The Business of Magazines

[Phuel]

^^^ That sort of processed fortune-cookie coverline x sitting-on-an-apple-crate-against-a-white-seamless catalogue portrait isn’t stirring any excitement nor anticipation for me. I guess it’s another one for the teenybopper market.

(Would love to be proven wrong…)

 

[Bertrando3]

^^^ That sort of processed fortune-cookie coverline x sitting-on-an-apple-crate-against-a-white-seamless catalogue portrait isn’t stirring any excitement nor anticipation for me. I guess it’s another one for the teenybopper market.

(Would love to be proven wrong…)

He's an amazing actor actually, and although this cover is very generic and catalogue-ish, I still see bits of high fashion with the pose/styling but yeah of course these covers could have been way way more high fashion since it's for Vogue and it's a magazine launch and so on but I sort of lost any anticipation of any magazines nowadays to truly produce anything HIGH HIGH HIGH fashion-esque and glamorous and fierce like back in the good-old-days of Fashion magazines (a.k.a 20 years ago loooool) but it's still good to see covers like these when you compare them with what GQ does anyhow; but I get what you mean.

 

[Marc10]

Interview EIC Nick Haramis will be leaving the magazine after the upcoming Summer issue.

 

[mikel]

Interview EIC Nick Haramis will be leaving the magazine after the upcoming Summer issue.

Why? He didn’t get paid?

 

[axiomatic]

Rolling Stone hits back amid calls to boycott magazine

Rolling Stone is punching back after a blog post claimed that the magazine “sold out” to President Trump and the Saudis under its owner Jay Penske led to calls for a boycott.

The story, by “The Hill Reporter” dubbed “The Demise of Rolling Stone: How A Legendary Magazine Sold Out to Trump and the Saudis,” ignited calls across the Twitterverse to #BoycottRollingStone on Friday in part by resurfacing old information about magazine’s parent company’s ties to the Saudis.

The story also blasted the Penske Media CEO for his ties to Trump, although it appeared to conflate the media mogul with his auto-racing magnate dad, Roger Penske.

“Jay is a high-profile GOP donor who fired tenured and experienced journalists, then hired hacks to write tabloid level pieces that leaned so far to the right, he was awarded a Presidential Medal from the former guy himself,” the post said.

In fact, it was the elder Penske who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019. The younger Penske, by contrast, helped throw a 2016 election viewing party with high-profile supporters of Hillary Clinton, according to WWD.

Rolling Stone’s rebuttal, however, focused solely on The Hill Reporter’s claims that a yet-to-be-published piece on MeidasTouch, a left-leaning political action committee focused on stopping Trump’s reelection, was politically motivated.

“The attacks being made against Rolling Stone’s journalistic integrity and our reporter are entirely unfounded and false,” said Brooke Jaffe, a spokeswoman for Rolling Stone parent Penske Media Corp. “Rolling Stone’s journalists pursue the truth and hold power to account without input from anyone outside our editorial staff. Any notion that Rolling Stone is pro-Trump is demonstrably false, as a review of our coverage would reveal. No tactics will persuade us from pursuing our core mission: to deliver the news responsibly to our audience.”

A source said The Hill Reporter story by Tara Dubin kicked off after award-winning freelance journalist Seth Hettena — who has bylines in The New York Times and New Republic and who wrote an incisive piece for the glossy last year on Blackwater founder Erik Prince — reached out to MeidasTouch for commentary on his story.

The group asked for an extension to respond, which was granted it. But instead of providing a statement to the reporter, MeidasTouch took to Twitter, posting a lengthy reply, calling the story “defamatory.”

In making the case that Rolling Stone is conducting a “smear campaign” against the PAC, Dubin rehashed a subject that has become touchy since the gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018.

In February 2018, Penske Media — which also owns Variety, Women’s Wear Daily and The Hollywood Reporter — received a $200 million investment by a Saudi Arabian public fund.

The funding came at a time when the fund was making big investments in media and entertainment firms, but many beneficiaries returned the funds amid questions about Khashoggi’s death following his trip to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Penske has remained silent on the investment stake, even after US intelligence reports confirmed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself ordered the reporter’s execution.

