The Business of Magazines

[axiomatic]

"The September Issue Is Dead" From NY Post

In years gone by, the September issue was the Super Bowl of fashion magazines.

Fat with ads and glossy shoots cherry-picking the best looks of fall — the most important season in the fashion calendar — the annual issue heralded the pinnacle of a magazine’s influence and success.

Days before the issue hit newsstands, usually in early August, executives from Vogue, InStyle, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Glamour and W would brag about the thickness of their telephone book-sized glossies. They’d boast of the “thud” the issues made when dropped on a coffee table. The louder the thud, the more powerful the magazine.

Now that thud is more of a whimper.

“The September issue means nothing anymore,” said Sam Shahid, founder of branding, advertising and design agency Shahid & Company. “You used to hold that magazine in your hand. It takes you to a place — that’s what a magazine used to do. Now they are all doing the same thing. There’s no imagination there. It’s just pure product, it’s pleasing the advertiser.”

Shahid says a lack of funds at publishers, due to a decline in print circulation and ad revenue in the digital age, has led to a crazy scramble to attract any kind of buzz or revenue.

“There’s a desperation right now with print,” he added. “The power magazines used to have is no longer there. Celebrities are controlling fashion.”

Take Vogue, for example. Helmed by iconic editrix Anna Wintour since 1988, the fashion bible once set the agenda for the industry, with designers and celebrities clamoring to be featured in its pages. A single mention could make or break a designer’s business, but now a celebrity such as Kim Kardashian (58 million Twitter followers; 115 million Instagram followers) has a lot more reach and, as a result, more clout than any single magazine. (Vogue’s 13.5 million Twitter followers and 19.5 million Instagram followers are comparatively measly.)

Up until recently, an A-lister considered it an honor to be chosen for Vogue’s cover. But for its all-important September issue this year, Vogue seemed to bend over backwards to attract A-lister Beyoncé for its cover. The pop star collaborated on the choice of photographer and appeared on the cover in clothes she chose herself. She declined to be interviewed but instead “told her own story” in a written piece.

“Who is better to write about Beyoncé than Beyoncé?” Wintour told the Business of Fashion blog last week.

But Wintour’s comments gloss over a more important point. If the entire appeal of Vogue’s September issue stems from Beyoncé, does Vogue have any of its own authority left?

With rumors swirling that this September issue may be Wintour’s last (claims she has denied), insiders told me it’s no surprise that the famously autocratic editor has ceded creative control to someone else. “I think we all know that she is on her way out, and that she needs to start giving the power elsewhere,” said a former publisher who has worked on multiple fashion titles including InStyle and Glamour. “And that elsewhere is not to an editor in the ivory tower. Consumers will appreciate that the power is being given to someone who they connect with more.”

“Beyoncé is a crafty move,” added a former Condé Nast publisher who has worked on several of its magazines including Vogue. But September issues “don’t mean what they once did. There was a time when they could mobilize women and get them into the stores. They could make a moment happen. They could make a color happen. Print is still important, but it doesn’t drive sales the way it used to.”

And that all-important thud is also diminishing. While publishers stopped reporting (and bragging about) ad page counts in 2015, some did confirm the total page counts of their September issues to me. According to Meredith, InStyle’s September issue carries a total of 332 pages. One year ago, it was 428. Condé Nast confirmed that Glamour’s September page count is 148. Last year, it was 216.

Magazines lost at least $417.5 million in revenue in 2017, a difference of 6.4 percent

For the first time, W — fashion’s edgiest high-end magazine — has abandoned the notion of a September issue altogether and is instead producing just eight “volumes” a year, with two fashion-focused issues dropping around the month of September. Condé Nast has also put the title up for sale.

Meanwhile, it’s rumored that both Elle and Harper’s Bazaar pushed back their on-sale dates to give them more time to scrounge up extra ad pages. Elle is set to hit newsstands on Aug. 28, Bazaar on Aug. 20.

It’s incredible how quickly this shift has happened. Less than 10 years ago, acclaimed 2009 documentary “The September Issue” paid tribute to the circus and spectacle of putting together the magazine world’s most important issue. It showed Wintour crafting her September 2007 issue — Vogue’s biggest ever, weighing nearly five pounds.

“It was a cultural phenomenon,” said the ex-Condé publisher. “September issues were where advertisers would break their big ad campaigns. Today an advertiser’s idea of a moment might be a really cool thing with IGTV or some stunt on the pier in Santa Monica.”

A Vogue rep said the this year’s September issue has delivered “over target by 10 percent in ad revenue and features 30 new advertisers.”

Still, according to a recent report by the Association of Magazine Media, magazine ad spending by the 50 biggest advertisers last year dropped to $6.1 billion from $6.5 billion in 2016. In other words, magazines lost at least $417.5 million in revenue in 2017, a difference of 6.4 percent. And that number is bound to drop again this year.

Insiders said that while advertisers are still buying print ads, they aren’t splurging on the 12-page spreads they once did for the September issues and are instead opting for just a few pages. And those pages are still much cheaper to buy than they have been in years past.

“Do fashion magazines have the ability to overcome what has become a pretty tough market?” the ex-Condé Nast exec said. “No they don’t.”

RIP September issue. It was beautiful while it lasted.

https://nypost.com/2018/08/11/the-september-issue-is-dead/

 

[axiomatic]

"Conde Nast Chief Expects Several More Years of Losses"

Condé Nast is trying to be more transparent as it grapples with what is expected to be several more years of losses at the glitzy publishing house.

On Wednesday, CEO Bob Sauerberg held a town hall meeting where he told employees that the company expected to cut losses in 2018 but would still be operating in the red in 2019 — and that there would be another round of layoffs in the fall, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Sauerberg followed up the town hall with an email “Ask Me Anything” Q&A session open to all employees, insiders said.

Surprisingly, there were no more follow-up questions about the next round of layoffs, said an insider.

There were questions about where people will be sitting with the ongoing office renovation plans to consolidate space at the One World Trade Center HQ.

So far, floors 29 and 30 have relocated for several months while the offices are overhauled and the company tries to sublease some of its space as it consolidates.

When one questioner asked for more info on the pending moves, Sauerberg was a little vague, saying only, “We will share information as soon as possible.”

https://nypost.com/2018/08/09/conde-nast-chief-expects-several-more-years-of-losses/

 

[axiomatic]

"Conde Nast magazines for sale appear to lack for obvious suitors"

Condé Nast is going to be a little slow in getting the word out on the three magazines it is selling, W, Brides and Golf Digest, even as the guessing game begins as to who might want to buy them.

