The Business of Magazines

[8eight]

Elle UK have had Adwoa and 'a landmark September issue' as the main story on their website for over 10 days now. And the issue still isn't in the shops. Really? Why go SO early?

 

[Benn98]

Elle UK have had Adwoa and 'a landmark September issue' as the main story on their website for over 10 days now. And the issue still isn't in the shops. Really? Why go SO early?

How silly of them! Vogue is dropping next week and will rake up all the buzz and newsstand sales while everyone would have forgotten about Elle.

 

[VBE]

That was supposed to launch on-line first and take it from there but this was about a year ago so I am sure that they have shelved any idea of a printed magazine by now.

When did the original Harper’s Bazaar Italia and Harper’s Bazaar Uomo stop publishing? My goodness the world has changed. When I started my career there were still fashion magazines that published twice a month globally and several glossy magazines that published weekly in Italy. I didn’t even realize Bazaar Italia stopped publishing and was planning a relaunch. I made its cover in 1978.

 

[magsaddict]

When did the original Harper’s Bazaar Italia and Harper’s Bazaar Uomo stop publishing? My goodness the world has changed. When I started my career there were still fashion magazines that published twice a month globally and several glossy magazines that published weekly in Italy. I didn’t even realize Bazaar Italia stopped publishing and was planning a relaunch. I made its cover in 1978.

That first iteration was iconic. Did you ever shoot with Gia? She was extensively in Bazaar Italia around 78.

 

[VBE]

That first iteration was iconic. Did you ever shoot with Gia? She was extensively in Bazaar Italia around 78.

Yes, I did. We were with the same agency initially and I considered her a friend. When did the original version stop publishing and why?

 

[magsaddict]

Yes, I did. We were with the same agency initially and I considered her a friend. When did the original version stop publishing and why?

The magazine folded around 1990. The legend goes that it was originally started by Giuseppe Della Schiava (who owned a big textile company in Italy), who founded the magazine to get revenge on Vogue Italia for not giving his products enough coverage. He had deep pockets and was willing to pay big money for all the top young creatives of the day which is why it was so unlike other fashion magazines at the time and presumably how they booked top models such as yourself! My assumption is, it was likely never profitable and unable to compete with Vogue Italia, or perhaps Hearst terminated their license. The French edition of Bazaar likely met a similar fate.

 

[aracic]

26 Vogue Editors-In-Chief On The Images That Bring Them Hope In 2020

Absolutely terrible. Once again, fashion magazines playing with all sorts of subjects besides the one they all majored in. Tragically disappointing!

Edit: It's not that some of these photographs aren't really nice, it's just that it's all so bloody pretentious and annoying! I need them all to stop pulling this sort of cr*p and just do their damn job.

 

[SophiaVB]

26 Vogue Editors-In-Chief On The Images That Bring Them Hope In 2020

Absolutely terrible. Once again, fashion magazines playing with all sorts of subjects besides the one they all majored in. Tragically disappointing!

Edit: It's not that some of these photographs aren't really nice, it's just that it's all so bloody pretentious and annoying! I need them all to stop pulling this sort of cr*p and just do their damn job.

Jeez... if this is what they find inspiring then it's no wonder magazines are where they are.

 

[Benn98]

I get the memo, it's not about fashion. Why they think we needed this after months of similarly 'social' cover and editorial themes I don't know. Start a WhatsApp group and share that amongst yourselves, or post it on IG.

Some of these submissions are so predictable and true to form, lol. Vogue Portugal being extra pretentious, Alt who clearly didn't even bother to write that intro herself (I'm 99% sure it was done by a staff writer), Vogue Korea who didn't read the room and went on to make it about moddles when it's really not, and Vogue Turkey who could not have been bothered to try.

I do like Vogue Taiwan, Thailand and surprisingly, Vogue India's images the most.....

 

[VBE]

The magazine folded around 1990. The legend goes that it was originally started by Giuseppe Della Schiava (who owned a big textile company in Italy), who founded the magazine to get revenge on Vogue Italia for not giving his products enough coverage. He had deep pockets and was willing to pay big money for all the top young creatives of the day which is why it was so unlike other fashion magazines at the time and presumably how they booked top models such as yourself! My assumption is, it was likely never profitable and unable to compete with Vogue Italia, or perhaps Hearst terminated their license. The French edition of Bazaar likely met a similar fate.

