The Business of Magazines

[333101]

I'm really sad about this. They produced some amazing content over the years

 

[Benn98]

The writing was on the wall! I know they've produced great content in the past but Baron, Templer and everyone at this magazine continued to push out content which didn't really reflect the contemporary fashion sphere. Kim Kardashian? Too late. Same with the social media covers. I think their last true hit may have been The Photographer's Issue years ago. They should've kept that thematic flow going. Instead we got an endless stream of cookie cutter b&w cover edits featuring movie stars.
But even with that said, W should've been first. I hope this will be a rude awakening for CN.

 

[caioherrero]

Wow that’s so sad!

 

[axiomatic]

Interesting article from artnet news about other Brant publications:

Brant’s company, Brant Publications, also owns Art in America and the Magazine Antiques, which he purchased in 1984 with his first wife, Sandra Brant. (Full disclosure: this reporter worked for Brant Publications, primarily as the editorial assistant for Art in America, from 2010 to 2014, and wrote two online articles for Interview, for which she was never paid.)

The lease on on the publications’ office is up for renewal in November, and the art magazines are expected to continue operating on the premises until then.

Hope Art in America isn't in trouble.

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/andy-warhol-interview-magazine-closes-1289855

 

[caioherrero]

Exclusive: Vanity Fair Names Samira Nasr Executive Fashion Director



Vanity Fair has named Elle’s Samira Nasr executive fashion director.




“Samira’s discerning eye and creative spirit are an inspiration, and we are delighted to have her on board. Please join me in welcoming her to VF,” Vanity Fair editor in chief Radhika Jones said in an announcement that went out to staff Wednesday morning.


Nasr is Elle’s fashion director. Prior to that, she was style director for InStyle. Originally from Montreal, Nasr came to New York for journalism school and got her start in fashion working as an assistant to Grace Coddington at Vogue.

The announcement of Nasr’s hiring comes on the heels of news that Vanity Fair’s fashion director Michael Carl has been let go from the title, along with several others. As executive fashion director, Nasr is filling a new role, essentially combining aspects of the position held by Carl with that held by Jessica Diehl, who stepped down as creative director, fashion and style in March.

Combining top-level positions is one way to keep budgets down — something that Jones was expected to do when she took the position.

Meanwhile, Jones continues to put her stamp on the magazine. The summer issue, which hits newsstands next week, features Emilia Clarke on the cover and represents a visual departure from former editor in chief Graydon Carter’s Vanity Fair.

 

[GivenchyAddict]

Mel Ottenberg is supposed to be the new creative director at Interview... The magazine is far from being gone .

They put the magazine in bankrupt in order to avoid paying stylists, writers etc

 

[axiomatic]

Mel Ottenberg is supposed to be the new creative director at Interview... The magazine is far from being gone .

They put the magazine in bankrupt in order to avoid paying stylists, writers etc

Thanks!

http://https://fashionweekdaily.com/interview-magazine-return/

It looks like Interview magazine might be coming back from the dead after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and shuttering on May 21st. A memo obtained by The Daily and written by Interview publisher Jason Nikic reveals that the magazine will return with a September 2018 issue.

The memo states that editor-in-chief Nick Haramis will return to the helm with Rihanna’s stylist Mel Ottenberg joining the staff as creative director, replacing Karl Templer. “Over the coming weeks, our editorial and creative teams will take the responsibility of making this rebirthed Interview as beautiful, as creative, and as visually stunning as ever,” wrote Nikic. “We are equally committed [to] bringing the same set of creativity, acumen, and devotion to the business of Warhol’s legacy as we have always brought to the editorial side. When we look into our crystal ball, it tells us the future looks bright indeed! And we hope that you, our patrons, continue to have faith in the importance Interview has played in its role as the “Crystal Ball of Pop” by supporting its rebirth and giving this icon a chance to driving pop culture for the next fifty years.”

