The Business of Magazines

[tigerrouge]

I'd welcome that too - she comes from a time when editors really understood how to build a relationship with their readers, whatever the subject matter.

 

[ellastica]

Shocking SELF's supermodels parading as fitness role models (post delusional editorial rib-cage airbrushing, late blooming workout fanatics at that) wasn't part of the modern woman's vision for fulfillment

I wish I was cool enough to say I read Sassy but I was a seventeen reader in the 90s lol. But I remember JANE fondly and welcome Pratts's energizing, liberating ethos for InStyle, however long her tenure.

 

[tigerrouge]

The new Self had a nice clean design, but zero appeal to me, as a woman.

But I generally have no time for female fitness magazines (or media) in general, because the content is a constant repetition of 'get your best body ever by following this diet and exercise regime!'.... as illustrated by someone with low body fat and breast implants. Always with the breast implants. Being superfit and small-chested just isn't part of the picture, and that feels fundamentally wrong to me.

 

[Deleted member 141523]

Franca has a movie!

Source: Vogue Italia Instagram

 

[ThatGuyPaul]

September UK editions of Vogue, Marie Claire and Esquire are all on special offer this year.

 

[Benn98]

Well, well, well......
There's no way CN could have inked a similar deal with her? My guess is there must be some bad blood between them.

The move sounds like a good idea to me. First Carine styling for global issues of HB, now Linda styling for fashion titles across their board. She's got the legitimacy to back this up, so what's not to like! Doubt we'll see Carter Smith shooting for CN again...

Hearst Magazines Introduces The Linda Wells Report
By Sydney Sadick | August 10, 2016

Linda Wells’ latest venture since leaving Condé Nast (where she was founding editor of Allure) has launched today. Enter Hearst Magazines’s first cross-brand beauty feature—a 16-page section called “Pots of Gold” that focuses on luxe beauty and Wells’ personal product recommendations. Portraits of mod Ondria Hardin centered around red and gold makeup is also in the insert, along with an essay penned by Wells on what constitutes luxury in beauty today. “This project represents everything I love about beauty and media,” Wells said in a release. “I was able to report trends, test products, conceive the visuals, and sink my teeth into writing. It also allowed me to indulge my appetite for luxury products, which have never been so elaborate or so flat-out luxurious as they are today.”

The feature, which was photographed by Carter Smith and styled by Paul Cavaco (two creatives who have a long history of working with Wells), will run in 1 million select subscriber copies of the September issues of Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Elle, and Town & Country. Others involved in the shoot include Hung Vanngo on makeup and Sheril Bailey on nails, and Estée Lauder Companies acted as the sole advertising partner for the editorial section, including Estée Lauder, Clinique, and La Mer.

“We like to partner with truly creative editorial authorities who we can work with across brands or countries to create something really special,” said Michael Clinton, Hearst Magazines president of marketing and publishing director. “Linda is incredibly talented, respected and beloved, and her Report is going to dazzle our readers visually while giving them plenty of information on the best luxury beauty products around.”

Source: http://fashionweekdaily.com/hearst-magazines-introduces-the-linda-wells-report/

 

[Benn98]

The Gentlewoman’s Penny Martin on evolving a magazine and making great covers
By Angharad Lewis 9th August 2016

Design writer and tutor Angharad Lewis’ new book So you want to publish a magazine? offers an in-depth guide to launching a new publication. In the second of a series of extracts from the book, Lewis talks to Penny Martin, editor-in-chief of The Gentlewoman

So you want to publish a magazine? is packed with advice for aspiring publishers. The book covers every aspect of launching a new title – from developing an initial concept to working with advertisers, printers and distributors – and each chapter contains case studies on successful magazines and interviews with industry experts. In our second extract from the book, Angharad Lewis talks to Penny Martin, editor-in-chief of The Gentlewoman, about creating great covers and trying to make each issue better than the last…

The biannual women’s magazine The Gentlewoman was launched in 2010 by the publisher of Fantastic Man, writes Angharad Lewis. Defying conventions about women’s magazines and fashion titles, it has carved out a unique place in the publishing firmament with intelligent, witty journalism, exemplary standards in design and photography, and a focus on real women’s lives, rather than products and slavish adherence to commercial fashion cycles. At the helm is Penny Martin, a former academic, a curator and previously editor-in-chief of the pioneering fashion website SHOWstudio

Is the cover the hardest bit [of putting the magazine together]?

