The Business of Magazines

[Flashbang]

COUNTING THEM UP: Was Lady Gaga a hit with Vogue’s advertisers? How did Katy Perry fare for People StyleWatch and Elle? The all-important March fashion and lifestyle magazines are about to hit newsstands, which means the first quarter — and first real benchmark — is ready to be revealed, and the report card is a mixed one. Vogue did well, rising 10.6 percent for the first quarter to 619 pages, but People StyleWatch was the big winner again. The magazine posted the largest increase in paging for the first quarter (and its largest increase ever), up 46.5 percent to 197 pages, according to Media Industry Newsletter. Publisher Karin Tracy said growth came in beauty, fashion and retail with new business from brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Dillard’s and Lacoste. Elle, which will soon leave its longtime home at Hachette for Hearst, posted a 14.3 percent rise in paging to 517, and Women’s Health wasn’t far behind, up 11.7 percent to 117.5 pages. InStyle raised its pages by 10.9 percent to 489.5.

Allure’s 20th anniversary issue for March resulted in a 7.5 percent increase in paging to 231.2. After W had a 22 percent decline this time last year, the magazine, under editor in chief Stefano Tonchi, had a 6.5 percent increase to 267 pages. Essence gained almost 6 percent in paging to 282 pages, and Glamour posted a 5.5 percent increase to 292.6 pages. Marie Claire, last year’s ad page increase leader, posted a flat quarter, with 259 pages. Town & Country, which will have Lauren Santo Domingo on its cover, was also flat in paging, with 211.6.

As for the titles seeing declines, Lucky fell 14.3 percent to 204.1 pages, a big change from this time last year, when the title was up 17 percent. Self wasn’t far behind, down 12.6 percent to 178 pages, Cosmopolitan declined 12.5 percent to 252.4 pages and Harper’s Bazaar fell 11.6 percent to 368.9. Advertising at Shape was off 7.5 percent to 269.6, while competitor Fitness was down 6.7 percent to 222 pages. For the first three months, Health was down 5.5 percent to 193 pages and O, The Oprah Magazine dropped 4.2 percent to 283.

wwd.com

 

[tarsha]

^ So, if I got right Katy Perry will be on the cover of Elle's March issue?

 

[Pedro]

Is Sophia Neophitou leaving Harper's Bazaar? Or I got it wrong?

HARPER’S BAZAAR LEAVING PRESENTS

Pret-a-porTea tea bags - a brilliant leaving present from Nathalie Riddle - loved each bag with a designer torso to choose from - Karl, Claudia, Naomi with blood stained mobile, Gaultier, Donatella, brilliant!!!

Thank-you bye bye Bazaar - will be missing you long time!

Sophia Neophitou

10magazine.com, January 28, 2011

 

[Pedro]

^ The confirmation!

Harpers Bazaar- farewell to all the wonderful people at Bazaar -thanks for all the wonderful adventures over the last 18 months its been a total thrill lorra lorra love Sophiaxx

10magazine.com, January 28, 2011

 

[missbluejean]

Hearst buys Lagardere's international mags unit
Reporting by Leila Abboud and Helen Massy-Beresford;
Editing by David Holmes and Will Waterman (reuters.com)
Mon Jan 31, 2011 3:43am EST

* Hearst to pay 651 million euros to Lagardere

* Deal comes amid turnaround effort at Lagardere

* Deal includes master licence agreement for Elle

* Shares down 3.8 pct on insider dealing investigation

(Adds details on Elle, shares)

PARIS, Jan 31 (Reuters) - French media-to-aerospace conglomerate Lagardere (LAGA.PA) said on Monday it would sell its international magazines to U.S.-based Hearst Corp for 651 million euros ($887 million) in cash.

By quitting the United States, where it lacked critical mass, Lagardere will refocus on France and shed activities that brought in about 40 percent of its 774 million euros of media revenues in 2010, but less than 5 percent of operating profit.

The deal comes as CEO Arnaud Lagardere tries to turn around Lagardere after years of underperformance by selling off weak assets and minority stakes, investing in its new sports marketing division and focusing on its core media businesses.

Lagardere is also planning an initial public offering in the first half of this year of its minority stake in French pay-TV channel Canal Plus, which is controlled by Vivendi (VIV.PA).

Lagardere said it expected the transaction to close by the third quarter of 2011.

Shares in Lagardere were down 3.8 percent at 32.26 euros at 0840 GMT, the first opportunity to react to an announcement late on Friday that the company was under formal investigation for insider trading of shares in aerospace group EADS (EAD.PA) in 2006.

