fashionologie

The Best - and Worst - Selling Fashion Magazine Covers of 2011

Christina Perez — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:11:55 PST

>> The 2011 results are in: Sarah Jessica Parker, Heidi Klum, and Jennifer Aniston regularly and reliably pulled in the top sales at the newsstand, and Mila Kunis was the year's breakout cover star with some of the best-selling issues across titles. While the biggest-drawing names may not come as a surprise, here's what does: the inconsistent ability of some stars to bring in sales - Gwyneth Paltrow, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, and Emma Stone all had some of the best and worst performing covers of the year. Click through to see who else had cover hits and misses in 2011, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations and Rapid Report.

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Elle Puts Models on Its October 2011 Cover - The First Time in Over Eight Years

fashionologie — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:35:50 PDT

>> For the first time in over eight years, Elle has placed a model on its cover. Not just one model, in fact, but rather four: “We felt it was time to show the sexy side of fashion again, enlisting four of the runway’s super seductive models – Miranda Kerr, Chanel Iman, Adriana Lima, and Doutzen Kroes," says editor Robbie Myers. "These covers harken to what made Elle Elle: Shot outside, drenched in sunlight, color, and of course accessories, the women look right back at you with all the personal and sexual confidence in the world.” The four models, who appear on the cover of Elle's October 2011 issue - on newsstands Sept. 20 - were styled by Joe Zee and shot by Alexei Hay. Erin Wasson was the last model to cover Elle, for the magazine's September 2003 issue.

Watch a behind-the-scenes video from the shoot, below.

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See Which Fashion Magazine Covers Have Sold Best - and Worst - So Far in 2011

fashionologie — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:45:58 PDT

>> Vogue was the only American fashion magazine to show a newsstand sales increase in the first half of 2011, thanks to its March Lady Gaga cover. The pink-haired Gaga image drove sales up by more than 100,000 copies over the March 2010 Vogue issue, which featured Tina Fey on the cover; and overall, the magazine averaged 360,000 copies at the newsstand during the first half of this year, up 12.7 percent.

Harper's Bazaar, meanwhile - which was up 10 percent during the first half of last year when the rest of fashion magazines were down - dropped 14.3 percent to 137,117. “It would be a lot easier if we could feature proven sellers like Jennifer Aniston or Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover every month, but we took some risks this year and tried stars that were a little outside of the norm for us, and they didn’t always translate into newsstand sales,” editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey admitted. Among those departures: Julianna Margulies for January 2011, Kim Kardashian for March 2011, and Courteney Cox for April 2011.

W - which has never relied on newsstand sales - was down 11.8 percent to 19,006, and Elle was down 9 percent to 250,056. See the big four's best and worst-selling covers for the first half of 2011 in the slideshow.

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Vogue Tops Other Fashion Magazines in September Ad Pages, Has Plans for a New Website

fashionologie — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:20:35 PDT

>> Vogue's September 2011 issue will boast 584 ad pages, with an increase of 50 pages - or 9.3 percent - over its September 2010 issue (By comparison, Vogue had its all-time high - pre-recession - in 2007, with 727 ad pages.). Elle's September 2011 issue was down 6.8 percent to 350 ad pages; Harper's Bazaar came in at 308, a 2.2 percent gain; and W increased 3 percent to 255 pages. When announcing the magazine's numbers yesterday, Vogue publisher Susan Plagemann added that Vogue plans to roll out another website aside from Vogue.com in December, but she wouldn't give further details. [Ad Week]

The City's Erin Kaplan Leaving Elle for Teen Vogue

fashionologie — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 10:18:01 PST

>> Erin Kaplan, Elle's PR director who played foil to Olivia Palermo on the now-cancelled The City, sent an email out to contacts earlier today that she is leaving the magazine for Teen Vogue. Kaplan spent over five years at Elle and has been named Teen Vogue's Senior Director of PR. Since editor Amy Astley hinted last year that Teen Vogue is developing a new TV show, many are drawing the conclusion that Kaplan's jump - given her TV experience - may be related. [Fashionista, The Cut]

