The Business of Magazines

[iluvjeisa]

^Indeed. High gear drama...

 

[_rumc_]

Vogue publisher Stephen Quinn's strong criticism of Harper's Bazaar over its circulation-boosting tactics has landed him in trouble with the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
ABC has censured Quinn for issuing his "dances with the fishes" press release that criticised rival Harper's (legal) circulation-boosting tactics.
Today, Vogue publisher Condé Nast issued a statement that fell short of an apology, but admitted to "inaccuracies" over its criticism and acknowledged "undermining" the ABC by breaking the embargo on Vogue's circulation results.
Condé Nast said:

"Following a complaint raised by ABC we would like to acknowledge that publicising circulation data in advance of the official ABC release infringed ABC bylaws.
"We also acknowledge that the reference in the briefing to the effect of value packs on Harper's Bazaar's ABC average circulation was inaccurate and significantly overstated.

"We recognise that the ABC Concurrent Release of data serves to promote the entire magazine publishing industry and that promoting circulation data in advance of the official release undermines the purpose of the industry's data being released in one event. We therefore undertake to adhere to the time and date of the future ABC Concurrent Releases."
​

Consider wrist slapped. On 1 February, Vogue put out a release about its March issue, featuring cover star Alexa Chung. But as we pointed out on Greenslade at the time, the main point of the release was to talk trash about Harper's Bazaar.
Quinn did his best to scorn his rival's figures, even though they hadn't been released:

"Fashion upstart Harper's Bazaar dances with the fishes by offering value packs at UK newsstands to bolster sales.
"This packaging of inappropriate titles such as She and Coast with Harper's Bazaar, bundled in plastic bags, will allow Bazaar to boost their numbers in the forthcoming ABCs. Without these inappropriate value packs to boost sales, the ABC posted by Bazaar would show a greatly reduced total.
"It is reasonable to question such tactics as the headline number could be taken as showing legitimate growth amongst upscale consumers, when in reality the Bazaar audience is dragged downmarket in the process, hardly what upmarket advertisers would expect."
​

And just in case you hadn't got the message, this:

"Vogue is the market leader and fashion bible. We sell 210,000 copies. Our readership is a massive 1.3 million."
​

The source of Quinn's ire became apparent when ABC released the circulation figures the next week. Harper's Bazaar was up 1.1% year on year to 110,638 while Vogue's circulation fell again year on year, down 4.5% to 210,526.
I understand Quinn's original statement was even stronger, but in the end its toning down was not enough to escape the wrath of ABC. Jan Pitt, director of magazines, said it took rule breaches "extremely seriously".
This contrasts with National Magazine Company's chief executive, Arnaud de Puyfontaine, who told Campaign magazine it was "distasteful".
The magazine industry is pretty free and easy in distributed estimates of rivals' figures before official release and I doubt today's move by ABC will do much to curb that practice.
In the meantime, a rare PR malfunction by the Vogue publisher. NatMags 1. Condé Nast 0.

[guardian.co.uk]

 

[Miss Dalloway]

He just made Vogue look really petty, pathetic, and childish, the fact he had to eat humble pie and issue this statement, no matter how indirect it is, makes me happy!

 

[Gary101]

When do we hear which magazine cover stars and what months were the best sellers of last year?

 

[greyeyes]

last year wwd posted the sales figures in april.
so i think in a month we'll see the article.

 

[Gary101]

last year wwd posted the sales figures in april.
so i think in a month we'll see the article.

Thank You!

 

[MissMagAddict]

source | wwd.com

VIENNA CALLING: Anja Rubik and Sasha Knezevic launched the new-look Austrian magazine 25 in Paris earlier this week. “It’s been such an experience and a real challenge. We have done everything,” said Knezevic. The models-turned-editors are now working on the next edition of the quarterly. “One of our contributors will be Julia Restoin-Roitfeld,” noted Rubik. Advertisers in the 192-page spring issue include Giuseppe Zanotti and Giorgio Armani. There are two issues of the magazine, a limited edition English version that will have a circulation of around 2,000, and a German edition with a print run of 50,000. “It’s an Austrian magazine so it was important to keep a link between the first issue and Austria,” said Rubik, explaining the fashion pages were inspired by artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Contributors include photographer Victor Demarchelier, actress Joy Bryant and architect Bettina Zerza. The magazine includes an interview with Beyoncé Knowles and an abundance of couture garb. “It is rare to get so many couture clothes in a magazine,” said Rubik. The cover price of the magazine is 4.50 euros, or about $6 at current exchange.

 

[Flashbang]

There are big changes coming to W magazine.

When Gina Sanders was named publisher of WWD in January, it was made clear to us the former Lucky publisher would not be overseeing W as well. “W magazine is part of our consumer magazine division and it will stay that way,” said the Conde Nast spokesperson.

This struck us as odd, given W and WWD share a good deal of staff, including executive editor Bridget Foley and editorial director Patrick McCarthy.

The magazine, in case you didn’t know, was founded in 1971 as a twice-monthly sister to the daily WWD. It eventually became a monthly that focused less on society and gossip–WWD’s biggest drivers during that period–and more on luxury goods.

