The Business of Magazines

[MDNA]

Ferdinando Verderi is the new creative director for Vogue Italia.

Source: WWD

 

[axiomatic]

Vogue, Vanity Fair Staffs Squeezed Again

Vogue, Vanity Fair Staffs Squeezed Again
Kali Hays
4 minutes
The very slow whittling of magazine staffs at Condé Nast continues.

Over the last few months, editorial departments have again shrunk at Condé star titles Vogue and Vanity Fair. Both have already made considerable cuts to staff and pushed a number of high-profile (and highly paid) editors to “contributor” or freelance status over the last few years, when cost control became paramount. The official number from the publisher of employees that have been let go at both titles over the last six months is “less than 10.”

But a thorough look at the masthead of both magazines shows something a bit different. A spokesman explained that some freelancers were on the mastheads for a time for their work (and not under the contributor sections), and then cycled out, accounting for the discrepancy. Also, there is the “creative group,” which is a relatively new group of photo, art and creative staff that now sits separately from any one magazine but contributes to many and has had a few people from certain magazines folded in.

Nevertheless, Vogue’s most recent masthead is down by 12 people and Vanity Fair’s is down by 13 people compared to six months ago. Traditionally, mastheads do not change much month to month and represent everyone on the staff of a publication that contributes to its creation. This may be getting trickier as staffers are asked to work across platforms and publications, but still they exist to show who’s working where and people want to be on them.

Both Vogue and Vanity Fair have also had a few staffers leave of their own accord, some of whom will not be replaced. Edward Barsamian, for example, left his post as style editor of vogue.com for a position with Victoria Beckham’s brand as it expands online, but his role at Vogue won’t be filled. The same goes for features editor Eve MacSweeney, who left late last year.

Similarly at Vanity Fair, Jon Kelly recently left his post as founding editor of The Hive, the magazine’s successful news and culture vertical. His successor is John Homans, an internal promotion; he will maintain his responsibilities as executive editor, so something of a two-for-one deal. There have been some other voluntary departures, too, like West Coast editor Krista Smith, who just went to Netflix, but also apparently cuts to the creative side, including art, editors and staff writers. Cuts to the engineering side have taken place as well within Condé Nast’s Co/Lab segment, which last fall combined more with Condé’s international business, two halves that are set to become one global operation entirely.

There is also said to have been some hiring, mainly in video and production, a big investment area for Condé, and some people have been moved out of editorial to other positions within the company. But even still, there are fewer people working full-time in editorial for Vogue and Vanity Fair, online and off.

For now, any further organizational changes are thought to be on hold as new global chief executive officer Roger Lynch is set to take up his new job next week. Anna Wintour, speaking with Tina Brown last week, said that Lynch is set to go on a “listening tour” of Condé’s offices and then “come back with a strategy.”

 

[axiomatic]

Cosmopolitan U.K. Names Claire Hodgson Editor in Chief

CLIMBING THE LADDER: Cosmopolitan U.K. has named Claire Hodgson editor in chief, overseeing the magazine’s print, digital and experiential arm.

Hodgson succeeds Farrah Storr, who was appointed last week as Elle U.K.’s new editor in chief. Hodgson joined the magazine in 2015 as digital editor and was promoted to digital editorial director last year.

“I have read Cosmopolitan since I was a teenager so to be made editor in chief is a dream come true. Cosmopolitan is all about uplifting, empowering and championing young women everywhere, spotlighting new voices and creating a sense of community. I am thrilled to be taking the helm at such an exciting time for Cosmopolitan and have the opportunity to work with such a talented team, who are just as obsessed with the brand as I am,” said Hodgson.

Since she joined, Hodgson has quadrupled the magazine’s digital audience to 15.7 million in January 2018 and grown Cosmopolitan’s social media following to over 5.2 million. She also launched the magazine’s Snapchat Discover channel in 2015.

Under her new position, she plans to continue growing the magazine’s digital following, and its events such as Cosmopolitan Career Summit and Cosmopolitan Influencer Awards.

“She has built Cosmopolitan’s digital proposition to be one of the most highly respected, inclusive and inspiring brands in the industry and she is the perfect person to lead Cosmopolitan’s further cross-platform brand alignment that will benefit both consumers and commercial partners,” said Jacqui Cave, managing director of Cosmopolitan U.K.