The process is being handled by Janine McGrath Shelffo, who joined from UBS last year as chief strategy and development officer for the parent company, Advance Publications. But sources say the news leaked so early that Condé Nast had not yet hired an outside investment banker.

But the guessing game is on regarding prospective suitors. Meredith’s CEO, Tom Harty, once ran Golf Digest when he worked at Condé Nast, but most observers see no real fit for the golf title in the Meredith portfolio.

And while Meredith’s women’s-centric service magazines might seem a good place for Brides, the company did recently scrap the quarterly print version of Martha Stewart Weddings.

Banker and real estate developer Howard Milstein purchased Golf earlier this year for an estimated $10 million, but there is no indication he’s interested in bidding — and if he won which of the two rival titles would survive. Golf Digest was seen as a stronger magazine in the marketplace, but Golf Magazine has the better url — golf.com — for a digital future.

XO Group, which publishes regional wedding magazines to go with The Knot digital wedding planning guides, would seem a likely buyer.

W’s longtime editor, Stefano Tonchi, was said to be interested in buying W, according to Women’s Wear Daily — but would obviously need a deep-pocketed backer.

https://nypost.com/2018/08/07/conde-nast-magazines-for-sale-appear-to-lack-obvious-suitors/

 

[MissMagAddict]

The story behind Tyler Mitchell's Vogue cover of Beyoncé
Beyoncé's fourth cover of American Vogue was one for history. Not because she was the first black woman on the cover (Beverly Johnson, 1974), not because she was the first black woman to cover a September issue (Naomi Campbell, 1989), and not because she had racked up the most Vogue covers as a black woman (Shari Belafonte and Rihanna both have five). Instead, for the first time in history, the cover of American Vogue was shot by a black photographer: Tyler Mitchell.

Vogue cover featuring Naomi Campbell (1989)

"When I first started, 21 years ago, I was told that it was hard for me to get onto covers of magazines because black people did not sell," Beyoncé wrote in her extended captions that went along with the imagery. "Clearly that has been proven a myth. Not only is an African American on the cover of the most important month for Vogue, this is the first ever Vogue cover shot by an African American photographer."

Beyoncé by photographer Tyler Mitchell for Vogue

In 126 years of Vogue, the magazine has had various permutations. It started as a weekly, transitioned to a bi-weekly and then finally in 1973 went monthly. Representatives from Condé Nast point to a 1932 cover by Edward Steichen of a woman in a bathing suit as the start of cover photography from the publication, but 1959 brought the first year of all photographic covers, beginning to usher in an era of Vogue as we know it today.

These landmark dates bring context to numbers like 126 years and 1,512 issues of Vogue that are bandied about social media — in fact there have been over 2,800 covers. But even with those clarifications, the lack of black photographers still is a glaring omission.

Vogue cover by Edward Steichen (1932)

"Fashion editors in general tend to have a handful of their favorite, reliable photographers whose work, for whatever reason, seems to move or sell copies," Valerie Steele the director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology told CNN in a phone interview this week.

"And with the cover it's quite a special issue because they want someone who is going to sell copies of a magazine. They are not going to use anyone who is remotely edgy or different, they want someone who is reliable and is going to look similar to other things." The commercial viability is increasingly important with the September issue, which has been positioned as the most important issue of the year, as explained in a 2009 documentary. As Steele noted, it is known for having the most advertisements of the year.

The majority of high fashion's most coveted photography is all shot by a small group of photographers. Since beginning to do photographed covers, Vogue estimates that they've given the honor to about 60 people, many of whom were reused.

Vogue cover featuring Cindy Crawford, shot by Richard Avedon (1986)

The late Richard Avedon shot over 140 covers, beginning sporadically in the 1960 and 70s before leading to an almost exclusive period, shooting all but one cover from June 1980 to October 1988. Other names also reappear: Steven Meisel, Patrick Demarchelier, Irving Penn, and Mario Testino amongst them. These names, in kind, also routinely book some of the biggest high fashion ad campaigns.

Vogue cover featuring Nicole Kidman, shot by Irving Penn (2004)

"I think about how in general most of these photographers are men," Antwaun Sargent, an art and culture critic said via phone. "And how Annie Leibovitz had to be the only one in some ways. This conversation isn't just about race, but it extends to gender and things like age. There's a difference in the ways that men and women shoot the body."
In records reviewed and information provided by Condé Nast, there are only a handful of female photographers in Vogue's cover history. Annie Leibovitz appears as the only woman to have shot a cover of Vogue solo since Karen Radkai and Frances McLaughlin-Gill in 1950s and Toni Frissell, who preceded them both in the 1930s and 40s. Inez van Lamsweerde has also shot three covers with her partner Vinoodh Matadin since 2017.

Vogue cover featuring Marion Jones, shot by Annie Leibovitz (2001)

To arrive at this point, Vogue (and the high fashion industry at large) has ignored generations of photographers, including some of the black photographers who have informed Mitchell's own work.

"The way that [Tyler] thinks about lighting black skin, his interrogation of blackness in general is something that many generations of photographers have looked at," Sargent said, referring to a variety of Mitchell's statements, chief amongst them, one that says he shoots with an "honest gaze."

A costumed showgirl sits on a swing above the audience during a performance at the Latin Quarter nightclub, New York, New York, 1958.Credit: Gordon Parks/The LIFE Picture Collection/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

While a few names like Gordon Parks -- Parks was the first black photographer to shoot for Vogue in the 40s -- and Lorna Simpson have shot for Vogue in-book there's plenty more that have not. Photographers like Carrie Mae Weems, Awol Erizku, Mickalene Thomas, Micaiah Carter and Shaniqwa Jarvis, all from a variety of generations, and all black, all with a reputation for shooting commercially, have largely been left out of American Vogue. Jarvis has shot for Supreme, Nike and Adidas — while those brands are not high fashion, they speak to commercial viability. In fact, this summer discussion arose that a shoot Juergen Teller did for an international issue of Vogue mimicked Thomas's trademark aesthetic. Why was Thomas not just hired?