I think it must have folded a bit later than that because when I look online I see issues from 1995. I find it odd that they are talking as if Italy never had a Harper’s Bazaar. A launch as opposed to a relaunch. Very odd.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Never mind. Lol

 

[San Marco]

26 Vogue Editors-In-Chief On The Images That Bring Them Hope In 2020

Absolutely terrible. Once again, fashion magazines playing with all sorts of subjects besides the one they all majored in. Tragically disappointing!

Edit: It's not that some of these photographs aren't really nice, it's just that it's all so bloody pretentious and annoying! I need them all to stop pulling this sort of cr*p and just do their damn job.

Anna Wintour believes that Andrew Cuomo is the right person to ask about hope.
And Em

26 Vogue Editors-In-Chief On The Images That Bring Them Hope In 2020

Absolutely terrible. Once again, fashion magazines playing with all sorts of subjects besides the one they all majored in. Tragically disappointing!

Edit: It's not that some of these photographs aren't really nice, it's just that it's all so bloody pretentious and annoying! I need them all to stop pulling this sort of cr*p and just do their damn job.

Anna Wintour believes that Andrew Cuomo was a great leader during the pandemic. (Even a Hope)

Emmanuelle Alt highlights Diversity&Inclusivity.

Do they even believe what they say???

 

[MissMagAddict]

EXCLUSIVE: Carine Roitfeld to Share Creative Director Role
Lynette Nylander will also be editorial director at large of CR Fashion Book
as the title commits to the diversity movement.

Miles Socha

Opening another chapter in her career and joining the global movement for greater racial inclusivity, Carine Roitfeld has named Lynette Nylander co-creative director and editorial director at large of CR Fashion Book, WWD has learned.

“If I want to be part of the issue, part of changing the system, then I need someone next to me with an authentic voice,” Roitfeld said, disclosing the hire in an exclusive interview, and describing the upcoming fall 2020 issue of the biannual title as one dedicated to community, culture and influence.

On her Instagram feed, Nylander bills herself as a writer, creative and editorial consultant, and a “funky homo sapien.” Freelance for the past three-and-a-half years, she has done editorial work for American Vogue, AnOther, Elle, Antidote, Dazed, Fader and Buffalo Zine. She has also done full-time stints as vice president of content at Alexander Wang, as deputy editor of Teen Vogue and I-D Magazine, and as managing editor of Industrie Magazine, according to her LinkedIn profile. Born in London, she studied fashion design and marketing at London College of Fashion and is now based in New York City.

While hardly a household name, Nylander was someone Roitfeld kept hearing about as she hunted for talent to help transform her media company at a tumultuous time in the culture and society.

Roitfeld was particularly impressed by a lengthy article Nylander wrote for Refinery29 in 2015 that called to task — in calm, constructive tones — a host of marquee fashion brands for wanton cultural appropriation.

“Collections were inspired by continents and countries and presented with none of their people,” she wrote. “Too often, fashion is not mindful at all, taking other people’s stories without giving them a chance to tell them….What the industry needs is representation, not tokenism, by prominent players.”

Enter Roitfeld, who offered Nylander the big job after several conversations over Zoom between Paris and New York.

“She opened my eyes, and she has a great voice.…I’m giving a lot of responsibility to Lynette, but I’m still there working together with the teams,” Roitfeld enthused. “I’m not stepping away.”

The women are racing to ready the fall issue to launch during Paris Fashion Week in early October, despite all the limitations on fashion shoots imposed by the coronavirus pandemic and August vacations in Europe, when many European brands and press offices shutter.

“At a time of global change, I am excited to add my voice and perspective to a diverse range of creatives that we will seek to highlight within the upcoming CR issue,” Nylander told WWD.

Interviewed at her sleek, sparsely furnished office on the Avenue Montaigne, Roitfeld was blunt that the months of lockdown in Paris, interrupting her usual frenzy of intercontinental travel and shoots, gave her lots of time to reflect, especially on the ramifications of the Black Lives Matter movement sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, and other racially motivated violence.