Well, if I say ‘the Beyoncé issue’ or the ‘Adele issue’, that cover image comes to represent an entire six months of work – all ten interviews, seven essays and eight fashion stories. So it’s a crucial symbol. Plus there’s a long stretch of shelf life from one issue to the next, so you have to feel confident that you’ll want to live through the production process with that cover, and then live through the following six months of it being on the newsstand and in the image at the foot of your email. It’s the person you’re constantly interviewed about; you end up having a really intimate relationship with the cover star, whether you personally interviewed her or not.

You’ve achieved a few surprises and talking points with your covers. The Angela Lansbury cover [no. 6, Autumn/Winter 2012] is cited a lot for featuring an 86-year-old woman. Are you breaking expectations about fashion publishing?

Well, she’d been on my list since I first had my job interview, so it wasn’t a case of ‘Wow, wouldn’t we capture media attention with her?’ I just knew it would be a brilliant shoot. And it’s great that she’s been so much in the public imagination since the issue came out: she got her honorary Oscar [Academy Honorary Award, 2013], she got her damehood [Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire ‘for services to drama and to charitable work and philanthropy’, 2014], she’s been on in the West End [Driving Miss Daisy, 2013; Blithe Spirit, 2014]. It’s been wonderful that we got mixed up with that late-career renaissance; it’s been to our huge advantage. That image – you wouldn’t believe the number of people who stop me to talk about it.

Adele was another turning point for us, because she really came to mass prominence around the time that third issue was out [Spring/Summer 2011], when her album sold all those millions of copies and she won big at the Brits. It really clarified our position on the whole plus-size topic, which was always going to be an issue for us, as a women’s magazine, without us even having to acknowledge it. You know, we featured Adele and Angela because they’re brilliant at what they do and they’re really lovely women, not because of their size or age. But it’s really nice to think that, rather than exploiting them to stage some phoney debate, those covers turned them into contemporary fashion icons.

How do you keep the magazine evolving?

If an outsider came to the first editorial meeting after an issue is back from the printers, they’d think none of us liked the magazine – ‘That was a disaster, this didn’t work …’ – but it’s just that we’re Scottish and German and Dutch and that’s how candid and fanatical it is in here. Everyone’s completely focused on making sure each issue’s better than the last. That said, I’ve found at other places I’ve worked that you’ve got to learn to make space for pleasure and joy as well as for critique and perfectionism, otherwise it can be a bit destructive.

You have certain carefully defined aspects visually and editorially in the structure of the magazine, but there is also evolution. How much was that intended from the start?

It’s in the character of the people who work here that we never want to repeat things; if we have editorial formats, we don’t want them to become too fixed. Some can be great, like the ‘Modernisms’ interviews at the beginning of the magazine. We ran those in the first two or three issues and then began to wonder if we should change that section, but we decided [not to], that they were our equivalent of shopping pages, except that they prioritized conversation over product. It’s an important distinction. There are components of a grid, but the magazine pretty much gets redesigned from scratch every time, when the assets come in. You can be far more experimental that way. And Jop and Veronica have very high standards. They come from a Dutch graphic-design background, which means their approach is very editorially led.

I think it’s rare to have art directors who find it necessary to understand and to some extent shape the editorial direction. And then they’ve got an editor who was very involved in photography [Martin was a curator at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, as well as working with Nick Knight on SHOWstudio]. It’s a very luxurious situation, where we’re able to step on one another’s toes a little bit – it’s not too departmental or territorial.

What are the key things for an aspiring magazine to get right for a launch issue?

You just need a really good idea that’s very clearly expressed. Not everybody is going to see that issue, but if you get it right, it will act as a kind of mission statement for your readers and your team.

