The Business of Magazines

[callmejaeden]

Hopefully they fire Arnaut and give the job to someone who isn’t as tacky

 

[callmejaeden]

Condé Nast in court fight over Vogue Arabia​

Ben Smith


Jan 10, 2025, 1:18pm GMT+1
GULFMEDIA MIDDLE EAST

THE SCOOP​

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch will host local partners on Jan. 30 at a party in Dubai (“Dress: A touch of gold!”) — amid a bitter dispute with the Emirati company that ran Vogue Arabia for the last eight years.



The company, Nervora, filed a previously unreported lawsuit in US federal court in New York last summer, claiming that the way in which Condé Nast ended their licensing arrangement and took over the title violated the terms of their contract, which expired at the end of last year. Nervora shut down the magazine’s website and laid off local staff.



“This is a brazen and bad faith attempt from Condé Nast to wholesale steal a business that we heavily invested in and consciously built for more than eight years,” Nervora founder and CEO Shashi Menon told Semafor. “In trying to change the facts on the ground, Condé Nast may have thought that we’d just roll over and die, which clearly we haven’t and won’t.”




A Condé Nast spokesperson responded that the company is “thankful for the work and dedication of our license partners, including Nervora” but that it has “no doubt that the law fully supports our publishing of Vogue Arabia.”

KNOW MORE​

The companies are currently in arbitration as well as in federal court, but the lawsuit highlights Condé Nast’s scramble to find its footing in what has been a difficult century for the dominant 20th century company. The international business — partly owned and partly licensed — has at times been a bright spot for the publisher, but the luxury companies who make up its advertising have seen their businesses in the US, Europe, and China struggle in recent years, leaving the Gulf almost alone among booming markets.



Menon said Vogue Arabia is “one of the most successful licensed editions in the world,” and its covers have included the model Bella Hadid, the tennis player Ons Jabeur, and Kim Kardashian. The title also sparked the occasional, inevitable controversy in Condé’s New York home turf: Some objected to a 2018 cover featuring a Saudi princess in the driver’s seat of a convertible, and others a map in which all of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories were labeled “Palestine.”


The lawsuit focuses largely on technical issues. Nervora presented a contract indicating that Condé Nast had agreed in 2016 to buy them out of the license if they wanted to take the brand back. Condé Nast Chief Content Operations Officer Christiane Mack complained in one document that Nervora had not made enough progress on digital, video, and event products.

Condé Nast told Business of Fashion that it would retain Vogue Arabia Editor, Manuel Arnaut, who raised some eyebrows over the holidays with an Instagram post perhaps in the spirit of his new employer, complaining about “being forced to be ‘nice,’” and pledging to stop

semafor.com

 

[NYLA22]

Hopefully they fire Arnaut and give the job to someone who isn’t as tacky

He really is. They traded a literal Middle Eastern princess (Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz) for that dude. Lol.

 

[Xone]

He really is. They traded a literal Middle Eastern princess (Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz) for that dude. Lol.

But the magazine didn't perform well with him as EIC? Why so much hate towards him?

 

[blueorchid]

Middle Eastern princess (Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz)

Are we supposed to be impressed by this? Oh, a princess...

 

[marsnoop2]

What do we think about this . . .

 

[vogue22]

What do we think about this . . .

View attachment 1337925

That's insane, but that must be a smaller or licensed edition of Vogue, so I understand why they would pay her more for it.

 

[marsnoop2]

I think you misunderstood, they are asking Coco to PAY 45,000 euros for her to be on the cover (that is not how much they will give her) . . .

Essentially this Vogue edition is selling their covers to the cover star.

 

[vogue28]

That's looking like someone is trying to scam Coco Rocha out of 45k, as opposed to her actually getting a Vogue cover... surely.

 

[Xone]

it's a scam....they should talk to her management not directly to her....even the subject is sketchy....crazy 2025