The Business of Magazines

[MissMagAddict]

Source | WWD

Magazine Circulation Falls in Half

By Irin Carmon

The phrase “flat is the new up” became a mantra in recent years when it came to assessing newsstand sales. Well, as core fashion titles, women’s service books and men’s magazines have almost universally posted declines in their single-copy sales in the first half of 2008, how does “less down is the new up” sound?

To wit, Hachette Filipacchi Media’s Tom Masterson, senior vice president for consumer marketing and manufacturing, pointed out that, while Elle’s newsstand was down 6.3 percent in the first six months, “many of Elle’s competitors decreased more.”

That’s true — Vogue was down nearly 15 percent, though it still outsells Elle on the newsstand by an average of about 50,000 copies monthly; Harper’s Bazaar fell 8.3 percent, and W, which gets the vast majority of sales through subscription, was down 10 percent.

Or take Shape, which was down about 10 percent overall on the newsstand in the first half, but still averaged higher total sales than the troubled fitness category in general. (Self had the dubious honor of being less down, but is still smaller; Shape has beefed up its distribution at checkout and added 17,000 pockets nationwide.)

Growing market share might be the last remaining competitive advantage in an environment where nearly every editor in chief is seeing the kind of declines that once would have gotten them fired. The long-standing expectation that a healthy magazine is one that sees successive growth on the newsstand is in question — you can’t exactly fire everyone.

Whether the change is cyclical (uncertain economic times that include high gas prices, fewer supermarket trips and less disposable income) or secular (consumer behavior is undergoing a fundamental change away from newsstand, or from print magazines themselves) depends on whom you ask. Editors and publishers would have it be the former.

“I don’t think newsstand softness is systemic to magazines, but rather systemic to the economy,” said O, The Oprah Magazine publisher Jill Seelig.

But some advertisers and observers are beginning to wonder whether the second diagnosis is upon us. As consumers’ attention fractures, spoiled by choice and easy digital access, the culture and entertainment industries already have adjusted their expectations, counting smaller sales numbers than ever as blockbusters. The magazine industry might be falling prey to the same tectonic shift.

Several magazines, such as Glamour and Marie Claire, have seen disappointing sales for several periods in a row, even when the economy was flush, suggesting more of an overall move away from big women’s titles. (Perhaps in reaction, Glamour unveiled a redesign this month.) Even newsstand stalwart Cosmopolitan dropped 6 percent in this period, a difference of more than 100,000 copies, after essentially flat newsstand sales since 2004.

The only source of growth across the board has been in total circulation, which, given the newsstand declines, usually means that publishers are spending more than ever to build and maintain their subscriber bases. And advertisers are traditionally more skeptical of that kind of audience-building, given publishers’ past practices of steeply discounting subscriptions.

That Men’s Vogue’s newsstand is down 39.1 percent, for example, even as it’s raising its rate base to 400,000, can be explained several ways: first, that it suffers from an apples-and-oranges comparison between five issues published in the first half of 2008 and three in the first half of 2007; second, and more significantly, that it’s growing its audience the expensive way, through subscriptions, and not wowing on the newsstand.

The title also has upped its verified circulation (bulk copies in public places) by 43.6 percent since last year. A spokeswoman said, “Men’s Vogue continues to take risks on covers to recognize accomplishment over celebrity.” Case in point: the model-free Bugatti cover in May, which sold 45,000 copies, according to Rapid Report. (That was still better than the worst cover to date, April with Alex Rodriguez, at 41,000.)

As such, given the flood of negative newsstand figures in the first half, the few examples of uptick in sales should be particularly celebratory — among them, In Style, which, whether you consider it a core fashion title or a peer of Glamour and Marie Claire, was the only one in either group to see any rise in newsstand, by 4 percent to 783,254. That’s before the recently unveiled redesign was even tested on the newsstand.

