The Business of Magazines

[Oxymore]

^Like Lui did.

 

[Benn98]

Interesting article, Edwina sure has her finger on the pulse. She's exceptionally articulate too.

Vogue’s Edwina McCann: Unlike some of our competitors, we’re still investing in content

With events like this month’s Vogue Fashion’s Night Out, digital editions, a website and brand events, Vogue is more of a brand than a magazine, editor-in-chief Edwina McCann tells Mumbrella’s Miranda Ward.

What are the challenges in editing a title like Vogue?

For a start the job has changed quite dramatically in the last three years and definitely five years. The challenge nowadays is really running a business with multiple and constantly changing revenue streams.

In terms of the editing part of what I do, it’s a lot less then it was when I first became an editor six and a half years ago. That would be the challenge at the moment, it would be time management which has more to do with driving the business then editing a magazine.

What are the revenue streams for a brand like Vogue?

We very much consider it Vogue the brand. At the centre of that is the magazine that we produce and the digital editions that we produce as part of the magazine. Clearly that has two revenue streams – circulation and advertising revenue.

Then our sales force, marketing and editorial work over the brand as a whole. Other parts of the brand is obviously Vogue.com.au which is a fashion, beauty and celebrity news site and that is a very substantial part of our business with its own revenue stream.

Then we have developed our experiential side of the business which has had quite dramatic growth over the past three years, which includes its centrepiece Vogue Fashion’s Night Out which we expanded to Melbourne this year, in Sydney it’s in its sixth year. We also host a lot of other specialist and bespoke events. We work a lot with the Chinese expat market and our luxury events hosting very bespoke events in Sydney and Melbourne.

And then other events, for example we hosted an event with Samsung in which we showed the Dion Lee runway show from New York Fashion Week which we had redone and tailored it and it has gone up on Vogue.com.au. It was behind-the-scenes interviews, so it was like sitting in the front row with Vogue Australia. Samsung worked with us to look at the Australian designers showing on the international runways and finding ways to bring that experience to our online audience.

How important are events like Vogue Fashion’s Night Out in terms of engagement with readers and advertisers?

Enormously now. Our sales force; we don’t even call them sales force – now they’re marketing solutions. They’re working with brands to work across all our platforms, of which a very important one is experiential.

We are engaging with the customer when they buy the magazine and sit down and read it, and then clearly we’re hoping they’re following us on our social media channels and visiting our website daily.

And then on top of that I think it’s incredibly important we have these real life experiences where people can come and experience the Vogue brand for a night. Fashion’s Night Out is an opportunity where they can come and shop like a VIP Vogue reader. The retailers, David Jones, really go to town and put on runway shows and there’s champagne and canapes. It’s the type of event a Vogue staffer would be invited to all the time, but staged for a Vogue reader and the public.

It’s become a very important part of the greater Vogue catchment and become more important as our social media reach has grown.

Clearly the numbers on social media is much bigger than our traditional magazine audience so therefore the types of experiences we can offer to this broader audience needs to evolve and be far reaching.

Vogue Fashion’s Night Out has shopping at all price points for all budgets, that again gives us an opportunity – Vogue is still going to give you the best experience, no matter what your budget is, if you come to one of our events.

Is social media one of the biggest changes in the publishing industry?

It’s a combination of factors. In terms of Vogue’s evolution as a brand, the past three years the change and the upskilling on our sales commercial side, even on our marketing side, they’ve had to become digital marketing experts and incredible event managers as well at the same time. The upskilling in every area of our business has been dramatically fast.

Obviously social media is just another add-on, another platform you need to understand and you need to understand how to manage your brand on it.

I don’t think brands are exactly where they need to be. I think you’ll see a lot more collaboration in this area long term. Because a lot of social media platforms are really distribution platforms. Traditionally we had a newsagent who was a distributor of our magazine and now you may have Instagram who is effectively distributing your social media content.

Looking into the future for the industry, is there going to be a greater focus on unlocking those opportunities on social media?

For a long time we have thought one thing replaces another. That’s not what’s happening.

We’ve always been in this very collaborative relationship with celebrities and models from an editorial point of view. So what we’ve had is quite a unique access to extraordinary people who appreciate the quality of the fashion photography and storytelling we bring to the table.

