The Business of Magazines

[MissMagAddict]

WSJ. and T: The Rivalry Is On

I adore S.S., but the March WSJ's content is light years ahead of T's Women's Spring.

 

[8eight]

Tom Meredith, Art Director of UK ELLE is leaving to be Creative Director of UK InStyle.

Will be interesing to see how much he can play with the InStyle template.

 

[tentalicious]

I don't know where to post it
each cover/main story of Vogue Italia from April 2007 to November 2009 is available here
Hope it's useful

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^ Wonderful, thank you for posting.

 

[cottonmouth13]

^^Amazing! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Wow at this, i knew she was pregnant but its a shame she is leaving HB! Perhaps that is the reason the magazine has been missing its spark lately.

Lucy Yeomans joins Net-a-Porter.com as Editor-in-Chief



Net-a-Porter.com has announced the appointment of Lucy Yeomans as Editor-in-Chief. She joins the luxury online retailer following 12 years at Hearst, most recently as Editor of Harper's Bazaar. In this newly-created role she will report to recently appointed Managing Director, Alison Loehnis. Following Lucy's departure, Hearst Magazines UK has appointed Jenny Dickinson as Acting Editor of Harper's Bazaar, with effect April. Jenny joins the magazine from ELLE.

fashionmonitor.com

 

[honeycombchild]

Wow, surprised that happened! Jennifer will do nicely at HB though I'm sure. Perhaps she'll help it take on a little bit more of a youthful element, which it does need if it wants to continue increasing in readership I think. At the moment their average reader is in their forties I believe.

 

[vogue28]

Ah man, I'm gutted over Lucy's decision to leave Harper's Bazaar. Yeomans contributed a vast amount to Bazaar. I appreciate the seriousness the magazine has. It had better not turn into some alternative-Elle offering, because there's no comparison, concerning relevance and sophistication.

 

[tigerrouge]

Lucy's been at that magazine - in one form or other - for so long, I can't imagine it without her.

There aren't that many glamorous magazines that are properly created with women in mind. For me, UK Elle feels like it's aimed at girls who have got their first job in PR and who go crazy with their pay at the end of each month, playing at being sophisticated because they've got must-have handbags and can afford to get drunk in posher bars than they could at college.

There's nothing wrong with going through that phase, but Elle and Bazaar... different readerships, at a different place in their life, with a different outlook on things. I don't want to open Bazaar and see features where people fret about their boyfriends or how they got into debt with a designer shoe habit. I have no wish to be twentysomething again or to live in that world, even for the length of time it takes to read those articles. Let me have my magazine.

 

[tigerrouge]

News from back in February, obviously no slowdown for magazines in some places (publicitas.com

China: Elle launches semi-monthly edition starting February 2012

First Edition of Elle Worldwide to Publish Twice a Month

Hearst Magazines China, part of Hearst Magazines International, announced that starting February 5, 2012, Elle China is published semi-monthly with publication on 5th and 20th of each month.

A global publishing phenomenon, Elle, a brand owned by Lagardère Active, is the world’s largest fashion magazine brand with at present 43 international editions reaching over 21 million people across the globe from the U.K. to the U.S., Europe to Africa, South America, Russia, Asia and the Middle East. In 2010, 552 issues were published with worldwide copy sales of 79 million.

The first international fashion magazine to launch in China in 1988, Elle China has a unique and upscale editorial positioning that resonates with readers in the region. This move to publishing semi-monthly reflects Elle China’s insight of the rapidly evolving market as well as its desire to fulfill local consumer needs.

“While most international monthly glossy magazines have averaged 500 to 800 pages per month for the past three years, readers are also asking for a light and friendly reading experience,” said Mier Ai, managing director, Hearst Magazines China. “After two years of intense market research and content studies, we decided to publish ELLE China semi-monthly to provide stylish Chinese women with the pleasure of a glamorous and fashionable reading experience twice as often as before.”