And Rodale’s David Zinczenko showed once again that he can put his money where his mouth is, maintaining Men’s Health’s position as the number-one newsstand seller in the men’s category with a 2 percent growth, and having a hand in two newer magazines, which also have seen good news: Women’s Health, with its 12 percent rise, and Best Life, up almost 20 percent. Maybe that’s why Men’s Health Living has been given a go-ahead in a tough environment for shelter magazines.

So, do the steep declines serve as a harbinger of equally sharp falls in advertising revenue as firms seek other media? Well, for now, media buyers seem to be seeing the big picture. “I don’t think we would have seen these types of declines if the economy had been in a different place,” said Robin Steinberg, senior vice president and director of print investment and activation at MediaVest. “We would have seen some declines, but not deep declines.” That said, she added: “The future of magazines is not going to have the same distribution exposure as in years past,” as the business model shifts from emphasizing the number of eyeballs to assessing quality of audience.

And media companies are experimenting with new distribution tools such as Maghound, the so-called “Netflix for magazines” launching in September. A subsidiary of Time Inc., Maghound will allow consumers to switch in and out titles for a flat monthly fee, and around 300 titles have signed up so far.

Magazine publishers also are trying to figure out how to leverage their Web sites to build a subscription base — a potentially more efficient, or at least cheaper, way to add subscribers than direct mail or verified circulation. Hearst magazines in particular — many of which tend to be big, single-copy-heavy titles in an age of grim newsstand — have suggested this as a winning strategy. In the face of a newsstand decline of 17.3 percent, for example, Oprah’s Seelig pointed to the fact that the magazine hasn’t had to resort to verified circulation and that subscriptions were up 7 percent, in part because “we played around with the subscription offers on Oprah.com.”

She added, “The simple truth is consumers are not going to the places where our magazines are sold as frequently as they were,” i.e., airports, supermarkets, drugstores and other retailers.

That said, the magazine recently saw the exit of editor in chief Amy Gross, billed as voluntary, and new editor of former Golf for Women editor Susan Reed will have to figure out how and if the newsstand can be turned around. George Janson, managing partner/director of print at Mediaedge:cia, said, “Some magazines have reached a natural level of circulation,” pointing to Oprah in particular.

“Magazines are also coming off a period where [advertising] spending and circulation have, for the most part, been flat to up,” added Janson — meaning that what goes up sometimes has to come down.

But if the latest newsstand numbers prove to be long-term indicators, publishers could be faced with hard choices, such as cutting rate bases or rethinking their distribution models. “As content becomes free on the Internet, I question whether or not the future of magazines will be opt-in and nonpaid,” said Steinberg.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Source | WWD

Vanity Fair’s Elizabeth Saltzman has been given a new title at the magazine — one that will allow her more freedom to work on other projects. Saltzman, who was based in London as the magazine’s international social editor, will become a contributing editor, Vanity Fair said Thursday. She will take on her new role as of Oct. 1, and plans to fill in her time by consulting with fashion and luxury-related brands. Sources close to the magazine speculated the new role could signify a falling out of favor with editor in chief Graydon Carter, but he gave no indication of that in his comments on Saltzman. “We’re delighted that Elizabeth will continue to be a part of Vanity Fair,” Carter said. “She has been a tremendous asset to the magazine, especially in the fashion world, for many years in both New York and London.” Saltzman joined Vanity Fair as fashion editor in 1994 and was promoted to fashion director in 1995. She was named fashion-and-style director at large in 2006, and later that year became international social editor. Prior to joining Vanity Fair, Saltzman worked at Vogue, first as senior fashion editor for eight years, then as a contributing editor.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Woah that Maghound idea sounds interesing i so wonder how will it work?

 

[sethii]

Following the fairly recent launch of South Korean editions of Dazed & Confused and Numero, Nylon has also launched there I found out today. (i think this news is 1 month old )

 

[Deleted member 1957]

Magazine sharing site controversy

from news.yahoo.com

NEW YORK - The magazine industry, already facing a decline in newsstand sales and falling ad revenue, is being besieged by a new foe: digital piracy. A fledgling Web site called http://www.mygazines.com encourages people to copy and upload popular magazines that are currently on newsstands. Visitors can read high-quality digital copies of dozens of current titles, including People, Men's Health and The Economist, in their entirety.