What that now allows is an opportunity for us to create content on all of our platforms, the access gives us the opportunity to create more content on more platforms. If I didn’t have the magazine and didn’t have that cover to offer in the first place I wouldn’t have that access.

The appetite for content can be cyclical and it’s very important to adapt within your brand prism, it’s really important to look at micro-trends that are impacting your demographic and your audience.

There’s always a solution within the brand and that’s the future to continue to be able to see the opportunities commercially and editorially in terms of customers. The long term vision for a brand like Vogue is deeper relationships with audience who we can identify as the super users, buying your magazine, coming regularly to the website, following us on social media and coming to our events and being able to offer those consumers more and more.

You took on the editor-in-chief role back in 2012 – taking over the job from Kirstie Clements who had held it for 13 years – how did you go about putting your stamp on the title?

In the beginning, I had worked for Vogue for six or seven years in my early twenties so I had a clear vision of what I wanted Vogue Australia to be and stand for and I did think we needed to change our work practices.

It was an exciting period where with the brand we had the opportunities were boundless and I hope that was the attitude I brought to the job at that time.

It definitely required a retraining, a re-calibration of our workforce and we’ve all been on that journey together.

It’s certainly changed the role of an editor quite dramatically. I haven’t just asked it of other people, I’ve had to learn to think differently, learn to use my time better and more effectively. Everything’s changed.

My hope at the time I was going to create a sustainable future for the beautiful brand of Vogue on all its platforms. I was passionate about the brand and everyone was talking about print being dead and I couldn’t bear the idea of Vogue not being there.

It’s a brand worth protecting and the way to protect it was to grow it and change it.

The most recent figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation saw Vogue’s circulation climb by 2.6 per cent from a circulation of 50,325 a month to 51,657, how important are circulation numbers?

They’re still important but we look at an overall brand reach number. We’re very focused on the overall reach of the brand , however, we want print to remain a sustainable proposition and we want to continue our loyal subscribers.

What is unique about the Vogue brand in the past year, with the support of my CEO and my publisher, we have reinvested into editorial print content. We’re creating a lot more content around that that is also digital and social content but we are actually spending more than we were on a year prior, on the shoots.

When it came to shooting Victoria Beckham, I felt very passionately, and she did very well for us in terms of sales. She’d done a cover for me as editor before, I wanted to do another one and she wanted to work with Patrick Demarchelier who is one the biggest photographers in the world, he is not cheap!

It is paying off but it has required the company to say content is worth investing in, and they are investing in content. When I look around at my competitors I don’t know how many would be able to say that.

Source: Mumbrella.com.au

 

[tigerrouge]

Speaking generally, if editors are investing less effort in editing their magazines, and spending more time generating revenue, no wonder print magazines are generally a dull affair these days.

I don't mean in terms of commercialism - they are glorified catalogues, after all - but in the standard of 'curation', the sense of an authoritative, experienced eye speaking to you, offering a view that adds to your own, even if the topic is simply expensive shoes or purple lipstick.

Proper mastery of the communication offered by print publications doesn't come naturally to most, and it certainly isn't enhanced by being good at Instagram or generating clickbait.

 

[Benn98]

Rogers pulling Flare magazine from newsstands next year

Simon Houpt
Published Friday, Oct. 30, 2015 6:20PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Oct. 30, 2015 6:49PM EDT

Flare magazine, one of Canada’s premium fashion monthlies aimed at millennials, will be abandoning newsstands in the new year, after its publisher came to believe the old-fashioned sales venue was no longer a useful way of reaching younger readers.

“I’m not confident in the effectiveness of having it there,” said Melissa Ahlstrand, the group publisher of Rogers Media Inc.’s Flare and Hello! Canada.
Image of the new, revamped version of Rogers Next Issue app.
news
Rogers revamps Next Issue app to cater to digital reading habits

The move, effective January, 2016, may signal a growing shift among publishers away from traditional sales in order to court readers more aggressively through digital and other channels.

Single-copy sales of Flare had fallen sharply in recent years, from an average of more than 12,000 a month in 2012 (when those copies represented 9.6 per cent of total circulation) to approximately 2,600 per month in the first half of 2015 (or only 2.8 per cent of total circulation), according to data submitted to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

The drop mirrors developments across the Canadian magazine industry, including Rogers Media, where consumer publications have been working to increase their circulation on digital platforms, such as the Texture (formerly Next Issue) app, which is partly owned by Rogers.

