The Business of Magazines

[homeboy]

when it comes down to model protection doesn't it depend on which agency you are with? or are all agencies filled with heartless people who turn a blind eye to statutory r*pe and child abuse? and are all the photographers in fashion sleezy men? and if they were why would editors continue to work with them? don't other models warn one another about people, who not to work with?

The fashion industry has and will always be shallow, superficial and heartless. What keeps everyone happy is money and career prospects. Models are not cared for at all and are merely live manikins who come and go. And the models know how short lived careers are and the slim chances of breaking through and thus scarifies themselves to get to where they want to be. This isn't entirely uncommon, there are numerous highly successful women who've climbed their way to the top by getting significantly more older men with power and sleeping with the right men. At the end of the day it's up to the models and their moral, they aren't exactly forced to be models if they don't wish to.

 

[surrealseven]

U guys got to watch the trailer on myspace, it's really good and I really pity the girls, its not easy being a model

thanks tigerrouge for the article

 

[khyrk]

oh i didn't know the article was posted here already. i made a thread for it:

http://www.thefashionspot.com/forum...troversial-documentary-80429.html#post5797272

those poor girls

 

[tigerrouge]

If anybody cares, Grazia France is set to launch September 2009.

That's good news to hear of another launch. So many magazines are closing at the moment, yet there are new ones being launched all the time.

 

[nyc_art_style]

O’BRIEN TO EXIT?: Glenn O’Brien is said to be on his way out at Interview. As WWD reported on Wednesday, changes at the top are imminent at the magazine. According to sources, co-editorial director O’Brien is being pushed out, as the working relationship between him and owner Peter Brant appears to have deteriorated. O’Brien would be leaving just one year after joining Interview with Fabien Baron, who also had signed on as co-editorial director. Baron left the title in January. — Stephanie D. Smith

wwd.com

 

[t-rex]

What is going on at Interview?! Something new every week with them...

 

[Manuva]

^Interview really need some new owners :|

 

[tigerrouge]

The New York Times mentions:

Creative Consumption | Vogue Nippon + Comme des Garçons

June 9, 2009

The worlds of publishing and fashion have felt the wrath of the economic storm, with both industries struggling to find relevance for consumers who represent the new normal. Tokyo hasn’t been immune to global shifts in consumption habits and desires, yet it remains the most passionate consumer culture in the world. The desire for new ideas has not diminished, and for this very demanding audience, imaginative design and originality in marketing are more critical than ever.

Tokyo brands have elevated creative collaborations into a modern marketing art form, and now Magazine Alive brings together two of the city’s most innovative forces: Vogue Nippon and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons. To celebrate the magazine’s 10th anniversary, each monthly issue of Vogue Nippon over the next six months will come to life at the Comme des Garçons flex retail space on Kota Dori in the Aoyama neighborhood. This retail and gallery space is the brand’s experimental lab, which recently showcased its unlikely collaboration with Louis Vuitton.

The worlds of publishing and fashion have felt the wrath of the economic storm, with both industries struggling to find relevance for consumers who represent the new normal. Tokyo hasn’t been immune to global shifts in consumption habits and desires, yet it remains the most passionate consumer culture in the world. The desire for new ideas has not diminished, and for this very demanding audience, imaginative design and originality in marketing are more critical than ever.

Tokyo brands have elevated creative collaborations into a modern marketing art form, and now Magazine Alive brings together two of the city’s most innovative forces: Vogue Nippon and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons. To celebrate the magazine’s 10th anniversary, each monthly issue of Vogue Nippon over the next six months will come to life at the Comme des Garçons flex retail space on Kota Dori in the Aoyama neighborhood. This retail and gallery space is the brand’s experimental lab, which recently showcased its unlikely collaboration with Louis Vuitton.

http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/creative-consumption-vogue-nippon-comme-des-garcons/

 

[tigerrouge]

The Telegraph has a piece about Tina Brown (image source - www.telegraph.co.uk

Tina Brown: the magazine queen now sold on the web

02 Jun 2009

Tina Brown remains Britain’s leading journalistic export, though today her work is all digital. The former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and the short-lived Talk magazine, Miss Brown now is editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, a New York-based website.

Before its launch last year it was trailed as a news aggregator, but now presents much original content from contributors in America and around the world. In a land where newspapers are going under with such speed that even a city such as San Francisco may soon not have one, is it possible that this titan of print journalism has seen the future?