The blog post made the rounds on Twitter with some users retweeting an image from Dubin’s article, which shows Roger Penske receiving the medal of honor from Trump in 2019, with his son, Jay, watching in the background.

Democratic writer and editor Grant Stern tweeted, “Rolling Stone used to be the home of Hunter S. Thompson, now people are tweeting #BoycottRollingStone after their ties to Trump and the Saudis have been exposed.”

Even “Pulp Fiction” actress Rosanna Arquette jumped in on the call to action, tweeting simply: “#BoycottRollingStone,” as the hashtag began to take off going into the weekend.

 

[axiomatic]

Nick Haramis Exits as Editor of Interview Magazine – WWD

Interview magazine is out one editor in chief.

Nick Haramis, who in 2017 joined the large glossy started by Andy Warhol, is said to be leaving the title for reasons unknown. Haramis wrote in a post to Instagram that he’s “moving on” from Interview in a month, right after the magazine’s summer issue is wrapped up.

“I’m doing so with countless memories that I feel so incredibly lucky to have been able to make with such a talented, resilient, ragtag group of humans that I love and respect,” he wrote.

Haramis could not be reached for additional comment, nor could Interview’s publisher, Jason Nikic.

There is speculation that the move has something to do with Interview’s history of financial issues, but Haramis is expected to be going to another job, although it is unclear where he may be heading. Jobs in magazine media are not nearly as prevalent as they once were given the industry has been hit hard by years advertising declines, including amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The resiliency he mentioned in his brief social media post is certainly something he and the rest of Interview’s staff have needed in the last few years. About a year after Haramis joined the magazine as editor, its then-owner Peter Brant abruptly put it into bankruptcy amid growing financial issues.

The choice of proceeding was a Chapter 7 liquidation, not a more typical Chapter 11 reorganization, so the magazine abruptly shut down and Brant left scores of freelancers and other creditors without some $3 million in total payments. The magazine was led by Brant’s eldest daughter Kelly Brant and Nikic, who was chief revenue officer, and had been losing money for some time. Prior to bankruptcy the magazine had a reputation for not paying workers on time and not paying freelancers. It was facing several lawsuits over the issue.

A long list of creditors included long time editorial director Fabien Baron, who just before the bankruptcy filing quit the magazine. He then sued Interview for $600,000 in unpaid wages and work expenses. It is unclear if he was ever paid, but bankruptcy creditors often are not.

Yet Interview said it would “relaunch” about five months after its liquidation filing. Brant, who purchased the title from the Warhol estate in 1987, decided to sell the publishing assets and IP to his daughter Kelly, who set up a new entity for the transfer, Crystal Ball Media, led by herself and Nikic. The sudden bankruptcy, liquidation to reduce asset value and selling back to a family member who had overseen the magazine while it was unable to pay workers made the whole process appear to be a way for the title to simply avoid paying its million of dollars in debts.

But relaunch it did, in September 2018, with a new staff of about 18 people, including Mel Ottenberg as creative director. Haramis stayed on as editor. But even then there were whispers of the magazine being late in paying the freelancers hired to help bring the issue together. Nevertheless, Interview has continued to publish six issues a year and has drawn high-profile celebrity talent for covers.

 

[JPineapple]

What’s happened?

 

[JPineapple]

UPDATE: This happened

 

[MON]

That was done for a shoot? My goodness..

 

[balmain1914]

sometimes you just don't know how stupid and racist these famous fashion insiders could be.
a Parisian joke like this during the STOPASIANHATE period?
It is your choice that you don't support the movement, but you should not tease the group facing discrimination and attack at this difficult time...

 

[Xone]

On WWD there is an article of the most readed magazines during the pandemic but it’s for subscribers...is there any kind soul who can post it? Thanks!

 

[danawokarrr]

Xone it was actually the most read categories like Home Decor, Food, etc

 

[Benn98]

On WWD there is an article of the most readed magazines during the pandemic but it’s for subscribers...is there any kind soul who can post it? Thanks!

Via WWD:

The Magazines People Have Actually Been Reading During the Pandemic

Kathryn Hopkins
Mon, April 12, 2021, 6:01 AM·6 min read

Throughout the pandemic there’s been much gloomy news about the magazines hit hard, with some forced to cease print operations altogether or further reduce frequency.

