

[moussemaker]

2008 Best American Fashion Cover

According to the American Society of Magazine Editors.​

(2-way-tie)
​

Vanity Fair, September 2007
For Vanity Fair’s fashion cover, world-renowned fashion photographer and portraitist Mario Testino shot supermodel Gisele Bündchen wearing a flashy Robert Cavalli dress for a feature on Brazil. Styled by Michael Roberts, the cover of Vanity Fair’s annual Style Issue conveys luxurious electricity. The integration of type into the contours of the limousine draws the reader, in an almost tactile way, into the cover itself.​

New York Look, Spring 2008


New York Look, the semi-annual fashion magazine from the editors of New York, announced itself with a bold, graphic, black-and-white cover for its inaugural issue. In an age of instantly available and ubiquitous runway photos, the cover presents a catwalk photo readers have never seen before, shot by Magnum photographer Paolo Pellegrin. Pellegrin captured the beauty, chaos, and drama of Fashion Week with the fresh eye of an outsider.
Fashion covers are usually staged, highly produced affairs. This cover was unmistakably fashionable but used documentary photography to tell its story—and the stunning artistry of the picture perfectly captures what was special about New York Look’s singular approach, covering the collections rather than the clothes—looking at the fashion shows as a phenomenon, rather than a simple showcase for a product.

http://www.magazine.org/asme/stories-2008-best-fashion-cover-winner-finalists.aspx​

All entries here (not one Vogue cover)
http://www.magazine.org/asme/2008-best-fashion-cover-entries.aspx

 

[BerlinRocks]

i think we should add in the title : best american fashion covers according to ASME.
or something.
because though i agree with them about the vanity fair cover annd its "integration of type into the contours of the limousine draws the reader, in an almost tactile way, into the cover itself", though it unites two major fashion persons (Testino + Gisele is a winner team) .... this is def. not one of the best american fashion cover.
it def. doesn't look 2008, at all. imo. this image of luxury belongs to something older in Testino's work, IMO.