The Business of Magazines

[axiomatic]

From WWD:

The Wall Street Journal’s continued shift over to digital is spreading to WSJ. Magazine. The glossy supplement is bringing on Sarah Ball as digital director, a new role that will have her leading all digital content. Ball was most recently editorial director at Condé Nast’s GQ, which has been the victim of layoffs and even saw its 30-year creative director Jim Moore moved to an “at-large” role.

In her new position at WSJ., Ball will actually be building out a new digital team, to give the magazine more of a presence online. The magazine lives mainly as a tab under the main Journal web site and there seems room for improvement in its social media presence. WSJ. Magazine has 35,000 Twitter followers and only 168,000 on Instagram, while The New York Times’ T Magazine has just under 1.9 million and 721,000 followers, respectively.



Unsurprisingly, the magazine is looking to put a bigger emphasis on video and multimedia content, and this will fall under Ball’s purview.

She will be reporting to Kristina O’Neill, editor in chief of the title since 2012, who said Ball’s hiring “is a major step forward” in its evolution and refinement of the “digital-first strategy” that the Journal as a whole has been working to restructure around for about two years.

“We want to entice our readers into a daily conversation,” O’Neill said. “Sarah is a seasoned journalist with years of experience in both the print and digital worlds and an instinctive grasp of how magazine content takes flight online.”

While the magazine started as a quarterly addition, it’s now a monthly supplement to the weekend edition of the Journal, which has 2.4 million subscribers and early last year started to cut down on its fashion and culture coverage and ended several related columns. Since then there have been other changes focused on going digital-first, like attempts to streamline a complicated editing structure, something that began under Gerard Baker as editor in chief and is continuing under his successor, Matt Murray.

WSJ. Magazine Building Out Digital With First Major Hire

 

[GivenchyAddict]

@Benn98

Ask directly to Anna. She controls everything. I remember a shoot for Allure US when Paolo Roversi had to cancel for personal issues. Michelle Lee and Marie Suter had to check with her about which photographer can replace Roversi . Every people at CN is people she has chosen, that she can control etc.

She dislikes Tonchi but did not manage to get rid of him, so it is funny to see that W is on sell.

 

[axiomatic]

From NY Post

https://nypost.com/2018/08/03/joanna-coles-resigning-as-chief-content-officer-at-hearst/

Joanna Coles, the chief content officer for publishing giant Hearst, is leaving the company, The Post has learned.

Coles gave Hearst President and CEO Steve Swartz her resignation in recent days and on Friday was negotiating her exit package, one source said.

Hearst did not return calls for comment, and Coles declined to comment.

Coles, 56, who served as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire before her promotion to oversee all Hearst titles, has been one of the more prominent faces at the 131-year-old New York company.

Coles is expected to leave the company by the end of next week. Her immediate plans could not be learned.

The outspoken British exec, who has been at Hearst since 2006, helped burnish partnerships with Snapchat and Airbnb and played a large role in the development of TV shows like “The Bold Type” on Freeform and the now canceled “So Cosmo,” a reality show on E! hosted by Coles.

As an editor, Coles emerged as a voice for women in general and young women in particular. She fostered relationships between the likes of Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards and activist Gloria Steinem and her magazines.

Coles is also a frequent guest on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and “CBS This Morning” — and earlier in her career was a judge on “Project Runway.”

To many, Coles’ exit is not surprising.

A recent shake-up in the upper echelon of Hearst saw executive Troy Young last week named president of Hearst Magazines. Young had been president of the digital division.

The move irked some in the building, including Coles, who did not attend Young’s coronation at Hearst Tower following his appointment, sources said. Instead, she canceled all of her editorial meetings and fled to Los Angeles for refuge, sources said. One source close to Coles said she went to the West Coast to attend a Snap, Inc. board meeting — which also kept from the celebration for Young.

And it is no secret in the halls of Hearst Tower that Coles and Young aren’t exactly BFFs. Young has been known to rub many at Hearst the wrong way for his brash decision-making and his boorish “bedside” manner.

The dislike appeared to be mutual. Immediately after his promotion, Young told The Post that “nothing has been decided” regarding the future of Coles or longtime Hearst veteran Michael Clinton, the president of marketing.

While Coles’ exit is perhaps not surprising, it is, nonetheless, a big blow to Hearst — which lacks the star power of rival Condé Nast, whose cast includes artistic director and Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.

Young, who took the job of longtime Hearst Magazines President David Carey, may have that to chew on as he puts together his own team.

 

[Benn98]

@Benn98[/

Ask directly to Anna. She controls everything. I remember a shoot for Allure US when Paolo Roversi had to cancel for personal issues. Michelle Lee and Marie Suter had to check with her about which photographer can replace Roversi :innocent:. Every people at CN is people she has chosen, that she can control etc.