“In America newspapers are vanishing, which is very scary,” she tells me over a coffee in a swanky hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “But I think now the debate has to shift on from 'how do we save newspapers’ to 'how do we save journalism’.

'I think it’s really imperative that papers like The New York Times – which is in a parlous condition – the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe, which is in tremendous peril and is probably going to go, are saved in terms of what they do, without necessarily worrying about the delivery system. It’s more important to preserve journalism than it is to preserve newspapers, frankly.”

However, no one has yet devised a model to make online news pay. The Daily Beast – “more a magazine approach to newspapers than it is a pure information journalism site” – is funded by Barry Diller, the media and internet mogul whom she has known for 30 years. Some of Miss Brown’s media rivals in New York claim the enterprise is costing Mr Diller millions of dollars a year. I ask Miss Brown whether she is making money, and she is frank: “No, not yet, but we do believe we will.”

She accepts that in this time of change, web-based journalism may lack the resources that newspapers have to do serious investigative work, and it is that that she fears losing. “We may need some sort of private public partnership to sponsor certain kinds of journalism,” she says.

I ask her whether she is suggesting the state should fund this aspect of the trade. “It’s always going to be in the public interest to do that sort of journalism but it’s never going to appeal to advertisers. So it may need either some sort of BBC approach to it, or some sort of philanthropic partnership, or some sort of trust; or company sponsorship of investigative work, like sponsoring television programmes. Maybe that’s a model. Everything has to be tried. I think at this point it’s all about innovative approaches. I think we’re involved in a very, very scary transition, where nothing seems to be working financially, but I’m absolutely confident that a new model will emerge.”

So does she think the printed press in America has had it? “I think there will be some newspapers in 10 years’ time, but with a much more elite and focused audience, charging them more for the papers, going hand-in-hand with a web operation until the generational transition is complete and everyone reads everything online.”

She, though, is a true believer in the medium she has now embraced. “I’ve become a complete convert to the web. I’d always seen myself as a magazine journalist. But having done the Daily Beast I can see the excitement and the opportunity that there is in online. There’s an enormous amount of energy on the web.”

She has 25 staff in New York, but uses the flexibility of the internet to use the services of a wide range of contributors. “With the Beast, we’re creating a sort of virtual newsroom all over the world. When we’re covering Mumbai I can suddenly activate five brilliant journalists who know much more about the subject than anyone I can send from head office.”

However, in Miss Brown’s vision, the era of the professional journalist who did nothing but write appears to be over. She says she uses work from lawyers, novelists, academics and think-tankers. “I think we’re going to get to the stage where a lot of journalists have other jobs as well.”

Yet she sees the limitations of this approach. “Where it’s really hard is if you want to get a really digging piece going on the whole banking collapse that takes two journalists six months.” I ask her whether she would advise the young to go into journalism now. “Yes, but be prepared for some lean years for the next five.”

Miss Brown became famous for, effectively, inventing the celebrity culture when she took over Vanity Fair in 1984. She now seems slightly to regret this, saying “the monster was let out of the box”. And she certainly doesn’t feel it’s relevant to America today. “Oh, God, I was bored with celebrity culture at Vanity Fair, which was why I left to go to The New Yorker,” she says.

“I think a magazine editor tries to reflect and define the times they are living in. The rise of celebrity culture was what was happening in America just then. Our magazine chronicled and defined it. I don’t think it’s interesting now.”

This brings her on to her great interest of the moment, politics. “The biggest celebrity in America today is the President of the United States; and just by that being true it defines a new interest in politics. That’s where the zeitgeist is in America today. It’s in Washington, not in Hollywood.”

But does she get irritated when she sees Mr Obama written up as a celebrity rather than as a serious leader? “I think it’s boring, but at the same time I’d rather read about him as a celebrity than about Brad Pitt. It’s healthy that it’s bringing a lot of young people into politics.”

In last year’s presidential race, however, Miss Brown was an ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton, and is writing a book about her. “I thought she had an amazingly rough time as a candidate but I thought she was a much better candidate than her campaign. She did not run a good campaign, she lost momentum and never regained it.”

Before we part I ask her about Gordon Brown, whom she knows. “I like Brown personally, enormously: it’s just been a pretty tragic last year or two. I think today you’ve got to have great communication skills: in the era of media it’s impossible to be a leader who doesn’t have those skills. If you don’t have them you’re dead in the water.”