The site, with some 16,000 registered users as of Friday, is a "flagrant" violation of copyright laws, according to legal experts — but it is run by an offshore company of specious origin, making it difficult to shut down.

"It's pretty hard to see how it's anything other than a straightforward set of copyright violations," said Jeffrey Cunard, an intellectual property lawyer with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in Washington. "There are entire magazines with no commentary, no criticism — clearly not a case of classic fair use."

Magazines routinely make some or all of their articles available online for free, but they are in control of how much they release, as well as any advertising they sell. Although visitors to the Mygazines site would presumably see ads run in a magazine's print edition, the publisher is compensated only for authorized, audited circulation.

The Mygazines site said in a July 29 press release announcing its launch that its copies are no different from magazines shared in a doctor's office or salon.

Cunard rejected that argument because the site makes available copies of paid-for content — not the actual product.

"The first-sale doctrine says that once I buy a physical copy of something, I can do whatever I want with it — except copy it," he said.

Several magazine publishers said they are aware of the site and are considering legal action.

"We take our intellectual property seriously and are considering appropriate action on this matter," The Economist said in an e-mail statement.

Dawn Bridges, a spokeswoman for Time Warner Inc.'s Time division, said the publisher of People, Sports Illustrated and other titles is investigating its options, including ways to have the site shut down.

The industry trade group Magazine Publishers of America — which has no legal recourse because it doesn't own the copyrights — said it will support its members' efforts.

The challenge for the magazine publishers is that Mygazines's domain name is registered in the Caribbean island nation of Anguilla, which is a British overseas territory, and thus outside of the jurisdiction of U.S. copyright law.

Publishers could have recourse if the company uses servers physically in the United States. They also could sue the company in U.S. courts because content is available to Americans, but they would not be able to force Mygazines representatives to show up — nor collect any damages for any ruling made in absentia.

Repeated attempts to contact representatives of Mygazines.com went unanswered. Registration records show the domain name is owned by "John Smith" of Salveo Ltd., based in The Valley, Anguilla. The address listed is a post office box, and the phone number rang unanswered. Registration companies require that domain buyers use their actual names and contact information, but the submitted information is rarely checked.

A representative at a London-based company called Salveo Ltd., which sells fitness and beauty products online, said the company did not own or operate the site.

It's not clear how Mygazines would make money. There are no advertisements, and users can register for free.

Nonetheless, that's irrelevant to whether the site would be liable for copyright infringement, Cunard said. Publishers can claim damage because at least a few people will read the content on Mygazines.com instead of going out to buy a copy.

Under federal copyright law, sites like Google Inc.'s YouTube do have some protections from the actions of their users, as long as they take steps to remove content once they become aware of copyright infringement.

But that protection might not cover Mygazines, Cunard said, because the site's operators "are encouraging people to upload copyrighted material."

The U.S. Supreme Court already found Grokster, a file-sharing site, liable for intentionally inducing infringement. Mygazines's home page Friday featured plenty of copyright-protected works, and the company's tag line — "upload. share. archive." — encourages their digital reproduction.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Woah that Maghound idea sounds interesing i so wonder how will it work?

Source | Portfolio

Will This Hound Hunt?

he forces that have made 2008 such a miserable year for newspapers have so far been kinder to the magazine industry. With their big photographs, glossy paper, more deeply reported articles, and less time-sensitive subject matter, magazines generally have been less vulnerable to the internet's pull on consumers—and thus advertisers.

Indeed, newspaper publishers from News Corp. to the Washington Post Co. are starting glossy supplements of their own in hopes of replacing dwindling revenue from classified listings with cash from lucrative display ads.

That doesn't mean everything's hunky-dory in magazine land—as the circulation figures released earlier this week show. Across the industry, newsstand sales were down a startling 6.3 percent, a loss that had to be replaced with expensive giveaway copies. And while there's some debate over how much of the shift is cyclical and how much secular, it's clear that at least some readers are turning away from magazines.