She dislikes Tonchi but did not manage to get rid of him, so it is funny to see that W is on sell.

Ugh, see what I mean? Lol! This is precisely the type of micro-managing which 'insiders' complained about few months ago. I'm sure that's the reason why she hired Radhika. It's not that I'm railing against a woman in power, it's that she's going about her business in a very unilateral way, which is clearly not to the advantage of her puppets (sorry, EICs.) Only her.

I'm with her on the issue of Tonchi though. No surprise that he's looking to buy W himself. In a perfect world someone should buy it and completely renbrand. But maybe some of the Italians can club together and help him buy it, since they consider Tonchi such a crucial guarantor of their presence in the American fashion sphere.

This news of Joanna Coles is more alarming for me because it looks like there's a backstory here, and not a very pretty one. Won't paint the devil on the wall, but Coles always came across as admirable in the way she conducted her business. Under her the magazines prospered, in sales at least. I hated what she did at Cosmo visually, but she left the magazine in a tremendously strong state. She chanced on Robbie Myers, who was informally persona non grata in the publishing world because of the fact that she edited Mirabella when it shut down. And that ultimately resulted in the success of US Elle. Her vision was simple and straight-forward - women, how they live, and how they could better themselves in more ways than one. And she surrounded herself with a team who would execute that. I'm not sure what's next for her, but wish her all the best.

 

[MissMagAddict]

More on Hush’s HB exit from wwd.com

Harper’s Bazaar Australia EIC Kellie Hush Quits to Launch Venture
Hush will depart on Aug. 31 after six years with the title to launch a new fashion retail business that is due to be unveiled in the coming weeks.

Patty Huntington

SYDNEY – Harper’s Bazaar Australia editor in chief Kellie Hush said Saturday she will step down from her position after six years to launch “a unique fashion brand.”

Hush will leave the magazine on Aug. 31, with the September edition her final issue.

Deputy editor and beauty/features editor Eugenie Kelly will take over as acting editor.

A representative for publisher Bauer Media confirmed Hush has resigned but declined to comment further, noting the company will be releasing a statement on Monday.

“I’m not Anna Wintour,” said Hush, “but I think people start speculating about [editors] moving on and I made the decision, it was a personal decision, I’m doing something really exciting which I want to do.”

She added of her abrupt exit, which surprised the fashion industry, “When I spoke to my publisher Fiorella Di Santo [after resigning on Friday], I was very clear I wanted to control the message. The business is in great shape, we have just smashed our September budget for advertising. At this stage our sales are up 13 percent on budget, which in this kind of market is smashing it. I wanted to leave on my own terms.”

Hush declined to disclose any other details about her new venture, other than confirming it won’t be in the luxury space and that it is unrelated to a new company called Kleeh Pty Ltd, which WWD can reveal was registered by Hush with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in January 2017.

Further information is due to be released in a fortnight, she said.

Hush backtracked on her comments reported by The Sydney Morning Herald that “Bazaar is a luxury magazine that can’t be published on the smell of an oily rag, so I’d like to finish my tenure while that rag still smells like Chanel No. 5,” quelling speculation that Bauer may be planning to cut staff and merge the editorial teams for its prestige fashion titles Harper’s Bazaar and Elle into one centralized editorial hub — along the lines of what the company revealed for its entertainment division in June.

“At this stage, there is no plan for Elle and Bazaar to merge,” said Hush. “I had that discussion again with Fiorella on Friday. That is not being envisaged at this point in time.”

In late 2016, following double-digit circulation declines at a number of publications — which has seen the axing of a plethora of titles — Bauer Media, along with Australia’s two other major magazine publishers, Pacific Magazines and News Corp’s NewsLifeMedia, withdrew from the Audited Media Association of Australia’s circulation audit.

This leaves readership metrics published by Roy Morgan and Ipsos as the only independent publishing data.

According to Roy Morgan research, Harper’s Bazaar’s magazine readership declined 13.4 percent to 116,000 in the 12 months to March 2018, following a 21.8 percent gain in 2017, and 23.1 percent and 25.5 percent declines in 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Harper’s Bazaar’s cross-platform audience grew 50.7 percent to 339,000 in the 12 months ending March 2018.

Elle’s magazine readership grew 5.1 percent to 164,000 and cross-platform readership 49.2 percent to 443,000 in the year to March 2018.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Shake-up Across China Editions of T, Wallpaper, WSJ.
Huasheng Media Group has revealed a round of media musical chairs.
Tiffany Ap

BEIJING — Major senior staffing changes are taking place across the Chinese editions of T Magazine, Wallpaper and the soon-to-be-launched WSJmagazine, with two major appointments revealed for the latter, due to launch in November.