Combined circulation figures for Cosmopolitan in the July to December period of 2018 fell 20.6 percent. The decline was due to a price increase of the magazine’s print edition from one to two pounds, according to Hearst U.K.

 

[axiomatic]

Anna Wintour on Meghan Markle, the 2020 Election and Condé Nast’s New Global CEO

NEW YORK, United States — Anna Wintour and Tina Brown both joined Condé Nast in the mid-1980s. Suffice to say, much has changed since then, both for them and the media giant that launched their careers.

Condé Nast is “very different from our days at Times Square and Madison Avenue,” Wintour told Brown in front of an audience at the Women in the World Summit at Lincoln Center on Friday. Both women arrived at the magazine publisher in New York from London within a few years of each other: Brown as the editor of Vanity Fair in 1984 and Wintour as the editor of House & Garden in 1987. She took over Vogue a year later.

In a lively and intimate conversation, the two editors spoke about publishing, the British royal family, personal style and politics. Their talk came just one week after Condé Nast named former Pandora head Roger Lynch as its first global chief executive, who is tasked with the formidable job of uniting the company’s properties around the world in a challenging time for magazine media.

Wintour, who is the most powerful editor at the US publisher, said she was optimistic about Lynch’s ability to lead Condé Nast into a new era.

“He seemed like a very dynamic person, very straightforward, very charismatic and eager to learn,” she said, adding that Lynch will begin with a listening tour around Condé Nast’s offices, including those in Russia and China.

“Obviously he’ll come back with a strategy that we are all looking forward to hearing,” she said. “[He] talked a lot about opportunities and learning from mistakes, and I think we are all very excited.”

With more than 30 years as the editor of American Vogue, Wintour has seen the rapid changes facing publishing first hand. But when asked about the most significant evolution, she pointed to the scale of the magazine’s reach.

“Now we have all these opportunities to talk to our audiences in the millions through all these different channels,” she said. “It’s how you use those different avenues to talk to your audiences. That, to me, is the biggest change.”

Brown asked Wintour about the leaders who have inspired her own career, which has outlasted that of many of her peers. The Vogue editor cited her father, Charles Wintour, the former editor-in-chief of the London Evening Standard, and Katherine Graham, who led the Washington Post for two decades.

“I think the most important thing is to have clarity,” said Wintour about her leadership style. “The people that work for you, they want to know where they stand, what the decision is being made and how they can execute it. And I think when people waffle, or are indecisive, that is incredibly frustrating for the people that work for you.”

I think when people waffle, or are indecisive, that is incredibly frustrating for the people that work for you.

In recent years, Wintour has been an active fundraiser for the Democratic party; she was the fourth largest fundraising bundler for President Barack Obama and supported Hillary Clinton with equal fervour, even endorsing her in the pages of Vogue. Wintour said she will support whoever ends up winning the Democratic primary.

“I personally hope that the decision on who the Democratic candidate will be doesn’t take too long,” she said. “I am convinced that [President] Trump is already fueling his war chest. He’s, I’m sure, spending a lot of money on digital advertising and probably voter suppression and many other things.”

Wintour also remembered two longtime collaborators and friends whom she has lost in recent years, Karl Lagerfeld and Franca Sozzani. “There was no one, there is no one like Karl; he was a completely exceptional person,” she said.

The day Lagerfeld died in February, the editor took an early morning flight from London to Milan, during which she read many of his obituaries and “started to bawl.” Her seatmate, an "un-fashion type” businessman kindly offered her several of his handkerchiefs and said nothing until the end of the flight, when she thanked him. “Madam, the world has lost a great figure,” he told her.

The loss of Sozzani, the longtime Vogue Italia editor who died of cancer at the age of 66 in 2016, is particularly emotional for Wintour because her daughter Bee Shaffer and Sozzani’s son Francesco Carrozzini have since married. “Before we lost Franca, she really did know that they were to be married and she, I think, was given a lot of comfort with that towards the end,” said Wintour.

The #MeToo movement is a key theme of Brown’s Women in the World Summit, and the host asked Wintour about how she reacted to allegations in early 2018 that Condé Nast photographers Mario Testino, Bruce Weber and Patrick Demarchelier had sexually harassed models and others. After the revelations, Condé Nast and Wintour established a new code of conduct for behaviour on its magazines’ shoots and set up a hotline to report inappropriate behaviour. And the publisher cut ties with the men.

