The Business of Magazines

[mikel]

^thanks so much. It's great to hear his side of the story.

 

[surrealseven]

I know, it's similar to the one already posted but in this article, the spokesperson for Bazaar actually says more about the contrast of the two covers this month.

People at Bazaar is apparently thought we are less fashion-forward than its subscribers

GLENDA'S BAZAAR INNOVATION
Why use pick-up art of Angelina Jolie on a cover? The magazine responds...

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

(NEW YORK) Well, that's that--the fashion for fashion's sake era is ending, buried alongside the advertising revenue model which no longer suffices as magazines struggle to meet the numbers. Suddenly, newsstand sales have taken on a new relevance. The proof? The dueling July covers of Harper's Bazaar, which feature a pick-up shot of Angelina Jolie (for the newsstand) and a splendid Terry Richardson photograph of mega-model Doutzen Kroes (for subscribers). Glenda Bailey's answer to the old fashion guard that constantly laments the tabloid mentality is to give them a bona-fide model on the cover of the magazine for the first time in recent memory.

As for the decision to enlist Getty Images as cover artists? This novel, news-driven approach makes a lot of business sense in a climate that relies increasingly on efficient revenue streams like the newsstand, although it remains to be seen if this particular Jolie cover will sell. The demure photograph fails to serve up a dishy version of Jolie's much-touted sexiness, and the accompanying story by Naomi Wolf (untantalizingly titled "The Power of Angelina") merits a bit more salacious cover play. After all, the story inside tells of average women fantasizing about sleeping with Jolie.

"In a recent Bazaar.com poll," explains a Bazaar spokesperson, "Our readers told us they are completely fascinated by Angelina Jolie. For us, it's about giving readers what they want, when they want it, so we contacted Naomi Wolf to explain the Angelina phenomenon. Her conclusion--that women not only want to be Angelina, but sleep with her, too--got all of us talking, and we decided to publish it immediately as our newsstand cover story for July. Harper's Bazaar innovated the two-cover concept in 2001, so for our subscribers, who desire a more fashion-forward image, we've got the next great supermodel, Doutzen Kroes, shot for us by Terry Richardson. Either way, the reader wins."

ASHLEY BAKER

fashionweekdaily

 

[surrealseven]

...And the Interview Scoops Continue
Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak of M/M (Paris) said to be out along with fashion director Joe McKenna

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

(NEW YORK) With Fabien Baron officially en route back to Interview, expect a string of defections and appointments. A spokesperson for the magazine, which is currently represented by HL Group, has said that official announcements are expected "within a week." In the meantime, creative directors Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak of M/M (Paris) are said to be out alongwith fashion director Joe McKenna, who replaced Karl Templer back in January. Now that Baron is back, Templer is expected to return to the title imminently.

ASHLEY BAKER

fashionweekdaily

 

[surrealseven]

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.

Interview is such a trainwreck now

 

[homeboy]

I'm stunned by the sheer number of international publications that had to fold. Are they even run by people with business background? It's astounding that they have had to fold after a mere 20-40% slump in ad that has merely lasted a year. What on earth have they been doing with all the profit they've earned in previous years.

 

[MissMagAddict]

People at Bazaar is apparently thought we are less fashion-forward than its subscribers

That's not what they said at all. The poll told them that subscribers desired a more fashion forward image... so that's what they gave them & Angelina is going to sell more newsstand copies for US Bazaar than Doutzen ever would.

 

[Northern Star]

Although of course I would vote for models every time......this seems like the best way forward for mags to please everyone concerned.

 

[tigerrouge]

The Guardian reports on Helen Gurley Brown (image source - guardian.co.uk

The practical feminist

12 June 2009

With her 1962 book Sex and the Single Girl, Helen Gurley Brown became a spokeswoman for sexual liberation. But her three decades as editor of Cosmopolitan also made her a hero for working-class women, says Jennifer Scanlon

More than three decades before Sex and the City became a television phenomenon, Helen Gurley Brown wrote Sex and the Single Girl, a guidebook for women who wanted to live large and stay single. The book was a rallying cry for unmarried women, exploding myths of lonely spinsters, and became a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic. It was published in 28 countries and 16 languages and the fame it brought led Brown to the position for which she became legendary: editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. With its provocative covers, featuring lots of hair, bare skin and cleavage, the magazine quickly came to stand for a new kind of female: fearless, independent, and undeniably sexy. It too became an international success - after the British edition was created in 1972 other countries followed and the magazine eventually reached more than 100m readers around the world.