It's against this backdrop that Time Inc.—the Time Warner division responsible for its namesake newsweekly and 125 other magazines, including InStyle, Real Simple, Money, and Golf Magazine—is preparing a major industrywide initiative that just might point the way forward for publishers.

In mid- to late-September, it will unveil Maghound, a new membership service that will allow consumers to pay one price for a flexible mix of monthly magazines.

"Look at TiVo, iTunes, Netflix," Dave Ventresca, president of Maghound Enterprises, says. "They have raised consumer expectations of how much control they should have over their media choices. We haven't seen that kind of innovation in the magazine space. Sending seven or eight renewal notices in the mail and saying 'Time to write a check'—that seems like an antiquated way to do things."

From the consumer's perspective, Maghound will work like this: You choose how many magazines you want to receive each month—three for $4.95, five for $7.95, seven for $9.95, and a dollar each above that. All issues published by those magazines will be sent to you that month.

(Time Inc.'s iconic weeklies—including Time, People, and Sports Illustrated—are also available through Maghound, but because of their increased frequency they will cost more.)

 

[XavierRaphael]

Not sure if this is the rich thread, but what exactly does a fashion editor have to do pertaining to the magazine?

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^^I dont think there is one right anwser to your question, its alll a mix of dumb luck, expirience and talent.

MMA thanks so much for posting that, i am totally fascinated by that idea but what will this mean for the newstand's that sell magazines, it could drastically change the course of magazine selling that we know today, with time of course.

 

[MissMagAddict]

source | fwd

Setting the Standard
Interview to unveil September issue at massive Fashion Week bash

(NEW YORK) The gut-renovated Interview will officially bow at a massive bash on September 4. What venue could ever be chic enough to fête the brainchild of Fabien Baron, Glenn O'Brien and Peter Brant? André Balazs to the rescue. The famed hotelier will open the floodgates at his new Standard Hotel at 848 Washington Street in the Meatpacking district to unveil the September issue, which features Kate Moss on the cover. "The Standard is working overtime to have the space ready for the party," said a source close to the event. "Hopefully, we won't see construction during the big day." And expectations are high. It's not yet clear whether Moss will appear, but the guest list and special performance will be impressive. The trio's tireless supporters like Zac Posen, Francisco Costa, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Tom Sachs, and Jeff Koons will surely drop in--but what about Martin Margiela, who gives the September Interview his first interview in over a decade?

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Hahah it would ROCK if Margiela showed up, of course that aint ever happening.It seems this NY FW will be packed with great parties.

 

[XavierRaphael]

Never really liked thosenartsy fashion magazines I like classics

 

[lucy92]

Magazine Resources Online

Mygazines : though the site technically launched in July. Mygazines allows you to read fully scanned magazines online. All of your favorites are there—Seventeen, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Brides and Oprah—that is, until the publishing industry figures out how to shut down a site registered in the Caribbean island of Anguilla....(from lifehacker)

http://www.mygazines.com

i just tested the site, its running a bit slow but seems to work well.

you can also find old covers at the conde nast store (publisher of mademoiselle, glamour vogue etc.) http://www.condenaststore.com/
they have huge prints of covers for sale as well as photos from fashion shoots. but they are pricey...

 

[XavierRaphael]

Mygazines : though the site technically launched in July. Mygazines allows you to read fully scanned magazines online. All of your favorites are there—Seventeen, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Brides and Oprah—that is, until the publishing industry figures out how to shut down a site registered in the Caribbean island of Anguilla....(from lifehacker)

http://www.mygazines.com

i just tested the site, its running a bit slow but seems to work well.

you can also find old covers at the conde nast store (publisher of mademoiselle, glamour vogue etc.) http://www.condenaststore.com/
they have huge prints of covers for sale as well as photos from fashion shoots. but they are pricey...

Thanks for the Conde Nast Store website!
Im going to deck out my walls with Vogue prints & covers.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Speaking off....did anyone ever get their favourite magazine cover enlarged to poster size?Can it be done?