TOO SMALL IN U.S.

After its U.S. magazine unit was hit hard by an advertising slump during the economic crisis, Arnaud Lagardere decided the business was too small in the United States to compete with larger rivals Conde Nast, Hearst and Meredith (MDP.N).

Since the CEO did not want to embark on costly acquisitions to reach critical mass, last December he began seeking a sale or a partnership for the division.

On Dec. 31, Hearst and Lagardere entered exclusive negotiations.

Lagardere publishes 212 titles in 45 countries, including Paris Match and the 42 international editions of Elle.

The deal covers 102 titles in 15 countries, Lagardere said.

According to the terms of the deal, Lagardere will keep control of the Elle brand in 15 countries -- Russia & Ukraine, Italy, Spain, the UK, China, Japan, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Mexico, Taiwan, Canada and Germany -- via a licensing agreement with Hearst.

Lagardere will grant a licence to Hearst for magazines, Internet, mobile and all digital and audiovisual supports, which will not cover merchandising licensing.

The French company will receive royalty payments from Hearst based on Elle net sales in the 15 countries.

Based on unaudited figures for 2010, the recurring royalty payment would amount to an 8 million euro contribution to Lagardere Active's operating result, the company said.

"We remain the owner of the Elle trademark worldwide," said Didier Quillot, adding that this would allow Lagardere to ensure the brand's quality.

Lagardere shares have climbed 8.7 percent since the beginning of the year to close at 33.88 euros on Friday as investors anticipate the sale of the magazine unit and the Canal Plus stake.

Over the same period the Stoxx 600 Europe Media Index .SXMP has risen 2.9 percent.

 

[MON]

So it`s official ELLE is under Hearst? So what`s gonna happen to it? Cease publication or continue publication under a dfferent house?

 

[missbluejean]

^ Will continue under Hearst (with licensing agreement) except for French Elle which Lagardere will keep.

Now I'm half expecting US Elle to be as mediocre as US Bazaar.

 

[blueorchid]

Can someone explain to me how it's going to work for these magazines? I feel like I can't read today.

According to the terms of the deal, Lagardere will keep control of the Elle brand in 15 countries -- Russia & Ukraine, Italy, Spain, the UK, China, Japan, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Mexico, Taiwan, Canada and Germany -- via a licensing agreement with Hearst.

 

[missbluejean]

I guess the licensing agreement gives the assurance that Hearst will not redesign Elle (particularly the logo). Other than that, I think international Elle is pretty much Hearst's property now.

 

[BerlinRocks]

it seems that A Magazine is over ........

After a busy couple of years with A,
decided to carry on with other projects...

Thanks to all fans, contributors and collaborators.

Ciao for now

Jean

 

[nyc_art_style]

oh no!

 

[kimair]

This past summer, Cindi Leive asked Anne Christensen, former fashion editor of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, to meet for a drink at Marea. Christensen was a newly free agent and she came to the meeting full of ideas to raise Glamour’s fashion profile. Priority number one? Hire Bruce Weber. “It made a lot of sense for the magazine,” said Leive. “He likes to tell a story and that’s what we do at Glamour.” Not long after, Christensen came on board and her fashion editing debut appears in the March issue (which includes Weber). With Christensen, there’s more fashion than ever before, with 17 percent more fashion pages in March, and April’s issue will have 26 percent more than the same issue a year ago. Overall ad pages for March are also up 17 percent.

In the latest issue, new columns have been added, layouts redesigned, a Glamour Tumblr is in the works and there’s more street-influenced style than before. “Anne has clear, exciting ideas for the magazine,” said Leive. “She’s going to incorporate something from the archive in every issue. Diane Arbus got her start at Glamour and Andy Warhol did illustrations for us. Not many people know that.”

wwd / february 2, 2011

 

[kimair]

Three months after the departure of Jody Quon, W editor in chief Stefano Tonchi has hired a new creative director, Alex Gonzalez. Tonchi originally planned to shoulder the creative director’s responsibilities himself, but he since decided that it would be nice to have help. “I had to close before Christmas, and really I was here until the last day, the last hour,” Tonchi said. “Basically, I didn’t have one day off for months.”

“Now, I really want to understand and know better our readers, and I need to have time to do that,” he added. “I cannot be on the set of every shoot the way I’ve been so far.” Not that the magazine has struggled. Ad pages for W were up 13 percent for Tonchi’s first four issues, September through December, and they have been up a total of 6.5 percent from January through March 2011, according to a spokeswoman.