A memo written by Feng Chuxuan, the founder and chief executive officer of Huasheng Media Group, the firm in charge of the above titles, revealed the media musical chairs.

Feng himself is taking on the role of editor in chief of T Magazine, relinquishing that same position at Wallpaper. Dan Cui, the current editor in chief of T, will be moved to a coeditor position with the title and will continue working on various projects for the group, Feng’s statement said. However, it seems that he will have more of a back-seat role, and Cui has already updated his Instagram profile to read “former media person.”

Meanwhile, Wallpaper will be led by a core team of three: Huang Jun and Deng Yuan have both been tapped as editorial directors and Guo Jialu for the deputy editor role.

Zhang Fuhua has been named publisher of WSJmagazine China, while Fan Xia has joined the group in a business role to help launch the title. As reported, WSJ. is also getting changes within the English edition, which is setting up a digital team overseen by Sarah Ball.

Feng’s letter has been translated from Chinese in full below:

“Dear brand and industry friends,

I am Feng Chuxuan, thank you for the partnership and cooperation over the years since the launch of Huasheng Media Group. Due to new developments, I will share some recent group personnel changes.

1. After the completion of the August issue of T Magazine China (Arts and Entertainment edition) editor in chief Dan Cui will prepare China fashion industry special editions. At the same time, he will continue duties as co-editor in chief, overseeing and creating different media on fashion and other topics.

2. Starting in September, Feng Chuxuan will take on the role of T Magazine China editor in chief, while Li Sen will be appointed editorial director and culture editor of T Magazine China. Qian Xiaojing will continue to serve as the fashion director of T Magazine China.

3. Starting in September, Feng Chuxuan will no longer hold the role of Wallpaper China editor in chief. Subsequently, Wallpaper China will be led by a core team of three: Guo Jialu will serve as deputy editor, Huang Jun will serve as editorial director, and Deng Yuan, who was chief architecture and human design editor will become editorial director. Deng Yuan is a doctoral student at the architecture school of MIT and Tongji University, and is also a contributing editor of Huasheng, and is already working with Wallpaper China.

We will also welcome the launch of Wallpaper China’s intelligence and technology director in September, who will provide even more incisive reports on technology, artificial intelligence, new energy and other fields.

4. Ms. Zhou Jie has joined Huasheng Group as executive vice president, responsible for overseeing the operations of the Shanghai office as well as digital products. Prior to this, Zhou Jie served as the vice president of China Media Capital and was fully involved in the formation and management of Huasheng.

5. Ms. Fan Xia has joined Huasheng Media Group as deputy editor in chief, responsible for the overall development and management of the group’s international content operations and business development, at the same time preparing the launch of WSJmagazine’s Chinese edition.

6. Zhang Fuhua will join Huasheng Media Group as the publisher of WSJmagazine’s Chinese edition. Zhang Fuhua has more than 20 years of exceptional experience in Taiwan. In future we will, with Mr. Zhang Fuhua, meet with all of you.”

source | wwd

 

[MissMagAddict]

More bad news...

Ad Spending Disappearing as Most Magazines Continue to Fumble
Some magazines are figuring out how to drive growth online and in print, but only a few.
Kali Hays

The magazine industry puts on a brave face, but data doesn’t lie.
New analysis from the Association of Magazine Media, which unabashedly

pushed the power of print magazines as an advertising vehicle, shows an industry still trying to find its place in an instantaneous world while advertising revenue continues to slip away.

Reported magazine ad spending by the 50 biggest advertisers last year fell to $6.1 billion from $6.5 billion in 2016, according to AMM’s annual report. So magazines lost at least $417.5 million in revenue last year, a difference of 6.4 percent, numbers AMM did not make readily available in its report, which was sponsored by magazine printer Freeport Press.

Among the top five advertisers, Pfizer Inc.’s downshift was the most significant. The pharmaceutical company cut ad spending with print magazines by $85 million to $369 million. Johnson & Johnson also cut spending by $55 million to $240.9 million.

Although L’Oreal actually increased spending last year by $15.7 million to $683.7 million, as did Procter & Gamble by a significant $142 million to $561 million for the year, it wasn’t nearly enough to make up the cuts by other firms.

Other notable decreases came from LVMH Möet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which cut spending by $15.2 million to $216.3 million; Unilever, dropped by $61.2 million to $158.5 million; Estée Lauder Cos. Inc., which reduced by $46.3 million to $95.3 million; Kering, which cut by $7.5 million to $97.2 million; Chanel, decreased by $7.8 million to $67.4 million, and Amazon, which cut almost in half by $37.6 million down to $44.3 million.