Source: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/the-gentlewomans-penny-martin-on-evolving-a-magazine-and-making-great-covers/

 

[honeycombchild]

Pretty much all the UK September issues have reduced cover prices this year. Harper's is full price however you can buy a pack with British Elle, Red and Harper's for £6. Even Vogue has reduced it's cover price for the September issue. I think that's the first time I have seen them have to do promotion on a September issue. You can pick it up for £2.

 

[Benn98]

I'm holding out for a similar multi-offer with Tatler, but I doubt it will happen. The magazine is now officially my guilty pleasure. Everything is just so funny, preposterous and out of touch......for me, at least.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Yeah its tough out there for UK titles, but UK Vogue is holding up nicely (isn't their Oct issue always more expensive these days? Due to Miss Vogue?). I bet that June issue got them a huge bump:

British Titles Put On Mixed ABC Performance
By Lorelei Marfil

LONDON — The British women’s fashion magazine sector edged down in the first half, with titles including InStyle, Marie Claire and Glamour seeing drops in circulation.


According to the U.K.’s Audit Bureau of Circulations, which published the figures on Thursday, the overall circulation figure for women’s fashion titles declined 1.9 percent year-on-year, to 5.32 million for print and digital. Print circulation for the sector fell 2 percent, while digital circulation was up 6.7 percent.


Among the women’s titles that saw their combined digital and print circulations rise were Cosmopolitan, published by Hearst Magazines U.K. Circulation climbed 59.9 percent year-on-year to 413,155 following a successful relaunch last year. Good Housekeeping was up 10 percent to 444,941, while Elle grew 4.7 percent to 171,874, followed by Harper’s Bazaar, 4.4 percent to 110,710.


Cosmopolitan said circulation also increased due to the launch of a new marketing and distribution strategy, including new distribution routes such as “pick-up” and “pop-up” spaces at shopping centers, movie theaters, festivals and selected airport gates and gyms.


Elle U.K. and Harper’s Bazaar U.K.’s figures were also up due to marketing efforts. Elle collaborated with retailers such as Lookfantastic.com, Space NK and Matchesfashion.com, while Harper’s Bazaar partnered with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts and the Victoria Miro Gallery. The latter title also took part in events including the Chelsea Flower Show, Canary Wharf Weekend Treat and Masterpiece London.


“It is extremely encouraging to see that our dynamic new routes to market are working,” said Hearst Magazines U.K. chief executive officer Anna Jones.


“Cosmopolitan was the first brand to lead this strategy last year, and the brand continues to grow. Whether in print, digital — including the hugely successful Snapchat platform — or through large-scale consumer events, Cosmopolitan can reach young women on a scale that very few brands can. Our clients are using the brand to target the Millennial audience, culminating in projects such as The Edge for Estée Lauder, a bespoke digital pop-up aimed at promoting The Estée Edit to Millennials.”

At Condé Nast, Tatler’s combined figure rose 6.4 percent to 84,515, while Vanity Fair was up 5.5 percent to 80,083. Vogue U.K.’s edged up 2.3 percent to 195,053. The publication, which is celebrating its centenary this year, mounted its Vogue 100: A Century of Style exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery earlier in the year, which drew 152,290 visitors. Later this fall, BBC2 will be broadcasting two 60-minute documentaries focused on the anniversary.

Glamour, which has been struggling for a while, fell 18.9 percent to 300,063 as it endeavors to speak to its Millennial audience.
Time Inc. U.K.’s Look retreated 30.3 percent to 91,902, while InStyle fell 18 percent to 123,076. Marie Claire was down 11.1 percent 165,362.
Men’s lifestyle titles as a sector grew, with the category’s combined digital and print circulation up 22.2 percent to 1.68 million. Hearst’s Esquire climbed 14.5 percent to 64,712 while Condé Nast’s GQ was up 2.3 percent to 117,039. The men’s web site revamped its mobile platform and launched its GQ Video channel. Wired edged up 0.1 percent to 54,094 in its combined circulation year-on-year.

wwd.com

 

[Benn98]

Thanks for posting this, Miss D!!

