2011 did not end on a good note for magazines. According to Audit Bureau of Circulations, the industry was down an average of 10 percent, WWD is reporting.
And that’s not even the worst of it. Some fashion titles fell much harder.
Christina Aguilera Covers February’s Marie Claire: …and doesn’t give a damn what you think about her body! She tells the glossy, “I’ve been criticized for being on both sides of the scale. It’s noise I block out automatically. I love my body. My boyfriend loooves my body. My son is healthy and happy, so that’s all that matters to me.” Let ‘em know Ms. Aguilera! {Marie Claire}
Blue Ivy Carter is Jay-Z’s “Glory”: You are most certainly a robot if you don’t shed a tear to this track by doting father Jay-Z, telling the story of his new daughter’s arrival, ending with a sample of her first cries. We’re getting a little misty just talking about it! {Hello Beautiful}
Moschino Cheap & Chic Showing at London Fashion Week This Season:Moschino’s little sister line is moving from Milan to London this season. Maybe this will help to make peace between Milan and London in the war for fashion week dates? {WWD, subscription required}
As WWD‘s recent report of the best-and-worst selling issues of 2011 proved, celebrity covers sell magazines plain and simple.
But while the report is a good indication of which celebrities we can expect to see more of on covers (Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Aniston), and which ones we probably won’t (Justin Bieber, Reese Witherspoon), it doesn’t necessarily paint the whole picture. Because while the glossies are printed in the United States, many have dozens of worldwide editions which frequently use reprints (both covers and content) from their North American counterpart. So are the best-selling US celebrities consistent with those who showed up most around the world?
The Kardashian appeal tends to dwindle when you take the overwhelming North American market out of the picture, so logic would indicate that cover giants Jennifer Aniston and Sarah Jessica Parker would pull out in front, right? Well, that’s not always the case.
We take a look at six big titles which have editions all around the world including Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, and Marie Claire, and who showed up the most where. The results might surprise you.
We love covers.
OK, that is perhaps the most obvious statement of the new year, but it’s true. What’s not to love?
You know the old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover?” Well, magazines are a bit different. A magazine only has a few seconds to catch your attention on a newsstand and compel you to pick it up. It’s a pretty tough gig, to tell you the truth. And while the cover photo (usually a celebrity) is the big draw, it’s hard to miss the headlines–those strings of text selling the inside on the outside with those teasing buzzwords (some more obnoxious than others) enticing you to buy.
To the left you’ll see a collage of the words appearing most on some North America’s most popular fashion, beauty and liftestyle magazines. It’s likely a catalog of words that you’ll recognize from just about any cover. Not only are the words on repeat, but the same formulas are in play all the time, one buzzword being substituted for another. There are subtle variations between publications, however, and thank goodness for that, but what separates one publication from another? We’ll take a look at how some of these magazines grab your attention by finding out their most popular key words from 2011.
In the magazine world, 2011 has come and gone (January 2012 issues are already out). Thus, WWD has issued their annual report on the year’s best and worst selling American covers–meaning, which celebrity faces, from Lady Gaga to Kim Kardashian, achieved the highest success rate at newsstands.
The results, while largely predictable, included a few surprises.
Kate Middleton’s Plum and Wine Christmas Ensemble: The Duchess was a sugar plum (in the best possible way) personified on Christmas morning as she attended church services with the royal family. {Mirror UK}
Burberry Has 10 Million Facebook Fans and Counting: Compare that to Louis Vuitton which has about 6 million fans and Prada who has 829,000. Let’s hope Burberry doesn’t start playing Farmville and cluttering up everyone’s feed. {Facebook}
Louis Vuitton Is Suing The Hangover 2: LVMH is suing Warner Brothers because of a scene in which Zach Galifianakis’ character says of his bag, “Careful, that is a Louis Vuitton.” Except it’s not. The bag is a counterfeit produced by a company called Diophy, which LVMH is also currently suing. The luxury goods company claims there could be “consumer confusion.” We’re definitely confused. {WWD, subscription required}
Last week, Marie Claire‘s December cover featuring Kim Kardashian surfaced just ten days after the reality TV star filed for divorce. The headline, which read, “Kim Kardashian Reveals What Went On In Her Crazy Marriage” raised a few suspicions about whether or not Marie Claire had known about the divorce in advance, and whether or not this strengthened claims that Kim’s marriage was a sham.