CV
Name Tina Brown.

Born Nov 21 1953 in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

Education Expelled from three boarding schools before graduating from St Anne’s College, Oxford.

Marital status Married to Sir Harold Evans, the journalist. They have two children.

Career Editor of Tatler at 25. Moved to New York to run Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Her celebrity magazine Talk was a failure. Online magazine The Daily Beast launched last year.

 

[Pedro]

Interview with the Vampires
Is Glenn leaving? Is the prodigal son rising?
Monday, June 08, 2009

(NEW YORK) Is Glenn O'Brien actually leaving Interview? And if he did, would anyone be surprised? Since Peter Brant relaunched the magazine in January 2008, Interview has been plagued by a string of snafus, beginning with a kick-off party held in a construction zone and culminating with the January 2009 departures of co-editorial director Fabien Baron and publisher Alan Katz, and the botched hire of new publisher Samantha Fennell, who quit before she even started. Not to mention the endless complaints from the freelance community concerning unpaid bills and dishonored contracts.

Glenn O'Brien remains on board for now after having refurbished all of Brant's titles (including Art in America and The Magazine Antiques), but the real player in charge is neither him nor Peter Brant, who remains hunkered down in Europe, beleagured by an increasingly tawdry divorce from estranged wife Stephanie Seymour. According to several sources, Brant Publications' new president, Ryan Brant, 37-year-old son of Sandra and Peter, is now running the show.

Ryan Brant is a master of games, though not of the publishing kind. The company he founded in 1993, Take-Two Interactive, earned fame and (even more) fortune with the runaway success of the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise. Brant left the company in 2007 four months before he plead guilty to falsifying business records and paid over $7 million in penalties to the S.E.C.. The case, which was ultimately settled in April of this year, earned Brant five years probation. "The S.E.C. contended Mr. Brant and other former senior executives had 'fraudulently enriched' key employees by granting them stock options backdated to days of historically low closing prices," reported the New York Times.

In addition to orchestrating the ousting of publisher Alan Katz, insiders claim that Brant aims to reseat Fabien Baron at the top of the masthead. While Baron proved popular with advertisers, the shoots he commissioned were expensive, which is said to have caused excessive strain on the mag's bottom line. According to sources, the discussions with Brant have even led Baron to approach top talent about their interest in returning to Interview should he be renamed editorial director.

For what it's worth, O'Brien has reasons to stick around. He has a good deal of personal investment in the project, and not only the equity he was promised. O'Brien's relationship with Interview began during his days as a member of Andy Warhol's Factory in the 1970s, when he penned a music column for the downtown bible. His first tenure as editor of Interview lasted from 1970-1973. Neither O'Brien nor Ryan Brant were immediately available for comment.

fashionweekdaily.com

 

[Pedro]

At Interview Magazine: Baron is In, O'Brien is Out
by STEPHANIE D. SMITH
Posted TUESDAY JUNE 09, 2009

One out, one in — Fabien Baron is returning to Interview.

The former co-editorial director is being brought back to the magazine as sole editorial director just five months after being fired by Brant Publications.

But this time he will not share the title — Baron returns as Brant's other co-editorial director, Glenn O'Brien, was pushed out of the company on Monday, following rumors of his departure last week first reported by WWD.

The flip-flop of roles follows many months of turmoil at Brant Publications, which has seen a number of high-level executive changes this year.

wwwd.com

 

[Pedro]

The Interview Departures Continue
Today's news: art director resigns, creative directors M.I.A.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009

(NEW YORK) Glenn O'Brien isn't the only one fleeing Interview. Art director Stella Bugbee resigned this afternoon, The Daily has learned. And more high-profile departures are expected to follow, including Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak of M/M (Paris), who were hired in January to replace Fabien Baron. Currently, the Paris-based co-creative directors do not appear to be working on the August issue. As The Daily reported yesterday, other contributing staffers who have not been paid in several months are also withholding work. The lack of creatives at the helm of Interview makes it even more possible that Fabien Baron could return--although why would he need to? Brant Publications president Ryan Brant, Amzalag and Augustyniak were not available for comment.
ASHLEY BAKER

fashionweekdaily.com

 

[nyc_art_style]

The situation at Interview is beyond sad at this point, and is simply comical and confusing.