In 2012, Rogers’s Today’s Parent sold an average of just over 7,000 copies at the newsstand, representing 4.4 per cent of its circulation. In the first half of 2015, it sold about 1,600 copies, or 1.5 per cent of its total paid circulation. (About 20,000 digital copies are now downloaded monthly.)

Rogers’s Sportsnet sold an average of 5,400 single copies in 2012, or 7.4 of its total circulation; that number is now down to only 750, leading to speculation within the industry that it, too, will soon come off newsstands. (Rogers declined to comment on those rumours.)

Only a few years ago, single-copy sales were taken as a key indicator of a magazine’s “heat” among readers, a metric that ad buyers followed closely. “That used to be a measurement we looked at,” Ms. Ahlstrand acknowledged. “We do not look at that any more.”

Rather, she said, Flare is trying to engage readers where they live: largely on social-media platforms. “We want to be the disruptors. We want to be, like, what does a magazine brand mean?” she said. “We’re not really tying ourselves to benchmarks.”

Over the past three years, Flare’s digital circulation has grown to an average of approximately 28,000 copies, or almost 29 per cent of its circulation.

“Whether it be through Texture or Snapchat or Periscope or print, we want to have people connect with our content and the work we’re doing with advertisers, on any platform where they want to be,” she said.

Ms. Ahlstrand said Flare’s editor Cameron Williamson recently met with a group of university students who told him that they read the magazine. “Ten minutes into the conversation, he realized they were following us on Instagram and Twitter, they didn’t actually read the magazine. But they called themselves readers,” said Ms. Ahlstrand. “We love that, and we want to engage with that demographic on whatever platform they’re going to come to us on.”

She added: “The ultimate goal is to eventually then look at how things could be monetized, but that’s sort of in the bigger scheme of things. We’re not quite there yet.”

Source: Theglobeandmail.com

 

[tigerrouge]

Look is a UK fashion weekly. Mark Frith seems to have been the editor of nearly everything, in his time (featuresexec.com

LOOK magazine has appointed Mark Frith as editor-in-chief, in addition to his current role as editor-in-chief of Now magazine.

Ali Hall, who was editor at LOOK since its launch in 2006, has now left the publication; a replacement editor will be appointed in due course.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

This news truly surprised me:

Linda Wells Out at Allure; Michelle Lee Named Editor in Chief

Longtime editor in chief Linda Wells has been let go at Condé Nast.


Wells, who founded Allure in 1991, has been replaced by former editor in chief and chief marketing officer of Nylon Media Michelle Lee, according to Condé Nast president Bob Sauerberg.


Lee’s appointment is effective immediately.


“When Linda Wells launched Allure, it broke new ground and redefined the beauty category, and she leaves us with that rich heritage to build upon,” said Sauerberg. “Today we begin a new phase of innovation for the brand, with Michelle paving the way for the next wave of consumers who crave interactive beauty content that’s both inspiring and approachable.”


Most recently, Lee was editor-in-chief and chief marketing officer of Nylon Media, where she oversaw all editorial content, native advertising and marketing for Nylon, Nylon Guys and Nylon.com. Lee also helped launch Nylon Studio, the company’s in-house creative agency, and led the overall strategic direction for the Nylon brand.

wwd.com

 

[tigerrouge]

I would have thought the print edition of Allure would begin and end with Linda Wells as the editor.

Maybe 2016 is the year when we'll see more longstanding editors vacate their chairs.

 

[Benn98]

'Effective immediately'....I wonder why. Even though Allure is in theory a niche brand, they've managed to somehow break even by following the same formula of beauty intertwined with bits of fashion, health etc. Wonder how much Lee will alter the magazine because I dont think I've ever picked up an issue of Nylon.

 

[Cicciolina]

Shocked by Linda Wells. I'm not intensely interested in beauty so I've always thought that Allure was not for me - the layout always seemed a bit dated, but I had assumed that it was working for someone out there... The content itself was always cutting edge and in-depth though and really enjoyable to read, even for a non-beauty reader.