With so much money being lost in print advertising, which is largely being diverted to other avenues, like Facebook, Google and influencers, it’s no wonder magazines keep shutting.

A total of 50 magazines with at least a quarterly publication frequency closed last year, despite 134 titles being launched, leaving the number of magazines last year at 7,176. The number of magazines has been a bit up and down over the last decade, but on the whole, down, as there are 207 fewer than in 2008.

And it’s not just advertisers that are leaving some magazines behind — some readers seem less interested, too. The combined print and digital audience for all magazines rose just 1.4 percent, while the audience for women’s service and lifestyle magazines fell 1 percent, men’s fashion and lifestyle dropped 3 percent and pop culture and entertainment fell 4 percent. Women’s fashion and beauty was flat.

But it’s not entirely bad. A sizable audience increase went to science and technology titles, a group that grew overall by 9 percent.

Wired, part of Condé Nast, for example, saw its print and digital audience grow by a monthly average of 28 percent over the last year, the most of any magazine, with Bonnier Media’s Popular Science close behind with 25 percent growth.

Other titles saw some audience growth as well.

Notably, The New Yorker, another Condé title, grew its audience by a monthly average of 18 percent during a year in which it ran some big stories on the disgraced Harvey Weinstein, although it’s year-to-date numbers are flat, according to AMM data. Over at Hearst, Town & Country managed to get into the top 10 for mobile web growth and total audience growth, seeing an average monthly increase of 75 percent and 37 percent, respectively, while video at Elle Decor increased an average of 548 percent and total audience rose 20 percent.

The New Yorker’s number-one story of the year was Ronan Farrow’s first piece on the several Weinstein accusers, but more surprising is the second-most-read item, “Cat Person,” a short story by a then-unknown author Kristen Roupenian. Although the theme of the story, essentially a young woman’s very uncomfortable sexual encounter with a man who tacitly explored the issue of consent, was timely, it is rare for a fictional piece to take off in such a way. It even beat out Ryan Lizza’s write-up of a phone call with short-lived White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, which got a boost from the controversy of Scaramucci claiming his tirade was supposed to be off the record. It wasn’t.

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker since 1998, noted his magazine last year produced “so much to be proud of that I can’t begin to list it all — I would surely leave something out.”

“It’s gratifying to see our readers respond to the work we do every day on [the web site] and every week in the magazine,” he continued. “It’s not just our writers and editors who make this thing of ours possible, it’s the entire enterprise: art, photo, design, social, multimedia, checking, copy and so on. A collaborative effort unlike anything I’ve experienced before.”

It’s notable that the departments’ Remnick name-checked are the same that formed a union this spring, citing the many cuts and changes at Condé. The union last month was voluntarily recognized by the magazine.

Elsewhere at Condé, things are mixed. While year-to-date print and digital edition readership at Vogue is down 5 percent and down 3 percent at W, which is now for sale, total audience growth at those two titles year-to-date is actually up 11 percent and 35 percent, respectively, thanks to growth in video and mobile. But audience at Glamour, even with a new editor in chief Samantha Barry and a redesign, is down 11 percent, with print and digital edition readership down 9 percent. Vanity Fair, also with a new editor in chief in Radhika Jones and a new look, dropped as well, with a 2 percent decrease in print and digital edition readers.

Over at Elle Decor, part of Hearst, things seem a bit steadier. Editor in chief Whitney Robinson pointed to the annual A-List issue, larger and more varied this year, as a success with readers. He attributed the interest in part to the cover showing an MC Escher patterned hallway in the downtown Manhattan apartment of designer David Kaihoi. Another winner with readers over the last year was the November issue featuring the Italian set of “Call Me by Your Name,” something that took off in print and online.

“Now more than ever, our audience is hungry for global and exotic spaces that surprise and delight and don’t feel like anything you see anywhere else,” Robinson said.

Elizabeth Angell, Elle Decor’s digital director, added that the audience for design “has exploded in recent years and what 2017 taught us is that those people are confident in their taste and in search of great ideas” and more are coming to the magazine for inspiration and news on trends. Year to date, Elle Decor’s total audience combining print, digital and video is up 11 percent, according to AMM data, with almost all of that growth coming from mobile web traffic. Print and digital editions are relatively flat, with about 1 percent growth year-to-date.

source | wwd.com

 

[MissMagAddict]

continued...