On Instagram, Naomi Campbell spoke to the scarcity of black photographers in high fashion. When stylist Ugo Mozie posted, criticizing Vogue for taking so long to cast a black photographer for the cover, the iconic supermodel commented "You're correct, it's a disgrace!! In my 32 years, I only got to work with one fashion photographer, this is why I will continue to push for diversity in my industry." While her agents declined to specify whether Campbell was saying she had only worked with one black fashion photographer at Vogue --she's had seven covers --or in the industry overall, with a career as prolific as hers, the stat is damning. While her agents declined to specify whether Campbell was saying she had only worked with one black fashion photographer at Vogue -- she's had seven covers -- or in the industry overall, with a career as prolific as hers, the stat is damning.

But why is this change coming now?

source | cnn

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[MissMagAddict]

...continued

Before the cover was revealed Huffington Post ran a report that Vogue had ceded control of the cover to Beyoncé. According to the publication, Beyoncé had brought Mitchell to Vogue and as such single handedly initiated this change in history.

Beyoncé by photographer Tyler Mitchell for Vogue

"Until there is a mosaic of perspectives coming from different ethnicities behind the lense, we will continue to have a narrow approach and view of what the world actually looks like. That is why I wanted to work with this brilliant 23-year-old photographer Tyler Mitchell," she wrote in her cover story. "If people in powerful positions continue to hire and cast only people who look like them, sound like them, come from the same neighborhoods they grew up in, they will never have a greater understanding of experiences different from their own. They will hire the same models, curate the same art, cast the same actors over and over again, and we will all lose."

Vogue's recounting paints a different tale. They suggested Mitchell's name to Beyoncé amongst a list of other photographers, and understanding the historical significance, Beyoncé selected the young creative. Mitchell has even supported this version on his Twitter account, in a now deleted tweet. Regardless of which actually happened, the new move extends fashion's long running conversation about representation, finally behind the lens.
For decades, Vogue had no real reason to venture out of the creatives they had been using. Stylists and editors continued to use their go-to photographers. But in the past few years with America's disinterest with print magazines, a slate of sexual assault accusations that caused Condé Nast to distance itself from various photographers and changing conversations in fashion about identity, changes were iminent.

Beyoncé by photographer Tyler Mitchell for Vogue

"[My black photography students] have all been saying, we don't really see ourselves out there, in the industry, in photography." Kimberly Jenkins, a lecturer at Parsons said via phone. "One of them in particular was saying she wanted to be a photographer because it wasn't only that she didn't see black photographers in fashion but she didn't see any black women photographers."


That mentality is the latest maturation of a conversation that's been occuring in fashion for over a decade, arguably starting with a call for more diverse castings of models on runways and in ad campaigns. Those calls were soon met with calls for more black designers and stylists and even the hair and makeup teams. But the role of photographer rarely crept into the dialogue.

"It's such a powerful position; you know we're definitely doing the styling now, and we're definitely doing the hair and makeup but to let a person of color, especially a black person, take control of the lens and control the gaze for a major publication? That's a huge responsibility," Jenkins said. "You're guiding [the public] in how we're going to look at something."

And now, even that shall be through a "mosaic of perspectives."

source | cnn

 

[ghostwriter10549]

Elle Brazil closing its sad but also a relief.
For people like me who reads every single article that I possible can, this magazine should have been ilegal for being so dumb a LONG time ago. Now, adding the mediocre creative effort in the eds of the past few years, its very easy to me to move on and cancel this publication on my mind.

HB still the best fashion publication here in Brazil (with a lot of problems of course). Vogue is in a good direction. Marie Claire... is just being Marie Claire lol. So, being without Elle is not really a bad thing. Its just bad for the competition and REALLY bad for the "fashion environment". New and/or indie publications have NO chance here.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Condé Nast’s Reckoning Continues
With a century of practice in print publishing, benefits from a swerve to digital have been slow to appear.
Kali Hays | August 13

SLOW RIDE: It’s been a rough decade at Condé Nast.

Bracing for what looks to be at least a second straight year of operating in the red after seeing ups and downs with ad-dependent revenue since 2009 — when one of the first rounds of budget cuts at Condé rolled out — the publisher’s chief executive officer Robert A. Sauerberg on Wednesday told staff, and on Thursday The Wall Street Journal, that there are plans to get the publisher profitable by 2020 and add $600 million in new revenue.

Chief among the strategies is to reduce Condé’s reliance on advertising as a revenue stream (little surprise, since 50 of the largest advertisers last year cut print ad spending by $417.5 million). As vital as that strategy is, though, given the market, it’s actually a goal that Condé has pursued for years, when post-Great Recession advertising pages plunged for its magazines and everyone else’s.

There were some subsequent peaks that made maintaining the status quo possible, but when Sauerberg in 2010 became Condé’s president, then-ceo Charles Townsend said he was being charged with “leading the company in the creation of a new business model,” as a shift by readers and advertisers from print to digital was becoming the norm. At the time, Townsend lamented the company’s struggle with other forms of monetization.

“Why will consumers pay 180 bucks a month for TV programming they never watch, don’t know the brands of, have no interest in, and will [only] pay a dollar a month for a magazine subscription to Glamour?” Townsend said at the time (a tacit admission of how deeply the publisher was discounting its magazine subscriptions).

Although cable companies are now facing their own foe with digital streaming, which basically used Townsend’s rhetorical question to its advantage, streaming services and cable companies are still making a lot more money than Condé.

When Sauerberg became ceo in 2015, he said he’d “never been more optimistic about our company and business” — but more declines came. However, there have been forward-looking investments, starting with Condé Nast Entertainment in 2011 (although its original leader, Dawn Ostroff, left in June for Spotify) and more recently the addition of OTT channels and the purchase of CitizenNet, a data science company, which is part of this year’s expected loss. These investment areas have been a point of hiring for the company. CNE, for example, started as a two-person operation but now has around 300 staff.

Although Sauerberg told the Journal that in order to be profitable again the goal is to bring advertising down to 50 percent of revenue from its 70 percent share through investments being made in “a data platform, an events business” and a scale-up of its digital business to make up the difference, these, too, are largely plans that have been under way for several years.

Something that has also been happening since the Great Recession, and is set to continue, according to Sauerberg, is deep cuts to staff, although employee losses already number in the low-to-mid hundreds, according to an estimate based on WWD reporting over the years. Even the previously untouchable Vogue has this year been forced to slim down and reduce its budget by putting high-profile and longtime staffers on contract instead of on salary, but it’s only the latest to have the hammer lowered. Creative, copy and research teams have been combined and shrunk across the company, while big-time and well-paid editors like Keija Minor of Brides, Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair and Cindi Leive of Glamour all resigned last year, and were succeeded by younger, and presumably much lower-paid, ones.