An attempt to express solidarity by posting a photo of herself on Instagram embracing model Anok Yai landed her in hot water, mostly because of the all-thumbs caption: “Anok is not a Black woman, she is my friend, I missing!” Roitfeld was pilloried by the web site Diet Prada, and she admitted on Monday it was a painful episode for her and her family.

“I was really hurt,” she said, speaking about the controversy for the first time. “It’s really about my bad English sometimes — and it was not the right moment.”

Upon deeper reflection, Roitfeld realized the backlash against her was nothing compared to the pain Black people have endured due to inequality and police brutality. “I was not the one who got hurt; they got hurt — and I wanted to understand why,” she said.

Like many white Europeans standing in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, Roitfeld binge-watched Jane Elliott lectures and Spike Lee movies and readily admitted she had much to learn.

“Before, I didn’t understand, for example, why you cannot put an Afro on a white girl. I would say, ‘Why? It’s just hair.’ But then you understand the Afro is a weapon. It was the weapon of Angela Davis during the first Black movement,” she said. “It’s about respect and understanding. You can’t just steal things.”

Yet Roitfeld has embraced all kinds of people over her storied career. In 2007, then editor in chief of French Vogue, she put Andre J., a transsexual, bearded Black party promoter and drag star, on the cover.

In 2017, at CR Fashion Book, Roitfeld was hailed as the first editor to put a model wearing a hijab on the cover, propelling the career of Somali-American beauty queen Halima Aden. Roitfeld subsequently cast Aden in fashion shows for Yeezy and Max Mara. The latter brand has consistently included Muslim models wearing head scarves in its fashion shows, and changed its backstage protocols so all models have privacy when undressing.

During the interview, Roitfeld was adamant that diversity and inclusion should not be seen as a trend, but as a base line. “This is about human people,” she stressed.

“I always pushed boundaries. This time, there are no more boundaries. It’s a new world,” Roitfeld said. “Times change and we have to go deeper. Fashion has a huge power. With fashion, you can really push and share a lot of ideas. We have the credibility and the power to change things more quickly than other industries.”

And in her mind, “if you want to change, the first thing is to share your magazine.”

While Roitfeld has long committed to discovering creatives and showcasing their talents in CR Fashion Book, she said the confinement allowed her to rediscover Paris, as well as a host of up-and-coming photographers, including ones from Germany, China and even Harlem in Manhattan. “We welcome a lot of foreigners in Paris,” she marveled.

(Famous for her high heels and pencil skirts, Roitfeld has also taken to occasionally wearing Birkenstocks to walk around Paris, and carrying a handbag, a mint-shade tote by Loewe, for her laptop and sunglasses.)

In its pitch to advertisers, CR Fashion Book said it will put community first in its fall 2020 issue, its 17th: “organic and eclectic tribes of people who act as a conduit for a brand story. It celebrates culture and storytelling that makes fashion appeal to new ways of living, and it uses its influence and reach to be a catalyst for change far beyond just the industry.”

Roitfeld said it’s too early to share specifics about the content, but said it would go beyond “just pictures” to justify having printed issues, and share its values.

“An issue is not just showing clothes. It’s reflecting an important time in fashion,” she said. “I want it to be deep this issue. I want something substantial. It’s not a trend.”

While acknowledging that the publishing business is challenging given steep declines in luxury spending and belt-tightening at fashion brands, CR Fashion Book continues its international expansion. The title is launching a Chinese language edition in partnership with the Beijing Koala Media Group this fall, with an initial print run of 25,000 copies.

Roitfeld noted the China version will carry some fashion editorials from the mother ship, but there will also be locally produced content, including covers featuring Chinese celebrities. CR Fashion Book is also publishing its fifth issue in Japan this October.

The main fashion title plans to continue publishing two issues a year. For the next issue, CR Man will be a smaller insert in the women’s magazine rather than a separate volume, Roitfeld noted.

A formidable force in fashion since the Nineties styling for Tom Ford’s Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent and consulting for the likes of Missoni, Versace and Calvin Klein, Roitfeld transitioned into the role of editor in chief of Vogue Paris in 2001. She infused her punk-rock and sensual aesthetic into the publication during her 10-year tenure, before founding CR Fashion Book.