Angell is also digital director of Town & Country, another Hearst title that had a good year, possibly highlighting a reader shift toward lifestyle publications with a sense of permanence and home. That magazine got a major lift from its coverage of Meghan Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry and Angell said last year was a “watershed” for digital, which doubled the size of its audience. Of particular focus was Instagram, but there was also a recognition that traffic comes from “search and not social” and some reworking around that paid off. According to AMM, the magazine’s total audience has grown almost 75 percent year-to-date, led by a threefold rise in mobile web, and there’s even a 4.4 percent increase in readers of print and digital editions.

Stellene Volandes, editor in chief of Town & Country, noted that royal wedding coverage on the site and in two special editions broke traffic and newsstand sales records, but also pointed to traffic drivers like a February interview with a divorce lawyer about what may happen if First Lady Melania Trump sought a divorce and a separate “guide to divorce.” She said that item “spread like wildfire online.” Another popular story was one on how Martha Gellhorn’s marriage to Ernest Hemingway could be seen through the prism of #MeToo.

“The stories that resonate with our readers sometimes take on modern manners and misdemeanors, others look to the past for lessons on the present,” Volandes said.

Meanwhile, almost 85-year-old Esquire is starting to see some changes take off. Michael Sebastian, site director, said the magazine relaunched its style section in November, with a focus on “service, celebrity, original photography and, ultimately, helping guys solve problems” and traffic has since doubled.” There’s also been a new “foundational” SEO strategy set around celebrity, focused on digital-only profiles and “best” and “worst” rankings, with an expansion into “buzzy” essays and features to come. Year-to-date Esquire’s total audience is up about 7 percent, again driven by mobile web, as readers of print and digital editions is actually down 13 percent.

“Esquire is a heritage brand…but every day on the Internet is a referendum on relevance,” Sebastian said.

Apparently managing the referendum and bucking the trend shown by AMM of readers being less interested in women’s fashion titles is Harper’s Bazaar, with total year-to-date audience growth of 56 percent led by mobile, but it’s even seen a 3.5 percent increase in print and digital edition readers. Cosmopolitan’s results are more mixed, with 7 percent total audience growth but also a 7 percent decline in print- and digital-edition readers.

Overall, there are very few major magazine brands managing to pull strong through the digital shift. Of the 114 magazine brands tracked by AMM, 56 titles, or 50 percent, have a total audience in decline year-to-date. Print and digital editions are faring even worse, with 74 titles, or 64 percent of magazines, seeing audience on the decline.

Little wonder advertisers are looking elsewhere.

source | wwd.com

 

[Deleted member 130879]

I checked the actual data. The overall audience takes in account video which is kind of misleading given that most magazines are only now producing video. If you take that out, or if you just focus on the print + digital growth, things are looking pretty nasty for Vogue US and most of CN's women's and fashion magazines.

 

[IndigoHomme]

ELLE Brazil shutting down after 30 years...

I found this in my FB timeline...

In one of the three versions of his last Brazilian cover (Aug 2018), elle magazine already announced the end of an era of revolution in the behavior and fashion of this country
His beautiful and melancholic cover signed by Pablo Vainer (habitual and experienced Brazilian photographer) brings an image in dim light, with the model of closed eyes, in a farewell face, thanks and the certainty of the "duty" fulfilled. A language totally distant from the other two covers of the same month: colorful, anxious and commercial.
The importance of publication and the regret for his farewell is undeniable. For 30 years (completed in May), trained great professionals, launched and helped consolidate the career of numerous photographers, models and designers. Loses the industry of fashion, photography, art, advertising, we lose all.

Official Note: We inform that Editora Abril, which detém os direitos de licenciamento of ELLE no Brasil, decided to discontinue the publication of the title from that point onwards, not so much print as not online.
Since chegou ao Brasil, em 1988, to ELLE revolucionou or editorial market with its innovative language, its fashionable and irreverent fashion, it will be a luxurious lifestyle in a mesmo tempo acessível.
During these 30 years, I formed great profissionais, lançou e ajudou to consolidate to carreira of numerous photographers, models and stylists.
Saiu na front to be a magazine first of its segment to a site, to gain a digital edição for tablets, to produce video content and to be present in all sociais networks.
ELLE also pioneered to be the first Brazilian fashion magazine to defend individual liberties, to be feminist, to position itself on gender issues and to give more and more space for diversity. Cumpriu seu role of fazer um Jornalismo fashionable seer, modern and engaged, compartilhando com sua audiência values based on respect, empathy and humanism. Soube capture as nenhum outro title or spirit of seu tempo e virou referência no brazilian publishing market. I publish historical layers that are acclaimed here and internationally.
É com sadness, but sobretudo com muito orgulho, that a team is detached from its readers as August edição, which are banks and fala de sustentabilidade na moda e nas relações, além de trazer belíssimas images registered in Amazônia.
We are grateful to all those who joined us here. Assuming years that we dedicate your trust and loyalty, we inform that Editora Abril will send or shortly possible a letter with no information about your assinatura. #ELLEBrasil