Each issue will now average between 280 and 400 pages. With its new editorial formula, Elle readers will enjoy their favorite magazine twice a month for the same price as a monthly glossy. The semi-monthly issues will be priced at RMB10.00 versus RMB20.00, which was the previous cover price for monthly Elle.

Since 2009, ELLE has always been the Chinese market leader both in circulation and advertising. Average advertising pagination is +20%-40% over direct competitors.

 

[honeycombchild]

I can't imagine Harper's is going to shift too much in terms of who it's aiming at... more than perhaps it's going to exclude the younger set less than I feel it can at the moment. I don't know what it is about the magazine exactly but they seem to work wonders with older cover stars - Julianne Moore etc, but when it comes to younger stars like Emma Watson they can fall a little flat? I hope it corrects that aspect of the magazine personally; it's great that the magazine has a different age of readers but I also don't believe it should be too exclusive of the younger fashion market. There's certainly a great market for younger girls who aren't as flighty as the Elle girl, a more serious approach to fashion. I suppose that's where Vogue should be, getting those girls, but sadly that also falls flat. As much as I adore Harper's as a magazine I have to say it's probably the one major fashion magazine that none of my female friends my age read.

 

[tigerrouge]

If UK Bazaar does a decent job selling to a small but select readership, the price of attempting to broaden that appeal could be to lose that core readership in exchange for the rather disloyal interest of younger women who already have countless other magazines competing to connect with them at their level. It's a difficult pitch to get right.

Well, the difficult achievement is satisfying an older readership – because it's a more experienced, discerning readership. A certain tone of exclusion is necessary, because you can't patronise that type of reader by trying to talk at a level that's not specifically designed with them in mind, first and foremost.

If the magazine opens up to chase a proportion of the younger market, you've lost the reason why the older women are reading it. For me, UK Bazaar has become a gem of a magazine precisely because it's been rigorous about forming a very specific identity and voice, rather than trying to diffusely appeal to a more generalised audience.

But magazine editors and their eras come and go, that's the way of things. Change is on its way, regardless.

 

[Cicciolina]

[/B]

I adore S.S., but the March WSJ's content is light years ahead of T's Women's Spring.

Yes! I usually love Sally Singer and all her work when she was at US Vogue, but I personally find WSJ so much more appealing than T magazine. I try to like it, but WSJ is just more likeable.

 

[Cicciolina]

I'm surprised that Lucy Yeomans left, but she had been there so long that she needs to have a new challenge. I suppose.

Hey, maybe Amanda Brooks will take her position (said semi in jest).

 

[MissMagAddict]

Gallagher's Paper Collectibles Re-Opens in New York


Gallagher’s offers a rotating selection
from a 1 million-volume library.

NEW YORK — When the legendary Gallagher’s Paper Collectibles shuttered its East Village doors in 2008 due to escalating rents, founder Michael Gallagher semiretired to the Catskills with his million-plus library of vintage fashion magazines, books and photography prints. He stored his unparalleled collection of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, Flair and more arcane titles — some dating back to the 1860s — on a property he dubbed Fashion Farm in Greenville, N.Y.

Now Gallagher’s is back, reopening today in a sleek new space at 12 Mercer Street. The shop will offer a small sliver of Gallagher’s archives, with the rest available by special order. The space is located adjacent to the offices of VFiles, an online social networking site launching in April that is a partnership between V magazine and former V executive editor Julie Anne Quay.

“We are in the middle of building VFiles and we were looking for incredible content and Mike has the biggest collection anywhere of fashion magazines and photographs and paraphernalia,” said Quay. VFiles brokered a deal to incorporate Gallagher’s material onto the new digital site, as well as open the retail space, which revives a New York institution.

Gallagher’s first opened in the late Eighties and became known for drawing the cream of the fashion world to its basement bunker. Steven Meisel, Anna Sui, John Galliano and Donna Karan were regular customers. As his reputation grew, Gallagher curated entire fashion libraries of magazines and books for the likes of Karl Lagerfeld and Marc Jacobs. He recalled Catherine Deneuve sitting among his aisles, perusing old titles.