But with cuts on the magazine side have come hiring in other areas, including back-end operations. Overall, total Condé staff hovers around 3,000, roughly where it’s been for at least the last five years.

There’s also the shedding of some titles, now and over the last decade, as the company shrinks to focus on “core” titles and pivots to new business and revenue opportunities. Sauerberg confirmed reports in an e-mail to staff last week that Brides, Golf and W magazines were up for sale, but it seems there are few buyers out there right now. As first reported by WWD, sources have W editor in chief Stefano Tonchi looking to fund a purchase of that magazine, but there’s no clear interest yet in the others. Nevertheless, sources say the sale process should be wrapped up some time in the fall, giving Condé a much needed year-end cash injection if it comes to pass.

This again is a well-trodden strategy at Condé. Layoffs and doing away with some magazines, in one form or another, have been happening since 2009 when the company started slashing and burning in earnest under the advisory of McKinsey & Co. (which, ironically has been shed, too, as Condé is now working with Boston Consulting Group, which helped it prepare its new five-year plan). The sell-off strategy included in 2014 WWD’s parent Fairchild Fashion Group to Penske Media Corp. for an estimated $100 million, representing a loss of about $500 million, as Condé had paid about $600 million to acquire Fairchild from Walt Disney Co. in the Nineties. That decade seems to have been the last of the really good times for magazine publishers, especially Condé, an era when expenses flowed free and heel height didn’t matter because there was always a Town Car a call away.

Although the public parts of a strategy to get privately-held Condé back into chic black on its financial reports seem to have changed little over the last ten years, the previously lavish culture of the company and its overall structure and focus certainly have. The changes seem likely to continue.
source | wwd

 

[caioherrero]

Anyone know why Jack Borkett was fired from British Vogue?

 

[8eight]

Fired? Really?
Wasn't he Edwards right hand man?

 

[MissMagAddict]

This is a really good interview with Tonchi.

W Magazine: Putting The Magic Back In Magazines
March 2018

There is no denying that W magazine is a magical thing. The photography is brilliant and the typography and oversized format draws it into that world of collectibles as easily as a Fabergé egg would entice a collector of Romanov family history. But with the latest redesign and new presentation efforts propelled forward by the magazine’s editor in chief, Stefano Tonchi, the publication has become fine art, with each issue its own unique thematic piece.

I spoke with Stefano recently for a charming conversation about all of the changes that have been implemented at W to give the magazine an even more “keep it forever” flavor. Stefano is a man as passionate about his brand as anyone I have ever talked to. From the collector’s box that was designed to hold all of 2018’s issues, to the iconic broadsheet print format that he resurrected for special moments throughout the year, such as the “Best Performances” edition that was distributed during Golden Globes week, W magazine is on the cutting edge of what print today needs to be to stay innovative, relevant and addictive in this digital age we live in.

Samir Husni: First of all, congratulations on winning an Ellie award.

Stefano Tonchi: Thank you, that was a nice surprise.

Samir Husni: You and I have talked in the past about how W magazine is making print “printier.”

Stefano Tonchi: Yes, and what we talked about one year ago is what we are delivering. Last summer, I really thought a lot about how to make things happen, and the company really wanted a specific plan. And the plan became to act and not just react. So, with digital, we have to be faster, and we went with social first, and we’re doing so much with our Instagram. Instagram is really the language that W uses the most, because out of all the social media it is the one that’s most visual. And we’re a visual magazine and I think about Instagram as sort of our daily magazine.

We just put out something that’s very fun that I would love for you to look at; it’s like a horoscope. There are 12 of them, but very sophisticated. It’s a way to show fashion and beauty in a different way for a generation who gets their magazines basically straight from the phone.

We’re also launching something new called “Instazine” that is almost like an extension of Instagram stories, so it’s more about storytelling; more like creating content from the images, because what I find very shortcoming and frustrating, coming from print and making magazines, is that on digital you use and you leave images without the content around them. There is very little storytelling in a certain way. And that’s what we do with magazines, we tell stories and we put a story next to another story and that’s how you build your identity as a publication. A lot of what is on digital gets used as a single item and sometimes you don’t even know where it comes from or who paid for it.

So, with digital, it’s fast, fast, fast. And for print, we said let’s slow down and really go deeply into the idea of collectible. Making print collectible. So, we got a better paper stock, we went to 150 grams, which is quite an investment. And we changed the cover stock, I added this glossy finishing for the logo and part of the covers.

And we redesigned the magazine completely, so you saw the two issues; they’re really like thematic. We call them volumes because we don’t want to be tied to the article calendar, because there is no reason anymore for that. We are all kind of daily magazines, through Instagram, through the social media and the website. You are producing news every day. That’s what I think every magazine brand is today, a daily.

So, I felt that when you do print, you don’t need any more to be monthly or bimonthly, or whatever is the frequency, you have to be out when you have an interesting point of view. And also you need an interesting size, because you don’t want to see this magazine as like a little pamphlet. (Laughs) It’s kind of like motivating the audience. You want something that is substantial. So, we went to this new schedule of eight volumes, so we’re trying, as I said, to act instead of react, so I didn’t look at it as a reduction in the frequency, but really as a change of strategy.

Samir Husni: And you believe in this strategy so much that you’ve commissioned a collector’s box.

Stefano Tonchi: Yes, because the idea was finding out how we could make people understand that they should keep the magazine and collect it. So, we decided we should create a box, and every year we would create a different box with a different artist. The first person who came to mind was Barbara Kruger and she didn’t have time then, but she will do it later, because I love Barbara. She did my first cover here at W, one of the first covers, the one with Kim Kardashian; the all about “me” cover, before the selfie. She was ahead of the times.

So, when Barbara couldn’t do it, we asked Ugo Rondinone and he did this beautiful box, and we’re trying to make the same eight stripes of his target painting.

Samir Husni: But the box is sold out, I understand.

Stefano Tonchi: Yes, because we only created so many in quantity and they went very fast. You know, I think print has not changed in so long that we really need to rethink print. What is a print product? What should it look like? And how do we deliver it to people? If we declare that we’re a premium, luxury product; it has to look like a luxury product. It has to be on nice paper, wrapped and presented in a certain way.