But what about those that have actually performed well as millions of Americans spend more time at home than ever?

Here, WWD rounds up some of the categories that have resonated with consumers — in print, digitally or the publisher’s dream of both mediums.

Home Decor

With most people having spent more time at home than ever during the pandemic, it should come as no surprise that interest in home decor has surged. According to data from the Alliance for Audited Media, Architectural Digest, a bright spot for Condé Nast, saw its total audience increase by 18 percent to a monthly average of 14.2 million in 2020 compared with 2019. While print and digital editions of the magazine remained flat, web, mobile and video traffic all soared.

Veranda, House Beautiful and Elle Decor, all published by Hearst, were up 33 percent to 1.4 million, 18 percent to 14.1 million and 6 percent to 4.8 million, respectively. The latter, in particular, enjoyed a 15 percent increase in readers of its print and digital issues. Elsewhere, Dwell, owned by Dwell Media, was up 35 percent to 2.41 million, while Hearst’s Good Housekeeping, which is more general interest, witnessed 30 percent growth to 59.7 million.

Bookazines

Amid the pandemic, there has also been a growing demand for single-topic deep dive magazines often referred to as bookazines. Meredith Corp., for example, recently launched People Royals, adding to its existing lineup of Sweet July with Ayesha Curry and Reveal with Drew and Jonathan Scott, among others. A tribute bookazine to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who died last week at age 99, will also be released shortly.

Doug Olson, president of Meredith Magazines, which has roughly 325 bookazine releases every year, said: “If you look at our calendar 2019 versus calendar 2020, our bookazine business is actually up 3 percent, which — when you think about all the airport traffic that was virtually nonexistent, Barnes & Noble was closed for a good five or six months during the pandemic and all the different retailers that were focused on selling food and essential items and de-emphasizing things like magazines — that’s a spectacular performance. We sold 19.5 million copies of our bookazines at a price point of $9.99 or higher in the calendar 2020.”

Iconic Covers

The popularity of glossy fashion magazines may have waned in recent years, but a powerful cover can still sell. While Vogue’s overall audience dropped almost 6 percent last year, the December issue featuring Harry Styles in a sky blue lace Gucci dress flew off shelves, making it Vogue’s bestselling issue of 2020. Some stores even had waitlists for the magazine after it had been sold out. The same is expected for its May cover starring National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman and photographed by Annie Leibovitz, which was well-received on social media.

In contrast, the brand faced much criticism on social media for its choice of print cover starring Vice President Kamala Harris in a Donald Deal jacket and Converse sneakers with a backdrop of colors that are emblematic of her sorority at Howard University, Alpha Kappa Alpha, which some social media users labeled “disrespectful,” “poor quality” and “a washed-out mess.” After the fallout, the digital cover, which many commentators said was more worthy of print cover status, finally had its moment in print with Vogue publishing a limited number of special-edition inaugural issues.

News and Analysis

A global pandemic, a close presidential election and an economic fallout has meant there has been an insatiable appetite for news and analysis, benefiting a number of magazines. The Atlantic, majority owned by Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective, saw its total audience jump by a third to 32.6 million, according to the AAM data. A representative for The Atlantic told WWD that it gained nearly 400,000 subscribers in 2020 alone, pushing the total number up to more than 750,000. She added that in 2021, readers have continued to turn to The Atlantic for coverage on COVID-19, with stories such as Ellen Cushing’s “Late-Stage Pandemic Is Messing With Your Brain” and Katherine Wu’s “The Second COVID-19 Shot Is a Rude Reawakening for Immune Cells” drawing significant audiences.

Condé Nast’s The New Yorker, meanwhile, was up 15 percent to 23 million and also saw a record number of new subscribers in 2020. Its popularity certainly doesn’t appear to waning in 2021, with 24 million unique visitors to its website in January 2021. The top two New Yorker articles for subscription contributions were “The Plague Year” and “Among The Insurrectionists.“

Elsewhere, The Economist was up 21 percent to almost 6 million, Fast Company, owned by Mansueto Ventures, 21.5 percent to 11.8 million, and Condé Nast’s Wired 7.5 percent to close to 28 million.

