The Business of Magazines

[MissMagAddict]

source | wwd.com

A LITTLE BIT SEXIER: The January issue of Town & Country ushers in a new look that begins on the cover, with interior designer Kelly Wearstler striking a sexy pose in a full-length shot with her long legs crossed. “There is more of an exuberance and robustness that you will see going forward,” said editor in chief Pamela Fiori. “We are still going after the woman in her 40s, but she acts younger and dresses in a youthful way.” Inside the magazine, Fiori plans on running more provocative travel pieces (the January issue has a story on Marrakech) and first-person accounts of navigating difficult times in personal and professional relationships. Fiori planned on making the changes earlier this year, but decided the timing wasn’t right given the recession and other factors. But whether it’s because of the disappearance of the conspicuous consumption Town & Country previously celebrated, or the implosion of magazine advertising, the title is now ready to evolve. “The magazine is evolving from old money and moving toward new money,” said Fiori. “These women are totally unafraid of change and what’s coming next. And she’s not just a White Anglo Saxon Protestant.”

Still, don’t expect to see Wal-Mart and Target in the magazine’s pages — it will remain focused on luxury, no matter what happens with the economy. “Our readers don’t want high-low,” she said. “They don’t want a knockoff; they will hold off and buy when they feel comfortable.” On the publishing end, vice president and publisher Jim Taylor said his job as a luxury marketer is to provide “permission” for shoppers to visit a store again and again. “If you specially invite these consumers to a retail haven, they’re much more comfortable spending the money they used to spend on their own,” said Taylor. “We are inviting our readers to special events, giving them exclusive access to such things as designers, fine wines, personal shoppers and private appointments and jewelry.”

According to Media Industry Newsletter, Town & Country, like many luxury titles, is down significantly for the year. Ad pages declined 45 percent, year-to-date, to 894.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Woah, Kelly gets around, i feel like i read several times about her in the past month.

 

[mikel]

“Our readers don’t want high-low,” she said. “They don’t want a knockoff;

If that is the case, then why does this cover looks so cheap and amateur?

 

[MissMagAddict]

source | wwd.com

REDESIGN: T Magazine launches a newly redesigned Web site today, with more sections and an updated layout that is more accessible for advertisers. Editors want the new site to look more like a daily magazine, with news from contributors as well as updates from The Moment blog and Twitter feed. Each area of coverage — women’s fashion, men’s fashion, travel, design and holiday issues — will have its own subsection on the site, and a new culture section will be introduced with online-only content. The updated site was designed by The New York Times, in part, to make it more friendly to search engines. Launch sponsors include Bloomingdale’s, American Express, Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, Westin Hotels & Resorts and Issey Miyake Parfums. Seth Rogin, vice president of advertising, said the new layout will allow advertisers to run large, half-page vertical ads that typically only have been possible on nytimes.com. In a few weeks, advertisers also will be able to customize their ad units to certain sections, such as food or culture.

 

[nyc_art_style]

An editor at Gourmet created a blog to showcase some images from his last few days there.

here is the link. http://www.lastdaysofgourmet.com/

 

[benjikan]

The Asian Model Phenomena

The Asian Model Phenomena

Those of you interested in the Fashion Industry may find this article a real eye opener. The whole industry has been turned upside down and what was considered the standard, has been adjusted in to a totally new paradigm.

http://www.benjaminkanarekblog.com/2009/12/06/asian-super-model-rising/

 

[tigerrouge]

I do like the way we've recently seen Asian faces on the cover of an occasional Euro Vogue, I can only hope this is a trend which continues in 2010.

 

[tigerrouge]

Magazine genius rants at today's poor design - or generally rants for the hell of it, it's quite a four-star performance (blackbookmag.com

Legendary Magazine Designer George Lois’s Last Round

By John Capone, December 07, 2009

George Lois talks with the cadence and manner of a guy who's spent years around boxing gyms and maybe the track. Though, most of his fights have been in editorial bullpens and most of his bets have been on creative long shots. And they've paid off. He's a recognized legend in the design and ad worlds, and 38 of his iconic Esquire covers reside in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

He has, of course, little love for the standard magazine design by committee, which he calls a "group-****ing-grope" in his typical fashion, and his speech comes out in sputters and stops when he's worked up, which is often. We had the chance to witness this firsthand, on this, the occasion of the umpteenth homage to his Muhammad Ali as Saint Sebastian cover (above; this time it was Ricky Gervais as Ali as Saint Sebastian on the cover of British Esquire) and at the end of a year where magazines appear to be on the ropes. It makes sense that some of his most well-known images are of boxers, because for all the accolades and decades of success, George Lois sounds every bit the old ringside corner man, vigorously pep talking his over-the-hill fighter (in this case, print) into pulling off one last astounding late-round K.O, as told to John Capone.