It looks like Conde Nast has decided to further delineate the two brands, moving W out from under the Fairchild Fashion Group moniker. The Conde subgroup consists of trade publications WWD, WWD.com, Footwear News, conferences, Fairchild Books and trade shows.

Conde CEO Chuck Townsend said this morning in WWD that “This formally establishes a structure for W consistent with our other consumer magazine titles, and allows FFG the autonomy to focus on their core business-to-business publications and related businesses.”

The big news is that senior staff currently working at both the magazines–including Foley and McCarthy–will now work for WWD exclusively. W, which doesn’t have an editor-in-chief, will get one over the next couple of months.

We won’t be surprised if McCarthy exits the company altogether, since his role has been significantly diminished. As for who will take on W’s top editorial position, internal options include Foley, or W deputy editor Julie Belcove, who currently writes the editor’s letter in each issue.

However, we have a feeling that Townsend will bring in some fresh blood, given the magazine’s dismal performance over the last few years. W’s advertising sales were down 45.8% in 2009 to $1.9 million.

fashionista

 

[MissMagAddict]

source | wwd.com

ADD YOUR NAME TO THE LIST: Who will be W magazine’s next editor in chief? It is the guessing game that has occupied Manhattan media circles since Wednesday, when news broke that W would move out of the Fairchild Fashion Group into Condé Nast and that Thomas J. Wallace, editorial director of Condé Nast, would tap a new editor for the title. It is believed the company will act quickly. Among the names most batted-about by insiders are Stefano Tonchi of The New York Times’ T magazine, as well as Carine Roitfeld, editor in chief of French Vogue; Katie Grand, who heads Condé Nast UK title Love; New York magazine’s Adam Moss, and Jay Fielden, former editor in chief of Men’s Vogue. Not surprisingly, perhaps, none of them returned calls seeking comment.

But a new editor in chief won’t be the only change at W — it also will move from its existing base of 750 Third Avenue. Sources say its new offices most likely will be at 1166 Avenue of the Americas, where digital properties such as Style.com, Epicurious.com and Brides.com are housed.

 

[surrealseven]

^ To be honest, I dont know this is good or bad news.

 

[tarsha]

^ I can imagine Carine as a editor of W. Katie Grand is more suitable.
I don't know anything about Stefano, Adam & Jay, and can't comment anything about them.

But Carine?

 

[Flashbang]

Peter Lindbergh, who moved from working with Vogue to Harper's Bazaar in 1992 when Liz Tilberis lured him away — “I switched to Bazaar and stayed away for all these years" — is ending his 18 year hiatus from Vogue. Part of the reason he left originally, he said, was because Alexander Lieberman and Grace Mirabella weren't fans of his images of supermodels splayed on the beach: “They told me we can’t handle the women you’re photographing."

He plans to begin work again with Vogue, as well as other Conde Nast publications in the US, after a recent tete-a-tete with Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington. “They asked,” he told WWD. “It was like you are the black sheep in the family, and your older brother asks you to come home.”

And he's bringing his opinions with him: “Fashion photography has gotten a little lost. There is a lot of carnival going on. The hair has gotten too crazy and the make-up. At the moment, everybody is trying to do young. They have to look young or dress young. Youth is so overdone. All the advertising and magazine covers today — they don’t look like natural women. For me, that’s a real pity. There’s all this retouching. A little humanity would do good, especially in fashion photography.”

fashionologie.com

 

[CrisGalaxy]

I thought W was already in Conde Nast...? Btw, does W even have an editor-in-chief?

 

[surrealseven]

I always thought Bazaar greatly hinders his immense talent

 

[missbluejean]

This news made my day! Peter Lindbergh is too good for Harper's Bazaar anyway He belongs to Vogue

 

[Northern Star]

And he's bringing his opinions with him: “Fashion photography has gotten a little lost. There is a lot of carnival going on. The hair has gotten too crazy and the make-up. At the moment, everybody is trying to do young. They have to look young or dress young. Youth is so overdone. All the advertising and magazine covers today — they don’t look like natural women. For me, that’s a real pity. There’s all this retouching. A little humanity would do good, especially in fashion photography.”

Well said that man
So glad Lindbergh is back at VogueB)
Thanks for the info Flashbang

 

[iluvjeisa]

I agree with what he said, except that about the big hair....I always felt very strangely about him, he is great, but he seems to have an aversion to any kind of glamour, which I find a bit sad...I absolutely adore his work with the best models - he brings out their very best. Like his work with Sasha

 

[iperlchen]

This is great news! He will be a great contributor to Vogue US.
What did Lieberman and Mirabella mean with their quote about Lindbergh's photographs? I don't understand why they didn't like it.

 

[mikel]

Peter Lindbergh returning to US Vogue is wonderful news. Can't wait to see his work with Grace Coddington again.

It's a terrible loss for Bazaar though. Now they don't have any high profile fashion/celebrity photographers left.

 

[tigerrouge]

For Bazaar, it would be the perfect opportunity to recruit some up-and-coming names, offering them the chance to work for a major publication, and capitalising on the buzz of being the place to see the work of such people, new themes, new visual styles.

But the magazine is intent on turning itself into a tabloid, it's going in the opposite direction to this. We can see the strategy behind it, but this is a moment when being willing to embrace the unknown would give them the edge.