The full memo is in the linked article

 

[Phuel]

This is neither good news nor bad news.

Ingrid Sischy’s reign without Fabien ushered in the ugliest-looking period of American Interview. Ever.

And now without Fabien and Karl— to be replaced by this Mel person as creative director, Rihanna’s stylists LOL… Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in this magazine’s on again/off again presence.

Interview will remain mercifully dead to me until I see what these people are capable of.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

Wtf!! Fashion publications really are a joke now!! Leave it dead!

 

[nyc_art_style]

This is neither good news nor bad news.

Ingrid Sischy’s reign without Fabien ushered in the ugliest-looking period of American Interview. Ever.

And now without Fabien and Karl— to be replaced by this Mel person as creative director, Rihanna’s stylists LOL… Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in this magazine’s on again/off again presence.

Interview will remain mercifully dead to me until I see what these people are capable of.

LOL Mel has done a lot more than just style Rihanna.

 

[Xone]

and what about all the people they didn't pay?.....

yeah Mel have a vast editorial work....but creative director? mmm i hope he pushed himself very hard to fill the space left by KT otherwise i guess we are gonna see a lot of Rihanna, Steven Klein, etc....

 

[Benn98]

What a joke! They should've just left this magazine in the coffin. I know I said a fashion stylist should resurrect it, but my God, I meant someone with some actual talent. Not Rihanna's personal dresser!

 

[8eight]

UK vogue has a £2 sticker on in my local shop.

And they've just announced that you can subscribe for 12 months for £19.99. a 58% saving....

is #newvogue not selling?

 

[Deleted member 130879]

UK vogue has a £2 sticker on in my local shop.

And they've just announced that you can subscribe for 12 months for £19.99. a 58% saving....

is #newvogue not selling?

Woopsy.

 

[vogue28]

To be fair to Edward Enninful, that exact subscription deal has been out since I started to subscribe a few year back (I’m on that rate as a subscriber) and the magazine was selling for £2 across certain parts of the UK when Alexandra Shulman was EIC too.

 

[Benn98]

Maybe Eight meant that the subscription deal and £2 cost seems a bit odd what with everyone going on about how well the magazine is selling. Edward himself said at Cannes that the sales for Gugu's cover was 'through the roof' which I find hard to believe, but all will be laid bare by ABC very soon.

Other than December, the rest of the issues are retailing at £2 in my area.

 

[axiomatic]

Hearst magazines president retires

From Crain's NY:

David Carey, who has run Hearst Magazines since 2010, announced today that he will be retiring from his position as president in the coming months and will become chairman once his successor is named.

In an interview, Carey said he will remain chairman only through next year—while also attending school as a fellow in Harvard's Advanced Leadership Initiative. The six-month program prepares "experienced leaders to take on new challenges in the social sector," according to its website.

"We've had eight good years, but a job like this is demanding and not something one should do forever," Carey said. "I decided a year ago this is what I wanted to do," he added, referring to the Harvard program. "I just had to get admitted."

Carey has had notable magazine-publishing successes to strengthen his application. He started out at Hearst, helping to found the business publication Smart Money, and then jumped to Condé Nast in the mid-1990s. He became publisher of The New Yorker and brought the storied title to profitability for the first time in nearly two decades. He also launched Condé Nast Portfolio, a lavish business title that had the bad timing to debut in 2007, shortly before the financial crisis.

Carey is leaving at a time of upheaval and consolidation in the once-mighty industry—some of which has benefited the publisher. In January Hearst completed its acquisition of Rodale, adding Men's Health and Runner's World to a stable that includes Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Good Housekeeping.

Carey also spearheaded print launches including The Pioneer Woman Magazine, in partnership with the Food Network. He said its total circulation is approaching 500,000 copies after just one year.

"It shows you the opportunities in the magazine business," he said.

Company profits were down by "low single-digits" in 2017 after four years of earnings growth, he said, a dip he attributed to "issues largely outside the U.S."