Tonchi met Gonzalez in the late Eighties when the latter was the creative director at L’Uomo Vogue. Years later in New York, they lived in identical apartments in the same building on West 12th Street. Gonzalez co-founded AR New York with Vogue creative consultant Raul Martinez in 1996 and has worked as a creative director on GQ, German Vogue and Manner Vogue. “I consider Condé Nast my alma mater,” he said. “I started essentially my publishing career there.” “We both have this international background and we look at W as an international brand,” said Tonchi.

Gonzalez said he was quite pleased with the existing staff at W and won’t be making any hires of his own. “My task will be to collaborate with all of those people and elevate the visual content to superior levels.” Gonzalez won’t take an office at W at 1166 Sixth Avenue, and his exact start date is still being worked out but, he said, “I will hope to have a large imprint in the September issue.”

wwd / february 2, 2011

 

[Pedro]

I'm amazed how a prestigious photographer like Bruce Weber accepts to work for a magazine like Glamour! Will his friendship by Anne Christensen worth this insignificant decision?

When I saw the new hire at W magazine I went to AR New York agency to check their work. There's a brutal inconsistency and disparity in quality when comparing the work performed in the past for clients as Versace, Valentino, YSL, D&G, with the current mediocrity such as Banana Republic and Jones New York. Is this what we can expect from Alex Gonzalez?

 

[Pedro]

Just opened dailyfrontrow.com and they clarify in a statement by a representative for AR New York some of my concerns...

Alex Gonzalez Named Creative Director at W

(NEW YORK) Another AR New York man has gone back in-house at Conde Nast. Stefano Tonchi has hired Alex Gonzalez, a co-founder of the firm, as W's new creative director. The move comes three months after the abrupt departure of former creative director Jody Quon. At the time, Tonchi stated that he would bear the position's resonsibilities himself. According to reports, Tonchi met Gonzalez during the former's tenure as creative director of l'Uomo Vogue; years later, they lived in the same building on West 12th Street.

Three months after the departure of Jody Quon, W editor in chief Stefano Tonchi has hired a new creative director, Alex Gonzalez. Tonchi originally planned to shoulder the creative director’s responsibilities himself, but he since decided that it would be nice to have help. “I had to close before Christmas, and really I was here until the last day, the last hour,” Tonchi has said. “Basically, I didn’t have one day off for months.” Gonzalez does not plan to take an office at W at 1166 Sixth Aveue, and he has stated he won't be making any hires of his own; while his start date is still being finalized,

Gonzalez's partner in AR New York, of course, is Raul Martinez, who currently sits atop the Vogue masthead as design director. Vogue and W, of course, have always had very different identities, both content-wise and visually. But AR New York is known for a more quote-unquote consumer-friendly design for clients such as Banana Republic, Jones New York, Valentino, and Jimmy Choo. Is Tonchi easing W's ultra-exclusive sensibility down a notch? September will tell.

And as for those sales figures? According to a spokesperson, W's ad pages were up 13% for Tonchi's first four issues—September through December—and have been up a total of 6.5% from January through March 2011. While that news is promising, these increases are compared with those discouraging 2010 sales. During the first half of 2010, W was one ot the only two titles (the other being Town & Country) to continue to slide, down 14% to 423 pages—and that's compared with 2009 numbers, which posted double-digit decreases from the flusher days of pre-recession 2008. Recovery? It's a process.
ASHLEY BAKER

UPDATE, 2/1: A representative for AR New York requested clarification on the following matters: "While AR New York is exceptionally proud of the work we have done with Banana Republic, Jimmy Choo and Jones New York, the agency’s reputation is built upon some of the most iconic campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Valentino, YSL etc. as our archive demonstrates. In addition to his role as Creative Director at W, Gonzalez will continue as Executive Creative Director for a select group of the agency’s clients." And to answer our hypothetical question, "Is Tonchi easing W's ultra-exclusive sensibility down a notch?" the representative responded, "This is the antithesis of their collective intentions for W." So expect ultra-ultra exclusive sensibilities come September?

dailyfrontrow.com, 2011 February 2

 

[Pedro]

Counting the Numbers

The second-half circulation numbers for 2010 were better for a few players, but most magazines saw their readership continue to slide on newsstands. “It was just more of the same,” said Jack Hanrahan, media consultant and publisher of CircMatters. “It’s a continuation of a downward trend in single copy sales since 1990. I bet we’ll continue to see this decline.”