She also has her own line of perfumes and moonlights as style adviser at the Karl Lagerfeld brand, whose next big project is a spring collaboration with Nigerian designer Kenneth Ize.
source | wwd

 

[MissMagAddict]

 

[SophiaVB]

Really great feature outlining every issue with the industry, and more specifically American fashion, over the last decade.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Edward Enninful: ‘Racism is a part of my life’
The editor-in-chief of British Vogue on activism, hope — and how he’s making a modern, multicultural magazine

“Racism is a part of my life whether I like it or not,” says Edward Enninful, the Ghanaian-born, west London-raised stylist who became the first black editor-in-chief of British Vogue in 2017.

It’s a light, sunny Monday in August and a momentous occasion for the 48-year-old, who in just a few hours will reveal the cover of the September issue, the most important of the year. He is nattily dressed in signature black-frame glasses and a navy wool Burberry suit, ready for a day of TV appearances — first Sky, then CNN — and a photo shoot with the FT, for which he will soon change into a black suit.

But we aren’t at present talking about the September issue, a well-thumbed copy of which lies on his office desk. We’re discussing an incident that Enninful tweeted about on July 15, when he walked through the front door of Condé Nast Britain’s headquarters in Mayfair and was told by a security guard to use the loading bay at the back. “I’m a black man — it isn’t the first time I’ve been profiled and won’t be last,” he says now. (The security guard, who is employed by a third-party contractor, is no longer working in the building.)

Drawing public notice to such events is a relatively new thing for Enninful, who in a 2018 interview said he tried “not to pay attention” to racism. “When I was younger I would have been so nervous,” he says. “But at my age, I feel I have to voice it so people didn’t have to go through that and think it was OK.”

Did Enninful, who broke into the industry as a model at age 16, find his depiction accurate?

“Yes, though André came before me,” he says. As Talley did, Enninful learnt early that “If you were black, you have to work 10 times as hard.”

“I did that from studying more, looking at more images, owning my craft and educating myself,” he says.

At a time when Condé Nast’s US operation is under scrutiny for its treatment of people of colour — leading to the resignation of two executives and a company-wide memo from American Vogue editor Anna Wintour conceding that her magazine “has not found enough ways to elevate and give space to black editors” in June — Enninful has shown what a modern Vogue can look like: inclusive but luxurious, multicultural in its outlook and the make-up of its staff, fashion-first but with an eye on the wider world.

It’s not enough putting an image on your Instagram feed, or showing a picture in a magazine. The infrastructure behind the scenes has to change

His issues have celebrated activists and cultural “changemakers”, and expanded the brand’s historically narrow definition of what is beautiful, stylish and aspirational. He has been the first editor to introduce covers featuring subjects in a hijab and a durag, and pushed the ceiling on age, making 85-year-old Judi Dench the title’s oldest cover star in June.

Clocking in at 352 pages, his latest issue travels in that same vein. September is the most important issue of the year for fashion magazines and the one that holds the most advertising. It’s also typically used as a lure for the least attainable of celebrities: last September’s issue was guest-edited by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in a celebration of “trailblazers” that proved a real press coup.

For the first time, all 26 international editions of Vogue have agreed on a common theme for their September/October issues: hope.

“For me, I knew that with everything that had gone on, our interpretation had to be about activism and education,” says Enninful. He enlisted the Nigerian-born photographer Misan Harriman — the first black man to shoot a British Vogue cover in its 104-year history — to capture model and mental-health activist Adwoa Aboah alongside Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford, who in June wrote a moving letter that persuaded the government to extend its free-meal vouchers to disadvantaged schoolchildren through the summer holidays. The cover folds out to reveal individual portraits of 20 activists featured in its pages, including Angela Davis and Alice Wong.

Enninful has made a name for himself with timely covers that resonate on social media. In a period when the audiences of magazines and their websites are a mere rounding error relative to that of Instagram and WeChat, which each reach more than 1bn people a month, that is all the more important.

He has also changed the people behind those covers. Most of the crew on the cover shoot were black, says Enninful, adding that “the clothes are by BAME [Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic] designers” including Martine Rose and A-Cold-Wall’s Samuel Ross. It was important “to have input not only in front of the camera but behind it” — something fashion brands need to do more of, he says.