"He's been instrumental in keeping Hearst in the top tier of magazine companies at a time when we saw companies like Time Inc. fading away," said Reed Phillips, managing partner at media-investment bank Oaklins DeSilva & Phillips.

Citing his humble origins as the son of a grocery-store cashier clerk, Carey said he looked forward to "creating something that would lift outcomes" for people who haven't been as lucky as he has been.

"I have some ideas of what I would like to do, and I'll spend the year doing research against that and understanding the landscape of social impact," he said.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180625/NEWS/180629941/david-carey-hearst-magazines-president-and-a-former-new-yorker-publisher-is-stepping-down

 

[axiomatic]

Interesting perspective for fashion mag followers...

"AARP Widens Its Lead as America’s Most-Read Magazine"

As it does twice each year, GfK MRI released its latest round of magazine audience estimates—the average per-issue readership among U.S. adults for about 200 of the most widely-read magazines—based on consumer research conducted over a nine-month period.

The Spring 2018 figures—drawn from the two most recent waves of survey data, running from September 2017 to May 2018—reveal that AARP The Magazine has extended its lead over People as America’s most widely-read print magazine pound-for-pound, averaging an estimated 38.6 million readers per issue.

GfK MRI Magazine Audience Estimates, Spring 2018

Top 20 Most-Read Magazines, Per Issue (with year-over-year change

↑ 1. AARP The Magazine: 38.6 million (+0.03%)

↓ 2. People: 35.9 million (–11.2%)

3. Better Homes and Gardens: 32.5 million (–12.8%)

4. National Geographic: 30.4 million (–1.5%)

5. The Costco Connection: 26.3 million (+4.0%)

6. Good Housekeeping: 18.4 million (–6.0%)

7. Reader’s Digest: 16.9 million (–10.9%)

8. TIME: 16.9 million (–4.3%)

9. Sports Illustrated: 16.4 million (–3.0%)

10. Southern Living: 15.2 million (–9.5%)

↑ 11. Woman’s Day: 14.9 million (–5.5%)

↓ 12. Cosmopolitan: 14.2 million (–10.8%)

13. ESPN The Magazine: 13.0 million (–10.5%)

↑ 14. Taste of Home: 12.3 million (+ 0.03%)

15. Country Living: 11.8 million (–11.9%)

↓ 16. Family Circle: 11.8 million (–18.7%)

↑ 17. Food Network Magazine: 11.6 million (–0.05 %)

↓ 18. Men’s Health: 11.4 million (–12.5%)

19. Women’s Health: 10.9 million (–2.4%)

↑ 20. Game Informer: 10.8 million (+4.2%)

http://www.foliomag.com/aarp-widens-its-lead-as-americas-most-read-magazine/

 

[Benn98]

More sleepless nights for Anna. And Radhika is not even 6 months into her redesign. Anna should just get out while the going is (somewhat) good!

I didn't even know that the Best Dressed List was owned by Carter & his colleagues. That was a huge draw for the magazine, I'm keen to see how they'll go without it.

Graydon Carter is launching his own media company

By Alexandra Steigrad June 21, 2018 | 2:16pm | Updated

Revenge may just be the sweetest victory for Graydon Carter.

The legendary magazine editor, less than a year after stepping away from Vanity Fair, is close to launching his own media company, The Post has learned.

Carter’s new company — rumored to be a multi-platform venture centering, at least at first, on wealthy and famous European families, including Britain’s royal family — could take flight before the end of the year, sources familiar with the situation said.

Part of Carter’s new effort will include the International Best Dressed List, which the 65-year-old executive and some pals own. Carter published the list annually in Vanity Fair in recent years.

The Condé Nast title will no longer publish the list.

Carter owns the list along with Aimee Bell, Reinaldo Herrera and Amy Fine Collins, all of whom worked at Vanity Fair under Carter — who headed the title for 25 years.