No wonder Elle can afford to push up prices in this climate, that's quite a growth for them. It's baffling to me because InStyle's numbers, who is somewhat of a competitor, declined.

Harper's is proof that when you define your demographic through your content and relevant partnerships, things will go twice as well. Very impressed!

I'd have liked to know what the exact figure was for UK Vogue June.

 

[tigerrouge]

I'm impressed by UK HB as well, because it's not a universally appealing magazine, I can't imagine teenagers buying it. But it's reached out and worked hard with truly appropriate partners.

Conde Nast did seem to launch an aggressive subscription strategy a while ago to get the numbers up for a lot of those titles, because I'm on one- and two-year deals for a range of them, where the price-per-issue is £1 or much less.

Glamour, I don't know, it's got a lot going for it, but maybe it just doesn't have enough glamour. Cosmo is now as cheap, and usually has a much more dynamic cover shot.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Bazaar numbers are impressive, for them! Which is ironic, because i think the magazine has never been more stale, and insipid than now under Picardie! Go figure!

 

[honeycombchild]

Cosmopolitan's increase isn't something to be impressed with at all, they reduced their cover price to £1, making them by far the cheapest of the monthlies on the newsstand, so is there any wonder!

 

[Marc10]

Alex Fury was named Chief Fashion Correspondent of T Magazine

 

[Benn98]

My takeaway from this article...Cara sells, Kendall did ok for HB but it was a dual month issue, and Bella Hadid performed so poorly for Elle!

Very shocked at SJP's figures though......

The September Mag Dance: The Good, the Bad and the Forgettable
By Alexandra Steigrad on August 22, 2016

WWD asked creative directors their thoughts on September covers, while also providing an analysis of how the stars sell on the newsstand.

There is no greater month than September for fashion magazines. Thick with advertising pages, they kick off a new season of collections, and in a sense, reassert the tone for the vision of the magazine as put forth by the editors. And there is arguably no better real estate for a celebrity or model than the cover of the top fashion magazines. But with the newsstand waning in its influence as reading habits shift from print to digital, there’s the question of whether September covers — or any covers — actually matter as much as they used to.

WWD posed that question to a handful of creative directors and asked them to evaluate the September covers of the leading women’s fashion magazines. At the same time, we took a look at how social media has responded to the covers and how the celebrities have performed in recent issues of rival magazines at retail.

VOGUE
Star: Kendall Jenner

Instagram likes for the cover: 153,002 (as of 8/19/16)

Comments: 2,943 comments that include a mix of praise and disappointment of Vogue’s choice of model. Popular hashtag: “#ripvogue.”

Recent sales: Harper’s Bazaar featured Jenner on its June cover, which sold 116,128 at the newsstand, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. In the second half of last year, Bazaar averaged sales of 110,745.

The Pros:

Richard Kirshenbaum, NSG/SWAT: “It’s not about what I think. Kendall Jenner is about girls her age and she’s one of the biggest stars. She’s relevant. I love the styling. I love the cover. Kendall Jenner really matters to this generation. It’s an interesting choice. It’s a huge cover. They’ve knighted her as the ‘It Girl.’”

Sam Shahid, Shahid & Co.: “Magazines aren’t the trendsetters they used to be…the Vogue reader, they don’t care [about the social following of Jenner]. Regarding the importance of this following…look, everyone knows who Kendall Jenner is…Vogue is sort of behind the impact of it all. They are followers, not leading the conversation.”

Trey Laird, Laird + Partners: “I think Vogue is being savvy. I think it’s stepping up and saying, ‘This is the world we live in’ and it’s saying, ‘How do we make the magazine relevant?’ Kendall is super relevant. It was an elevated fashion shoot. The interview was in-depth and personal, not a gossipy thing. I think that’s the magic of Anna [Wintour] — she’s savvy. She’s not going to b—h about the downfall of culture. She’s creating it. She’s going to do it on her own terms — whether that’s the Met Ball or the September cover. This is the world we live in.”