What would you think if you got home and on your doorstep there was this skinny, cheap-papered, in a plastic bag magazine? How could you call that a luxury product? I think magazines should become more expensive when you want them and also be delivered the way they do with the Net-A-Porter product. I think for the generation before our parents, receiving magazines was a joy. People could not wait to get it, to have it, to read it; to own it.

Samir Husni: You’ve built your entire W philosophy now around the three D’s: discovery, diversity and disruption.

Stefano Tonchi: Exactly.

Samir Husni: Can we talk about those three D’s?

Stefano Tonchi: Sure. Discovery is part of the DNA of the brand. We keep discovering new talent; we put the best and most talented people on our covers and give them their first exposure. Greta Gerwig was one of our first covers and she was so thankful that she collaborated with us doing the kind of movie-stills project we did.

We also discover talented photographers. We have an issue, Volume Three, that is, basically, cover to cover, all about discovery. A lot of new photographers; Ethan James Green, we were the first time that he shot covers, he did a man and a woman for the cover, just a lot of new people. And really discovering stories, that’s part of what we do.

And I’m lucky enough that the magazine can take many more risks than other publications, because it is our audience who expects to be surprised somehow. And they can deal with surprises; they come to W for discoveries. I think if you’re more of a mainstream publication, it’s more difficult.

And diversity, again, that is something that we have pursued. Something W was doing even before my time here. I think I added maybe some layers to it. And also diversity has become such an important part of today’s conversation. And the next issue, Volume Three, it’s all about it, because it’s our dual-gender issue. This year in particular, it’s all about life gender fluidity and bringing this new idea of gender without stereotypes to the forefront, that’s what it is. It’s not even about sexual orientation; it’s really about taking down stereotypes.

Samir Husni: When people hear the word luxury, it’s rare that the word diversity comes next. It’s intriguing enough that a luxury magazine such as W has diversity as one of its cornerstones.

Stefano Tonchi: I think it’s a responsibility. You said luxury; I think luxury products more and more need to have an added value. You buy something because it means something, it’s not just an object. You’re buying also what that company stands for. And because your customers are educated, they do understand that. They like, say buying from a company that is behind a museum or a political statement or will spend that kind of money in promoting causes. It becomes part of really the idea of luxury, that sense of responsibility.

And the customers look for that and they notice it. When you’re there and you’re trying to decide whether to buy this bag or that bag and both are luxury products, I think people take into consideration whether the company is actively responsible or not, or goes along with their principals about a subject, such as sustainability. Or their principals on gender equality or the company has been investing so much in women’s rights. Or the company is behind great artistic commitments, in terms of what they’re associated with. So, then what you buy is associated with those causes. With a magazine, you kind of have to take a position, because your readers want to associate with the causes that you’re behind.
source | mrmagazine

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[MissMagAddict]

...continued

Samir Husni: And you’re third D, disruption?

Stefano Tonchi: Disruption is doing things like the collector’s box, the print; changing the frequency completely or the ideal frequency, I would call that disruption. (Laughs) And to kind of surprise and be very unconventional. Look at the way we’ve been treating the movie industry in our Golden Globe coverage. Last year, we had two women kissing, two guys embracing; we created all of these ideas of couples and it was all about embracing diversity, and they were more than just pretty pictures. There was always a bit of an agenda or some kind of disruption in celebrity photography or celebrity coverage, in a certain way I think.

When you call in some film director to work with, to create some fashion portfolios, it’s innovation; it is rapture, I think. When you ask an artist to do a cover or to collaborate with a celebrity to make something special. To me, that’s disruption, because it breaks the way things have been done so far.

Samir Husni: Also, part of that disruption, this year at the Golden Globes, you brought back the broadsheet W.

Stefano Tonchi: That was another idea, to go against the current, to take something that is so old and kind of forgotten and say the broadsheet, that’s how the magazine was how W actually started. Between 1971 and 1992, it was just a broadsheet, a supplement to WWD, the lifestyle premium of WWD. So, we felt like again, let’s do something that’s totally different and goes against the current. People are doing so much digital that we said let’s take this content and print it on a broadsheet, the oldest thing possible.

Samir Husni: Has all of this been a walk in a rose garden for you? Everything you’re telling me, I can tell you are very passionate about.

Stefano Tonchi: I think we are living in a very difficult time of transition. All publishing companies are suffering so much. And for some, change has come very fast and late. But I think everybody is going through what people used to call “growing pains,” but are now “changing pains,” because we know we need to change, but nobody knows exactly how.

I have gotten a lot of support from the executives here at Condé Nast, like Bob (Sauerberg), and Anna (Wintour) have been very supportive. I think they were very impressed because we try and deliver what we talk about. We deliver it financially, that’s important, but we also deliver it as a product. Each issue should have some reason to be collected, every issue so far has its own specific graphic and photography identity, and there’s a common idea that runs through the issue. So, they’re unique products in that sense. And that’s what makes them collectible.

The first issue was about the movie industry in a certain way and about fashion. And there was also this idea of handcraft, all of the typography in the well was handwritten. So, there was this real touchy and feely aspect. Like the touch of a human hand, it was really a message that I wanted to put in that issue.

The second issue had this idea of collaboration, where we were inspired by movie posters and the three covers became like three movie posters. Every single story had an opening that was a movie poster.

Volume Three is about identity and we were inspired very much by ID cards, but the design and the graphic design of the issue is about the idea of ID tags. Almost like stickers that you wear to say who you are, because it is about gender identity.

We think about the issues almost like books, in a certain way. And we try to tell stories that have a little bit more of a reason to be preserved and told. They don’t have an expiration date.

Samir Husni: Between the Instazine and W, Instagram and all of your travels, is this the best of times for Stefano?

Stefano Tonchi: This has been an interesting New Year, because I’m very proud of what W is now. When I arrived six years ago, maybe there were too many people and too much waste, but today we are really small, and it’s nice to work with a small group of people who really feel and love the product. I think we all feel like we love doing the W that we’re putting out. We’re proud of it and we feel like it is what we want it to be. We feel very lucky that we can put out a magazine that still represents our vision.

Samir Husni: And it’s well-executed and gorgeous.

Stefano Tonchi: Thank you. I know you see a lot of them. And you read a lot of them. We don’t pretend to be The New Yorker or anything else, but I think we do well with our own mission.