Carter declined to comment.

Carter’s new company is in talks with TPG Capital, the San Francisco private equity powerhouse, sources said.

TPG, which owns a stake in Vice Media, declined to comment.

“Jim Coulter [TPG co-founder] has been on him to do something for over a year,” one source whispered this week, pointing back to Carter’s somewhat dramatic exit from Condé Nast.

Carter had left the New York publisher in dramatic fashion in the fall. After being informed by management of the Newhouse family publisher that he would have to cut costs and lay off more staffers, Carter told the New York Times of his plans to resign.

Then, just hours before the Times piece would publish, Carter first informed Condé chief executive Bob Sauerberg of his exit plans.

Prior to his resignation, Carter made the bold move of trying to buy Vanity Fair via a TPG-funded joint venture, sources said.

Carter’s offer was immediately dismissed by Sauerberg, sources added.

Condé Nast declined to comment on the offer. The much-buzzed-about monthly has never been for sale, sources close to the company said.

Carter’s new company would put him back in the game and, in some respects, in head-to-head competition with the likes of Vanity Fair — at least where it comes to Carter building a full-scale party-planning operation, one source buzzed.

Carter certainly knows how to throw a party. Under Carter, VF’s Oscars party was the toast of Hollywood’s A-list. In recent years, the editor helped launch VF’s New Establishment Summit, a two-day event that brought together tech, business and media heavyweights like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.

“Graydon can get anyone he wants to get to any event,” said a source, who explained that the idea is for the new company is to have a multi-platform presence and put a stake in the ground in order to reap luxury advertising dollars.

The company’s digital presence is said to be akin to Axios, the website and digital newsletter founded by Politico co-founder Jim VandeHei and ex-Politico reporter Mike Allen. Axios gives a quick read and acts as an explainer of sorts to current political events.

“Think Axios for celebrities and entertainment,” a source said.

Carter, currently in France writing a book, is planning to return to New York next month. His new venture is ramping up to launch before the fourth quarter of this year, sources said.

Additional reporting by Keith J. Kelly and Josh Kosman

Source: Nypost.com

 

[Benn98]

French Stylist Suzanne Koller Weighs In on What Makes a Great Fashion Picture, New Photographers, and Why Paris Is on Fire

MARCH 2, 2018 4:57 PM
by MARK HOLGATE

Suzanne Koller, fashion director of M Le Monde magazine, and I met once during the Paris haute couture shows this past January to chat over lunch—she always knows the very best places (this time around, Café Trama on rue du Cherche-Midi, if you’re interested)—and then we had a phone call: she, still in Paris; me, back in New York. My reason for wanting to talk to her was pretty simple. While she’s part of the established landscape of the city, having been Fashion Director for Vogue Paris for several years, is contributing to T, and still working for Self Service, the magazine she cofounded with Ezra Petronio, she is and always has been a champion of the new. Much of her own work for M Le Monde has been with the recently emerged group of photographic talents like Harley Weir, Brianna Capozzi, Zoe Ghertner, Coco Capitán, and Bibi Borthwick.

It seemed like it might be interesting, when Paris is fizzing with a fresh kind of energy—younger, restless, more anarchic; the city is embracing its grittiness—to find out how she’s being influenced by it, drawing on it. Even if these photographers aren’t necessarily based in the French capital itself, they intersect with the aesthetic that’s emerging, which is shaking up (thank God) all the outdated notions of beauty, age, femininity, and sexuality. And there was another reason. The world of photography is currently being irrevocably transformed by cultural and technological forces. That was another good reason to ask her where she thinks fashion image-making is now, and where it is going next.


Before we start, tell me about the newest issue of M Le Monde, which just came out, with Mica Aragañaraz on the cover.