“Magazine design is almost an oxymoron with most magazines today. It goes for even a great magazine like Vanity Fair. If you get even one inch of white space to breath you’re lucky. Everybody’s just packing in the information. Most magazines you pick up — you choke to death. They say, ‘People buy magazines to read, for information.’ Well, you buy a magazine not only for that but so you can have exciting visual experiences. They try to jam words and pictures on every square-inch of the page like they’re working on a Web site.

“Look at Vogue. Oh my God. Vogue and Harper’s once were very well designed magazines. I mean they were exciting to look at. You could not give a **** about fashion and be excited by the whole look of the magazine. You look at Vogue now: it’s not even designed. What a difference. You pick up a Vogue back in the days of [Condé Nast’s Alexander] Lieberman and those guys, and you look at it now, and it’s a disgrace.

“Very few magazines do you look through — and I’m not talking as a designer, I’m talking as a normal person — do you look through something and you open a spread and it takes your breath away a little bit. Vogue will do their normal full page photograph of fashion, but when they get into any kind of a story it’s like jam, jam, jam, jam. I’m just kind of suffocated when I look through them.

“Even a great magazine like Esquire — excuse me, not Esquire, they suck today — a magazine like Vanity Fair, which every month I have to read, but I don’t read it for a visual experience. That visceral feeling — most people don’t even attempt to try.

“I was at Grayden Carter’s office once, looking at his stuff on the wall, the designers had some spreads up there and they’re pretty nice looking, and I’m kibitzing, saying things like, ‘Gee, maybe you do that or do that,’ and they’re all excited saying, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow. That’s terrific.’ Then Grayden comes along, and we’re looking at the stuff on the wall and he starts telling them, ‘Put stuff in it. C’mon, what’re you doing?’
“It’s almost a non-visual attitude. It is kind of is a reproduction of Internet pages. Every corner is filled with something.

“Forget the white space. I could easily tell people today, ‘You know what you gotta do with this magazine? Get some ****ing white space into it.’ But that white space doesn’t make something an exciting picture. But to be able to design a spread and do it your way, and make it dramatic and effective. It could be jammed with photography or with the image, but it acts as a surprise. A punch in the mouth. But I just don’t see that happening.

“At the same the same time, you can look through the SPD [The Society of Publications Designers] book and it’s pretty good. So maybe something good is going on, maybe there are some people who know how to do it. I can’t believe there aren’t some young George Loises out there somewhere. Go get ‘em. And give them the freedom.

“But you got editors and publishers that are just saying ‘Fill the ****ing page up with stuff.’ It’s as simple as that. I mean, I heard Graydon Carter saying, ‘People are paying five bucks; get some stuff in there.’

“I saw this happening as an effect of the Internet, by the fact that you’ve got information all over the place. And people think you’ve got to have as much information in the magazine as when you go to the Internet. It can’t happen. That’s not the name of the game anyway.

“It seems likes it’s a panic, but that’s been going on for a long time. Even when the economy was good. The excitement you get from a knock-out looking spread that isn’t jammed with information — you almost think it’s gone. It’s almost like people who do good work are quote-unquote ‘getting away with it.’ You know? ‘I ****ed that editor. I ****ed that publisher. I got a good spread in there.’ I’m serious.

“When you turn the pages there’s gotta be some air, so you can breathe, so you can relax from the tension of just reading, reading, reading. But that’s not the whole thing. White space without a concept is empty. I’m not talking about empty, I’m talking about a designer having the liberty to design the way something should look.

“The design was the idea. I don’t design, if you know what I mean. If you want Andy Warhol being devoured by his own fame in a can of Cambell’s soup, you just put the can there and you have him drowning in it. Case closed. You’re knocked down by the idea, and the fact that it’s got complete clarity visually. Don’t complicate it with busy work.