Samir Husni: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Stefano Tonchi: What I wish is that we will be able to really find a new way to distribute print magazines. I think we need to, altogether as an industry, understand that the world has changed, there are no more newsstands; a lot of the things cannot be measured the way that they used to be. At the same time, digital is not everything. Digital is not going to kill or be a substitute for magazines. But magazines have to find a different way to be perceived and distributed. And we have to help. The box is kind of a way to say, let’s produce things that can go into the box. Let’s produce things that you want to keep. That’s the idea.

Samir Husni: And as you said earlier, when our parents would receive magazines in the mail, it was a joy and there was value.

Stefano Tonchi: Yes, there was joy because it was their way of knowing what was going on. And it was this fantastic, magic object. So, let’s put back the magic in magazines.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Stefano Tonchi: I sleep very good. I have had some difficult moments, because business is not easy, but I’m not worried about how to do the magazine; I’m more concerned with what to put in the magazine. How to find this new way to present the idea of magazines? I think it’s more of what is a magazine today; that’s the question we have to answer.

Samir Husni: Thank you.
source | mrmagazine

 

[caioherrero]

Fired? Really?
Wasn't he Edwards right hand man?

Yes, That’s Was I heard to too. But Now seens he was fired. Anyone know why(
?

 

[MissMagAddict]

Dropping this because somebody here will appreciate it.
You know who you are.

From Masthead to Maître D’: Gabé Doppelt at Tower Bar
“Believe it, darling!”: A longtime magazine editor enters the hospitality industry.
By Brooks Barnes | August 15, 2018


Gabé Doppelt, former right-hand woman to Anna Wintour and Tina Brown, at the Sunset Tower Hotel.

The amber votive candles flickered with their usual sexy sophistication. As ever, the pillows on the beige suede banquettes had been perfectly plumped. A peek inside the reservation ledger revealed that nothing had changed about the clientele: studio moguls, fashion designers, literary agents, A-list movie stars.

But something was different about the famed Tower Bar on a recent visit.

Wait. Could it be? Was that ... the former Condé Nast editor Gabé Doppelt, a publishing stalwart trusted by Anna Wintour and trained by Tina Brown, behind the hostess podium?

“Believe it, darling,” Ms. Doppelt, 58, told me in her precise South African accent, as she dispatched a waiter to tend to a troublesome table. “Magazines are over!”

“And we call it a maître d’,” she said, giving my arm a you-poor-thing pat. “We really must get you out more.”

For the past 13 years, ever since the Sunset Tower Hotel was painstakingly restored to its Art Deco glory, nobody has gotten a power table at its restaurant without going through one man: Dimitri Dimitrov, a Macedonian immigrant and career maître d’ who was once described in a New York Times profile as “so ostentatiously courteous it conjures up a Slavic geisha scripted by Mel Brooks.”

As Jeffrey Klein, the young hotelier behind the Sunset Tower said recently, “Dimitri is an institution.”

But the theatrical Mr. Dimitrov, 68, is moving on. Mr. Klein is turning a druggie, clothing-optional motel a few blocks away into a stylish private club called San Vicente Bungalows. He has hired Mr. Dimitrov to be maître d at the club, scheduled to open later this year.

And so Ms. Doppelt, with no prior experience in restaurants, is taking over at an expanded Tower Bar, after a three-decade career at publications like Vogue, Mademoiselle, W, The Daily Beast and Tatler.

“I remember saying to her, ‘Oh, my God. How did this happen? What are you doing?’” Ms. Brown said by telephone. “And her saying, ‘I’m done with magazines. I’m just done. It’s not what it was at all. It’s not interesting anymore.’”

Ms. Doppelt’s new career is certainly not dreary. At 6:45 p.m. on an August Monday, she was standing in a backless black Miu Miu dress near the check-in podium. All of a sudden, Michael Kors turned the corner and walked toward her with outstretched arms.

“Who says that chic doesn’t exist on our planet!” he said in a near shriek.

They hugged — Ms. Doppelt had met Mr. Kors multiple times when she was a fashion editor — and she guided his entourage to a prime corner table.

Channing Tatum arrived soon afterward, as did Stevie Wonder, who sat down at the piano and sang “Happy Birthday” to one of his sons.

Who can blame a former magazine queen for preferring such a scene? Ms. Brown has long moved on to conferences and books. Condé Nast is selling three of its 14 titles, including W. Joanna Coles quit on Aug. 6 as chief content officer of Hearst Magazines, which owns Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire and Marie Claire. Competing with Instagram for millennial eyeballs is a royal drag.

“I was really burned out,” said Ms. Doppelt, whose last media job was at The Daily Beast, under Ms. Brown, where she served as West Coast bureau chief. “We were posting something like 40 or 50 pieces a day, once you include photo galleries and video blogs. It was all about maintaining or increasing traffic. There just isn’t enough good stuff to keep up that pace, frankly.”

When she was laid off in 2013 — the same year Ms. Brown left the website, which had embarked on a disastrous marriage with Newsweek — Ms. Doppelt freelanced a bit. She then helped a friend, Grace Coddington, the creative director at large of Vogue, develop and market a perfume. Needing full-time work, Ms. Doppelt struggled to figure out what to do next.

“The idea of coming back to publishing was so horrific to me,” she said. “And then the phone rang, and it was Jeffrey. We’ve been friends forever. He sounded frantic — Jeffrey being Jeffrey. And he said, ‘Dimitri is leaving, and I don’t know what I’m going to do.’”

The changing of the Tower Bar guard amounts to an earthquake in the Los Angeles power dining scene, on par with the 1993 departure of Bernard Erpicum from Spago, or perhaps Craig Susser’s decampment from Dan Tana’s in 2011.

The more closely a restaurant is associated with one person, the harder it is to recast and move forward. In Mr. Dimitrov’s case, the entire Sunset Tower is associated with him; every time guests turn on the television sets in their rooms, the first thing that pops up is a welcome video starring a purring Mr. Dimitrov.

A new welcome video featuring Ms. Doppelt will take its place, and she may well develop her own cult following. But heat in Hollywood is ephemeral. A few scrunched-up celebrity noses — “Tower Bar just isn’t the same” — could send customers looking elsewhere for air kisses and $42 lobster Cobb salads.

Mr. Klein is also tinkering with the 81-room Sunset Tower at a moment when Hollywood administrations are changing, which can result in new migratory patterns for A-listers. Old movie studios like 20th Century Fox are fading as streaming giants like Amazon ascend.