I hadn’t shot with Alasdair McLellan for a while, and I think he is a great portrait photographer. Fashion right now…it’s going bananas: You don’t always know who the designers are actually designing for. Doing a story with Alastair…it was this idea of showing more of the character of the person, looking more at women and their attitudes than focusing on the clothes. So, the story is portraits of different women—Mica, Kiki [Willems], and someone younger like Chu Wong. Portraiture is my obsession.

I remember when you started there, you told me you only wanted to shoot with new photographers. Why was that?

I’d been working with established names so much, and I was curious. There is this whole generation of photographers who are mainly working in film, which is quite interesting too. They don’t want to work with digital, because they are that generation—digital is what they grew up with. So it’s photographers like Harley Weir, Zoe Ghertner, and then someone younger like Bibi Borthwick, who is very interesting to work with. The first time I ever saw her was when I was on set with her father, Mark Borthwick, for Self Service and she was 4 years old! Then there’s Brianna Capozzi…

All women!

Yes, a lot of women. I put a lot of energy in the shoots and I needed a fresh perspective. I was really intrigued and receptive to all these new images from all these up-and-coming magazines that I didn’t know. So I thought that might be a really interesting take, especially because the creative director of M Le Monde is really into all of these photographers.

I realized this past year I’ve shot 14 stories. I’ve never done that in my life. It’s really easy because when you work with new photographers, you get new energy and it’s a real point of view that they have. It’s difficult to say why I like a certain photographer, but they have a point of view at a young age because they’re all between 22 and 30, and they have a confidence also. They’re not that young in the mind. I don’t know if you know her, but Coco [Capitán] is an old soul. I really appreciate that, and they seem really happy to work with me. I’m confident with what I’m doing, and I’ll sit there and edit with the photographers, but I won’t fuss. I prepare everything with them—the girl, the set, the clothes—and then I let them do their pictures. I choose them, I would say, for the way they look at the woman and their imagery, so I trust in that.

Beyond the physical quality of working with film, there must have been aesthetic reasons to want to work with them.

Twenty years ago, in the 1990s, we had a whole new generation of photographers, like Corinne Day or David Sims. Five, ten years ago, you would say “Who’s new?” and there were so many new photographers, but no one interesting. I have a feeling this new generation of photographers is just looking in a different direction, and working with film is part of that. At first, it is kind of frustrating because you don’t actually see what you’re doing, but you do see what you’re doing, because you’re there! You don’t look at a computer screen while the shoot is going on, but there’s an element of surprise in editing. And there are mistakes, which I do believe make the magic of a picture. It’s much more than too much manipulation. It’s all about editing, and I love working with photographers on the editing.

You talked about the experience of being on set, but how do you think these new photographers see the world? How is it different from the people you’ve worked with in the last two decades? How do they see womanhood? Models? What do they feel they need to record of fashion and the world?

It depends on the photographer. Someone like Zoe, I was quite surprised how much she embraced fashion and tries things on. Someone like Harley looks for something bizarre and quirky in an image. When I see the images at the end of the day, I like them very much because they’re very curious and they don’t stop. They shoot, shoot, shoot. It happened that I worked a lot with women, but I like that statement. I do appreciate the woman looking at the woman. It’s very different from the man.

I think what you see is perhaps that woman photographer’s view of sexuality in a much more personal way.

You can do things a little more sexual, you can push it more, but because it’s done by women, it’s not offensive. It’s playful, really. The women still look strong. It’s like a Helmut Newton image, where the woman was strong even if she was totally or half naked. I like that also because I don’t like weakness. I like eye contact. I like that the woman is present in the image. The model in front of the camera isn’t a doll. These photographers are often the same generation, with the same ideas and values as the models they’re shooting. It’s a different woman in front of the camera—and a different woman behind it. I find that inspiring!

I’d love to ask you about shooting fashion. What gives you pleasure, in terms of the clothes, right now?