 

[mikel]

Beyond embarrasing really and such a shame because Interview can be a really nice magazine. At least it will create some interesting issues of this mag, and hopefully those issues will eventually be collector items in a few decades.

 

[MissMagAddict]

More about Interview from wwd.com

FABIEN’S RETURN: Fabien Baron is back at Interview. After parting ways with the magazine in January, Baron was brought back to the title on Tuesday by Brant Publications owner Peter Brant — but this time as sole editorial director. “At Interview, we wanted an editorial director who not only understands and appreciates the magazine’s history, but who also has the vision to carry the magazine into a new era. Fabien will keep Interview at the forefront of culture and make it relevant for a whole new generation of readers,” Brant stated.

Baron’s arrival comes after Glenn O’Brien was pushed out Monday in a continuation of a year’s worth of turmoil at the magazine. O’Brien joined Brant Publications with Baron last spring, when both were tapped as co-editorial directors, then took sole control after Baron left six months ago. O’Brien could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

“I feel very fortunate to return to my former role and am pleased to have the opportunity to guide this legendary title through the current paradigm shift in the industry. I will put my heart in giving Interview the best of my work in a positive and creative environment,” said Baron.

When he resigned in January, insiders grumbled over his expensive photo shoots for the magazine and his lack of day-to-day involvement. But sources said Peter Brant’s son, Ryan Brant, courted Baron to make a comeback. The younger Brant, who founded gaming company Take Two Interactive, has taken a larger role at Brant Publications ever since his father became embroiled in a high-profile divorce battle with his wife, Stephanie Seymour Brant.

In addition to being the top dog, there is another change in Baron’s role in his second outing: he now will concentrate solely on Interview, versus last time when he and O’Brien also oversaw Brant’s art titles Art in America and The Magazine Antiques.

Baron’s return isn’t the last of changes to come. Sources close to the magazine said former creative director Karl Templer, who resigned along with Baron in January, could be returning to the magazine. Meanwhile, art director Stella Bugbee, who joined less than two months ago, has said to have quit her job.

 

[MissMagAddict]

source | wwd.com

MUCH ADO: Angelina Jolie takes yet another cover turn on a glossy magazine on the July newsstand-only issue of Harper’s Bazaar. But eagled-eye fashionistas recognized her over-the-shoulder pose and red-carpet lighting immediately. Sure enough, the photo is a Getty Images one taken in December at the Los Angeles premiere of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” There is no interview with Jolie inside; rather, the feature is an essay by Naomi Wolf on the actress’ appeal.

The use of a wire photo as a cover image set off a firestorm of complaints in the blogosphere, with theories ranging from cost cutting to a cover subject dropping out at the last minute. The subscriber cover features model Doutzen Kroes, shot by Terry Richardson.

So why not just put her on both issues? A spokeswoman for the magazine said, “Clearly, we are in an Angelina moment right now, and in a recent online poll, our readers reinforced that, overwhelmingly choosing Angelina as the woman they admired most for having it all. We responded immediately, asking Naomi Wolf to analyze the Angelina phenomenon and rushing to get her photo on the newsstand cover. We’ve done different covers for subscriber copies since 2001.”

But observers were still puzzled. “It’s a sad state when a legitimate [fashion] magazine goes to the lengths of doing a write around. That’s saved for tabloids,” said one Hollywood publicist. Some bloggers believed using Jolie may have been a ploy to boost newsstand sales.

According to figures from Audit Bureau of Circulations’ Rapid Report, newsstand numbers for Bazaar have fallen 15 percent so far this year through April, to an average of about 155,000 copies. Comparatively, Vogue’s newsstand sales are up 4 percent so far this year, averaging around 400,000 copies through April, a bounce buoyed in part by landing First Lady Michelle Obama for its March cover. Elle’s newsstand sales through April are off 16 percent; W’s single copy sales are off 9 percent, and, through March, InStyle’s single copy sales have dropped 20 percent compared to the same period last year.

 

[McQueezy]

The Interview situation is ridiculous. Not paying your employees is completely unacceptable.
It's a shame since it's such a fantastic magazine.

 

[Manuva]

I hope Karl Templer comes back to Interview too. It's very strange for Baron to leave for a couple of months and then decide to come back.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Man this is a damn mess!!

But i love Interview and i hope having Baron back will be good, no more Efron/Watson tween covers, please!Its quite unbelievable he came back.