At the same time, new boutique hotels will be competing for travelers’ dollars. The 105-room Kimpton La Peer opened earlier this year. In June the West Hollywood City Council approved a hospitality and shopping development called Robertson Lane. Coming soon: Edition, the high-end chain conceived by Marriott and Ian Schrager.

San Vicente Bungalows will also have a see-and-be-seen restaurant and nine hotel rooms. Mr. Dimitrov is already selling it hard. “I’m so excited to be trusted by Mr. Klein with the new project, which is going to be magically special, an oasis, amazing luxury, covered by every architectural magazine in the world,” he said in his over-the-top way.

Aware of the stakes, Mr. Klein has spent more than a year working on what he calls “Sunset Tower 2.0” — the smooth transition to Ms. Doppelt from Mr. Dimitrov; renovating the spa, gym, pool and guest rooms; and turning an underwhelming events space into a Tower Bar annex, complete with dark wood paneling, pink suede chairs and potted palm trees.

“It’s crucial to evolve,” he told me during a tour in May, when construction was still underway. “I won’t let the Sunset Tower become some old relic.” (The hotel’s co-owner is Len Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born billionaire.)

Just then, an interior designer, Lisa Koch, arrived with five swatches of puce-ish fabric to show Mr. Klein. She laid out the pieces on the floor, and he got down on his hands and knees to examine them.

“This one’s a little too bubble gummy,” he said, moving on to another. “I like this one, but the peony print has always bothered me,” he continued, looking up at Ms. Koch. “It’s just a tiny bit too bright.” It was decided that the peony would be reprinted 30 percent lighter.

“I’m just listening to the bones of the building,” Mr. Klein said, standing up and brushing dust off his blue trousers.

Go ahead and roll your eyes. I did, right to his face. But longtime customers say that Mr. Klein’s instincts and obsessive attention to detail are what makes the Sunset Tower special. “With due respect to Dimitri, the only irreplaceable element of the Sunset Tower is Jeff Klein,” said Bruce B. Bozzi Jr., the executive vice president of the Palm Restaurant Group.

Mr. Bozzi, who is married to Bryan Lourd, the Creative Artists Agency kingpin, added that Mr. Klein’s decision to hire Ms. Doppelt was “a stroke of brilliance,” coming as women assert themselves in Hollywood as never before.

No less a tastemaker than Ms. Wintour appears to agree. Ms. Doppelt first worked for her at British Vogue in the late 1980s.
source | nytimes

continued...

 

[MissMagAddict]

...continued

Gabé’s superpower was knowing what was going on at all times — being in the middle of everything, seamlessly connecting everyone,” Ms. Wintour, who edits Vogue and serves as Condé Nast’s artistic director, wrote in an email. “As if by magic, everyone would somehow end up meeting exactly who they were supposed to.”

Indeed, Ms. Doppelt insisted her hairpin career turn was actually a lifetime in the making.

Her father owned a restaurant in Pretoria, South Africa, where she lived until 1974, when she moved to London to attend a “crammer” specialty school. (She dropped out and ended up getting a job as Ms. Brown’s assistant at Tatler in 1979).

In Manhattan in the 1990s, around the time she took a break from magazines to help VH1 create its Fashion Awards, Ms. Doppelt lived in the Royalton Hotel for nine months. At that time, Brian McNally’s 44, located inside the Royalton, was a lunchtime hot spot with editors and fashionistas.

“I would often sit with Brian in the mornings and we would sort through the booth gridlock — Anna, Donna, Calvin,” Ms. Doppelt said.

Mr. Klein first approached her for the Tower Bar job in 2004. She accepted, planning to quit her job at W, but got cold feet at the last minute, according to both of them.

The job has been much harder than she expected. “Every boss I’ve ever worked for sweats the small stuff, and I had no idea how much small stuff goes into making Tower Bar run,” she said. “I thought I would just be walking around, chatting to my friends and making new ones.” Instead, Mr. Dimitrov started her out folding napkins and polishing silverware.

And her gabbing got her in trouble.

“I love Gabé, such a creative mind, but I had to tell her, ‘You cannot go on and on with one table,’” Mr. Dimitrov said. “You must spread the attention across the entire room. Short bursts.”

The hardest adjustment has been the physicality of the job, the diminutive Ms. Doppelt said. Her shift starts at about 5 p.m. and can stretch until 2 a.m.

“Working eight hours a day on your feet in four-inch heels — I beg of you to try it,” she said one night earlier this summer. “So I have developed a system. I start out in Prada flats. Then I move to four-inch Gucci heels. Then we go down an inch to Miu Miu heels. Then back to the Prada flats.”

In fact, it was time for a shoe change right then.

“I’ll be back in a minute to fluff my room,” she said. I gave her a puzzled look. “Like fluffing in p*rn, darling. Except not.”
source | nytimes

 

[Benn98]

Lol, maybe I should start subscribing to NY Times. This is precisely the kind of features which VF used to do. The witty quips, style etc. Perfectly written!

Also......

“And we call it a maître d’,” she said, giving my arm a you-poor-thing pat. “We really must get you out more.”

 

[8eight]

Mario just instagrammed for the first time since 27th February

 

[axiomatic]

New York magazine for sale-- just a couple days ago NY mag was floated as a possible buyer for W.

New York magazine has become the latest legacy title to hang out a “for sale” sign, and the guessing game has already begun to see who will make a run at it.

Supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis and American Media Inc. CEO David Pecker are expected to be among the tire-kickers.

“I’ll at least look at it,” Catsimatidis told Media Ink. “After we look at the numbers, I’ll make a decision.”

American Media is said to be perpetually cash-strapped, but somehow keeps coming up with money to do deals such as the $100 million acquisition of US Weekly and the $80 million purchase of In Touch, Life & Style and other titles from Bauer. Pecker did look at New York last time it was on the block, but was outbid. A source close to the company said he’d certainly be taking a look this time around.

It could not be learned if billionaire hedgie Nelson Peltz, who was part of a coalition that was outbid by the late financier Bruce Wasserstein 14 years ago, would take a look again. A spokeswoman did not return a call.

New York Media said Tuesday it was exploring strategic options.

“We are focused on building our business organically, but we also explore investment interest and strategic opportunities as a general practice,” said a spokeswoman for New York Media.

Pam Wasserstein, a daughter of Bruce Wasserstein, who bought the magazine for $55 million in 2004, has been the CEO for the past two years. Bruce Wasserstein died suddenly in 2009, and despite the early uncertainty, the publication has been run by a family trust ever since.