Source: facebook.com/NogueiraJr22/posts/10156466451109687

 

[Benn98]

Thanks for posting, IndigoHomme! Sad news, and easily a great loss for Brazilian and worldwide fashion print. It was the one magazine which aroused interest and made a case for Brazilian creativity with their often topical and provocative cover concepts. Never got the feeling that they were disingenuous. The first magazine to push Valentina Sampaio onto the fashion radar (with more than one cover), the only one who dealt with Hanne Gaby Odiele's intersex status on their covers. And when that didn't happen, they've had a hardcore approach to hf. Very rarely ran ennuied indie-style covers. Always seemed way more relevant than Vogue Brazil with their support of local and international models.

30 Years is a great run! So Edna Mode gets to stay on at US Vogue, but an important and creative edition of Elle must fold. Pretty much sums up the injustice of our world.

 

[AFWQ]

It is an heartbreaking news -- it's a crime against art

I have completely fallen in love with Elle Brasil work past months. It was bloody genius what they were doing! Art in it's state more pure.

Does anyone know how sales were going?

From what I read just now -- Elle Brasil was part of group called Editora Abril. It's seems it had a debt of already R$ 1,5 billion (last year they add 330 million R$). 700 journalists were already fire. The group is also going to stop publishing Cosmopolitan Brazil, Boa Forma... (monthly issues) since is part of process of their reconstructing. They will only continue with smaller magazines of gossip - like Veja.
(I am not sure if all magazines with whom they continue are gossip magazines and not monthly issue)

Does anyone know Elle Brazil could be apart of another group?

 

[MissMagAddict]

source | wwd.com

Winning at Twinning? Two September Vogue Covers, One Concept
Can you spot all the similarities between American Vogue's Beyoncé cover and British Vogue's Rihanna cover?

Kali Hays

Great minds think alike?

Although a clear attempt at cover ingenuity, American Vogue’s top secret September issue featuring Beyoncé, released today, bears a striking resemblance to the September cover of British Vogue featuring Rihanna, released a week ago.

Outside of the obvious coup in nabbing the two biggest female pop stars for their biggest issues of the year (every win counts for Condé Nast right now), both covers heavily feature an abundance of flowers atop the beautiful heads of the two megastars, who have a similar soft gaze — let’s call it a “Smize” (a la Tyra Banks) — and appear in a portrait style on a simple photo set.

Eagle-eyed Vogue readers may even compare the new Beyoncé cover, styled by veteran Vogue editor turned contributor Tonne Goodman, to British Vogue’s August issue featuring Oprah Winfrey — another portrait, this time in profile, as is Beyoncé, with a similar simple gray background. Winfrey also appears in an off-white billowing, ruffled dress, and those same descriptors can be used to describe Beyoncé’s turn of the last century inspired gown. While the style of the cover dresses differ, it wouldn’t be too difficult to take the Rihanna and Oprah British Vogue covers, mash them up, and come out with something similar to the September cover of American Vogue.

But that’s not to penalize American Vogue for at least trying something a little different and with someone different, as the photo was taken by the young Tyler Mitchell. The magazine has long-favored outdoor shots or a baroque indoor setting for most of its covers, including September issues, so the starker Beyoncé background marks a welcome departure, although the overall muted palette is in line with precedent, led by Annie Leibovitz’s years of windblown covers for the title.

Meanwhile, the Rihanna cover is more in line with the aesthetic so far established by Edward Enninful, who styled it — namely a sort of updated glamour shot that so far has ranged from naturalistic to full Eighties nostalgia. Rihanna’s cover certainly falls into the latter category, with neon colors offset by bright flora and complete with eyebrows thinner even than Claudette Colbert’s, but her hands in the shot are a reference even further back to mid-century cover fashions. The referential mix is deft and the cover would pop even if it wasn’t Rihanna in the floral headpiece. American Vogue is making most of its splash simply by virtue of having a cover with Beyoncé, and rumors that she, according to The Huffington Post, had much of the editorial work under her control. Even the “article” accompanying Beyoncé’s photo shoot inside the issue doesn’t have a clear byline, but an “as told to” credit.

This year’s September issue marks the second year in a row that American Vogue has not plastered the cover with a shout out to its page count. It could be out of deference to Beyoncé — a nickname like Queen Bey doesn’t come out of nowhere — but her star power was not much less in 2015, the last time she appeared on the September cover, which no one was left to doubt included “832 pages of wildly wonderful looks.” This year we’ll have to count for ourselves.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Joanna Coles Officially Steps Off Her Treadmill Desk and Out of Hearst
Her exit comes about two weeks after Troy Young was promoted to magazines president at Hearst.