 

[XavierRaphael]

You can, very expensive.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Source | WWD

BRANT 2.0: Brant Publications Inc. just finished a massive overhaul of its largest title Interview; now the company is focused on making over its Web sites. And Brant has brought in some extra manpower for the job: former elle.com executive editor Keith Pollock will join as executive editor of online and Susan Cappa has been named director of marketing for Brant’s three titles — Interview, Art in America and The Magazine Antiques. Both will join on Sept. 2.

Pollock joined elle.com in May 2007 and was promoted to executive editor of the women’s digital group for Hachette Filipacchi Media, overseeing ellegirl.com, elle.com, premiere.com, womansday.com and pointclickhome.com before leaving the company this spring. At Brant, he will oversee development of the online sites for the three magazines and report to online director Kelly Brant, who joined in April from Green Screen Interactive Software. Interviewmagazine.com is set to relaunch in November or December, and will include daily updated news stories and historical video from The Andy Warhol Museum. Artinamericamagazine.com and themagazineantiques.com will both relaunch in January. Meanwhile, Cappa will head up integrated marketing efforts for all three titles and Web sites and report to group publisher Alan Katz

 

[tigerrouge]

Passing through for half-a-second, just in case nobody had mentioned this - it seems to be a new UK magazine that will collect together content from other, more hard-to-get titles:

Launching a new fashion magazine is a bold move but Distill may have found just the right niche

By Sophie Morris
Monday, 1 September 2008

"It's such a brilliant idea, I was a little peeved I hadn't thought of it myself," admits Colin McDowell, high priest of the fashion press and editor-in-chief of its latest offering, Distill, which hits the newsstands today.

Another magazine, is that really such an insightful idea in a climate where penny-pinching is decidedly the new fox fur? A new launch in a stalling economy is a bold move and needs a convincing raison d'être. In this latter respect, Distill stands out from all the lacquered fashion tomes – and there are many – which promise to cover what the others do not, be that the alternative, the weird, the wacky or the faintly ridiculous.

Instead, it will cover exactly what everyone else is covering. A The Week spin-off for fashionistas, Distill will present a digested read of the style and fashion press from all over the world, offering a shorthand guide to what and who are in fashion, and how those trends are being captured and covered.

It is quite a claim to announce that your team is the one to determine which are the very best stories and images from the style beat, but the Distill crowd is an extremely credible one. Stringers with an inside fashion track, living all over the world, will scour the fashion press and relay their findings to London.

Here, a longlist is drawn up by an editorial team including McDowell, the publishers who came up with the concept – Christopher Lockwood, formerly of Dazed & Confused and Wallpaper so no stranger to mainstreaming high-end design and style, and Matthew Line, an experienced editor of titles including Homes & Gardens and She – editor Helen Johnston and art director Peter Citroni. Then, and this is where Distill either trumps other fashion magazines or displays too willingly the extent to which it is in cahoots with its subjects, an editorial board including top designers Giles Deacon and Matthew Williamson, Design Museum director Dejan Sudjic and Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet, decide which pieces should be included and provide a few words of commentary.

"I want it to be somewhere between Creative Review and Blueprint," says McDowell, "but with the glamour and beauty of the original magazine."

To many British consumers, fashion magazines mean Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar and Grazia. Then, for those with more of a style bent, come Pop, Dazed, i-D and perhaps Vice. Lurking in the lofts used for photoshoots in Manhattan's meatpacking districts, however, atop the hippest of Copenhagen's bars, poking out of design students' bicycle panniers in Amsterdam and lying across the sofas of Buenos Aires' burgeoning coffee shop community, are literally hundreds of publications. These range from the most popular titles from the US, such as W, to obscure Asian and Latin American magazines, fanzines, pamphlets, mailouts and one-off projects. Many of these even most of the staff of Distill have not yet heard of – never mind the lowly British magazine buyer – Soon, Please, Acne Paper, The Room, anyone?