But like a number of other brands, these successes have not prevented layoffs amid the coronavirus-induced drop in advertising. Last year, The Atlantic cut staff by almost 20 percent, while Condé Nast laid off 100 staffers, furloughed another 100 and cut pay, which it has since resorted.

Food

Like home decor, food has been another hugely popular category as more and more people cooked at home, especially during the first few months of the pandemic. Trusted Media Brands’ Taste of Home saw its total audience jump 21 percent in 2020 to 42.7 million, while Meredith’s Food & Wine and Allrecipes were up by 15 percent to 17 million and 18.5 percent to 68.7 million respectively.

Bon Appétit, Condé Nast’s food magazine that this year was hit by allegations of a discriminatory workplace and saw its editor in chief Adam Rapoport ousted, grew by 3.7 percent to 30.6 million. While readership of the latter’s print and digital issues slid 3.5 percent and video was down 4.3 percent, web traffic was up 25 percent and mobile visits almost 20 percent higher.

Health

Perhaps unsurprisingly, several health and fitness titles have also performed well, with readers wanting to take better care of themselves. Among them, Women’s Health’s total audience grew by 17.4 percent to 26.3 million; Bicycling by 13.7 to almost 3.5 million; Prevention by 15.9 to 11 million; and Men’s Health by 8 percent to 24.7 million. All are owned by Hearst.

 

[Xone]

Via WWD:

The Magazines People Have Actually Been Reading During the Pandemic

Kathryn Hopkins
Mon, April 12, 2021, 6:01 AM·6 min read

Throughout the pandemic there’s been much gloomy news about the magazines hit hard, with some forced to cease print operations altogether or further reduce frequency.

But what about those that have actually performed well as millions of Americans spend more time at home than ever?

Here, WWD rounds up some of the categories that have resonated with consumers — in print, digitally or the publisher’s dream of both mediums.

Home Decor

With most people having spent more time at home than ever during the pandemic, it should come as no surprise that interest in home decor has surged. According to data from the Alliance for Audited Media, Architectural Digest, a bright spot for Condé Nast, saw its total audience increase by 18 percent to a monthly average of 14.2 million in 2020 compared with 2019. While print and digital editions of the magazine remained flat, web, mobile and video traffic all soared.

Veranda, House Beautiful and Elle Decor, all published by Hearst, were up 33 percent to 1.4 million, 18 percent to 14.1 million and 6 percent to 4.8 million, respectively. The latter, in particular, enjoyed a 15 percent increase in readers of its print and digital issues. Elsewhere, Dwell, owned by Dwell Media, was up 35 percent to 2.41 million, while Hearst’s Good Housekeeping, which is more general interest, witnessed 30 percent growth to 59.7 million.

Bookazines

Amid the pandemic, there has also been a growing demand for single-topic deep dive magazines often referred to as bookazines. Meredith Corp., for example, recently launched People Royals, adding to its existing lineup of Sweet July with Ayesha Curry and Reveal with Drew and Jonathan Scott, among others. A tribute bookazine to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who died last week at age 99, will also be released shortly.

Doug Olson, president of Meredith Magazines, which has roughly 325 bookazine releases every year, said: “If you look at our calendar 2019 versus calendar 2020, our bookazine business is actually up 3 percent, which — when you think about all the airport traffic that was virtually nonexistent, Barnes & Noble was closed for a good five or six months during the pandemic and all the different retailers that were focused on selling food and essential items and de-emphasizing things like magazines — that’s a spectacular performance. We sold 19.5 million copies of our bookazines at a price point of $9.99 or higher in the calendar 2020.”

Iconic Covers

The popularity of glossy fashion magazines may have waned in recent years, but a powerful cover can still sell. While Vogue’s overall audience dropped almost 6 percent last year, the December issue featuring Harry Styles in a sky blue lace Gucci dress flew off shelves, making it Vogue’s bestselling issue of 2020. Some stores even had waitlists for the magazine after it had been sold out. The same is expected for its May cover starring National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman and photographed by Annie Leibovitz, which was well-received on social media.

In contrast, the brand faced much criticism on social media for its choice of print cover starring Vice President Kamala Harris in a Donald Deal jacket and Converse sneakers with a backdrop of colors that are emblematic of her sorority at Howard University, Alpha Kappa Alpha, which some social media users labeled “disrespectful,” “poor quality” and “a washed-out mess.” After the fallout, the digital cover, which many commentators said was more worthy of print cover status, finally had its moment in print with Vogue publishing a limited number of special-edition inaugural issues.