“These were photographers who were not only longtime, brilliant collaborators and colleagues and very important to the voice of many of our titles, but also personal friends,” said Wintour. “That has been a very, very tough decision but absolutely no question that it was the right one to make.”

Wintour has also made a point to support Harvey Weinstein’s wife Georgina Chapman, who was profiled in the pages of Vogue after her husband’s public reckoning. “I think it would have been exceptionally unfair to blame Georgina for her husband’s behavior,” she said.

The conversation then turned to the British royal family, which welcomed a new member last year with the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. Wintour praised her sense of style and said the Duchess had even inspired her to consider breaking her uniform of colourful, printed dresses in favour of a suit.

“She’s really bringing modernity to the royal family in a way that is inspiring,” she said. “I think the image that I have in my mind … the Duchess of Sussex walking down the aisle by herself, that to me that was representative of a modern woman.”

Wintour shared a special moment with Queen Elizabeth II, who named her a dame in 2017, when they sat together front row at London Fashion Week last year. “She and I discussed how long we had both been in our jobs,” she said.

Wintour and Brown also remembered a lunch they had together with Princess Diana six weeks before her death in July 1997, during which the princess wore a Chanel suit. “I heard that she spent a lot of time deciding what to wear to that particular lunch,” said Wintour, describing her style as incredible. She praised Princess Diana for her willingness to engage with the press, which was an uncomfortable idea for the royal family during that era. “She was certainly the first person in the royal family to understand the benefits of that.”

Wintour and Brown’s conversation came less than three weeks before the annual Met Gala, the high-wattage fundraiser for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum that Wintour first hosted in 1995. It started as a run-of-the-mill Gala and has since become the Oscars of fashion, and one of the most sought after tickets for A-list stars.

This year’s theme is “Camp: Notes of Fashion,” a riff on Susan Sontag’s essay “Notes On Camp,” and will feature costumes from the court of Louis XIV to modern day fashion. Wintour said there is a lot of discussion about what guests, who are asked to dress to reflect the theme, might wear.

“I’m really hoping that someone will arrive in hiking boots and a backpack,” she said.

As for what Wintour plans to wear? “I have options.”

 

[caioherrero]

Anna Wintour, please go away. Leave Vogue with dignity

 

[axiomatic]

Pride Media CEO Quits Amid Ongoing Editorial Pay Issues

Kali Hays
4-5 minutes
Pride Media’s chief executive officer is out after less than a year in which the newly formed publishing company started to get major pushback for letting magazine contributors go unpaid.

Nathan Coyle, who last summer became Pride’s ceo as the company was rebranding itself as the new owner of queer magazines like Out and The Advocate, left the job today, to take over as ceo at Ford Models. He’s succeeding Nancy Chen, who’s been ceo of Ford since the start of 2016. A Ford spokeswoman declined to comment.

Coyle’s exit is said to have been unexpected by Pride owner Adam Levin, the founder of Oreva Capita and also the owner of High Times magazine, although rumors had been going around that the ceo was actively looking for another job. Orlando Reece, chief revenue officer since August, is said to be taking over as interim ceo and still new Out editor Philip Picardi might be taking on more responsibilities in leading editorial.

But Coyle’s relatively short time with Pride has been eventful. The company last year started to feel push back from former contributors to Out magazine after the summer departure of a majority of the magazine’s staff and its long time editor in chief Aaron Hicklin. There were some longstanding issues of non- or untimely payment that apparently worsened when an unusual outsourcing arrangement for production came under the oversight of Pride. While the arrangement came to an end late last year, payment issues persisted, and even grew to affect new staffers and freelancers working for Pride. Just a few months after Coyle lured Picardi from Teen Vogue to lead Out, complete with a redesign and efforts to widen the audience, editorial staff was subject to pay cuts and layoffs.

Then came the start of a war of words between Coyle/Pride and Out’s former production partner, McCarthy Media, and its owner Evanly Schindler. Each blamed the other for freelancers going unpaid, with Coyle accusing McCarthy of “fraud” and McCarthy calling it “a tactic.” This back and forth quickly turned into $10 million lawsuit, which is said to already be in early stage settlement talks.