Over the years, Brown has been interviewed by countless journalists but ignored by scholars. Critics point out that she peddled cleavage on every month's cover of Cosmo, suggested that women should work the system rather than overthrow it, and even saw her offices taken over by protesting feminists. Yet to me Brown deserves a place in the pantheon of 20th-century feminist leaders. She was not just an infamous promoter of women's sexual liberation, she was a working-class woman's role model who declared herself, her magazine and her message feminist.

But can a woman who peddled cleavage be a trailblazer? Helen Gurley Brown was an early and influential advocate of open discussions about female sexuality. In the postwar period, western women got lots of advice on how they should live their lives - namely through men and marriage with sex subordinate to both. Single women who could not attract a husband were pitied; single women who had the temerity to choose not to marry were scorned. During those years, Brown, a secretary and then an advertising copywriter, held off on marriage and dated widely, including colleagues and bosses, living, as she would advocate for her readers, in "superlative style". She allowed herself to feel and act on sexual desire, which she considered as natural for women as for men. "You inherited it," she said simply, encouraging other women to allow themselves the same sexual desires - and freedoms - men enjoyed.

When Sex and the Single Girl hit the bookshops in 1962, Brown's philosophy resonated deeply and broadly. The book spent months on the bestseller lists and was published in 28 countries. The Kinsey Reports, the fruits of research into postwar sexual practices, had already demonstrated that Americans practised more sex than they preached. Sex and the Single Girl went further. It offered women inspirational case studies rather than scientific analyses. Women who hoped to find their own proclivities for sex and sensuality affirmed found in the unapologetic Brown the spokeswoman they craved. By focusing on women's calls for steamy sex rather than matching washer-dryers, she developed an enormous following among single and married women alike. In the aftermath of the book's publication she received so much fan mail that her local post office eventually decided they would no longer deliver it. Three years later, Brown took over the ailing Cosmopolitan magazine in part to connect with these devoted fans. Her followers considered her a liberator who freed them from the confines of an outdated but still intact ideology.

Brown also came to understand that her high sales figures meant she could have fairly free reign over her publications, which included numerous books. But had she had her way, lesbian sexuality would have emerged in her writings from the start. Brown fought, first with her publisher and then with the higher-ups at Hearst, to include queer sexualities not as aberrations but as normal elements of grown-up life. In drafts of her most important books, and in the template for Cosmo, she had stories of lesbians inside and outside of the workplace. Brown lost the battle several times but waged it anew from time to time, wanting to celebrate the many ways in which women found expression socially and sexually. Her notions about sex were lesbian-friendly from the start.

Brown's famous Cosmo covers were visual examples of her philosophy, and they resonated with millions of women and across more than three decades, contrary to what some other feminists might have believed or hoped. Brown intuitively understood that not just men but women enjoyed looking at beautiful women, and believed that all women benefited from seeing female sexuality writ large. She understood well that women, as feminists later would claim, "performed" femininity as they put on and took off skirts of varying hemlines, cosmetics and heels. She balked at the idea promoted by other feminists of the day that women had to forgo these practices to become liberated. Yes, women's sexy appearances invited men to look, but Brown would never apologise for that. Sex, and sexiness, formed tools if not weapons in women's arsenal.

Unlike Betty Friedan, the author of The Feminine Mystique, who wanted to liberate middle-class housewives from their boxed-in lives, or Gloria Steinem, whose Ms. magazine targeted college-educated women, Brown deliberately targeted working-class women with her game plan for liberation. A child of the Great Depression, who came of age in a single-parent family, she had the brains but not the opportunity to attend college. Instead, she worked in low-paying white-collar jobs in her earlier years, and felt an affinity for the secretaries, retail clerks and airline attendants who read her books and magazine. Like her, these women often had to find ways to work the system, since they hardly had the privilege to beat it. Even if they wanted to leave off wearing makeup and dresses, which many did not, they would have been hard pressed to find jobs that allowed them to reject the female uniform of the day. These women largely pursued jobs, not careers, and if they worked the system again after hours by relying on men to pay for their nights out - well, they could hardly have had much of a social life on their salaries alone.