Along the way, Gallagher — a sociable former child actor and model — befriended many in the fashion world. The late New York Times fashion editor and Old Navy pitchwoman Carrie Donovan bequeathed much of her library to him, as did Costume Institute curator Richard Martin. He was close to Richard Avedon, Francesco Scavullo and Henri Cartier-Bresson, who gave him reign to dig through their basements and archives.

“I met everybody. It was a family. There were only, like, 200 people working in fashion back then,” recalled Gallagher, who buys continuously at flea markets, estate sales and online.

In the light, airy new shop on Mercer Street, there are neat stacks of the usual suspects like international editions of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar from various decades, as well as specialty titles such as Versace: The Magazine, Wet and Actuel. There are also old issues of Spy and a curious magazine called Teens’ and Boys’ Outfitters, which dates to 1968.

An 1865 issue of Harper’s Bazaar, in newspaper format, can be had for about $100. “They’re actually not that rare. What’s rare is the Twenties and the Art Deco years,” explained Gallagher, adding that eBay and the Internet have driven up prices. “Now there’s vicious, vicious competition. Fashion really sells.”

source | wwd.com

 

[kokurox]

A Bit More About Carine Roitfeld's New Magazine

A BIT MORE FROM CARINE: Carine Roitfeld, in Tokyo for various Chanel festivities, said she is flying to New York today to work on the September launch of her new magazine. Although she couldn’t be pressed on the name, she said it will come out twice a year and resemble a book. There will be no “front of the book” section and its emphasis will be “fashion with a lot of freedom.”

wwd.com

 

[tigerrouge]

I wonder if the supplement is merely a vehicle for the model contest, or something that'll evolve into a proper magazine of its own (vogue.co.uk)

TEEN TATLER, a supplement set to be published alongside Tatler magazine in September this year, is also launching a new model competition in association with Storm Model Management.

The magazine is searching for boys or girls aged 16 to 19 to be the face of Teen Tatler and, as well as appearing on the cover, the winner will also have the chance to be secure a contract with one of the fashion industry's most famous model agencies, Storm - which represents models including Kate Moss, Lily Donaldson and Jourdan Dunn.

"I still love the discovery of new faces and this is such an integral part of what I do, so working with Tatler to find new faces is both great fun and important," Storm Model Management founder, and member of the competition's judging panel, Sarah Doukas said. "I have a feeling that we are going to be mentoring some incredible boys and girls, discovered as a direct result of this competition."

Joining Doukas on the judging panel are designer Mark Fast and Tatler editor Kate Reardon.

"Our search to find the face of Teen Tatler is all about unearthing some of Britain's hidden youthful gorgeousness," Reardon said. "Tatler has a long history of spotting stars in virtual infancy, now we're rummaging around for even more."

 

[tigerrouge]

Thrilling talk about page display, but this is the sort of mundane stuff that someone has to solve behind-the-scenes in order to bring the glossy dream to the reader... but sometimes solving the technical problems is more satisfying than seeing the end result (wbir.com

Why do magazines look so bad on the new iPad?

By Lauren Indvik, Mashable

(Mashable) -- As with any high-profile product release, Apple's new iPad device has been peppered with complaints since reaching consumers' hands on March 16. Among them: that magazines look terrible on the iPad 3's high-resolution display.

The complaints were first brought to light by Tumblr blogger Jamie Billett. He pointed out that in the New Yorker's iPad app, the text on some pages is rendered as HTML, and the text on other pages is rendered as an image (.png) file.

The latter pages now appear "badly aliased" -- i.e. conspicuously pixelated -- throughout the app because the images haven't been formatted to accommodate the iPad 3's 2048 x 1536-pixel resolution, he complains. (The iPad 2, by comparison, has a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels.)