“It’s not enough putting an image on your Instagram feed, or showing a picture in a magazine or shoot. The infrastructure behind the scenes has to change,” he says.

It’s a well-oiled point. Last year Gucci was embroiled in a racism scandal after selling a sweater accused of evoking blackface — an error that could have been avoided, critics said, if it had more senior black employees. More recently, Virgil Abloh, the African-American creative director of Louis Vuitton men’s, was publicly castigated for employing a nearly all-white staff at his own label, Off-White — which led him to announce last month a $1m scholarship fund and mentorship scheme for black college students.

“[The pandemic has started] difficult conversations about unemployment, about racism — I’m so glad these conversations are being had now,” says Enninful.

The editor demurs when asked about how the advertising downturn has impacted British Vogue — noting that this September’s issue has the same number of ad pages as last year’s. “We’ve been very lucky, we didn’t have to go down to 11 issues,” he says — a pointed reference to American Vogue, which did. Circulation has remained steady at 192,000 since his predecessor Alexandra Shulman’s departure three years ago, bucking the general decline of newsstand sales in the UK.

Is it enough? Enninful often describes himself as a “guardian” of British Vogue, whose job is to preserve it for the next generation. And while he has successfully repositioned and drummed up interest in the magazine’s new chapter, there is still the sense he is fighting an uphill battle — tied to a format and business model that is slow, laborious and too dependent on the whims of luxury advertisers who have lately seen demand for their products plummet. He has effectively used digital platforms to bolster the profile of his magazine — but some critics say he and his team have not done enough to reinvent it as a digital product, or offset its reliance on print advertising.

The magazine itself remains a relatively traditional fashion title — a mix of profiles, personal essays, fashion shoots and trend spreads which feature mostly high-ticket products that may not feel “inclusive” to cash-poor readers. (“For me, representation and inclusivity does not mean down-market,” he says.)

The blame, of course, does not lie entirely — or perhaps even mostly — at Enninful’s feet. Condé Nast’s titles have been publishing online for more than two decades now, yet the company has remained fundamentally print-first, holding on to its glorious past and investing too little in reimagining its brands. Where it has invested in digital, such as in the short-lived luxury ecommerce site Style.com, the returns have not always been positive.

Following a merger between its US and international operations in late 2018, the publisher last year hired tech executive Roger Lynch to shore up losses and cultivate areas of growth beyond print, including premium video and digital subscriptions. It remains to be seen whether his nascent turnround plan will prove a success. The company announced in May that it planned to lay off around 100 employees; a handful of redundancies have also been made at the company’s corporate headquarters in London (where, in disclosure, I worked from 2017 to the end of 2019).

Enninful themed his August issue “Reset”, and I ask whether he thinks the fashion industry will truly undergo one. “I think we were producing way too much — way too many clothes, way too many shows,” he says. “We can’t go back to that speed. People can’t survive.”

Will he attend fashion weeks next month, as he will no doubt be pressured to do? “I don’t think so,” he says. “I miss my friends, designers, the vision. But also at the same time I think we have to put health first.”

Many within and outside the company have seen Enninful’s appointment at British Vogue as an audition for the editorship of its larger, and more influential counterpart, American Vogue. Wintour, 70, has been in the post for 33 years, and in 2019 expanded her duties to include editorial oversight of most of Condé Nast’s titles.

When asked whether it is his ambition to edit American Vogue, Enninful only says that he is “happy where I am”.
source | ft

 

[axiomatic]

wwd.com
Making a September Issue During a Pandemic
Kathryn Hopkins

The fashion-agenda setting power of a September issue may have waned over the past few years, in part due to the rise of influencers. But they’re still the most important issues of the year for glossy magazine publishers, chasing ad dollars more than ever during the pandemic.

That’s why having skipped some issues due to coronavirus-related production and advertising concerns, most magazines are making a comeback for September, with publishers even extending their deadlines to allow more time for ads and content to roll in.

The exceptions appear to be Paper and W, which are sitting it out as their owners consider their future, although W had already scrapped the notion of a September issue per se in favor of numbered issues — two of which were timed around the month.

