UK Tatler November 2009

[tarsha]

Snapped by tigerrouge

 

[Franzy]

I like it.

 

[tarsha]

Sorry, I forgot to add her name, please mods.

 

[MON]

I Love It!

 

[rox_yr_sox]

Sorry, I forgot to add her name, please mods.

HM The Queen by ? (lol)

I actually like this cover despite not being a fan of the royal family. Good way to celebrate their 300th anniversary given the royalist tendencies of the mag.

 

[vogue28]

I really like the cover and the idea behind it. I think after all of these years, this might be the first issue if Tatler that I pick up.

 

[mikel]

^I'm thinking about the same thing. It looks nice.

 

[Franzy]

Wow. 300 years.

 

[Dosmujeres]

I like it, different

 

[honeycombchild]

Got this today, it's actually a fold out cover. It folds out to reveal two other versions of the same pose of the Queen. One's a gold foil outline on a black background, and the other's sort of punky. She's bright pink, on a bright green background.

Pretty big issue too. 380 pages.

 

[tarsha]

Are the print media history? If so, someone forgot to tell Tatler, the glossy magazine diary of London’s upper class at play, which celebrates its 300th birthday this month.

Like an obstinate British blueblood sticking to tweed, Tatler seems to have decided that the Internet is a passing fad. It keeps the magazine’s contents off its spartan Web site, posting only material from its supplements on subjects like travel, cosmetic surgery and private education.

While many magazines are digitally challenged, few seem to be as unbothered about it as Tatler, a fixture on coffee tables in stockbrokers’ homes in Surrey and elsewhere around the world where old and new money mingle. A special anniversary issue, the November edition, which appears Thursday, is the biggest in the history of Tatler, at 408 pages — including 224 pages of advertising.

“I’m rather tired of all this business about the Internet,” said Patricia Stevenson, Tatler’s publishing director. “Magazines are wonderful things to have with you and to take around with you. I think Tatler is going to be around for another 300 years.”

The magazine traces its history to 1709, when a publication called The Tatler appeared in London covering news and gossip gleaned from coffeehouses. It lasted only two years, but the name was adopted by a succession of Tatlers over the centuries.

The magazine developed its current niche after 1979, when Tina Brown was hired as its editor. It was acquired three years later by Condé Nast, which still owns it.

“Tatler has had the unique ability to bankrupt more people than any other magazine,” said Nicholas Coleridge, the managing director of Condé Nast in Britain and vice president of Condé Nast International, adding that at least 10 of the roughly 50 owners of Tatler, in its various incarnations, had suffered that fate.

Condé Nast remains very much in business, though there has been some uncharacteristic belt-tightening at the publisher’s New York headquarters. While advertising has plunged at many magazines during this recession, it has held up relatively well at Tatler, Mr. Coleridge said.

“The audience is so niche and perfectly formed that advertisers love it,” he said, though he acknowledged, “there is kind of a glass ceiling to how many people can read it.”

Tatler has never had a mass circulation; today it sells about 85,000 copies, down from a peak of about 90,000 in 2007.

In pursuit of a broader audience, Tatler started a Russian edition last year. So many oligarchs and their wives or girlfriends were showing up in the original edition, because of their attendance at London social events, that it seemed the natural thing to do, Mr. Coleridge said. The Russian edition sells 70,000 copies, he added.

Tatler is focusing on weathering the downturn and working with a new editor, Catherine Ostler. One of those wealthy Russians in London, Aleksandr Y. Lebedev, recently lured away the previous editor, Geordie Greig, to oversee The Evening Standard in London after he bought a controlling stake in it.

Ms. Ostler has taken the magazine in a newsier direction, with articles on subjects like the demise of Lehman Brothers. Still, the magazine’s focus remains its party pictures and its profiles of celebrities and royals.

The anniversary issue features a 1966 portrait of the queen on the cover, digitally draped in the colors of the Union Jack.

Despite the breaks in publishing over three centuries, Tatler’s DNA has not changed much, Mr. Coleridge said. The first issue in 1709, he noted, had an article about three sisters who married advantageously.

“Despite the fact that the writing style is old-fashioned, I can’t help thinking that it’s exactly the kind of article our editors would like to run today,” Mr. Coleridge said.

NYTimes.Com

 

[rox_yr_sox]

^ Thanks tarsha; that was an interesting read. honeycombchild, what is the content like? Just the usual dross or do they have some anniversary features to mark the occasion?

 

[honeycombchild]

There's a 2009/1709 shoot that has shots inspired by both dates, and then there's the 2009 "Portfolio" of group shots featuring the usual society darlings Tatler loves.

Other than that, I have to say it's the usual sort of Tatler inside. There's the ocassional nice bits about their history, but I wouldn't expect too much from it personally.. I haven't had a full read yet, just gone through the magazine, maybe it'll improve once I start to read some of the features.

 

[tarsha]

71-114 THE STORY OF TATLER
A 300-year frolic through Tatler's history, from coffee-house tri-weekly to glossy monthly

118 300 LEADERS OF THE PACK
300 people who are working it

152 GREAT SCOTT'S
Why Scott's holds the crown. By Jeremy Wayne

166 THE DAWN OF DIANA
How the arrival of Lady Diana Spencer changed the fortunes of Tatler. By Tina Brown

172 THE ORIGINAL ANNABEL
It's a life less ordinary for Lady Annabel Goldsmith. By Annabel Rivkin

FEATURES

158 BLOND AMBITION
A close encounter with Boris Johnson. By Annabel Rivkin

162 THE COVER CAMPAIGN
London's top advertising agencies design anniversary covers for Tatler. By Ticky Hedley-Dent

188 THE EDITORS
Tatler after Tina: who's steered HMS Tatler over the past three decades

209 MY TATLER MOMENT
High jinks and low morals on the job, by Brown, Coleridge, Gill, Shulman et al

Scroll upScroll down

Tatler.Co.Uk

 

[tarsha]

No contents?

 

[vogue28]

I'm so tempted to buy this because it looks much better in print, and it's nice and thick.

 

[honeycombchild]

^ I really wouldn't.

It's not a good issue. At all.

Most of the stuff in it to celebrate the 300 years belongs in a book really. It's just not well done to me. It's long, and drawn out, for no apparent reason - and the fashion content is seriously lacking.

 

[Label Basher]

^ Yeah get Bazaar instead.

 

[tigerrouge]

I'm waiting for the Daily Mail to print its "get this issue for £1" token, a promotion they've been running for Conde Nast mags over the past while.

 

[gb_32]

fab uk cover.