But still, the issue of non-payment for contributors persists. While some have been paid piecemeal, or after the filing of lawsuits in small claims court, most others have not. Talks with the National Writers Union, now working with a few dozen unpaid Out writers, for a full settlement seem to have come to a halt a few weeks ago. As of late, sources have it that Coyle has been noncommunicative with editors at the magazines, who have been working on some payment grievances directly as contributors feel they have no avenue to address the issue. As for Coyle, who could not be immediately reached for comment, he’s said to be blaming owner Levin, claiming promised funds haven’t come through and left him in a bind. On the other side, there is said to be frustration with Coyle, who was expected to land investment deals for Pride, and is said to have not done so.

Coyle’s jump to the agency side is not unprecedented. Bill Wackermann became ceo of Wilhelmina International after years as a publishing executive at Condé Nast.

Nevertheless, Pride is said to still be focusing on growing the business with Reece and on the editorial side, Picardi in the driver’s seat. Sales for the year so far are thought to be up by 35 percent. When Levin took over the Pride titles from Here Media, the ultimate goal in bringing on a ceo was said to be growth and getting the company ready for a Reg A+ filing (known as a “mini-IPO” — something akin to a regulated crowdfunding campaign, which High Times is currently struggling with). Those plans are thought to be on indefinite hold.

Interesting move...

 

[Benn98]

Tonne Goodman on Ushering Celebrity, Drama, and Attainable Luxury into 'Vogue'

The legendary editor gets real about working with Mario Testino and Steven Meisel, and styling everyone from the 90s "supers" to Kim Kardashian.

By GABRIELLA KAREFA-JOHNSON

Apr 19 2019, 3:48pm

• Point of View tackles the enormous task of shedding light on a career that has quietly and at times uproariously (remember that paradigm-shifting Beyoncé cover?) informed the way that Americans consider and consume fashion media. With over 170 Vogue covers and 363 pages of iconic fashion to her name, the book is poised to become a go-to tabletop reference and sold out almost instantly, with the exception of a few copies set aside for the likes of Anna Wintour, Annie Leibovitz, Gigi Hadid, and Marc Jacobs, all of whom stopped by to support their friend and frequent collaborator.
  
  Okay, in the spirit of journalistic integrity, now is probably the point at which I can confess that I—the president of the Tonne Goodman fan club and her former assistant—may be biased. Just before the opening, I rang up everyone’s favorite editor to spill some tea.
  
  Gabriella Karefa-Johnson: Where to even start? The beginning is probably right. Why do you think art school didn’t work out for you?
  
  Tonne Goodman: Well, I think that [painter] Harry Soviak did a very good job telling me I wasn’t going to be an artist! He was the most caustic guy. And you know he was right! At school, I lived in a house with two other girls. One of them was named Carol and she was such a wonderful character and she would just be drawing and drawing and drawing and everyone was uglier than the next and so on, and so on, and finally it would come to be this beautiful drawing. And that part was something I couldn’t do. If I drew something and I didn’t find it aesthetically pleasing, I wouldn’t turn it in. I couldn’t. And that process is very important for an artist. And that was it!
  
  
  GKJ: Thank god(dess) that you found your way to fashion because so many of the images that the collective “we” come back to time and time again were yours. I love seeing those first appearances of the ‘90s supers in your book.
  
  TG: You know, they were all over the place. When they were being supermodels everyone took pictures of them. One of the things that I felt badly about with Christy Turlington is that most of the major Vogue pictures happened when I was atHarper’s Bazaar so there are very few in the book. But there’s a lot of Calvin (Klein) that made it in.
  
  GKJ: I imagine this book might feel a bit like an artist’s mid-career survey show. It could be conflicting, like you’re saying goodbye to something that you’re smack-dab in the middle of.
  
  TG: It is kind of conflicting. But really it’s just amazing because of the sheer volume—the amount. You think, did I really do that many? And then of course you come across the picture from way back when and you think, “Oh, I remember that day.”
  
  GKJ: At the time, did you know that the other young creatives you were working with were partners with which you could create a powerful body of work?
  