Hearst Speaks Out on Why It Aims to Acquire Elle

fashionologie — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 08:35:38 PST

>> Hearst, which has until Jan. 30 to square away their Elle acquisition deal, has been silent on the whole matter - until now. While it may seem that Hearst is interested in joining forces with Elle to up its prestige and respect in the publishing world, the Harper's Bazaar publisher says not so - its executives are more concerned with the big revenue numbers that come with owning the rights to a portion of Elle's 43 international editions. Hearst magazines president David Carey sums it up: “For us, prestige is a business with a healthy bottom line.”

If the deal does go through, however, one source told WWD that Hearst will be challenged with bringing Elle's average ad page rate up to that of Harper's Bazaar (which itself has a going rate of less than Vogue).

Lady Gaga Sells Magazines Best in 2010; Anna Wintour Favorite Blake Lively Doesn't Sell Well for Vogue

fashionologie — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:58:54 PST

>> No wonder Anna Wintour is rumored to have cast Lady Gaga for Vogue's marquee March 2011 cover: according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations and WWD, Gaga was 2010's "runaway hit at the newsstand."

Her July 8 Rolling Stone cover was the magazine's top-selling issue of the year; her April cover for Cosmopolitan fronted that magazine's top selling issue through the end of October; her September Vanity Fair cover was the title's second best-selling issue of the year (behind Angelina Jolie's); and her January Elle cover marked the magazine's third best-seller of the year through October.

Speaking of Wintour's preferences, she may be a fan of putting Blake Lively on covers, but it sounds like Lively doesn't sell for Vogue - her June cover was the magazine's third worst-seller of the year (and her Esquire cover was that magazine's worst seller of the year). Anne Hathaway's November Vogue cover, meanwhile, was the magazine's second-worst newsstand seller.

And over at Elle, Jennifer Lopez's cover was the magazine's second-worst seller through October, while Taylor Swift's April Elle cover was the worst seller through October.

Hearst Could Own Elle Within the Month

fashionologie — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 10:55:20 PST

>> Harper's Bazaar publisher Hearst could have ownership of all 40-plus foreign editions of Elle (minus the original French one) within the month. After over a year of rumors about the acquisition, and then word that Bauer Media or Meredith Corporation might also be in the running, Elle parent company Lagardere announced on Friday that it is in exclusive talks with Hearst, giving until Jan. 30, for the deal to be struck. Whatever happens, Lagardere still aims to keep full editorial control at Elle, post-sale. [Bloomberg, WWD]

Sarah Jessica Parker Reaffirms Commitment to Halston - "I Will Never Do This For a Title"

fashionologie — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:19:44 PST

>> Word went around recently that after Halston's board ousted the brand's CEO Bonnie Takhar, Halston president and chief creative officer Sarah Jessica Parker was upset. But from what she told Elle in its January 2011 issue, it sounds like she's committed to the brand: “I said, ‘Please know this now: I will never do this for a title. I will never dip in and out of this. I’ll do it like everything else I’ve ever done. I’ll be involved down to the splitting of the atom.’” As for her design skills: “I might not have the language; I can’t always tell you the exact blend of a fabric, but I figure it out.” [Elle]

Hearst Could End Up Buying Elle After All

fashionologie — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:52:41 PST

>> The rumors have been flying for well over a year now, but finally, French conglomerate Lagardere, which owns publisher Hachette Filipacchi, and subsequently, Elle, has confirmed that it is exploring options for its international magazine business.

“These are informal discussions, which can result in anything from partnerships to joint ventures to an outright sale," a spokeswoman confirmed. "But at this stage nothing is fixed, and no time limit has been set."

Regardless of what happens, Lagardere plans to hold on to its French magazines - including French Elle - and retain editorial control over the foreign editions of Elle (which includes American Elle). When asked about the rumors that Harper's Bazaar publisher Hearst was interested in buying a controlling stake in American Elle, the spokeswoman replied: “They are certainly one of the possible partners but by no means the only one.”