Potential launch of French edition of Vanity Fair in 2012

In last week’s interview to daily LeFigaro, Xavier Romatet, President of Condé Nast’s Paris-based division, mentions the possible launch of a new Condé Nast edition in France in 2012, most likely Vanity Fair.

Condé Nast to plan more upscale magazine launches in India

According to a recent article published in the FT, Condé Nast International reveals it is ready to follow the September 2009 launch of the Indian edition of Vogue with other upmarket titles as the global fashion and luxury retail industry looks to cash in on the country’s growing affluence.

The American publisher is seeking or has obtained regulatory approval for magazines such as Glamour, GQ, Condé Nast Traveller, Vanity Fair and niche publications such as Wired, the technology-focused magazine.

“We’d like to get the Vogue launch right first and soon after that start kicking off some of these other launches,” said Alex Kuruvilla, managing director of Condé Nast India, in the FT article.

India is emerging as one of the world’s biggest “millionaire factories”, with a study by Cap Gemini and Merrill Lynch showing it was second only to Singapore in terms of the growth in the number of people with net assets of $1m or more.

But it is not that easy to enter the Indian market.  Indeed, the luxury retail industry faces many hurdles there  from a lingering cultural and political aversion to conspicuous displays of wealth, with many people still living in deep poverty. It also faces challenges from high taxes and a lack of suitable malls for luxury retailers.

Mr Kuruvilla said Vogue would launch its first edition with an October cover date on September 22 with a target print run of 50 000 copies, taking on titles such as Elle, L’Officiel and local magazine Verve.  He added that these magazines had targeted a middle-market audience while Vogue was looking to cater for the new class of high-net worth consumers emerging in India.  He said the magazine was expecting advertising yields of four to five times the existing competition and to capture 50-60% market share of fashion-related advertising revenue in the first year.

In China, Vogue broke even in its first year, capitalizing on the rise of the affluent classes there. “I don’t think we’d be too far behind in terms financial achievements albeit with a smaller model,” Mr Kuruvilla said of the Indian operation.

The launch of Vogue follows the entry into India of luxury retailers, such as Ermenegildo Zegna, the high-end Italian men’s wear company, and Hermès, the French luxury goods maker.  According to Mr Kuruvilla, India’s luxury retail market is ripe for a “tipping point”. It was only a matter of time before “it all explodes into a combination of the purchasing power, fuelled by mall access points and, most importantly, by the fact that there are so many of these luxury players coming in right now”.

On the other hand, as Ranjan Biswas, partner and head of retail with Ernst & Young, countered in the article, India first needs more high-end malls before the industry could take off. “I think as the high-end mall becomes a reality, luxury retailers will start to have more meaningful footfalls,” Mr Biswas added.  Maybe Vogue can invest in a Vogue-branded Mall as well.  Hasn´t Condé Nast International already started to dabble in the restaurant business?

Condé Nast graduates from the Gehry-designed cafeteria to the restaurant business

As reported by the WSJ, US magazine publisher Condé Nast is taking some of its best-known magazine names like Vogue and GQ and parlaying them into the restaurant business in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.  The effort reflects a growing openness among magazine publishers to try to capitalize on their brands beyond print, which continues to struggle in a tough advertising environment.

The restaurant venture only involves Condé Nast’s international unit, so there are no plans for a Vanity Fair Café or a New Yorker Bar & Grill in the U.S. That being said, the American magazines have been freed to reach their own deals, such as lines of jewelry or furnishings or e-commerce partnerships to name a few that Glamour US dabbled in recently.

“I think there’s been a new openness in the entire organization to experimenting, trying new things, and I would say thinking about the business model in new ways,” said Jonathan Newhouse, Chairman of Condé Nast International.

The company is establishing a new division, called Condé Nast Restaurants,

Condé Nast changes publishing partner in Brazil

Condé Nast International has formed a joint venture with Globo Media Group, a Brazilian publisher and broadcaster, to publish Vogue and other Condé Nast titles in the South American country, one of the world’s fastest growing markets for luxury goods.

Vogue has been published in Brazil in Portuguese for the past 35 years under a license agreement with Carta Editorial, which also published titles including Casa Vogue and Vogue Homme, most of which will now be published by the new joint venture, Edições Globo-Condé Nast. In addition, all the titles will have an online version. Under the joint venture the companies also plan eventually to launch Brazilian editions of other Condé Nast titles, along with branded digital and digital TV platforms. The last issue to be run by Carta Editorial will be October. Jonathan Newhouse, chairman of Condé Nast International, told WWD that “Globo is the leading media company in South America and has a reputation for excellence. It is the ideal partner for Condé Nast as we expand our business activities in this key, growing market.”

Germany: A naked and pregnant Claudia Schiffer graces the June cover of Vogue

20 years after Demi Moore did it for the cover of Vanity Fair, German model – and sometimes actress – Claudia Schiffer is now posing nude while expecting her third child for the June issue of German Vogue.  Vogue Editor Christiane Arp said there were few models who have been photographed more than Claudia Schiffer, but she had never done naked and pregnant before.   Designer and photographer friend Karl Lagarfeld immortalized the event while Ellen von Unwerth, Camilla Akrans, Francesco Carrozzini and Jan Welters each had their own “Claudia by Vogue” session with the model. 