  TG: No, you don’t. You’re just doing your job and that really was my motivation. I had a job to do. That was the bottom line. The fact that I encountered all of these wonderful people along the way was luck. When you have people that you have a good time with, and want to create something with that’s more than just an image, the working relationships form naturally. Mario was the perfect example and a great partner. We would meet the day before a shoot until three o’clock in the morning if we had to, trying on every look, accessorizing, arguing over whether that stocking should go with that dress or not.
  
  
  GKJ: I think most people want to live in your pictures. Because they really do represent achievable fantasy and luxury—a lot of that I think has to do with the locations you shot. The access that you had during the Vogue years is incredible!
  
  TG: You see the power of Vogue but also don’t forget that earlier on, like myHarper’s Bazaar days, you were your own producer. You got yourself to set, you scouted your location, you did not have the huge teams behind your pictures but the expectation was the same as it is now. And that was good training. At Vogue, the access is incredible. You could get to the Wild Wall in China; you could get to the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with Mark Bradford before the fair opens. You could open doors-- and doors that needed to be opened.
  
  GKJ: Did you ever think you’d be the kind of editor that would create some of the most iconic images in the fashion photography canon? If you think back to when you were starting out, when these pictures that we all know and love were being made, did you have a sense of what power they could hold?
  
  TG: No, I don’t think so. I never thought I would be the one that was producing the memorable shoots. I happily accepted that that Grace [Coddington] held that spot. And I wasn’t doing, you know, the stopper pictures that Phyllis [Posnick] did. I was really there to show the clothes that you could, kind of, wear. My work at Vogue with Steven Meisel was very much about “clothes.” Those pictures came from a different collaboration than what I had with Mario because we would put on a kind of basic element of the outfit and then, in the studio, on either side of the set we’d line the accessories tables with all of the shoes, and all of the belts, and all of the hats, and all of the jewelry and literally go step by step. It was really the discovery of a look.
  
  
  GKJ: Your book is so incredible because every image is just as much a Steven Klein picture as it is a Tonne Goodman picture and I’m not sure that will always exist. What is equally amazing is that there isn’t just one type of identifiable Tonne Goodman style. Sure, you’re known as the architect of this kind of modern Americana aesthetic but you’re always experimenting and showing us new sides of you in your work.
  
  TG: Did you see the Kim Kardashian cover that I just did with Mikael Jansson?
  
  GKJ: I love those pictures because they represent exactly what I was referring to before. They’re not Tonne Goodman doing Kim Kardashian, they just look like Kim Kardashian. And that’s because celebrity (which you ushered into the Voguecover vernacular) and drama, and sex, are all parts of your DNA as an editor. We tell it’s your picture as easily as we can tell that a picture of Daria Werbowy in the studio is your picture.
  
  TG: Well that is certainly a compliment. It’s not a perfect match but it works. You know that’s a bit of what happened when we were deciding what would go on the cover. Have you heard that story? Well, my daughter, Evie, saw the current cover and she thought, “It’s just too predictable. This is exactly what everybody thinks of you. It looks like you can’t do anything else and there’s more to it than that.” It’s just that the applications in a picture like the one we choice can go anywhere.
  
  GKJ: You have got to tell me where that nude of you in the book came from.
  
  TG: Well, you know, I was always walking around naked.
  
  GKJ: Say more!
  
  TG: The situation was that I was great friends with Nicky Vreeland at that time and his mother and Peter Thompkins invited me down to Miami to stay with them. I mean, the best thing about that photograph is the bush.
  
  GKJ: I’m guessing this was in the….70’s?
  
  TG: Don’t forget that a bikini wax in those days was like a little trim just around the suit.
  
  GKJ: Other emblems of the 70’s in this book: hot, long-haired men. I mean, your section on Maarten, the sailor you fell for on vacation and ended up living with on a sailboat?! Heaven. I didn’t realize that you were such a man-killer. You literally had the hottest boyfriends.
  
  TG: You know what? I never really thought about it

Garage Magazine

 

[Benn98]

I find the relationship between Tonne and Gabriella very interesting and so authentic. It's not just with this interview, they attend a lot of parties together and always piggyback on each other's interviews with outlets. We don't see that often in fashion as most editors seem to have a superficial relationship with their proteges. When Gabriella started at Garage I could not see how she's a Tonne protege because her aesthetic was very different as it should be. But with more of Tonne's experimental edits in Vogue lately, it is becoming more apparent. It does give me the impression that her earlier work may have been too formulaic.