The New Yorker and other Conde Nast title have taken the heat for looking poor under the new display, but they're not alone. Titles from other magazine publishers -- we looked at Time magazine and Sports Illustrated from Time Inc., and at Esquire and O: The Oprah Magazine from Hearst -- all suffered from the same problems.

The only exception? Vogue, which launched its iPad edition the same day the iPad 3 hit stores. The title planned its debut in conjunction with the tablet's release, and thus was able to optimize for the iPad's "retina display" ahead of time, a Conde Nast spokesperson told us.

The spokesperson added that the company is "working to optimize the rest of our digital edition portfolio over the next few weeks."

But what will the 'optimization' process entail? How much will it increase file sizes? (We noticed, for instance, that Vogue's premiere issue was a full 408 megabytes on the iPad 3, and less than 300 on the iPad 2.)

We spoke with Zeke Koch, senior director of product management of Adobe's digital publishing arm, to find out. Adobe's software powers all of Conde Nast's editions for tablets.

Magazine publishers who use Adobe's software all begin with InDesign to develop layouts, Koch explained. Those layouts can then be exported in three different kinds of formats: as images (.png or .jpg), PDF or HTML.

Different kinds of files -- images, for instance, or video and audio files -- are embedded within those larger file types.

Since magazines began publishing on tablets, "virtually all" publishers have chosen to export their digital editions as PNG (.png) files, Koch said. "The primary reason they did that is because the fidelity is perfect.

What you see on the desktop when you're designing is exactly what you see on the iPad when you're finished. Images are the fastest thing to load, and if you're trying to create a quick, effortless browsing experience, images are the way to do that," he explained.

"That was okay when there was only one screen size -- when you were just working with the iPad 1 and 2," he added. "When the iPad 3 came out, you were now dealing with a device with four times as many pixels."

The iPad 3 applies an anti-aliasing filter to all low-resolution content, which blurs images ever so slightly. As a result, photographs still look about the same on the iPad 3, but the text looks a lot worse -- i.e., visibly blurry, or pixelated.

What Vogue did -- and what all other titles will have to do in the coming weeks -- is begin exporting their digital editions as PDFs, said Koch.

But what about file size? I pointed out to Koch that Vogue was nearly as large as Wired's first issue for the original iPad. Unfortunately, he said, magazine files will be larger for iPad 3 readers because the image and video files need to be delivered at a higher resolution.

Owners of first and second-generation iPads will still be able to download smaller, lower-resolution files, however. A magazine that is around 400 megabytes on the iPad 3 will be around 280 megabytes on the iPad 1 and 2, Koch said.

But why not render in HTML? I asked Koch. Wouldn't that make the files smaller, and give readers the added benefit of selectable text?

Koch claimed that publishing in HTML wouldn't substantially reduce the file sizes. "In both cases, you have a bunch of words, and descriptions of where things should be, and multimedia. Those multimedia files are still the same size."

He said the big disadvantage with HTML is that it's "not very good at layout out things predictably and perfectly." Rather, it's optimal for helping people create content that will adapt to any size screen.

Ultimately, however, Koch believes most publishers will move to HTML as standards improve and as publishers move to publish on a wider range of tablets.

So there you have it. Magazine readers need not despair about the appearances of their magazines for too much longer, as publishers are working to optimize their editions. The fix is relatively simple: publishers will have to increase the resolution of their image and video files, and export their digital editions as PDFs.

iPad 3 owners will have to suffer longer download times, and won't be able to store as many magazines on their devices as iPad 1 and 2 owners, but that's the price one pays for a visually stunning reading experience, no?

 

[Thefrenchy]

Just like e-books, I find the idea of digital magazines absolutely awful. A nice fashion magazine is something with a soul, something you can collect. You enjoy flicking through it and putting it back on the shelf, you enjoy the different paper when there is, it's something very special. Reading it on an i-Pad will never bring all that.

 

[envogueforever]

^ Amen.