Click above to see the slide show of their photographs.

Click above to watch the making-of of the “Claudia by Vogue” photo shoots online at Vogue TV.

Also in this issue, artist Marc Quinn chats with Claudia about her life, her career, and expecting her third child with British director/producer Matthew Vaughn (“Kick Ass”, “Layer Cake”).

UK: A closer look at how British women’s magazines have been selling

The UK is a big market for women's magazines, as most of you must know.  There's no shortage of magazine brands there. It's an interesting mix of usual suspects (the ELLE's, Vogue's, Harper's of the world) as well as local titles such as Red, Essentials, Stylist, etc.  Since the latest ABC UK circulation numbers (period of July 1 – December 31st 2009) came out recently, I suggest we take a look at the winners first and losers last. 

WINNERS

IPC Media's Essentials magazine was the biggest climber in the women's lifestyle and fashion sector it appears, up 14% YoY and selling now an average of 112 135 copies in the second half of 2009.  Publisher IPC Media (owned by Time Warner Group) hat another hit in the newsstands this past semester with Woman & Home, which was up 4% YoY to 368 388 copies now, up 5% vs. first half of 2009. This was its highest circulation in 14 years!

Hachette Filipacchi's Red, now edited by former Cosmopolitan editor Sam Baker, achieved a record circulation of 226 502, up 3.5% on the first half – but up less than 1% on the year to outsell Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.  Nadia Dawson, the current Red publisher, told the Guardian newspaper recently that its success was due to "the strongest editorial team in the business with a determination to always produce the luxury lifestyle magazine for smart women – a strategy single-mindedly followed for the past three years". "This, coupled with a refusal to trade down on the quality of the content or our production values, means Red continues to be the magazine of choice for the upmarket thirtysomething women," Dawson declared.  But there was bad news for Red's stablemate at Hachette, Psychologies, which was down 6.8% YoY to 130 860. This is remaining steady since the early days of 2009.  Psychologies' launch editor Maureen Rice left the title in October, with former InStyle and Good Housekeeping editor Louis Chunn taking over.  Lastly, Hachette Filipacchi's ELLE remained under the 200 000 threshold, selling 195 455 copies on average a month, also steady vs. previous year.

Shortlist Media also launched a free weekly women's mag called Stylist in October 2009, which recorded a debut distribution figure of 410,674.

Over at NatMags (owned by Hearst Communications), Harper's Bazaar (UK) was up 1.1% YoY to 110 638. Cosmopolitan (UK) was down 4.5% on the second half of 2008 to 430 353. But the publisher's Good Housekeeping (UK) reversed this trend, up 1.1% YoY to 430 089 and 5% on the first half to sell an average of 430 089 each month.

Among the fashion weeklies, IPC's Look was down less than 1% to 313 013, while Bauer Consumer Media's five-year-old Grazia (UK) was up 1.1% on the same period in 2008 to 229 732 copies, its ninth successive ABC increase!  Bauer's More!, which caters to more mature women, continued its strong performance, up 6.4% year on year to 192 860. But sister magazine Yours, aimed at an older market, was down again, this time 7.3% year on year to 284 560.

LOSERS

The biggest selling magazine in the sector remained Condé Nast's Glamour, down 6% YoY to average 515 281 each month while upscale sister title Vogue (UK) was down 4.5% to sell 210 526.  Vanity Fair was up 1.2% year on year to 102 421, while sister title Tatler was steady compared with the second half of 2009 at 86 345.  No glorious figures this time for Condé Nast UK overall.

Marie Claire (UK), a joint venture between IPC and French publisher Groupe Marie Claire, was down 9.9% YoY to 283 025. But IPC's Instyle was steady year on year at 184 141.

The worst performer in the market was NatMags' She, down 9.1% year on year to 150 074 and up less than 1% on the previous six-month period.  Independent magazine Candis also fared badly, down 7.8% year on year to 263 754.  Easy Living had another poor result, down 8.1% year on year at 170 033.

Overall, the women's lifestyle and fashion sector was up 4.7% YoY and 9.2% on the previous six months to sell and distribute a combined average of 6 580 758 copies per issue.

Vogue Türkiye debuted with its March issue!

Turkish Vogue has just launched in big fanfare with a party at the Crillon Hotel to celebrate its premiere issue.  Canadian model Jessica Stam is wearing up-and-coming designer Giles Deacon on the cover of #1 issue (shot by Patrick Demarchelier of course), which is going to be edited by Seda Domaniç together with Fashion Director May Fellowes.  Condé Nast International (or its local publishing partner) apparently enlisted the help of the London-based creative group Foxall Associates to design and art direct several of the fashion features that are found in this debut issue.

 

Vogue Turkey’s first issue boasts an amazing 562 pages including 262 pages of advertising (not bad during one of the worst ad slumps in history), among them Dior, Escada, D&G, as well as a bunch of local labels.

The latest international edition of Vogue is published under license by Doğuş Media Group, which also produces Fashion TV and CNN in Turkey.  Vogue Turkey is expected to grow to a circulation of 80 000 copies in the country (also encompassing Turkish part of Cyprus) and will go for on sale at 4 euros.

Click for more info on Doğuş Media Group in English.

For a closer look inside Vogue Turkey’s debut issue, visit Foxall‘s website.