Kali Hays

That was quick.

Although Joanna Coles on Friday was negotiating her exit from Hearst, according to The New York Post, it appears she’s already packed up her treadmill desk, china tea set and all-cotton pajamas and gone. Her e-mail has been shut down and she posted a short video to her Instagram account, walking at said treadmill desk, and metaphorically out of her role as chief content officer.

Coles mentioned the many miles she’s spent walking at her desk, through the “peaks and valleys” presented during her time at Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and as chief content officer since 2016 — but confirmed that she is stepping down before literally doing so from her desk.

“My route is being recalculated,” Coles said in the brief video. “It’s time for a new adventure.”

Coles added that she’s going to take some time off “and play some tennis,” but that she will be back with “news” some time this fall.

A Hearst spokeswoman spoke well of Coles, saying she is “an innovator, a connector and an inspired editor,” but made clear that it was she who decided to leave.

“She’s made the decision to start a new adventure, and we thank her for her creativity and many contributions and wish her the very best.”

So it sounds like Coles already has a new gig lined up. Could it be a bigger role in television? She was onscreen for the short lived reality show “So Cosmo” and, more recently, behind the scenes as an executive producer on “The Bold Type,” which is based on her time at Cosmopolitan and has been well received. (The latter had her doing more than a typical producer’s share of press for.) She’s also on the board of Snap Inc. and consumer-facing tech platforms have shown an interest in stars of traditional media — Eva Chen hopped from leading defunct Lucky magazine to Instagram and Derek Blasberg recently decamped from a number of roving editor roles to YouTube. It’s possible that she’s jumping to another high-profile role in print media, but opportunities there are only getting fewer, and the reiteration of “new” in her statement and Hearst’s makes that seem unlikely.

So Anna — as in Wintour — is staying, but Joanna is out. Clearly the rumor mill was wrong.

Even if there is another job on the horizon, it’s worth noting that Coles’ exit from Hearst comes shortly after Troy Young was selected to succeed David Carey as senior vice president of Hearst and president of the magazines division by chief executive officer Steven Swartz. Had Coles been promoted to magazines president, she would have been only the third woman in the group’s 16-member executive lineup. The current two are Eve Burton, chief legal officer, and Debi Chirichella, chief financial officer.

Big promotions always make some waves and industry chatter has already started around whether Michael Clinton, another Hearst veteran who’s been president of marketing since 2010 and publishing director at the magazines division since 2001, could be the next out the door. This is the second time someone else has gotten the top magazine job at Hearst during Clinton’s internally lauded tenure, but on Monday he put talk of his exit to bed. “I’m looking forward to continuing to evolve our business together,” Clinton said of working with Young, whom he’s worked with since Young joined Hearst in 2013.

source | wwd.com

 

[caioherrero]

Kyle Anderson is no longer the fashion director of American Elle. Now the magazine lost both him and Samira Nars

 

[Benn98]

Well, that was fast! He was a Nina Garcia hire, wasn't he? Wonder why he left..........

 

[GivenchyAddict]

^ he was laid off. He did not show up at work since his nomination. Why ? I don't know but his presence at Elle was useless and he is useless. Good riddance

 

[Benn98]

^ he was laid off. He did not show up at work since his nomination. Why ? I don't know but his presence at Elle was useless and he is useless. Good riddance

Wow, lol, talk about career suicide! Fashion jobs are hard to come by as it is, and people still get laid off at their own hand? Lol

 

[MissMagAddict]

Media Group Abril Shutters Brazilian Editions of Elle, Cosmopolitan
Brazilian media reported the restructuring would result in the closure of 10 magazines and the loss of 170 editorial jobs.

Joelle Diderich

END GAME: Brazil’s fashion community was in shock on Tuesday following the shuttering of the local editions of Elle and Cosmopolitan magazines as part of a wide-ranging restructuring at struggling parent company Editora Abril.

Fashion editors, photographers and makeup artists expressed sadness after the magazines announced on Instagram that the August issues, currently on newsstands, would be their last. Brazilian media reported the reshuffle would result in the closure of 10 magazines and the loss of 500 jobs, including 170 editorial positions.

“Grupo Abril announces that, as part of its restructuring process, it is reshaping the publisher’s brand portfolio with the objective of guaranteeing its operational health in an environment of profound technological changes, whose impact has been felt throughout the media sector,” the group said.