Now, images from the photo shoot and half of the interview have been released (you can read the rest when the issue hits newsstands November 22)–But they don’t immediately clear anything up. It’s obvious that the interview took place when Kim was still married–the actress says things like “I feel like where [Kris and I are] right now is the best time in my life,” and, “We have a lot of trust, and I don’t think either of us would do anything to break that. It makes life so easy. He’s such a good guy.”
But the story was definitely written (or rewritten) after Kim filed for divorce, and the writer acknowledges that the marriage lasted only 72 days.
Ever since we found out Taylor Tomasi Hill was leaving Marie Claire for Moda Operandi, we’ve been wondering who would fill her (designer) shoes over at MC. And now we know: Kyle Anderson, formerly ELLE‘s Senior Accessories Editor, will be taking over as Accessories Director at Marie Claire, starting next week.
“I think after six years of working in the accessories department at ELLE, now is the right time to move on to a position where I can contribute more to the look of a magazine,” Anderson told us in an email. “And for me, working for Nina Garcia again and Marie Claire is the ideal fit.” Nina gave Kyle his start at ELLE six years ago and since then the two have remained close–back in August Kyle told Smart Chic Style: “I owe everything and all of my last six years of experiences at ELLE to [Nina] for taking a chance on me.”
According to the New York Times, Taylor Tomasi Hill has left her post as style and accessories director at Marie Claire to become the artistic director for retail site Moda Operandi.
It’s an impressive coup for Moda Operandi, which, according to the paper, also managed to poach Gilt’s Roopal Patel, especially since the site only just launched in February. It’s also a huge loss for Marie Claire, who really used Taylor in all her fashion-forward, unbelievably gorgeous, street-style-fodder, glory as the poster child for their recent fashion-y makeover, having wooed her away from her former post at Teen Vogue with, we assume, a hefty paycheck and lots of perks.
Ever since Carrie Bradshaw’s fictional Vogue spread centered around a wedding she didn’t end up going through with, we bet that’s become every celebrity’s worst nightmare: to do an advanced wedding-themed shoot for a mag and have the wedding never happen (it was a reality for Kristen Cavallari). However, in the case of next month’s Marie Claire cover (which just surfaced on TFS), the wedding did happen. It’s just that a divorce happened extremely soon after.
The most intriguing thing about the cover, besides the fact that Kim Kardashian looks uncharacteristically natural (and pretty) is that the headline reads ‘What Went On in Her Crazy Marriage.’ The past tense implies that the interview was conducted after Kim’s marriage to Kris Humphries went south. However, Kim only filed for divorce 10 days ago. Is this further proof that Kim and Kris’ relationship was staged? And that this magazine cover story was yet another opportunity for multiple parties to cash in on it?
We’re all about Taylor Tomasi-Hill. From her perfectly kooky street style to her impeccable West Village home, TTH is our consummate life inspiration. Naturally, we’re trying to figure out exactly how the Marie Claire editor does it. Well, this video may help.
Glossies had a rough go of it during the first half of this year. Sales for all major fashion titles were down, with the exception of Vogue (up more than 12%) and Allure (flat, which is sort of a victory.)
Vogue’s secret? Putting Lady Gaga on its March cover. That cover alone sold 100,000 copies more than Vogue’s 2010 March cover, WWD is reporting. Reality stars are also newsstand gold. Glamour’s Kim Kardashian cover and People Style Watch’s Lauren Conrad cover were huge sellers, though both those titles’ sales are down overall. And our favorite blonde girl-next-door-types? Glenda Bailey, Harper Bazaar’s EIC told WWD, “It would be a lot easier if we could feature proven sellers like Jennifer Aniston or Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover every month.” No one mentioned Sarah Jessica Parker, surprisingly, who is still getting quite a bit of play on covers.
And the cover stinkers?