Hearst was down about 6 percent, while Condé Nast fell 10 percent in single copy sales. Some of the largest newsstand declines at Condé came from Allure, down roughly 19 percent; Lucky, which fell 22 percent, and Self, which dropped 16 percent. “Our continued strategy to focus on efficiency and improved margins — through price increases and distribution reductions — impacted single copy volume but improved overall profitability,” said a spokeswoman. She added that paid subscriptions were up 3.2 percent.

As consumers continue to buy fewer magazines on the newsstand, publishers are looking to alternative sources of revenue, such as digital tablets, for future growth. But Hanrahan is convinced there is still more that can be done to counter newsstand declines. “Why don’t magazines, at least in limited markets, promote themselves more with outdoor advertising the weekend they come out, for example,” he said. “You never hear them talk about their different promotional strategies. It feels like they are just putting these magazines out there and saying, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ ”

The big winner in the second half was Town & Country, which saw newsstand sales up 25 percent, stirring questions as to why Stephen Drucker is either leaving or being encouraged to go. Drucker’s new editorial direction, which included several different cover experiments — from a vibrant picture of Tory Burch for September, to an old black-and-white photograph of Gloria Vanderbilt in November and then Ina Garten and Nora Ephron the next month — seemed to win out with readers. He declined comment Thursday, perhaps because the news was too bittersweet. He came into Town & Country last spring full of ideas to turn it around and now has one foot out the door, soon to be succeeded by Jay Fielden.

A few other magazines had success, namely Health, which rose 20 percent, thanks in part to a redesign and new focus of putting celebrities on its covers. Issues with Christina Hendricks, Janet Jackson and Hilary Duff were particularly strong. “It paid dividends in a big way,” said publisher Dave Watt. Vogue rose almost 5 percent, Harper’s Bazaar and Martha Stewart Living were up 3 percent, People StyleWatch increased 2.4 percent and GQ was top among men’s titles, up 5.8 percent.

Below, WWD provides the circulation figures for the largest fashion and lifestyle magazines, as filed to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.




by Amy Wicks

wwd.com, Friday February 4, 2011

 

[Pedro]

look at W lool Stefano

 

[Flashbang]

How much weight do ads have in magazines?

Once again I answer one of your questions. Interesting question, hard answer. Certainly there are lots of counter arguments or denials. I think it's fair to talk about this. I promised I would answer all your questions.

Advertising is what keeps a publication alive, economically speaking. Advertising weighs a lot in the budget. The advertisement pages are fundamental, without them publications would not ne able to support themselves financially.

Fashion brands, accessory brands, such as shoes, bags, glasses, and watches, luxury brands, cosmetics, fragrances, champagne producers, acoholic beverages or just beverages. These are generally clients of a fashion magazine. These type of products invest in a magazine by buying pages off them and putting in those pages what they like as I long as it's not offensive.

They don't become however partners. To clarify this point, it's like when a custode comes in a shop, buys an outfit and owns that outfit, not the shop. They buy pages, not the magazine, the magazine is managed by the editorial team.

Does advertisement have an impact on the choices made by the magazine? Of course. But it doesn't influence them. It's a long history that never finds solace, the readers tend to think that it's all about business, all is decided for, and there is no room for young people who don't buy pages for advertising.

One of you asked: "Is there room for someone new against these advertising empires?" Of course there is room, and many of them became famous thanks to a magazine's support.

They become famous, big names pick them, and they find the funds to invest in pages to promote their products. When they enter the realm of the big names, everyone will say that they made it because they bought off pages for advertisement.

Who gave them the first opportunity? If they are so good, why don't they have the room they deserve? If they are even better, why don't they get more room?

Are the choices based upon merit? Yes. We don't sell covers, we don't sell editorial pages. The important names are many and don't leave space to small ones? Everyone has gone through that, and certainly in the past there weren't so many opportunities for young people.

Competitions, shows, presentations, events, publications on papers. All financed by Vogue. This is not helping? Is it not free advertising? If you are really talented, you will climb up even higher.

To fell suffocated by big advertisements is not an excuse. It's to hide behind the real issue: not to feel adequate. The real problem are not the magazine, but companies that invest on young people in the hopes of finding the "next" Armani. After a season, when there aren't immediate results, they either eliminate them or cut their funds, and ads.

To support young people we even have a publication called Vogue Talents that comes out once a year in September to point out interesting young people on the market. A way to expose their product, to put them in touch with companies and interest them in helping them.