Also, very big of her to admit what sort of spot the took on at US Vogue, which doesn't necessarily mean her work is less worthy than that of Grace or Camilla's. There's a charm to the aesthetic of all three.

 

[Srdjan]

Glamour Hungary Rejects Editorial Over Non-White Model

An editor at the Conde Nast International title said it only works with “Caucasian” models. CNI has come out strongly against the statement.

 

[axiomatic]

https://pagesix.com/2019/04/23/radhika-jones-hitting-the-town-in-bid-to-boost-vanity-fair/

Bookish Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Radhika Jones is making an effort to get out on the town more, Page Six is told — amid chatter about her future at the magazine.

The publication’s former editor, the famously gregarious Graydon Carter, had the Champagne-swilling set discussing Vanity Fair everywhere from the dining rooms of his see-and-be-seen restaurants to the yachts of Cannes.

But Jones — who was the books editor for the New York Times and the managing editor of the worthy Paris Review before joining Vanity Fair in December 2017 — has thus far tried to make an impression from behind her desk.

But amid falling circulation — in the second half of 2018, single-copy print sales were averaging only 79,709 a month, down a staggering 37 percent from the second half of 2017, as Keith Kelly reported last month — and rumors that Condé Nast chiefs aren’t excited by her stark redesign, she’s showing her face more on the scene.

“Radhika is promoting herself more — she’s deluged with invitations and has time to take them up now,” said a source. “When she joined, it was all hands on deck, and she was only there for a few weeks before throwing her first Oscars party. Now she’s out and about more, which will help draw in more talent to the brand.”

Over the past few months, she’s appeared on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” interviewed Brie Larson at the Women in the World Summit and moderated the “Fosse/Verdon” panel at the 92nd Street Y. Next month, she’ll host the VF party at the Cannes Film Festival.

Jones is not believed to have signed a lengthy contract as editor, as, a source told Page Six, “those days are over.”

“Everyone is still rooting for Radhika. It’s early days, and it’s difficult to see her judged [against] Graydon, who was there for 25 years and had his own style and contacts,” the source said, adding: “We didn’t want a Graydon doppelgänger — we would have gone for a more celebrity editor if we did.”

Her April cover with Beto O’Rourke gained huge attention as it was released on the eve of his announcement that he is running for president.

A source said that Anna Wintour, artistic director across all Condé titles, is “hugely supportive” of Jones.

 

[axiomatic]

Interesting note in an article about Dazed China launching:

Cheng also is said to be in talks to acquire W Magazine from Condé Nast, a deal that sources say is close to fruition.

Adrian Cheng, Yoho! to Launch Dazed China Edition

 

[Benn98]

Well, CN saying they didn't want a star editor is laughable because there's no way to run this magazine if people don't know the name of the EIC. That's the reality of the situation. Someone gutsy, loved and loathed, with a little black book filled with contacts, who could leverage what the magazine stands for against exclusive access. Radhika is not that. It's interesting that she's trying to be. I don't even think she masterminded the Beto exclusive on her own. It just fell onto her lap. The way it was dealt with was impressive, but even there, I can't imagine it was without the helicoptering suits at CN. She turned a Palace exclusive into mockery by running multi covers of Prince Charles next to Natalie Portman so I doubt she'll get that level of access again, she failed to secure the exclusive on Michelle Obama for her US book release (as did Anna, after all the years of canvassing too), there could have been more exclusive coverage from VF on how the Mueller report is playing out (you only need to see how Carter dealt with Deep Throat, Snowden, Manning), she's hardly ever in London or Paris and as such the magazine's society links to those cities are in peril because people won't even be able to tell her apart from a bar of soap - only to the delight of Tatler and T&C. So yes, let her go and have lunch at the hotspots and attend fan conventions, and get Brie Larson on the cover, who will only appear on a different magazine with another newsworthy soundbite the following month.

 

[axiomatic]

https://nypost.com/2019/04/26/in-styles-revolving-door-continues-with-new-publisher/

By Keith J. Kelly and Alexandra Steigrad
2-3 minutes
April 26, 2019 | 2:27pm | Updated April 26, 2019 | 5:55pm

The revolving door at InStyle magazine continues.