For those that are publishing, on the editorial side, it’s been a bit of a roller coaster to say the least when it comes to production. In April, editors were unsure of what they could achieve with large swaths of the country in lockdown and some were contemplating a September jam-packed with virtual shoots. As well as the difficulty of shooting, in some months it was almost impossible to obtain clothes and accessories, with stores and factories closed or making hand sanitizer and masks. Photo studios were also shuttered.

But as the country started to gradually reopen, editors were able to carry out fairly small-scale, socially distanced shoots with bare minimum crews and learned quickly that they needed to be equipped with a backup plan for every situation.

Just moments before InStyle, a Meredith-owned magazine, was set to shoot actress Kristin Wiig in Los Angeles for one of its September subscription covers, a crew member received a call while on the highway — he had been exposed to the coronavirus and needed to be tested.

Editor in chief Laura Brown knew exactly what to do, as a similar situation had also happened for the August issue. To ensure the safety of everyone involved, they closed down the set, drove it all off and brought it back once the crew member got the all clear.

As the only women’s fashion magazine sticking to its publishing schedule of 12 issues this year, Brown has become adept at the backup plan, especially as the number of COVID-19 cases in L.A. started to spike again and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo put a two-week quarantine in place for people arriving from many states.

“We weren’t sure what we could physically shoot. The whole time I was driving with one eye closed or something. Plan A, plan B and plan C for everything,” she said over Zoom.

“We’re just planning things and being safe, but I am not wed. I want to achieve things, but I am super pragmatic,” she continued. “You just have to move with it, but also try to be as clever and reflective of what’s going on as possible.”

In the end, Brown managed to fill all the pages, with a little last-minute pivoting — and even scored a Dr. Anthony Fauci subscription cover.

Perhaps the most ambitious to produce of all the in-person shoots was a subscription cover paying tribute to Ormond Gigli’s 1960 “Girls in Windows.” Brown joked that she was having a Diana Vreeland moment when she asked her team to find a big building with windows you can stand in, but they quickly found what she was looking for in Brooklyn.

Shot in an artists’ haven and former candy factory, it features the inhabitants and their landlord adorned in colorful pops of clothing and, of course, socially distanced throughout the building. The photographer, Jason Schmidt, shot it across the street in a scissor lift. “I wanted to in some way register some sense of community in that issue somehow,” Brown said.

The newsstand cover face is Zendaya (the actress also has a separate subscriber cover), who was photographed on an L.A. mansion rooftop that ended up being perfect for social distancing, with “the unsubtle concept being that you can’t quarantine the joy of fashion,” according to Brown.

The shoot is the work of Black stylist Law Roach and Black photographer duo Donté Maurice and Ahmad Barber, who were recommended to Brown by Roach. All of Zendaya’s looks are from Black designers, including Jason Rembert, Hanifa and Christopher John Rogers.

Brown joins other magazine editors that have brought more diversity to their covers in the past few weeks — and not just the subject. Town & Country also used Roach, Maurice and Barber for its Kerry Washington September cover, while for Vanity Fair’s August issue, Radhika Jones for the first time tapped a Black photographer, Dario Calmese, for the Viola Davis cover.

In contrast, Vogue turned to Annie Leibovitz to photograph Olympic gold medalist gymnast Simone Biles for its August cover and faced criticism for using improper lighting for Biles’ dark skin tone. Fans said this was a missed opportunity to showcase a Black photographer. InStyle also came under fire in 2015 for the lighting it used for its Kerry Washington cover, making her skin appear much lighter.

While September issues in general may no longer wield the influence they once had during magazine publishers’ heyday, their covers still carry much clout and are viewed as cultural statements. Brown hopes that recent moves by magazines will become the norm. “I hope that this change is not tokenist or obligatory or because it’s your press release,” she said. “It’s not. It’s actually some of the best and most exciting work that you’re going to do. And the most stimulating work you’re going to do. And the most restorative work as an editor and as a staff at a magazine. It makes you feel proud.”

In her conversation with Black Lives Matter cofounder Patrisse Cullors-Brignac inside the magazine, Zendaya said there are so many Black designers people don’t know about, so having an opportunity where “they can be in InStyle and get the love they deserve is really special. I hope people are like, ‘Oh, I like that dress!’ And then go support them.”