 

[tigerrouge]

More UK men's magazines to close (dailymail.co.uk

The death of the lads' mag: FHM and Zoo to join Loaded and Nuts in closing down as men turn away from magazines to their smartphones instead

•FHM has existed since 1985 while Zoo magazine only launched in 2004
•Publisher admits media habits are 'moving towards mobile and social'
•Suspension of publication could affect about 20 jobs across both titles
•Follows circulation falls of 20% for FHM and 12% for Zoo over past year

FHM and Zoo today became the latest victims of the rapidly-declining lads’ mag market as it was revealed both are closing down.

While FHM has enjoyed a 30-year existence, Zoo is younger at 11 years - but both have fallen out of favour with young men as they turn away from magazines towards their smartphones.

The suspension of the publication of both titles could affect about 20 jobs, and it follows circulation falls of 20 per cent for FHM and 12 per cent for Zoo over the past year.

FHM was first published in 1985 as ‘For Him Magazine’, but the title later changed to FHM and it went from a quarterly to a monthly publication in 1994.

The brand launched a series of international editions and became well-known for its 100 Sexiest Women in the World poll, with recent winners including Michelle Keegan and Jennifer Lawrence.

Zoo meanwhile arrived in 2004 in the newly-created weekly men’s magazine market and featured a 'cheeky' approach towards topics from women to sport and music to technology.

But following the downfall of both, publisher Bauer Media admitted in a statement today that ‘over time young men’s media habits have continually moved towards mobile and social’.

Meanwhile a message on the FHM website said: ‘Unfortunately it's true and it has been announced today the intention to suspend publication of FHM.’

And a statement on the Zoo homepage said: ‘Gents, we have some news. It is with regret we have to inform you of the intention to suspend publication of Zoo.’

The two magazines are said to now have a combined digital audience of more than five million, although FHM had a print circulation of 67,000 for the first six months of the year while Zoo’s was just 24,000, reported The Guardian.

That is compared to huge sales of 700,000 copies for FHM in 2000, while Zoo was shifting 200,000 copies in 2004 - and had a peak circulation of 260,000 in 2005.

FHM and Zoo publisher Gareth Cherriman said: ‘I greatly appreciate Damien McSorley’s leadership and the dedication and effort from both teams.

‘I would like to thank our advertisers and retailers who have supported the brands and I’m sure that everyone who has worked on FHM and Zoo over the years will be sorry to hear this news.’

 

[Oxymore]

I don't know if it has been posted here but the Editor in Chief of Maxim got fired:

Kate Lanphear has decided to step down as editor-in-chief of Maxim — just one week after the glossy announced it was undergoing a second redesign in less than a year.

"Working at Maxim has truly been a rewarding experience," Lanphear said in an official statement. "I'm proud of everything all of us at Maxim have accomplished and how far the magazine has come in the past year."

Lanphear left her post as style director of T magazine in September 2014 to join Maxim, where she oversaw the magazine's rebrand from a "lad mag" into a luxury publication with long-form features, more fashion, a cleaner design and a lot less nudity. Advertisers appeared to respond well, with ad pages in Maxim's September issue up 145 percent year-over-year, the magazine's publisher told WWD. Newsstand sales have suffered, however, sinking from 131,099 in February to 95,471 in June/July, according to data from the Alliance for Audited Media cited by the trade pub.

Lanphear's last day with Maxim is Nov. 13. A replacement has not yet been named.

fashionista.com

 

[Benn98]

Source Confirms Teen Vogue’s Publisher Is Leaving; Future of Magazine Is Unclear
Adele Chapin Nov 12, 2015, 4:33p

Is Teen Vogue being folded into Vogue? Daily Front Row's sources indicate "major changes are taking place" at the teen-focused fashion magazine, which has long been rumored to be either shuttering or merging with its parent publication.

Meanwhile, a source confirms to Racked that Teen Vogue publisher Jason Wagenheim has left the title, though it's unclear under what circumstances or if he'll be replaced. Wagenheim was named publisher of Teen Vogue in 2011. He was previously the publisher of Glamour, and his resume includes stints at Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair, and Condé Nast Traveler.

Calls to both Teen Vogue and Condé Nast corporate were not returned.

Update: Vogue released the following statement to Racked:

"Teen Vogue will continue to operate independently, with the same frequency, and have its distinct voice. As Artistic Director, Anna will continue to oversee editorial operations, with Amy and her team reporting in to her, as before. We are making a change in reporting structure on the business side. Susan Plagemann will oversee the sales and marketing teams. We feel this will only serve to strengthen the power of both brands. Jason Wagenheim is planning to leave the company after the Thanksgiving holiday."