“That’s the way I do everything. If I was a doing a magazine, it’s not a question of if I’d be having more white space. It’s a question of every third or fourth spread I’d make a spread that would take your breath away — or piss you off. Or something.

“I know, you’re pressured by your editor. If not the editor, the publisher: ‘Look at all this wasted space here.’ Blah, blah, blah. ‘Your readers want information.’ Well, oh ****. Go **** yourself.

“[Esquire] thought they made their statement where there should be copy and type all over the cover where you can’t read a goddamn word. I don’t get it. What are you trying to say to me? What’s the point? Is that an idea?

“Why do you put all those cover lines on? They say, ‘Well, if I don’t get somebody interested in this one, I’ll get somebody interested in that one.’

“The covers [of The New Yorker] are the only thing that looks different on the newsstand. David Remnick, three or four years ago asked me, ‘Gee, do you think I should be using photography on the covers now?’ I said, ‘What, are you out of your ****ing mind?’

“Meanwhile you go to a newstand, there’s about 200 magazines that all look the same. They got pictures of somebody — some ******* — I’ll never understand how editors and publishers think — showing just a famous person with blurbs all over their face. I’ll never understand why they think that would be something people would want to buy. I don’t get it.

“When I did the Esquire covers the reason you picked up the magazine — you looked at it and said, ‘Holy ****. I’ve got to get inside this magazine.’ All I was trying to do was say to the world, ‘Hey this magazine is hot stuff.’ And to prove it, look at this statement about what the issue was about. All I was doing was package design for the magazine.

“Harold Hayes [Esquire editor in the early 1960s] was an editor who understood what I was trying to do was make sure people were aware his magazine was hot ****. People’d say to him, ‘Harold if we run this cover there’s going to be big trouble.’

‘Yeah,’ he’d say. ‘Yeaaahh.’ **** the ad guys. And **** the publisher. And **** everybody around him. ‘Yeaaah. Let’s just do something we all love.’

“When I started with the Esquire covers I didn’t think it through. Harold told me what was in the issue. And I’d think this would make a great cover, or that would make a great cover. And it wasn’t even the most important story in the magazine. And I’d do it, and Harold would say, ‘Wow.’

“When I did that first cover, where I showed [boxer Floyd] Patterson who was a big favorite over [Sonny] Liston, I showed Patterson alone dead in the ring. The championship fight was two weeks from then.

‘Two weeks from now, Patterson is a dead man — a loser.’ I said. Harold says, ‘George, I never saw a cover like this in my life.’

“‘No ****.’

“He said, ‘You’re calling the fight.’ I said, ‘No ****.’

“‘Suppose you’re wrong?’

“‘Well, you got a 50-50 chance of you looking like a genius.’

“He said, ‘You’re crazy.’ And I said, ‘I’m not crazy. You’re crazy, because you’re gonna run it.’

“Even if I was wrong, which I knew I wasn’t, that cover, it’s the absolute epitome of a visual about boxing, and a metaphor for being a loser in life. If you’re a loser, no matter what you’re in, people treat you like you’re dead. So, it was a philosophical statement beyond the whole sports thing. But the point is, there was an editor who said, ‘Holy ****, this ****ing crazy Lois might be right.’

“Arnold Gingrich, the publisher, said, ‘You can’t run that cover. You’re not gonna run that cover. No way.’ Harold said, ‘Then I’m quitting.’ And he had just a couple of months before become official editor. They had just fired Clay Felker; Felker and Harold had been the two guys left vying for that job. Harold showed the cover to Felker, because he was still in the office at that time, and said, ‘You like the cover?’ And Felker said, ‘No, but I hope you run it. I hope you do.’

“‘What do you mean?’ Harold said.

“‘Well, if you run it, you’re gonna get fired and I’ll have your job.’

“And he ran it. And it changed the magazine forever.

“The idea cover works. But even Annie Liebovitz says, ‘You know, I used to try and do idea covers. I did a couple for Rolling Stone. But ideas are a problem on a cover.’

“Excuse me?

“She said, ‘Jann Wenner didn’t like them. Vanity Fair didn’t like them. They think they’re a problem. So I do what I’m told.’ She didn’t agree with them. You know, Annie Leibovitz — this great photographer — they tell her they don’t like ideas. It’s mind boggling.

“You don’t like ideas? Why would you be creating a magazine if you don’t like ideas? Why do you exist if you don’t like ideas?