Former Allure publisher Agnes Chapski has been tapped to replace Laura Frerer-Schmidt as publisher of InStyle — making her the fashion mag’s sixth top revenue driver in four years, The Post has learned.

Frerer-Schmidt held the group publisher spot at InStyle for less than a year after taking over from Kevin Martinez, who oversaw all the Time Inc. fashion titles before the company was gobbled up by Meredith in a $2.8 billion acquisition in January 2018.

One of the first things Meredith did following the takeover was to restore the publisher title that had been eliminated by Time as it tried to reposition its ad sales staff around product categories rather than individual magazine titles.

InStyle is considered a rival to Vogue and five years ago was battling the Condé Nast flagship for most ad pages in the category, along with rivals Elle, Harper’s Bazaar at Hearst and W, which Condé has been trying to unload.

All of the titles in the category have struggled in recent years as beauty and fashion advertisers pour more of their money into digital media and toward paying social media “influencers” to endorse their products.

Chapski, who was most recently president of Sandow Media’s NewBeauty magazine, did not return calls seeking comment.

Before joining Meredith in May 2018, Frerer-Schmidt was a senior vice president and managing director at Women’s Health, but was out in the post-Hearst acquisition of Rodale in early 2018. Earlier in her career, she was a publisher at Condé Nast-owned Self, which is no longer a print magazine.

Frerer-Schmidt could not be reached.

Meredith declined to comment.

 

[MON]

Any info as to who will replace Karin in Vogue NL?

Cannot wait for new leadership for the magazine!

 

[Benn98]

L’Uomo Vogue Stands Up for Europe

With its new issue, the Italian title celebrates the old continent in the run-up to the European elections.

By Alessandra Turra on April 29, 2019

EURO PRIDE: With the European elections taking place May 23 to 26, Italian quarterly men’s fashion magazine L’Uomo Vogue celebrates the old continent with a special issue hitting newsstands today.

The magazine tapped seven European photographers to shoot the seven different covers of the issue. Peter Lindbergh, for example, portrayed Vanessa Paradis as a Marianne of Europe. Annemarieke van Drimmelen lensed the Dutch canals as a metaphor of the system keeping Europe together. Andreas Larsson set his shoot on the Interrail trains. Robi Rodriguez chose a casting of real Spanish people. And Sølve Sundsbø photographed Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman, who plays the role of Governor Will Conway in “House of Cards.”

Among the different covers, there is one featuring Kofi Lawson, whose father chose to relocate from Ghana to Denmark when his son was a child. Artist Francesco Vezzoli reworked Guido Reni’s famous painting “The r*pe of Europa.” In Vezzoli’s version, Europa’s tears reveal a portrait of French right-wing populist Marine Le Pen, who is among the leaders of the fight against the European Union.

“To talk about Europe choosing to highlight what unites us instead of what divides us — to show the faces, the places, the stories, the dreams which make the European project still relevant,” said L’Uomo Vogue editor in chief Emanuele Farneti, explaining the idea behind the edition. “For this special issue we have brought together artists, photographers, writers who share our view that the founding fathers’ dream of peace and unity is far from dead — in fact it’s more relevant than ever, but it need to be fueled by beauty and emotion. At this sensitive time everybody needs to do their part, fashion included.”

WWD

 

[MagFan]

Interview with Victoria Davydova in russian
Виктория Давыдова рассказывает об уходе из Vogue, здоровом образе жизни и карьере на PEOPLETAK
- Unexpectedly fired with 5 mins given to leave
- They were beggin money in Vogue Russia from advertisers to pay for editorials production

 

[caioherrero]

Interview with Victoria Davydova in russian
Виктория Давыдова рассказывает об уходе из Vogue, здоровом образе жизни и карьере на PEOPLETAK
- Unexpectedly fired with 5 mins given to leave
- They were beggin money in Vogue Russia from advertisers to pay for editorials production

OMG CN is terrible.

 

[Benn98]

God, she's not holding back in this interview, lol.

Is it a clause amongst CN management to sack their editors in the most disgusting ways ever? I believe Viktoriya when she's saying there were no rumours, just the behaviour of her bosses changed. That's normally the wakeup sign in every industry that it's time to move on.