It's not being generous. It's an investment. We need new creative people as much as we need publicity. We know how to handle it and create a balance.

Franca Sozzani

vogue.it

 

[tigerrouge]

An interview with Glenda Bailey (nymag.com

A Preview of Harper’s Bazaar’s ‘Best Covers’ Issue

With all the jockeying and politics that goes into magazine covers these days, it's amazing to think that monthly fashion magazines used to be created with just paper and pen. In a nod to their near-145th year of publication, Harper's Bazaar has put together a collection of their covers dating back to 1867, when fashion publications relied entirely on illustrations. We have an exclusive preview of the issue, which is chock-full of iconic drawings and images; we also chatted with Glenda Bailey about the challenges of creating cover concepts today.

Would you ever do another illustrated cover?
I would love to do an illustrated cover. We encourage illustration in the magazine, and yes, absolutely I would consider an illustration for the cover. The thing is, we really try to produce timely covers, and obviously with photography, you have the immediacy. Also, we get fabulous access to models and celebrities, so we want to use that. But if the situation were right, I would love to use an illustration for the cover.

What's an example of an illustration that could work for a cover image?
It would have to be something very timely. A few years ago, when the Simpsons movie came out, we got their illustrators to do illustrated version of the collections that had shown that season, like Chanel and Versace. We could have easily put one of those illustrations on the cover. That's the sort of very timely thing that we would consider.

One could argue that, with all the photo editing technology that's used these days, a lot of photographed covers have an illustrative quality.
Well, we try to do as little as retouching on covers as possible, because we want it to be real and immediate. We use photographers who are, by nature, very light with retouching. For example, Peter Lindbergh famously did a set of portraits for us of supermodels without makeup, completely un-retouched. But on the other hand, we also work with another photographer, Jean-Paul Goude, whose art form is indeed Photoshop. Some people actually think that he invented the art form of, as he likes to call it, "French Correction." He creates — he almost paints — by manipulating his images, and that's how he chooses to express his creativity. And that's his point of view, and his images can be staggeringly fabulous. But to say that retouched photographs are similar to illustrations would be too much of a generalization.

You were one of the first fashion magazines to create separate newsstand and subscriber covers in 2004. How did that idea come about?
Well, I started it with the January issue in 2004, and then February 2004 was the first time that we did two completely different cover concepts. I'm ashamed to tell you that it took me 16 years of being an editor-in-chief to work this out, and we were the first. For magazines like Bazaar, there's a very loyal subscriber base who knows all that Bazaar stands for as a fashion magazine and prefers a more artful image on the subscriber copy. And then for the newsstand, you're attracting new readers who don't necessarily know all about the content of your magazine. So therefore, you're producing a poster to catch their eye amongst all the competition. This has been such a successful formula, and at the time I was very criticized for doing it, but now many magazines have started to create this themselves, which I just think is the greatest form of flattery.

Newsstand covers have been accused of becoming increasingly homogeneous. Do you agree?
First and foremost, for a magazine to be successful, it must sell. As Tom Ford used to say, "It's not a successful fashion collection unless it sells," and that's the same for a magazine. You want to produce an eye-catching cover that is going to capture the attention of your potential reader. But that doesn't mean that you don't want to be creative. I wanted to use some of that great imagery that we feature inside the magazine and put it on the cover, and that's why I came up with the two-cover concept.

Do you try to avoid having the same pieces of clothing on your cover as other magazines?
Well, we always want to shows the greatest looks of the season, and often, people at different magazines have the same opinions about the best looks from each collection. The key is really how you choose to feature it. We try to come up with cover concepts that are completely original no matter what clothes are in it. For example, last year, the Alexander McQueen collection was so exceptional, and we wanted to feature it in a very meaningful way on our cover. So I had this idea to do something very surreal, almost like a Dali landscape, so we got a beach and a giraffe and we convinced Demi Moore to climb a very unstable staircase going into the sky in her 10-inch Armadillo shoes. And of course, that Alexander McQueen collection had been featured in many magazines, but none of them in an image like ours. And that cover won an ASME.

Bazaar did some iconic covers with Princess Diana. Have you looked into having Kate Middleton on your cover?
Well, Kate is a very beautiful young woman, and we've been very fortunate to show some of the great Kates on our cover — Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett — and it would be a great pleasure to have Kate Middleton on our cover.

 

[MissMagAddict]

^I flipped through that yesterday. So poorly done. I would never spend $12.95 on it.