Charles DeCaro, Laspata/ DeCaro: “Best thing about it was Garren’s haircut on Kendall. I wish it wasn’t photographed on gray. The edit on location was more visually intrusive.”

Peter Arnell, founder of the Arnell Group: “Magazines today are reflecting with great interest and extreme detail the way media has shifted, and they are utilizing September with their covers to acknowledge and to voice the way the social media world has overtaken so much of communication in our society.”

HARPER’S BAZAAR:
Stars: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West

Instagram likes: 17,815

Comments: 737 comments reflecting a mixed bag of emotions that ranged from the simple “beautiful” and the sarcastic “was Snookie unavailable?” to more pointed criticism: “Please stop publicizing them. They’re famous for their ignorance.”

Recent sales: The last time Kim and Kayne were on a cover together was on Vogue’s April 2014 issue, which sold 266,374 copies at retail. That issue was Vogue’s best on the newsstand in 2014, which averaged 214,705 in sales. But the newsstand has slipped since with second-half sales in 2015 averaging 137,975, a 35.7 percent drop.

The Pros:

DeCaro: “PLEASE…not these two again!!!”

Kirshenbaum: “I love the Kim and Kayne cover. It’s really graphic. I love the typography. I love the graphic nature of how they are posed together.”

Shahid: “Kim and Kayne’s cover, it’s contrived, posed, trying very hard to surprise you. I don’t know what it is. Magazines right now don’t have a great positive reaction. Who does Vogue put on the cover? Who does Bazaar put on the cover? [Editors putting Kardashians on their covers] is a cheap shot [for sales]. I’m not very sure the editors believe in what they are doing. If they don’t believe in it, why should we believe in it? There has to be a reason why newsstand sales are so down? Everyone looks at social media…how many followers. I don’t think anyone cares anymore, there’s so much imagery right now. Instagram, Snapchat, it’s going to replace the print. I’m sad about it. “

Anonymous creative director: “Meh. It’s neither commercial like Vogue’s cover nor artistic like the W cover of Rihanna.”

W
Star: Rihanna

Instagram likes: 23,695

Comments: 224 comments, the majority of which are positive — “Amazing,“ WOW,” and many heart emojis.

Recent sales: RiRi was last on Vogue’s April cover, which sold 131,022 copies. For second half of 2015, Vogue averaged sales of 137,975.

The Pros:

DeCaro: “The most eye-catching of the lot.”

Laird: “The Rihanna cover was like the stamp of the queen reimagined. W is so strong when it’s not about the newsstand in a mainstream way…but when it’s about a concept. This is one of the strongest covers they’ve done. Rhianna is so powerful. This cover felt like an idea.”

Shahid: “It is most interesting but I wonder what happens with it [on the newsstand]. All the other major magazines look the same. They all have the same face. They are all smiling looking at you. This cover harkens back to creativity, less coverlines.”

Kirshenbaum: “My favorite cover of all, I think, is W. It doesn’t look like the same-old-same-old. What generally happens is there’s a format to the covers and they tend to be like wallpaper…you walk by. Fashion is fun again. It’s emblematic of that. You have an amazing star and an amazing photographer. It’s incredibly graphic. Everything about it is fantastic.”



GLAMOUR
Star: Bella Hadid

Instagram likes: 4,306

Comments: Only 31 comments, but they are largely positive, and include kudos on the “throwback” feel of the cover. “I’m actually digging this cover cause it’s a Nineties vibe,” one user said. Another disagreed: “I love Bella but this cover makes me think of Dracula.”

Recent sales: Hadid most recently fronted Elle’s June issue, which sold 66,018 copies. It was a particularly bad seller for Elle, which sold 102,576 copies on average during the second part of last year.

The Pros:

Kirshenbaum: “I think it’s nice…but I think the world we live in is so cluttered. [Aside from W, Vogue and Bazaar], the others are just nice.”

Arnell: “All of these covers are built by the best editors and art directors in the world. There is no question that these covers and these magazines align with and then adapt to pop culture.”

Shahid: “Bella Hadid? They think it might sell because they are the new stars of fashion. How many more Hadids do we need on the cover?”