News and Analysis

A global pandemic, a close presidential election and an economic fallout has meant there has been an insatiable appetite for news and analysis, benefiting a number of magazines. The Atlantic, majority owned by Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective, saw its total audience jump by a third to 32.6 million, according to the AAM data. A representative for The Atlantic told WWD that it gained nearly 400,000 subscribers in 2020 alone, pushing the total number up to more than 750,000. She added that in 2021, readers have continued to turn to The Atlantic for coverage on COVID-19, with stories such as Ellen Cushing’s “Late-Stage Pandemic Is Messing With Your Brain” and Katherine Wu’s “The Second COVID-19 Shot Is a Rude Reawakening for Immune Cells” drawing significant audiences.

Condé Nast’s The New Yorker, meanwhile, was up 15 percent to 23 million and also saw a record number of new subscribers in 2020. Its popularity certainly doesn’t appear to waning in 2021, with 24 million unique visitors to its website in January 2021. The top two New Yorker articles for subscription contributions were “The Plague Year” and “Among The Insurrectionists.“

Elsewhere, The Economist was up 21 percent to almost 6 million, Fast Company, owned by Mansueto Ventures, 21.5 percent to 11.8 million, and Condé Nast’s Wired 7.5 percent to close to 28 million.

But like a number of other brands, these successes have not prevented layoffs amid the coronavirus-induced drop in advertising. Last year, The Atlantic cut staff by almost 20 percent, while Condé Nast laid off 100 staffers, furloughed another 100 and cut pay, which it has since resorted.

Food

Like home decor, food has been another hugely popular category as more and more people cooked at home, especially during the first few months of the pandemic. Trusted Media Brands’ Taste of Home saw its total audience jump 21 percent in 2020 to 42.7 million, while Meredith’s Food & Wine and Allrecipes were up by 15 percent to 17 million and 18.5 percent to 68.7 million respectively.

Bon Appétit, Condé Nast’s food magazine that this year was hit by allegations of a discriminatory workplace and saw its editor in chief Adam Rapoport ousted, grew by 3.7 percent to 30.6 million. While readership of the latter’s print and digital issues slid 3.5 percent and video was down 4.3 percent, web traffic was up 25 percent and mobile visits almost 20 percent higher.

Health

Perhaps unsurprisingly, several health and fitness titles have also performed well, with readers wanting to take better care of themselves. Among them, Women’s Health’s total audience grew by 17.4 percent to 26.3 million; Bicycling by 13.7 to almost 3.5 million; Prevention by 15.9 to 11 million; and Men’s Health by 8 percent to 24.7 million. All are owned by Hearst.

Thank you @Benn98 !

 

[axiomatic]

New York Times Styles editor Choire Sicha makes puzzling departure

Both the fashion world and New York Times insiders were abuzz on Friday over the surprise exit of the paper’s Styles section editor Choire Sicha.

“Hello!,” Sicha wrote in the farewell note that caught his roughly 50-person staff off guard Friday morning. “Because everything is so good on the desk right now, I’m taking advantage of the moment to renounce this job…”

Sicha, who will be taking a new job in The Times’ nascent newsletter unit, didn’t say why he was leaving. But he appeared to joke that he is simply joining the recent “trend” of overworked media folks up and quitting their jobs.

“I know quitting media jobs is a solid trend at this point and I hate being slightly late to it but it’s always nice to have company,” he wrote.

Now speculation is rampant as to who will replace him as head of the influence section, known for it’s wedding announcement and popular “Modern Love” column.

Sicha — a Times outsider when he was brought over from Vox Media to shake things up in 2017 — encouraged people on the staff to apply as there is no replacement at the moment.

Insiders who are expected to put their hands up for the job include the section’s deputy editors Alexandra Jacobs, Anya Strzemien and Natalie Shutler, sources said.

But the most intense speculation seems to center on Stella Bugbee, who until October was the editor-in-chief of The Cut, the fashion vertical of New York Media, the parent of New York Magazine, where she is now an editor at large.