And maybe she's talking about advertorials when she's saying 'they begged advertisers to cover editorial cost', because that's how it works. It's cost to the advertiser/brand, or at the very least, the advertiser foots half of the expenses. Very rare in the Vogues nowadays except VI, but I can imagine that being the case with all the designer profiles we see in Vogue.

 

[axiomatic]

Not fashion, but important to note considering the current landscape of magazine publishing .

ESPN The Magazine To Cease Publishing In September

ESPN The Magazine To Cease Publishing In September
By John Ourand
Tuesday, April 30, 2019


ESPN is ending the print version of ESPN the Magazine in September, more than 21 years after its launch. The news of the print magazine’s demise was announced to staff this morning as part of a reorganization of Senior VP/Original Content Rob King’s department. ESPN says that the move will not involve any layoffs today, though it is likely that a handful of print/publishing/circulation employees -- said to be in the single digits -- will be without jobs come September. An ESPN spokesperson said the company already had integrated the magazine’s employees across its platforms.

In an emailed statement, ESPN said, “Consumer habits are evolving rapidly, and this requires ESPN to evolve as well. The only change here is that we are moving away from printing it on paper and sending it in the mail. … Our data shows the vast majority of readers already consume our print journalism on digital platforms, and this approach will maximize our reach and impact.” ESPN said it will consider publishing print versions of special issues -- like the Body Issue -- in the future. The magazine launched in March ‘98. Sources said that it has lost money for the past several years. “It was not close to a break even proposition,” a source said.

ABG’s Plan for Sports Illustrated Would Be Licensing Focused

ABG’s Plan for Sports Illustrated Would Be Licensing Focused
Jean E. Palmieri
3-4 minutes
If Authentic Brands Group is successful in snapping up Sports Illustrated, it would undoubtedly become primarily a licensing and digital play.

According to sources, the print magazine would continue to be published for at least the next two years as ABG works to capitalize on its content to extend the brand’s reach into a number of sports-related businesses. That could include everything from camps for kids to sports rehabilitation clinics, sources said.

AGB owns 50 brands, 45 percent of which are in the fashion space, and is the world’s fourth-largest licensing company. It has $9.3 billion in annual retail sales. Among its sports-affiliated brands are Greg Norman, Shaquille O’Neal, Muhammad Ali, Prince, Spyder, Volcom, Hind, Above the Rim and Julius Erving.

One source close to the company said a Sports Illustrated site could potentially include golf tips from Norman or basketball strategy ideas from O’Neal. “This would be very different from just making Sports Illustrated jackets,” the source said. “That’s not the business they’re going into.”

This week, ABG has emerged as a leading contender to buy the sports magazine from Meredith Corp. The price is expected to be about $110 million, according to published reports.

A deal is expected to be completed sometime in the second quarter, sources said. “They’re moving fast and feeling pretty good about being able to close the deal,” the source said.

Junior Bridgeman, a former NBA player and businessman, is also in the mix to purchase the title.

If ABG prevails, it would also help power the company’s entertainment portfolio, which accounts for 25 percent of its overall sales, and would help it move into the media and content business.

Sports Illustrated had been one of the flagship titles for Time Inc. but Meredith, which purchased Time Inc. for $1.85 billion in 2018, said immediately that it did not fit into company’s lifestyle magazine portfolio and would be put up for sale along with Time Magazine, Fortune and Money.

Meredith sold Time Magazine to Salesforce’s Marc and Lynne Benioff for $190 million, and Fortune to Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon for $150 million. Last week it abandoned efforts to sell Money, saying it would retain the title but convert it to a digital-only product starting this summer.

Meredith had originally hoped to sell Sports Illustrated for around $150 million, but the price has now gone down as potential acquirers balked at such a high ticket.

ABG is backed by private equity firms Leonard Green & Partners, General Atlantic and Lion Capital.

Jamie Salter, chief executive officer of ABG, could not be reached for comment on the report.

 

[GivenchyAddict]

CN is really not interesting to work with. Not anymore.

I agree with some of her words but I am tired of reading that print is dead because there is the digital now.

Both can co-exist. Magazines lost themselves because they forgot their purpose in order to just have big cash flows from brands. They forgot that to have a lot of money you have to spend a lot first.