New York has struggled with its print edition, which in 2014 cut back to 29 times a year, but it was an early digital adapter. It boasts a half-dozen websites, including Vulture, The Cut, Daily Intelligencer, Grub Street, Science of Us and Splitsider.

“Given the growth New York Media has seen, it makes sense for us to evaluate the market for opportunities to continue to develop the business,” the spokeswoman said.

Since 2004, when Adam Moss took over as editor-in-chief, the magazine and its digital offshoots have won 20 National Magazine Awards, more than any other magazine in that span.

It began as an insert into the Herald Tribune, but when that newspaper folded, Clay Felker, editor-in-chief of the insert, bought the New York name and launched it as a standalone glossy in April 1968. Over the years, its writers have included Gloria Steinem, Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Nora Ephron and Michael Wolff and more recently John Heilemann and Vanessa Grigoriadis.

News Corp., the parent company of the New York Post, had owned it from 1976 until the sale of a number of magazines to a Henry Kravis-led holding company then known as K-III Communications in 1991.

New York is only the latest magazine to go into play. Meredith said it hopes to complete a sale of four titles that it inherited from Time Inc., including Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money, early in the current fiscal year.

The Newhouse family just said it was planning to sell three Condé Nast titles, Brides, W and Golf Digest.

https://nypost.com/2018/08/14/new-york-magazine-is-officially-for-sale/

 

[axiomatic]

Wonder how long before this happens to US CN fashion magazines

The British and American versions of Condé Nast Traveler will be united in a single editorial platform starting in January 2019, and the British editor-in-chief Melinda Stevens will lead the combined staffs.

Pilar Guzmán, who had been the top editor in the US, has now been relegated to “helping with the transition” and is expected to leave the magazine once the December issue is wrapped up.

But a spokeswoman said there will be “minimal” downsizing of the remaining editorial staffs.

The move is the first serious collaboration between Condé Nast International, headed by chairman Jonathan Newhouse, and domestic Condé, headed by CEO Bob Sauerberg. Some observers see it as a sign of Jonathan’s growing influence within the Advance Publications parent company.

A spokeswoman said there are no other plans to combine editorial of other print magazines at the moment but there could be business combinations. In the current setup, both magazines will keep separate ad staffs.

Separate print editions will still be published in each country, even as the editorial staff in New York and London work together to fill them. The American CN Traveler was cut to eight times a year for 2018 and will keep that frequency going forward. CN Traveller in Britain will continue at 10 times a year.

On the digital front, the American version of Traveler will be the main URL. The British version of Traveller will default to the American website.

Way back in the 1990s, it was widely believed that Jonathan — a younger first cousin of the brothers S.I. Newhouse Jr., and Donald Newhouse — who ran the Advance Publications empire as chairman and president, respectively — would return from London to run domestic Condé Nast. But Si died last October, and Jonathan has given no indication of a New York return.

“The problem with sending someone abroad, as they did with Jonathan 20 years ago, is that is where his life is now,” said Thomas Maier, author of “All That Glitters,” a 1994 biography of Si Newhouse that is being revised for republication next year.

The larger domestic wing headed by Sauerberg is trying to reverse a loss of $120 million in 2017 on revenue estimated to be under $900 million. In the last publicly available documents for British Condé Nast Ltd. covering fiscal year 2016, the division was reporting revenue of $154.2 million and a profit of $5.5 million, according to filings with Companies House.

But in today’s interconnected world, Jonathan does not have to be based in the Manhattan HQ to exert a strong influence on the family-owned company where he is a member of the five-person board of directors.

Sauerberg revealed to employees in a memo only last week that the company had “established a monthly task force with Jonathan Newhouse and his key leadership, in order to identify certain projects on which we can work together.”

https://nypost.com/2018/08/15/british-conde-nast-traveller-will-combine-with-us-version/

 

[MissMagAddict]

Lol, maybe I should start subscribing to NY Times. This is precisely the kind of features which VF used to do. The witty quips, style etc. Perfectly written!

They should just turn the entire paper over to Choire Sicha tbh.

“Everyone’s friend is everyone’s fool.” —CS

 

[MissMagAddict]

British Media’s Digital Circulation Surges With Mixed Performance From Print
The U.K’s Audit Bureau of Circulations reports a 5 percent drop year-over-year for women’s print and digital publications.

Fiona Ma | August 16, 2018

LONDON – The British media sector continues to be in flux, with mixed performance across both print and digital titles.

The overall circulation figure for women’s titles across print and digital was down 5 percent year-over-year to 3.9 million, according to the U.K.’s Audit Bureau of Circulations, which published figures on Thursday for the January through June 2018 period.

Overall print circulation figures for the British women’s fashion and lifestyle magazine sector also slumped 6 percent to 3.8 million.

Growth was seen in the sector’s digital circulations which surged upward 40 percent to 108,000. Some popular women’s glossies also saw an uptick in their print circulations, despite the overall stagnation in the market.

British Vogue, which marked a new era under the appointment of Edward Enninful last August, was among the biggest gainers, seeing a 1.1 percent increase in their combined digital and print circulation to 192,112. Condé Nast’s high society title Tatler, which also had a revamp under new editor in chief Richard Dennen, reached a circulation of 78,090.

“British Vogue’s success is the testament to the power of a brilliant editor, the creative energy of the magazine and the underlying resilience of print publishing in the luxury sector,”, said Albert Read, managing director of Condé Nast Britain.

Elsewhere, Elle U.K. was down 12 percent year-over-year to a total circulation of 151,763 while Harper’s Bazaar U.K. gained 5 percent year-over-year. Cosmopolitan, also owned by Hearst Magazines U.K., showed a 14 percent decrease, which could be attributed to the monthly magazine’s price increase from one to two pounds.

“It’s an incredibly exciting time for Hearst U.K. as we innovate across print, digital and our events,” said James Wildman, chief executive officer of Hearst U.K. “We continue to invest in and evolve our premium print products and I’m encouraged to see that we once again have market leaders in each of our monthly competitive sectors.”

Men’s general lifestyle magazines followed a similar trend, with print circulation down 4 percent year-over-year to 84,800 and digital circulation up four percent to 29,500. These titles include Esquire (Hearst Magazines), GQ (Condé Nast) and Men’s Health (Rodale).
source | wwd