It wasn't that Brown did not push for greater changes for women. She actively worked for the equal rights amendment, which would have constitutionally guaranteed women in the US rights equal to those of men, and for reproductive rights, including abortion. She looked for opportunities to promote the practical changes endorsed by more political feminists, but still maintained that her women had to play the system as best they could. Brown advocated work (not men) as women's greatest ally, but she also understood the limitations of the work world just as she understood the limitations of men. She knew that her working-class followers might find only one or two job titles available to them regardless of their skills - and might repeatedly watch less-qualified men be promoted over them. They should, as a result, always allow men to pay for nights out, for babysitters if they were single parents, and for alcohol if they happened to invite a man in to their apartment. When others repeatedly faulted her for this philosophy of manipulating rather than refashioning the economics of sex and gender relations, Brown's response was simple and direct: "I deal in reality."

In 1970, feminists targeted Cosmopolitan, among other women's magazines, as being hopelessly stuck in an anachronistic past. They took over the offices of the staid US woman's magazine the Ladies' Home Journal, and once inside feminists were able to push the magazine to offer greater coverage of women's paid work and interests outside the home. But when they tried to take over the offices of Cosmopolitan and demand feminist content, they encountered not an uncertain male editor but a woman who let them know that she saw her magazine as already feminist. Her readers, she knew, wanted to read about men and sex as well as money and work, and she saw it as her responsibility as a feminist to give them more rather than fewer choices about how they lived their lives.

In the end, many women who remained only partly aware of, or unmoved by other feminist leaders, found an affirming vision and voice in Brown. Countless women were touched by this pioneer who promoted women's empowerment - and feminism - in her own upbeat, practical and fearless way.

• Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown by Jennifer Scanlon is published by Oxford University Press on 25 June.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/12/helen-gurley-brown-editor-cosmopolitan-feminism

 

[Wickedandbad]

Apparently Anthony Noguera and David Davies (both ex FHM editors) are independently working on the idea of a relaunch of The Face - with the same agency.

Speaking of magazine rumours - does anyone know why Pop magazine's website has been shut for days? Anything on the horizon for them?

from Holy Moly...I'm not afraid to admit I read it

 

[Pedro]

Speaking of magazine rumours - does anyone know why Pop magazine's website has been shut for days? Anything on the horizon for them?

THEPOP's service provider has been hacked into, affecting not only us but 100 000 others!
5:47 PM Jun 8th from web

http://twitter.com/thepop

 

[BerlinRocks]

not sure it's the right place ....

The 10 Influential Creators for Magazine Design

Written by Yasushi Fujimoto
Pub Date: April 2009
Format: Trade Paperback
Category: Art - Graphic Arts
US Price: $39.95
CAN Price: $45.00
ISBN: 978-4-89444-640-3 (4-89444-640-5)
Publisher: PIE Books
Trim Size: 8-1/4 x 11-3/4
About this Book

What is magazine design? What are magazine designers and art directors thinking, and in which directions are they heading? Armed with those simple questions, the author visited ten prominent magazine art directors who have been influential in the world of magazine design: Christophe Brunnquell (Purple), Work In Progress (Self Service), Yorgo Tloupas (Crash and Intersection), Jop Van Bennekom (Re-Magazine and Fantastic Man), M/M (Vogue Paris), David Carson (Ray-Gun), Tadanori Yokoo (Ryuko Tsuushin), Heikichi Harata (Garo And Heaven), Gento Matsumoto (Rits), and B, Kazunari Hattori (Here And There). By presenting each art director’s background, design style, and how they influenced the world of magazine design, Fujimoto tried to find answers to his questions. Along with interviews, the author shows page after page of the magazine designs of each director as well as photographs of their work environments. The art direction of the book is completed by the author himself.