I would say it’s more like trying to capture the spirit of the moment. It’s not necessarily a designer I like most, but whatever makes the best image. To be honest, fashion in my image is kind of secondary. For me, it’s very much about the model, the woman, the character of the woman, and I think that’s what makes for a long-lasting image. The fashion comes after. It’s a tool to document that period in a certain moment.

It’s a somewhat journalistic approach.

Yeah, I could see that. It’s not just about the wow styling, but making images.

I feel like when I look at your pictures, I see the care in the image-making. In a weird way, it feels like absolutely everything is cast.

It is. It’s not an accident. Also, it’s quite simple because you don’t see a lot of location shoots because I think it makes it difficult to focus on the person.

I think people want to see the money, like, oh, you went to Australia.

Yes, but nobody has any money anymore [laughs].

Talk to me a little about the Zoe Ghertner story. You took a familiar cast of iconic women [Georgina Grenville, Kirsten Owen, a radiant Amber Valetta] and cast them very much as themselves. There was nothing campy about it. What I loved about those images was the permission to be able to age.

The thing is, I had to do a special luxury issue. For me, I was thinking “What is luxury even today? Should we even be talking about it?” To me, real luxury is looking beautiful at 50 and beyond. The beauty of a Hermes blanket or the Burberry trench…it was these luxurious things on these beautiful women that, as you said, we grew up with. It was also interesting to talk to them because they would talk about their kids and how they live there and haven’t seen them in a while. It was just a nice moment. Also, with Zoe shooting, it’s such a pleasure because she loves women, she loves fashion, she loves pictures.

So tell me: One of the endless debates is the role of the stylist in this age when so many people are into shooting themselves and recording their world. What does that mean to someone like yourself? What does it mean to be working with this new group of photographers for whom Instagram has been such a presence in their lives? Even if they’re not participating, it’s part of the visual language of their times. What about that? What does it mean to be styling, shooting, and doing sittings in an age of selfies and Instagram?

I do believe it might be the future of fashion photography. It is somehow already. I believe I already explored a lot with Instagram myself. At some point, that’s going to be the future. I’m thinking about doing a fashion story where the model takes her own selfies. That’s what it’s going to be I think. It doesn’t really make sense to do fashion stories today which cost $100,000. You spend three weeks on it and it gets looked at for 10 seconds. At the same time, I take pictures of myself—my shoes, my bag—and I get as many likes. There’s something amiss.

I remember when you told me you were going to do a shoot at DSM.

Yeah, yeah. I did it. I want people to experience that thing where you can take a picture with an iPhone and post it immediately. It’s more appropriate to how fast people consume images. I might actually do that for a brand. I think everyone becomes a photographer somehow. It is the visual language of today. Also, you read images. You don’t even need text anymore because you can tell a story through an image.

Talk to me a little about that, the women you like to shoot.

I do like to shoot women who are between 24 and 30. It’s normal; you can’t expect someone who is 16 or 18 to express themselves like a 24- or 25-year-old. I find it interesting to shoot more of the big models with the younger photographers. They have a little more to express, more to offer, and experience, like when I shot with Harley and Anja [Rubik, for Vogue Paris]. I’m very much into new faces, but for a whole fashion story—I’m not sure that they can hold it for the entire story. There’s only so much you can express at 16. I don’t really want to have a 15-year-old on set. As a mother of a 13-year-old daughter, I’m very sensitive to protecting young girls.

Lastly, Paris: It’s having such a moment now, right?

I would say that there is a lot of energy, which is coming from Jacquemus, Vetements…and Demna at Balenciaga…Y/Project, Koché…. It’s quite recent, only in the last couple of years or so. It feels like it is the early ’90s. You have a whole new generation of designers in their 30s and 40s—Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent, Natacha Ramsay-Levi at Chloe, Clare Waight Keller at Givenchy—who are giving a new vision of how to run the houses; they’re taking a much less heavy approach than perhaps 10 years ago. Paris has become the most exciting place for fashion right now: good, and experimental.

Source: Vogue.com