The announcement follows a recent change in management at Grupo Abril, the parent company of the publishing arm. The Civita family, which owns the media conglomerate, last month handed over the running of the group to Marcos Haaland, managing director of the Brazilian arm of U.S. turnaround firm Alvarez & Marsal.


The Brazilian edition of Elle launched in 1988 and has gained a reputation for socially conscious coverage, tackling themes including feminism, diversity and environmental responsibility.

“It established a leadership position as the first magazine in its segment to have a web site, launch a digital edition for tablets, produce video content and be present on all social networks,” the magazine said on Instagram.

“Elle was also a pioneer in being the first Brazilian fashion magazine to defend individual freedoms, to talk about feminism, to position itself on gender issues and to give more and more space to diversity,” it added, noting the last issue contained a fashion editorial shot in the Amazon alongside features on sustainable fashion.

Cosmopolitan, in turn, had been present in Brazil for 45 years.

Model Luciana Curtis, who shot her first Brazilian Elle cover at the age of 15, said it was a huge loss for the local publishing landscape. “It’s the magazine I have worked with the most in the country,” she told the daily newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, commonly known as Estadão. “I am shocked.”

Adriana Bozon, creative director of Brazilian denim label Ellus, posted a slide show on Instagram of Elle covers featuring the brand’s designs. “This is a great loss for the culture and fashion of our country. Elle brought a new language to fashion and its readers, it was transgressive and ahead of its time,” she told Estadão.
wwd.com

 

[MissMagAddict]

Editor-in-Chief, Architectural Digest, Amy Astley

Architectural Digest’s Amy Astley discusses career at Condé Nast, calls Anna Wintour 'very intuitive about people'

If there’s anyone who understands the saying, "when one door closes, another door opens," it’s the editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest, Amy Astley. Five years into her first job out of college at House & Garden, Condé Nast decided to close the magazine leaving her jobless -- but she scored a monumental meeting shortly after.

“I didn’t have a job," Astley said. "Somebody on the team, very senior, recommended me to Anna Wintour the same day that the company closed House & Garden and I was called by HR to come and meet with her that day.”

On an episode of ABC Radio’s “No Limits with Rebecca Jarvis,” Astley recalled that first meeting with Wintour as a “surreal day.” She went to meet with Wintour on a recommendation from a colleague, Charles Gandy and remembered that meeting with her future mentor.


“Anna is very intuitive about people," Astley said. "She sees things about you that you don’t see in yourself. She always was giving me more opportunities and more work.”

She ended up staying at Vogue longer than she had originally expected, as her career continued to grow as a storyteller in the industry.

“I really thought, 'I’ll work at Vogue for the famous Anna Wintour for a year or two years. I’m young,'" she said. "And I ended up staying almost 10 years there because I was able to keep growing.”

Astley eventually left Vogue in 2003 to launch Teen Vogue as its founding editor-in-chief. She built a brand that would become a dynamic industry icon and she would go on to write a New York Times bestselling book “The Teen Vogue Handbook: An Insider’s Guide to Careers in Fashion."

“Being an editor-in-chief at Condé Nast is a very entrepreneurial experience because we're not heavily managed or micromanaged," she said. "You're sort of free to sink or swim and make your business the best that you can.”

Now, as editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest armed with 15 years of experience running a magazine, Astley has used her entrepreneurial nature and creative talents to transform the 97-year-old magazine with a heavy digital and modern focus. After starting the job two years ago she said she worked quickly to change the look and feel of the magazine, building out new digital products, focusing on social media and reaching a younger audience.

“The magazine needed to be refreshed and made more relevant, and more part of the conversation... we needed to have AD reach new audiences and not be perceived as something for just older people,” she said.

In an effort to do just that, she created two new digital verticals AD PRO and CLEVER, the latter hoping to appeal to millennials. She also started profiling the homes of some very A-List celebrities like Wiz Khalifa, Anton Zaslavski (aka Zedd), Kate Moss and Jennifer Aniston. In their latest September issue, Astley’s third at the magazine, they go inside the home of fashion designer Michael Kors.

“You have to have a sense of surprise if you're in the entertainment business," she said. "So people don’t go, 'I know what's in there. I'm not going to look.' Surprise them with different voices and different people, both in the magazine and on the digital platforms.”

And the element of surprise seems to be working. Over the last year, Architectural Digest has increased its audience across all platforms by 47 percent and 131 percent across mobile, according to the company.

“Our company is transforming into a digital company rapidly... watching these transformations has been incredible and it's a different company from the one I joined," she said. "I feel like I've been really lucky that I could transform myself and change within the company.”

Hear more of this interview with Amy Astley on the "No Limits with Rebecca Jarvis" podcast.

abcnews.go.com