This is reminiscent of the slow changes that set the eventual death of Lucky into motion; many believe this is simply Teen Vogue's first step towards an inevitable closure, although the spokesperson denied any further changes beyond the restructuring on the business side and the loss of the magazine's publisher. It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks for Condé Nast, which also saw the ouster of Allure founding EIC Linda Wells for Nylon’s Michelle Lee as well as layoffs at GQ. In August, it was reported that Condé brought in efficiency consultants to assess its business.

Source: Racked.com

 

[IndigoHomme]

Details Magazine Is Officially Done

The hits keep on coming in the print-magazine world. The latest shake-up: Details, which Condé Nast has been publishing since 1988 (it was founded as a downtown culture publication in 1982), will close, according to an internal company email. The December/January issue will be its last.

To step into the niche left by Details, GQ Style, which has been a supplement to its parent magazine, will become a quarterly and will also have a beefed-up digital presence, according to the email. However, it doesn't sound like Details EIC Dan Peres and publisher Drew Schutte will be staying on to help with it — the email confirmed that the two will leave the company.

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/11/details-magazine-closes.html

 

[Fiercification]

^ It was inevitable really; no surprise. They were still kicking out some great issues though, even recently so it's a shame. I think it was the one US mainstream mens' fashion mag that sort of worked for me and they were providing new photographic/styling talent with a good platform to produce high-quality work IMO, so it's sad to see it become another relic.

 

[honeycombchild]

For me it was the only men's monthly that was actually bothered by 'fashion', GQ is just devoid of actual fashion content. It's a real shame.

 

[mepps]

Details has been irrelevant for over a decade.
It never knew what it wanted to be, and I have never met anyone who actually
admitted to reading it. Glad to see it finally end it's misery.

 

[honeycombchild]

I read it. So there you go. One.

It was by far the best of the menswear titles in the mainstream sense, none of this fake 'you're a gentleman' crap that GQ tries to go for.

It was hardly in misery either, it always did really well with landing cover subjects.

 

[Phuel]

Source: Theglobeandmail.com

Thank you Benn, for being probably the only person to express the remotest interest in the Canadian fashion publication LOL

Flare has ceased to be Canada’s “premium fashion monthly” since the late 1980s.This is why these Canadian fashion publications are pointless, clueless and useless. A “fashion" magazine that needs to do market research at universities is beyond a joke. Charging a subscription rate for what your trageted readers can easily and have access to for free all this time… wonderful direction, Cameron. Get a clue.

 

[mepps]

I read it. So there you go. One.

It was by far the best of the menswear titles in the mainstream sense, none of this fake 'you're a gentleman' crap that GQ tries to go for.

It was hardly in misery either, it always did really well with landing cover subjects.

That must be why it's no longer gonna be published.
This magazine has been on life support for years. Mainstream fashion and lifestyle magazines here in America, land celebs on covers all the time. It doesn't mean that said magazine is relevant artistically or fiscally solvent. Details has always had an identity crisis. At certain points they were trying to be GQ, then Mens Health, and for a while it was more Out than Out. Details was a mess.

 

[Benn98]

Thank you Benn, for being probably the only person to express the remotest interest in the Canadian fashion publication LOL

Flare has ceased to be Canada’s “premium fashion monthly” since the late 1980s.This is why these Canadian fashion publications are pointless, clueless and useless. A “fashion" magazine that needs to do market research at universities is beyond a joke. Charging a subscription rate for what your trageted readers can easily and have access to for free all this time… wonderful direction, Cameron. Get a clue.

Lol, only a pleasure, Phuel! I find it mind-boggling that an accessible fashion title such as Flare would struggle to keep afloat in a country like Canada. Your GDP and individual socio-economic profile is well ahead of, Ukraine, for instance(no offense!!), who's got Vogue, Elle, Harper's etc. So there should be enough wealth flowing in and out, and, ultimately, a greater motivation for luxury purchases. Is it some sort of messed-up inferiority thinking where Canadians are buying more into the credence of foreign titles (probably they don't even regard US Vogue as a 'foreign' title?), than they would into their own? I'm sure you've got great indies but when you look at the absence of mainstream fashion magazines, the issue certainly sounds greater than just Flare's poor management, doesn't it?