Aya Kanai, the new editor in chief of Marie Claire, is yet to reveal her September cover, but she, too, wants to improve diversity across the board in magazine making and not just on the cover. Megan Thee Stallion was Marie Claire’s May cover face, photographed by Micaiah Carter.

“I started my job in January of 2020 and when I sat down with the team, one of the things that I said on that first day in the office was that it’s really important to me to not only have a diversity of the subject that we’re shooting, but a diversity in the kinds of people who are taking our photographs and the kinds of stylists, the hair and makeup people in order to make sure that we are translating our message through everything that we do,” she told WWD in early July.

Now that sets have become much smaller due to the COVID-19 crisis, she believes this has become even more important.

Kanai said it’s been a pretty wild year to take on a very new and big leadership role, with extreme challenges when it comes to production of photo shoots and getting hold of samples. “There were certain months when there was nothing — no matter what brand you were there was nothing to get.”

It’s now easier in the clothing department, but she is hoping that editors having to make do with the bare minimum instead of 10 trunks of clothes appearing on set will lead to a permanent sustainable change in the industry, often known for its excess and waste.

“If I’m styling a photoshoot, as I am at the end of this month, I’m calling in the pieces that I know are critical to get the story done and I don’t want a lot of extra fluff and frankly I can’t have it any way,” she said. “I don’t think we’ll ever go back to the time of having 20 racks of clothing for an eight-look photo shoot. It’s not necessary. Period.”

For her first September cover, the thinking back in April was to ask the husband of its cover star (their name is still under wraps) to photograph her. In the end, she was able to send a photographer with a long lens for safety reasons, but it also ended up having more meaning.

“One of the photographs I chose — we have two covers for our September issue — is one of these long lens shots where you see the subject surrounded by nature and you see her entire reflection in a pool, and to me that was a perfect image,” Kanai said. “This has been a time where we are really reflecting on who we are and who we want to be and so I wanted to select an image that reflected the time that we’re living in.”

But while editors in chief worked hard on the content, they didn’t have as many pages to fill as in the glory years of 700-plus page September issues. Expect the issues to be on the thinner side this year — despite publishers’ best efforts — as luxe brands cut their marketing budgets during shutdown and shifted some ad spend to online. Declining print ad revenue was a trend already in play, only to be exacerbated by the coronavirus.

“Our brand and the entire industry has been shaken by the pandemic,” said Agnes Chapski, the publisher of InStyle. “The economic impact in the luxury, fashion and retail markets is considerable. These categories drove significant business in previous September issues so this year’s issue will reflect those declines.”

Instead, magazines are working with advertisers in different ways. InStyle has forged a partnership with Max Mara, which will see fashion director Julia Von Boehm oversee virtual video style sessions for the Italian brand’s VIP clientele.

In a statement, Carol Smith, publisher of Hearst Magazines titles Marie Claire, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, told WWD that these past few months have afforded the publisher the opportunity to think differently about its business and to focus on what’s working. “We have been listening carefully to our audiences and have been providing specific, solution-oriented programs to our partners,” she said. “One of the outcomes I am most excited about is our expanded commerce-driven offerings that begin with brand awareness and end with conversions.”

Smith didn’t provide any update on ad sales, but in a May interview she said “it’s going to be a tough 2020.” At the time, in terms of ads, only around three brands had told Smith they wouldn’t advertise in September. Others are scaling back their usual spend. “In fashion, you know in September Saint Laurent needs six pages. Well, maybe they’re going to run four in an issue. So, yes, there’s going to be a slight scale back. We have anticipated it and certainly projected that,” she said.

 

[tipi1355]

W Magazine Will Live Another Day, in Deal With Bustle Digital Group

 

[SophiaVB]

W Magazine Will Live Another Day, in Deal With Bustle Digital Group

Yikes.... They should maybe just let it die. Seems they can't catch a break.

 

[Xone]

W Magazine Will Live Another Day, in Deal With Bustle Digital Group

In the end the only winner was CondeNast that got rid of W.

So sad to see a magazine jumping from one hand to another....the idea of a lot of investors is never a good, history taught us, specially so diverse people...but there is nothing to lose...

And what about Tonchi? He is already wprking at L’Officiel?