“It’s a joke. A couple of years all the editors and publishers [at ASME] invited me to come down and kick their ***es about covers. I go down. Standing ovation. ‘Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!’ Nothing changed. It’s all bull****.”

 

[MissMagAddict]

Lois, Lieberman, Felker... these guys were revolutionaries. Too bad most people couldn't care less about them anymore.

Thanks for posting tigerrouge.

 

[hfgl]

^Wow,i agree with everything Lois said.What an a article,thank you for posting.I feel all inspired,i have goosebumps
I was wondering if he was gonna say something about Tilberis' Harper's Bazaar because that's the magazine i saw in my head when he was talking about layouts that take your breath away.

 

[Pedro]

Source: time.com

The Top 10 Magazine Covers of 2009
By ARTHUR HOCHSTEIN
Tuesday, Dec. 08, 2009

1. New York, Feb. 22

2009 was the Year of the Homage, at least as far as magazine covers are concerned. Several of our top 10 covers referenced either recognizable cultural icons, past photographic icons or their own past covers. The hands-down winner this year was New York's "Bernie Madoff, Monster," which wickedly played off Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight. The cover, by illustrator Darrow, captured the banality of Bernie's evil by overlaying the Joker's pasty (not patsy) makeup on the smug face of Madoff. He looks like a clown, but unfortunately, he was all too serious; the joke was on us. The Joker-on-the-face soon lapsed into cliché — used and abused by everyone who wanted to vilify someone, as in the tea partiers' posters defacing Barack Obama — but New York exploited the idea first, and best. It was timely and emotionally resonant, making it the cover of the year.​

2. The New Yorker, June 1

No homage here — this cover is a true original. New Yorker covers are often topical, and they are known for their wit and keen cultural timing. But several times a year, they just run covers that capture the New York–ness of America's greatest city. This cover found a groundbreaking way to do that, featuring a piece by illustrator-designer Jorge Colombo that was created on an iPhone applicaton called Brushes. If it had been done just for novelty's sake, it would be noteworthy but not significant. But this illustration meets the impeccable standards of New Yorker covers — an accomplishment in any medium.​

3. Texas Monthly, March

What could more quintessentially signal a special feature on Texas style than a classic cowboy hat, in this case a 20X Resitol felt? (Take that, Stetson.) The beauty of this cover is its understated simplicity, rendering the white hat in subtle shades of gray to set it off against a paper-white background. Nothin' fancy here, including the typography — all the cover lines and the logo are either black or gray, preserving the palette of the photo. Sometimes the best covers look the simplest; this one conveys a confidence and ease that allows the cover to resonate by way of its familiarity with the magazine's readers. It's totally traditional, yet sleek and modern — probably the way Texas Monthly readers see themselves.​

4. W, October

This is one of those love-it-or-hate-it covers. I love it. Its intentionally unintentional nature violates most of the conventions of fashion magazines, whose pictures are lit, controlled and crafted to sell models, images and clothing. This cover shot by Pierpalo Ferrari features '90s supermodel Linda Evangelista, photographed outdoors holding a cardboard sign that reads, "It Must Be Somebody's Fault." What is "It"? The recession, or the financial woes that have hit the poor fashion and art worlds? This picture is full of contradictions. What's a famous model, beautifully dressed, doing holding a cardboard sign? What aggrieved parties is she speaking for? Is this trenchant social commentary or the petulant complaint of the privileged class? Take your pick. It's the magazine's art issue, and art shouldn't provide an easy answer. But at least it makes you think.​

5. Tar, Spring-Summer

I don't know much about the magazine, but this cover makes me want to go inside and learn more. Tar is a downtown New York City publication that appears to live at the intersection (or is that cross section?) of arts, culture and fashion. The striking image, created for its second issue by artist Damien Hirst, peels back the skin of über-model Kate Moss to expose the musculature and bone structure of her face. (The original photo was shot for the cover of W in 2005 — it's recycled!) I love this cover because it breaks the rules, reversing the usual order of things to overlay ugly inner reality on the fantasy of outer beauty. What's it trying to tell us? That beauty's only skin deep, that fashion creates unrealistic expectations, or that we're the chumps for buying into it? Who knows, but apparently the magazine's first issue sold 54% of its newsstand copies, which is almost double the industry average. If a magazine has a sense of its audience, it can dare to be different and get away with it — especially in this age, when print media often work best by targeting high-end niche audiences.​