About the Author

Yasushi Fujimoto, an art director and the head of his own design studio "Cap," has worked for many well-known Japanese magazines including Marie Claire Japan, Vogue Nippon and GQ Japan. He has also directed advertising projects for such clients as Louis Vuitton Japan and several apparel brands. In 1996, Fujimoto opened a gallery "Gallery Rocket" for young designers, photographers and illustrators to exhibit their works.

 

[OlgaKorbut]

DANSK goes down?

Dansk Magazine filed for bankruptcy in March.

http://www.statstidende.dk/default.aspx?pg=35.1.-1.-1&index=1&p=3,m&date1=07.03.2009&date2=07.06.2009&SearchType=1&mode=2&

http://mediawatch.dk/artikel/modebosser-ignorerer-magasinkonkurs

Basically, the founders/creative directors claim that they're going to keep publishing the magazine, but it doesn't mention how this will happen, exactly, and the name 'DANSK Magazine' is now property of the bankruptcy estate.

 

[tigerrouge]

The Guardian reports on a new website which "promises to deliver fashion news faster than traditional magazines":

Pop Idol king is bringing haute couture to the masses

14 June 2009

Simon Fuller, the multi-millionaire behind some of the biggest coups in pop culture, from launching the Spice Girls to developing the Pop Idol franchise, has put the first taste of his latest venture online this week: a new fashion website, Fashionair.

The site invites the browser to take a "sneak peek" of video clips featuring enough shiny shoes, designer clutch bags and glamorous models to whet any fashionista's appetite. It is the first hint of what to expect before the hotly anticipated September launch.

Fashionair aims to open the exclusive world of fashion to a mainstream audience through a constantly updated content of specially made short films featuring top stylists, designers and retailers who will share their insights and tips and even show viewers around their homes and wardrobes. The focus is firmly on television rather than written words. Products ranging from high street to luxury ranges will feature, but there is as yet no retail element: visitors are directed to external websites if they want to buy the goods.

Though best known for his success in music and television, Fuller told industry newspaper Women's Wear Daily that he believes fashion is now at the centre of popular culture. "I want to be surrounded by this creative energy, as I am thinking about new forms of entertainment, and looking at how formats and ideas impact into the mass market," he said. He also hopes the site will give brands a new way to advertise.

Fuller has become a force in fashion since setting up the company 19RM in 2006 with British designer Roland Mouret, who is renowned for his red-carpet dresses. Fuller also launched David and Victoria Beckham's fashion label, dVb, that year. The label now has a retail value of more than £121m. In 2008, the Victoria Beckham Dress collection - an upmarket line of frocks priced from £650 - defied industry expectations to become a sell-out success and win critical praise. Fuller also took on global representation for supermodel Claudia Schiffer last year.

Fuller is creating Fashionair with Sojin Lee, who previously worked for such luxury labels as Chanel and Bottega Veneta and was head of buying at fashion "etailer" Net-a-Porter for six years. Lee was introduced to Fuller by Mouret. Fashion websites have become big news in recent years. This week Net-a-Porter posted results that showed pre-tax profits had risen 234% and reported that the site was drawing an average of 6,500 new customers every month. Fashion blogs and news sites have become as big a part of the industry as the monthly glossy magazines.

"The appetite for fashion has grown immeasurably in the past decade," says Dolly Jones, editor of Vogue.com. "High-street stores constantly update their collections with the latest trends and there's a hunger for newness that is driving designers to create multiple collections every season. The unlimited potential and speed of the internet makes it the perfect medium to inform and feed that appetite. And it makes money - advertising online works; it sends users straight to buy exactly what they want."

Sarah Curran, founder of popular fashion retailer My-Wardrobe.com, says that most fashion etailers are focused on developing editorial for customers to complement the shopping experience. "Asos [an online fashion retailer] has an online community; we have streamed TV; Net-a-Porter lets you purchase clothes from the catwalk - that's what's customers like; they're sophisticated and expect so much from shopping sites. Video, which is the focus on Fashionair, is the next big thing. Web 2.0 is about user-generated content and dialogue. Video feels like web 2.5. I think Fashionair is going to set the bar for the industry in coming months."