Only Bugbee dismissed that there had been any overtures from the Times. “I know nothing about that honestly,” she said. “It’s news to me.” Her old job at the Cut was taken over in early January by Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Lindsey Wagner Peoples.

Bugbee says she is enjoying writing for the magazine and working on TV projects at New York Media. “They are keeping me very busy,” she said.

That leaves sources circling back to exactly why Sicha left so suddenly without a replacement in the wings. “It’s puzzling,” noted one insider.

He continued his farewell in a style that once might have delighted readers of the snarky website Gawker, where he served two separate terms as editor — making him a veritable Grover Cleveland of Gawker chiefs.

“This desk was a GREAT problem to work on for almost four years,” Sicha wrote. “And now honestly you’re fine. I want to be in the mess. You’re not messy enough for me. You deserve someone who is less messy too. I am going to go off toward another crisis,” he wrote.

But that only seemed to sow more confusion among insiders. “The whole thing is weird,” said one. “People are definitely surprised.”

In a subsequent email that went out Friday, executive editor Dean Baquet, managing editor Joe Kahn and Sicha’s current boss, assistant managing editor Sam Sifton, heaped praise on Sicha’s tenure at Styles.

In their farewell, the men wrote that Sicha had “remade the Styles section” and that he did so with “verve, playfulness and creativity, aggressively covering as he put it once, ‘politics, gender, sexuality, health, crime, shoes and contouring.'”

“Now he is taking on a new and exciting challenge as a senior editor charged with a project to help expand our newsletter portfolio alongside Sam Dolnick and Adam Pasick,” according to the letter.

“Newsletters are the internet’s oldest and newest format and there is no one better than Chorie to help us think through how to use them to form deeper connections with our readers and showcase news voices…”

But there were few clues as to exactly what the new role will be. “He has not been put in charge of whatever this newsletter corner of The Times that they are developing,” an insider said.

One former editor said that the Times is nervously looking over its shoulder at Substack, which is signing up star writers and supporting them with advances to help them start their own newsletters. “In many ways, the Awl which Sicha co-founded was an early form of that kind of journalism,” said a former editor.

But if Sicha had an inking to share with his fans as well as his detractors, he is remaining mum. Calls and emails were not returned by the time of writing.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Conde Nast jobs at risk amid strategy to merge global editorial teams
By Charlotte Tobitt

Magazine publisher Conde Nast has put jobs at risk as it begins to implement a new global digital-first content strategy merging editorial teams in the US and the rest of the world.

Roger Lynch, the global chief executive who joined Conde Nast in 2019, told staff last week that the merging of the editorial teams around the world was “one of the most important projects ever in our company’s history”.

The publisher is aiming to create double-digit revenue growth in 2021.

In the UK the cuts announced to staff last week will affect editorial and commercial staff at Vogue, Conde Nast Traveller and GQ, some of whom will have to reapply for their roles in the new global structure.

Also involved in this first stage of the five-year strategy are Wired UK, where no jobs are at risk because it is a smaller team already, and Architectural Digest which does not have a UK base.

The number of jobs at risk have not yet been confirmed by the company.

However the intention is to increase investment in content, including in video products, events and experiences, by 25% over the next four years.

A Conde Nast spokesperson said: “As we continue to bring together our European business and transform our global operations, we are entering into a collective consultation process to evolve some of our teams, roles and capabilities. We are fully committed to supporting employees during this time.”

The global content strategy was announced in December with global editorial directors appointed for several of the magazine brands for the first time to oversee consistency of content strategy and tone, and Vogue editor Anna Wintour named chief content officer.

Wintour told the FT it is a “new day for the company” as she described the previous operations as “all very collegial . . . but we did not collaborate”.

In an open letter published last week, the global editorial leads of the five magazine brands involved in the current plans said their goal is “to be a more 21st-century media company, and a more community-minded one as well”.

“We’ve already made the shift from a legacy magazine publisher to a multiplatform digitally led media company — but we now want to be even more agile, and more open and connected in our thinking. To be sure, our titles have long had global reach, and a global readership, but now we want to shift our way of working to reflect that — to be as global as the audiences we’re attracting.”

The editors added that the brands “used to work in silos, tending to our individual titles, and often competing with each other.