6. The New Yorker, Nov. 2

This cover, by the great cartoonist Chris Ware, captures the autumnal magic of Halloween while making wry cultural commentary. It uses light, and the lack thereof, to paint a loving but poignant picture of modern-day parenting. While the kids are on the porch, with their masked faces turned expectantly upward, their too-busy parents dutifully wait, faces turned down toward their BlackBerries and iPhones. They're so immersed in their own worlds of e-mails and schedules that they miss the memories in the making right in front off them. The metaphor is enhanced by the simple graphic style of the artwork; it evokes the golden age of magazines, when titles such as Fortune, Vanity Fair and TIME used illustration — not photography — to create memorable covers. The New Yorker is the last major holdout, and for the mag it's the ultimate form of branding.​

7. The Advocate, June 7

This clever and hilarious cover either consciously or unconsciously pays homage to the famous painting The Scream by Edvard Munch. The article it sells is about how the recession has affected the p*rn industry — hard times indeed! The photo suggests, among other things, that if it gets bad enough, movie producers may have to substitute blow-up dolls for flesh-and-blood actors. The movies may be rated X, but this cover gets an A. It pushes the boundaries of taste, but not for its target audience.​

8. New York, Oct. 4

Mmm ... pigs in a blanket — one of my favorites! How do you tackle a serious subject without alienating or scaring off your readers? Humor is often the best portal to discuss something serious — or, in this case, a perhaps overhyped epidemic. The photo by Horacio Salinas uses a pig that is obviously taking a sick day to sell a cover story on swine flu. (TIME couldn't do this cover because we use this flu's scientific name, H1N1 virus — try making a visual pun on that!) This cover is a triumph of styling and careful planning — the black background pops the type and logo, and the baby-blue blanket plays perfectly against the pink piggy skin. Apparently that is a live pig — how on earth did they get it to pose like that? I gotta tell you, it doesn't look kosher to me.​

9. Interview, November

This is a hauntingly beautiful rendition of a visual pun — allusion meets illusion. The model for Interview's 40th anniversary issue is actress Kristen Stewart, who currently stars in the monster hit Twilight series. Using her as the model is a masterstroke of celebrity-cover timing, perfectly executed. The image is two photos — if you pull back, you can see her holding over her own face a same-scale, torn black-and-white photo of her, whose only color is in her blood-red lips. The ghoulish makeup is perfectly in keeping with current fashion photography, and it serves the dual purpose of enhancing the metaphor while making her look drop-dead beautiful. A final touch: the allusion gets heightened by more blood, this time on the fanglike letter I in the logo. That's why the lady is a vamp!​

10. Vogue Australia, September

The September issue — only not the one created by Anna Wintour. This 50th anniversary issue of Vogue Australia uses multiple covers featuring actress Cate Blanchett, depicted in absolutely fabulous vintage fashion illustrations by British illustrator David Downton. The cover is a marvel in many ways. First, Blanchett's face is rendered with merely a few brushstrokes, just enough to let the reader know it's her. More important is the use of that '50s-style illustration, which creates a perfect merger of glamor, celebrity and style announcing an issue that covers the magazine's long history. Some fashion mags do the most creative covers in the industry, while others use imagery that seems like nothing more than a place mat for blurbs and cover billings. Would that there were more like this one; it just has that certain ... je ne sais quoi.​

original article

 

[iluvjeisa]

I am very fond of their fashion mag choices.

 

[tigerrouge]

On that New York cover, Bernie Madoff looks more like Graydon Carter than the Joker - maybe that's the real reason why he keeps getting featured in Vanity Fair articles.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^^ God bless you C, you always manage to make me laugh, haha so true!!

The W cover was simply epic, i think i will love that cover even 10 years from now, it will still be brilliant.

 

[mikel]

Thanks for posting the article Pedro. It's always nice to see these 'end of year' lists.

 

[donner]

"Gourmet" pictures very poignant and sad.

 

[Flashbang]

Devastating news for the design world: After 55 years in publication, I.D. Magazine, America's foremost design publication, has folded.