Fuller's previous successes suggest any of the ventures embarked on by his company, 19 Entertainment, are worthy of attention. As well as signing Madonna's first hit single, Holiday, in 1983 and discovering Amy Winehouse, Fuller had a music and TV hit with S Club 7 in 1999 and went on to global success with Pop Idol. The American Idol element of the franchise is the most valuable TV format in the world, worth more than $2.5bn. This year, he also became global representative for tennis stars Andy and Jamie Murray.

Curran says that Fuller's new interest in fashion makes perfect sense. "There's a real connection between music and fashion, so I'm surprised that there aren't more entrepreneurs who have made that step. Let's face it, it's all about brands - the Beckhams are a brand that crosses over sport, music and fashion. Simon Fuller is a real pioneer and is always looking for his next challenge."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/14/simon-fuller-fashionair-website

 

[Flashbang]

Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar Gisele Bundchen Covers Strike Out at the Newsstand
by John Koblin

Gisele, it turns out, doesn’t sell.

Vanity Fair and Harper’s Bazaar each put Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen on covers this year, and both promptly had their worst-selling issues off the newsstand in 2009.

The May Vanity Fair, which featured a bare-bodied Gisele standing sideways with a come-hither look, sold only 280,000 single sale copies, the lowest total for the magazine in nearly two years, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations Rapid Report. Harper’s Bazaar’s April issue, meanwhile, sold only 132,000 copies, its lowest total of the year and its lowest since November 2008, when Drew Barrymore was on the cover. Harper’s Bazaar has averaged about 155,000 single copy sales this year, and Vanity Fair has averaged 342,000.

"It might be that she's losing her looks," quipped Vanity Fair spokeswoman Beth Kseniak

Considering the number of covers that Gisele Bundchen has graced this year—including the July issue of German Glamour and German Elle—magazine publishers and editors are crossing their fingers that she has more appeal overseas.
Ms. Kseniak also pointed out that when Gisele graced the Vanity Fair cover in September 2007, it was the third-biggest seller that year.

One industry source said that some newsstand sales were affected in earlier this year after Anderson News, a major distributor, suspended its business operations, though publishers feel that all distribution problems have been ironed out.

observer.com

 

[surrealseven]

^ Isn't it unfair to judge since 2009 has barely ended?

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^^Its rather stupid really, i cant believe the Vanity Fair spokeswoman!! What a stupid hypocritical thing to say, when they used her they claimed she is one of the most beautiful women in the world, and went on about her relationship with Brady to sell copies.Now that it didn't work, she didn't preform well because she is losing her looks? Pleasee!

I find this quite sad though, that both of the mags didn't do well, i mean if Gisele cant shift copies like she used to then no model stand's a chance, just one more sad proof why magazines don't use models anymore.

 

[tigerrouge]

And like surreal7 said, the year hasn't even ended yet, there could be worse to come, especially with these summer issues, with poor sales in general due to economic factors, rather than the face on the front of any particular issue.

I wonder how well the UK version did in relation to its own sales figures, given that it also had Gisele on the cover.

And if they're figuring Gisele didn't sell, what's the news about US Vogue's multi-model cover?

 

[surrealseven]

Basically there are a lot of factors justifying the sales of an issue, it's not just about the cover, smart readers browse through magazines for the good content which I think sometimes is more important than an interesting cover. You cant just blame a model for not shifting the copies of a particular issue because she graced the cover. Great example would be a bad cover like this month's Bazaar using Angelina. It may shift copies, not necessarily equate candids are good or something and certainly doesnt mean that magazines should use this type of photo for their covers in the future to move copies.

I can't believe that superficial Vanity Fair spokeswoman said that, it's like almost backstabbing Gisele.

 

[retailqueen]

They want to use this as a poor excuse for not putting models on the covers and delivering poor quality magazines (a la W and HB).

If all magazine stuck to their guns and actually gave a damn about fashion, consumers would not have the choice: take it or buy national enquirer.

 

[tigerrouge]

There's talk about TV presenter Olivia Munn being on the cover of the upcoming Playboy, and I noticed that it's the July/August issue - Playboy are combining those months into one issue, which is a new thing for them.