“Competition can be fun — the thrill of a scoop, the big get — but ultimately it’s self — defeating. Coming together has already shown us that a new way of working can actually mean bigger gets, bigger scoops and more groundbreaking storytelling.”

The FT reported Conde Nast anticipates breaking even in 2022 and reaching double-digit operating profit margins by 2024.
source | pressgazette

 

[MissMagAddict]

If you’re into it.

 

[Hafyiez wafa]

Vogue China Fashion Director Yuhang Yao Exits Amid Team Overhaul

 

[8eight]

Media whispers this afternoon that long-time editor Dylan Jones is out at GQ and eyeing up a move to NewsUK.

source: Popbitch

 

[axiomatic]

WWD in turmoil after staffer behind grievance forum canned

Keith J. Kelly

Already depressed morale at “fashion bible” WWD hit a new low when a reporter behind a forum letting staffers vent their grievances was unceremoniously canned last week, Media Ink has learned.

Los Angeles-based reporter Kali Hays was let go after four years at the Penske Media-owned fashion trade publication on April 19 amid pressure to delete an online document she had created originally for staffers to talk about newsroom issues, but which devolved into a forum for relentless complaints about the company’s management, including allegations of anti-Semitism, sexism and a general lack of diversity, sources said.

Hays, a media and retail reporter who had been dispatched by WWD to LA two years earlier with a promotion to senior reporter, was informed about her last day on the job by editorial director Jim Fallon. No reason was given, sources said.

Hays, who earlier in her career worked at Law 360, was apparently popular within the company. “She was a good reporter,” said one former colleague.

About six weeks before she was terminated, HR had sent Hays a memo asking that she delete the document, sources said. She refused and sent a company-wide email to about 50 staffers, according to one insider, explaining her refusal to take it down without a more clear explanation about why it should be deleted.

Following Hays’ exit, the document was deleted, sources said.

A Penske spokeswoman declined to comment except to say that she was replaced with another reporter out of New York City.

“WWD had an amazing opportunity to add one of the finest media reporters, Marisa Guthrie, to its NY senior editorial team. It’s disappointing that anyone would attempt to characterize this advancement differently,” a Penske spokeswoman said. Guthrie had been freelancing at the time and earlier in her career worked at The Hollywood Reporter.

Sources said Hays created the document via Google Docs last June — initially with the blessing of the top brass at WWD and its parent company Penske Media — as a forum for staffers to anonymously communicate amid a remote work environment and Black Lives Matter protests that were raising questions about diversity coverage across many media companies.

“It started out with good intentions to raise newsroom issues,” said a source who has accessed the document. “But the comments had grown increasingly caustic and emotional.”

By October, sources said, staffers were using the document to blast a profile that praised diversity efforts by designer John Galliano — who was famously ousted as creative director of Christian Dior following a boozy anti-Semitic rant in Paris in 2011 that had him proclaiming his love for Hitler.

One source noted that not every story on Galliano — who has publicly apologized for the rant and sought help for his alcoholism — requires a mention of the now 10-year-old incident. But the October tribute was viewed as “problematic because this was a story about his diversity efforts — and it was not mentioned,” said the source.

Indeed, documents show that the original profile published by WWD and written by international editor and Paris bureau chief Miles Socha praised Galliano for showcasing models of “pretty much all ages, sizes, colors and shapes,” without a single mention of the 2011 incident. Socha declined to comment and referred questions to Penske public relations.

The story has since been updated to include Galliano’s ugly rant. But sources attributed that to the internal blowback, which they said also resulted in a staff-wide Zoom call that had some staffers visibly upset.

The Google forum also resulted in criticisms earlier this year over the Dec. 31, 2020, exit of executive editor Bridget Foley after a WWD career of more than 30 years. People griped that Foley — one of the publication’s highest-ranking women — departed without a farewell memo from Penske Media CEO Jay Penske or its top editor Fallon.

“People thought that was rude and disrespectful,” said one source.

Hays declined to comment on her own exit but said in a statement: “I’m so proud of my work at WWD, as a reporter and a member of the newsroom who took constructive action on the need for open communication and transparency, recognized by the staff and upper management alike, during a particularly difficult year. I am hopeful and excited for the future.”

Too bad...she wrote many of the WWD articles posted here