I.D. was the oldest design magazine in the country, and was the one-time employer of many noteworthy figures, including Bruce Mau. Its yearly design competition, the Annual Design Review, was the oldest and biggest design competition in America, and had been operating ever since I.D.'s inception. The competition was also the magazine's cash cow; F&W, I.D.'s publisher, plans on continuing the event and publishing the results online.

In the course of its publication, the magazine won five National Magazine Awards: For General Excellence in 1995, 1997, and 1999; for Special Interests in 2000; and Design in 1997. That amounted to an astounding haul for a magazine with only 30,000 readers per issue. Nonetheless, according to F&W sales managers, I.D. had not turned a profit in seven years and was beset by competition from shelter magazines and mainstream glossies, which have been aggressively adding design coverage, owing to rising interest in design among mainstream audiences.

Meanwhile, I.D.'s sister magazine, Print--a storied design magazine in its own right--will stay open. The news came one day after the company's employee appreciation day.

UPDATE: Here's the release from I.D.:

Statement for External Release December 15, 2009​

To Readers, Advertisers and Friends of I.D. Magazine:​

Since 1954, I.D. Magazine has served as one of America's leading critical magazines covering the art, business, and culture of design. Today it is with regret that we announce its closure. The January/February issue of I.D. will be its last; subscribers to I.D. will receive Print magazine for the balance of their subscription.​

Ceasing publication of an iconic brand like I.D. is never an easy decision, but there are several forces that have worked against its sustainability. Certainly the downturn in print advertising has contributed to this decision, but other factors include the fragmentation and specialized information needs of I.D.'s core readers (product designers) and the plethora of information resources available to them – some for free (online and B2B) and others that are highly specialized and targeted to specific industries served.​

F+W Media will continue producing the I.D. Annual Design Review, its flagship international product design competition, in an expanded fashion online. This new web initiative will feature not only 2010's winners but will catalog thousands of notable entries from past competitions. Going forward, in addition to the I.D. Annual Design Review, F+W Media’s Design Group is comprised of the award-winning HOW and Print brands – magazines, books, events, and competitions serving the information needs of graphic designers in all media.​

We thank the entire I.D. community, past and present – staffers, contributors, readers, and advertisers – for their support of the magazine throughout its 55-year history.​

Sincerely,​

Gary Lynch Publisher & Editorial Director F+W Media Design Community​

fastcompany.com

 

[mishahoi]

oh my god, i read that and thought it was iD. Heart attack!

 

[nyc_art_style]

http://twitter.com/MilkStudiosNYLA

MilkStudiosNYLA
Congrats to @dizzyblazeberg, the new editor-at-large of Conde Nast's Style.com!! Cheers to that! about 14 hours ago from Twitterrific Retweeted by you

tweeted by MilkStudios

I already posted this in Blasberg's thread, but I figured I would post it here too. I find it quite interesting that Derek Blasberg was chosen. Especially after his scandalous departure at US Vogue.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Uh Huh; Glad TFS is let out of this.

CONDE NAST SPRINGS A LEAK: As if the year-end newsstand competition weren’t enough, Condé Nast Publications said in court documents Thursday that GQ’s December issue had to contend with a hacker who leaked a large swath of its editorial content before the magazine even hit shelves. In a copyright lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the publisher said an unauthorized Web user, which it knows only by his or her Internet protocol address, had accessed the company’s networks in September and copied more than 1,100 files. In November, the anonymous author of the blog FashionZag posted some of the lifted content, including GQ’s five alternate December covers, using a third-party photo-hosting site. Condé Nast’s legal team sent a takedown request to the photo host, which complied. Two days later, however, the publisher said the blog used a different photo service to repost the images along with much of the issue’s “still as yet unpublished editorial ‘well.’”

Lawyers wrote that the subsequent posting was “willfully done by defendants to thumb their noses at Condé Nast…” The company said the second post enabled numerous third parties such as Twitter users and other bloggers to spread the content across the Internet.

According to the suit, the original hacker also copied pages from the December issues of Vogue, Teen Vogue and Lucky. The company said it believes it will be able to discover his or her identity through the course of the suit. It is seeking an injunction, attorney’s fees and unspecified damages from up to five anonymous defendants. A visit to FashionZag Friday revealed the five GQ cover shots were still up, as was a Leighton Meester spread from the issue and Lady Gaga’s December Vogue shoot, though some of the other editorial material described in the suit was gone.

— Matthew Lynch

wwd.com