Anonymous: “I love Bella but I didn’t remember the cover. The story inside [called “American Women Now”] was very strong about the different types of beauty.”


ELLE
Star: Cara Delevingne

Instagram likes: 13,216

Comments: Of the 96 comments, Elle largely got a thumbs-up rating from fans with the majority congratulating the glossy for its choice of cover star and its styling of the model/actress.

Recent sales: Delevingne fronted W’s June/July cover, which sold 9,121 copies. For the second half of last year, W sold 8,848 copies.

The Pros:

Kirshenbaum: “I think she’s nice. I like all the covers. But I think there are ones that stand out. I’m talking about the ones that are memorable. Kendall Jenner, Rihanna and Kim and Kanye are memorable.”

DeCaro: “Better to have the Eighties remain a distant memory.”

Anonymous: “I like Cara but it felt too commercial.”



MARIE CLAIRE
Star: Sarah Jessica Parker

Instagram likes: 5,294

Comments: Verdict from the 51 commenters is generally good with many complimenting the cover.

Recent sales: SJP last appeared on Bazaar’s October 2015 cover. That issue sold 96,543 copies on the newsstand, which is below Bazaar’s six month average in 2015 of 110,745 copies sold.

The Pros:

Kirshenbaum: “I think people love her and she’s a fashion icon. It could translate to sales.”

DeCaro: “I love SJP and feel there will always be a place for her in the pantheon of fashion.”

Shahid: “Who really cares about Sarah Jessica Parker? Talk about a throwback. There seems to be some desperation in the print world.”



INSTYLE
Star: Kerry Washington

Instagram likes: 4,230

Comments: Generally positive “reviews” from the 61 commenters with several praising Washington’s appearance on the cover.

Recent sales:. Elle put Washington on its April cover, which sold 70,990 on the newsstand. This compared with Elle’s second half average of 102,576 copies sold on the newsstand.

The Pros:

DeCaro: “I already forgot the cover.”

Anonymous: “It could be anything. To me, it’s like, whatever.”

Arnell: “They all looked like more covers. They all looked like they were on the hot topics. I hardly look at magazine covers because I do everything online. The world has changed, therefore the energies they are trying to live up to is the fast bit world.”

The Big Question: Do September covers still matter?

Laird: “Yes, especially in a time when their validity and reach are being questioned. But, I think just step up and do something exciting and idea-driven. Get back to a time when you drove the news, when you created the news rather than, ‘This celebrity is coming out with a project and we shot her in a Dior dress so Dior gets a credit.’ It’s kind of like perpetuating the problem. I don’t think it’s making the industry or a magazine more relevant or more exciting.”

Shahid: “They don’t matter anymore with all this social media going on. They don’t have the impact they used to, and there are too many coverlines. I don’t know what would make them important today. Magazines aren’t the trendsetters they used to be.”

DeCaro: “I want to believe these bibles of fashion are still relevant and resonate with the consumer. Most importantly, will these covers prompt someone not only to buy the magazine, but inspire them to purchase the fashions featured? Let’s face it — there is an associated sense of stability in knowing that a magazine still has the added value of weighing down a stack of papers by an open window.”

Source: http://wwd.com/media-news/fashion-memopad/reviews-of-september-covers-vogue-bazaar-elle-glamour-instyle-10510899/

 

[Nymphaea]

^Recent sales are very interesting to read, most of them are lower than the average. And wow, US Vogue isn't selling well overall.

Thanks Benn for sharing.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

So it seems Laura is leaving HB for InStyle takeover from Ariel, the last person i thought for the role! She could really do great, and now Glenda will be even more lost:

http://wwd.com/media-news/fashion-m...to-be-named-instyle-editor-in-chief-10511644/

 

[Marc10]

I'm still sad that Ariel is leaving, he was doing such a fantastic job there. And speaking of HB, would love if he takes over and clean that mess....

 

[Srdjan]

That's bad news for HB, Laura was one the creative one there, imo. I doubt they'll ever replace Glenda. She's like Anna, deeply respected in the corporation.