 

[nyc_art_style]

EXCLUSIVE: Glenn Speaks!

O'Brien sounds off on Baron, the Brants and the "Greek tragedy" at Interview
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
(NEW YORK) "It seems unbelievable," Glenn O'Brien told The Daily this afternoon as news of more Interview departures accompanied the return of Fabien Baron, who was ousted as co-editorial director in January only to be rehired upon O'Brien's defection on Monday. "It's like a Greek tragedy. Like watching a company going insane, instead of a person." O'Brien was referencing, of course, the now-colossal puzzle known as Brant Publications, where he served as CEO from January 2008 to May 8, 2009, while relaunching the magazines Interview, Art in America and The Magazine Antiques.
As the top man at Interview, O'Brien struggled to keep the iconic title afloat for the past six months as Brant Publications suffered serious cash flow issues, which have been exacerbated by the dismissal of publisher Alan Katz and the ascent of Peter Brant's fiscally-dubious son Ryan Brant as president of the company. The return of Baron is particularly surprising given the budget overruns that contributed to his initial departure. "We were flying hairdressers, makeup artists and assistants around the world in business class," O'Brien said. "In the issues I did with [creative directors] M/M (Paris), our photo budget was probably 20 percent or less of what Fabien was spending, and I think it looks just as good if not better."
As for the possible motivations behind his return? "I think one motivation is revenge," O'Brien surmised. According to O'Brien, for Baron, whose bread and butter comes from Baron & Baron, his fashion-centric creative shop, Brant Publications could only present a relatively forgettable check in its present state. As for the former partners' current rapport? "I saw him at the shows," said O'Brien. "And basically, he doesn't speak to me."

(Baron, who is in Paris, was unavailable to comment at press time, but released the following statement this morning: "I feel very fortunate to return to my former role and am thrilled to have the opportunity to guide this legendary title through the current paradigm shift in the industry. I will put my heart in giving Interview the best of my work in a positive and creative environment.")
While Brant Publications has managed to make payroll, freelancers haven't been quite so fortunate. Those allegedly owed include fashion director Joe McKenna, who cancelled a recent shoot on the grounds of nonpayment, as well as many A-list retouchers and photographers, including Inez & Vinoodh, who have not been paid for their August cover story. The Daily has learned that Brant Publications owes Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak of M/M (Paris) approximately three months pay, plus expenses, which has led them to quit working.
"Months ago, I wanted to bring in a professional publisher, which might have averted this cash flow situation," O'Brien explained. "Basically, it's been rudderless [ever since Katz's departure] on the publishing side." While newsstands are currently selling the June/July issue, subscribers have allegedly complained that their copies have not yet arrived.
"It was such an investment of time and energy, and I was promised equity with which they dragged my contract out," said O'Brien. "I'm screwed. I told Ryan Brant that if Peter's situation is that bad, how about selling [the magazine]? I was prepared to go out and look for a team of buyers. That's how I got involved in [the relaunch of Interview], and then Peter became interested in working with us in the process. I would've liked to get together a group to buy from Peter, but I never got an answer."
O'Brien was notoriously hands-on with the editorial content, writing many of the features himself and working closely with editor in chief Christopher Bollen, with whom O'Brien has not spoken in recent days. "If I had found a buyer myself and continued working?" O'Brien surmised. "I'd continue with M/M. It was a great pleasure to work with them. They're people who understand culture in the broadest sense, and I think that was the strength of the magazine. I was really looking forward to working with Joe McKenna and Inez & Vinoodh, but we had about a minute, and that was about it."
What will O'Brien do now? "I've maintained my advertising career throughout this adventure," he said. "I'm still doing a lot of advertising and branding work." (O'Brien is represented by Art + Commerce, the same agency that represents M/M (Paris) as well as Annie Leibovitz and Patrick Demarchelier.) He will continue to serve as GQ's Style Guy and pen his weekly column for Italian Vanity Fair, where Ingrid Sischy and Sandra Brant top the masthead as international editors. "I got the editing bug again," he said. "I'd like to do something. But does the world really need another fashion magazine?"
Given O'Brien's personal relationship with the late Andy Warhol--he edited Interview for the first time under Warhol's watch from 1970-73--the recent turn of events is especially distressing. "I had a photograph of Andy Warhol in my office," O'Brien recalled. "And when I left on Monday, I said, 'I'm taking Andy with me.'"
ASHLEY BAKER

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