"Fashion is now, in my opinion, promulgated almost entirely to the world by the printed image on the page," says McDowell, pointing out that very few people out of all those interested in fashion actually get to attend the shows. It is not just the designers and their collections, but the continuing story of how these clothes are presented to the world which communicates the industry to its fans, including those who will never own a piece of couture.

"The people that come after the designers are in many ways as important as the designers, and in other ways even more important," he says. "They are the real image makers: the photographers, who are obviously very famous, the stylists who are less famous to the public, and then the hairdressers and all the different people who make a story, and finally, of course, the art editors".

For magazine lovers, the first issue represents the equivalent of a trolley dash to a child in a candy shop. It headlines photoshoots from French magazine NumEro and Hungary's The Room, whose "Fairyland" shoot is a hit with Matthew Williamson, who describes each image as an "aspirational work of art". Some readers will prefer the continuity of a single publication, rather than Distill's cut-and-paste approach.

Being able to buy all the best magazines compressed into one £4.50 package would seem like a great excuse not to splurge on anything else, but publisher Matthew Line insists it will encourage and not suppress sales, as it only offers a snapshot of those included. "We're saying these magazines are worth looking at," he points out. "So it's encouraging people to buy them or take up subscriptions".

The most exciting content, he continues, seems to be coming out of Latin America and Asia, specifically Panama and Korea, hitherto little-known destinations on the global fashion map. "Having worked on this magazine you suddenly realise how big the world is. Yes, fashion tends to coalesce around the world, but it is presented in very different ways. Different countries very much explore their own individual expression".

The Week, a current affairs digest, is regularly cited in these pages as the favourite magazine of those working in the media, but no one has ever blamed falling newspaper sales on its existence. Rather, it builds on and complements a week of newspaper reading. Those working in fashion have Drapers for industry news, but Distill will really celebrate their work rather than simply documenting it – and this sector is not known for being shy about slapping itself on the back.

Aimed at the seven million people who work in fashion and related industries worldwide as well as general consumers, Distill will be distributed in 44 countries, "though you're unlikely to find it in WHSmith in Peckham" deadpans Line. It weighs in at a hefty 200 pages, with the advertising support of luxury brands including Chanel and Armani.

"I'd like to think that it's raising the bar," says Line. "It is getting tougher for style and fashion magazines. I hope seeing what other people are doing will be an inspiration".

McDowell says the magazine will sell its projected 84,500 copies because it is not in competition with any other title. Many are the magazine concepts that have claimed to be inventing an entire new genre, few the successes. Distill, instead of wasting time trying to reinvent the wheel, is exploring what makes it so good in the first place.

source | independent.co.uk

 

[MissMagAddict]

Source | WWD

CUSHY TITLE: The Wall Street Journal isn’t the only broadsheet getting into the magazine game. The New York Observer is poised to toss a new fashion title atop the mounting pile. Jared Kushner, who bought the Observer from Arthur Carter in July 2006, is entering the fashion publishing stakes with Observer Style, a semiannual magazine due to make its debut Nov. 16 and focused on the local fashion scene. “Past magazines have been crappy advertorials, saddle stitched together,” Jenna Hollander-Essig, fashion director of the Observer and its new fashion vehicle, said of the weekly newspaper’s previous forays in the magazine format. “This is our first editorially driven magazine.”

Observer Style is anticipating an 80-page November edition, with ads occupying 15 full pages, an initial rate base of 58,000 readers and primary editorial competition coming from New York magazine. The title will be inserted into all subscriber and newsstand copies of The Observer twice yearly. It also will be carried by boutique hotels in Manhattan, such as the W hotels, The Mercer and 60 Thompson. An online version will go live in November.

 

[Style-Addict]

Haven't been to this thread in a while...yay, lovely articles to read (need a break from working anyway)

thanks missmagaddict!!!!

 

[tigerrouge]

More publishers launching glossy supplements... more new jobs, or more work loaded onto those who have jobs and daren't complain about being stretched, with content to reflect. And for all the talk of being 'editorially driven', it's still going to be totally advertising-led, to recoup revenue lost elsewhere.