GWAS Media Satchel


Bits and (Anna Wintour) bobs from the glossy media beat...

- Vanity Fair's annual Hollywood Issue has landed with the cover shot by Norman Jean Roy. The Class of 2011 features: Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, James Franco, Jennifer Lawrence, Anthony Mackie, Olivia Wilde, Jesse Eisenberg, Mila Kunis, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Andrew Garfield, Rashida Jones, Garrett Hedlund, Noomi Repace and Robert Duvall.

- Gwyneth Paltrow is on the March cover of UK Harper's BAZAAR, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is on the cover of UK Vogue and Keira Knightley fronts UK ELLE. On poopy feedback on GOOP, Gwyneth told BAZAAR: "Any time you do anything with any degree of sincerity, people make fun of you. That's totally fine. I don't care. I don't read any of it. My thing with Goop has always been, if you don't like it, then don't log onto it. There were a couple of times when I thought, 'I'm just gonna stop doing it. People are so mean to me. I don't want to do it.' But then I was like, 'Who cares what some lame person out there says?' I was in Italy once, and this old man came up to me and said, 'I had the best time in Nashville because of Goop.' And that is so worth it to me." 

- While Drew Barrymore graces the March cover of marie claire Australia, Nicole Kidman covers the magazine's British counterpart (as well as Harper's BAZAAR Australia). Kidman has talked to the magazine about her adopted children: "I was a gypsy for so long, living out of a suitcase, sort of dragging Bella and Connor around with me... Bella’s 18, and Connor is 15. Bella’s an adult now, and moving into that stage of life. I think most kids at 18 have moved away and are at college so, yeah, it was harder earlier, and now it is what it is." And, then there's, Botox: "I tried it, I didn’t like it, so I’ve gone back to my own forehead. But I’ve never had plastic surgery on my face. People say I have but I haven’t."

- Diane Kruger is on the March cover of U.S. Glamour. This week the magazine launched its Young and Posh Blogger Network. 


- Hearst Magazines this week confirmed it would be buying the rights to publish ELLE from French publishing house Lagardere. Additionally, Hearst will add 102 Lagardere mastheads published in 15 countries to its stable, including British title Red, in a $894 million acquisition deal.

Lagardere will retain the ELLE trademark and will receive annual royalties from Hearst based on sales while also overseeing the magazine's branding and retaining ownership of the French edition of ELLE, which is published weekly. ELLE currently published 42 international editions.

ELLE's American and British editions are currently published under license by Hachette Filipacchi Media while the Australian edition, then published by Pacific Publications, folded in 2001. Hearst, which currently publishes 200 magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Harper's BAZAAR, Marie Claire and O, The Oprah Magazine, is set to finalise the deal by spring (northern fall). (Sources: Hearst; The Australian; Fashionista)

 - Pandora has "credited its controversial demand for editorial integration with publishers as a major reason for its success in the Australian market," reports AdNews. The jewellery company, which has secured 32% of the retail jewellery market, requires publishers and TV networks to pitch for business involving cost-competitive ad placements in key positions, added value and editorial integration opportunities. This year, reports AdNews, the company has slashed its magazine roll by a third (from 30 down to 20), while newspaper inserted magazines (NIMs), particularly those published by News Limited, have drawn money away from the major ACP and Pacific Magazines glossies.

- ACP magazine has tapped into the neurological behaviours of women. AdNews reports a study was conducted with 200 female readers across 11 ACP titles, including Woman's Day, The Australian Women's Weekly, Cleo and NW, by neuro-science research company Neuro-Insight, in order to track responses to editorial and advertising. The study found that readers were connected with the magazine from the first look at the cover and that content was "immediately encoded into long-term memory and sustained for the entire reading experience".

The AFR reported: "The average scores of the magazine on key measures such as engagement, attention, recall and 'emotional intensity' were higher than the scores Neuro-Insight had recorded in any other media", which makes magazine content all the more accountable.

The "brand salience" of products featured in magazines was higher than in other media, which supports ACP's "I Love Magazines" campaign directed at media buyers and marketers.

"The results of our neurological study will change the way advertisers think about magazines as an advertising medium, ACP managing director Phil Scott said in a press release. "I Love Magazines is just the latest initiative in our marketing strategy across the company, with further developments to come. In the 2011 financial year, ACP Magazines will double its media spend to approximately $20 million."

"I Love Magazines", which has its own free app and a Facebook page and dedicated website, is moving into stage two next month with the distribution of a magazine about magazines to buyers and advertisers and a consumer promotion giving away cash prizes advertised on Nine's Today show and in newsagents.

- The Daily Beast/Newsweek merger is complete. "Although some speculated that the new media conglomerate would simply be coined “Newsbeast,” the company went with a more conservative title and will be known as The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC." reports Media Bistro. "As expected, Tina Brown will serve as the title’s editor-in-chief, while IAC chairman Barry Diller and Newsweek owner Sidney Harman are both directors."

- Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has fared well in the second financial quarter, though no saving grace for MySpace. Reporting a net income of US$642 million, up from US$388 million for the same period in 2010, the improvement is attributed to strong performance in the US cable TV arm and a resurgent advertising market. MySpace continued to sap money from the business, and for dragging its feet it's facing a sell-off to the highest bidder. The Australian reports: "On a conference call, News Corp chief operating officer Chase Carey said the company has decided to explore strategic options for the unit, including a sale of the business, and has received interest from buyers."

- The Guardian gave us live coverage of The Daily's launch. It's being called an "all media" news product split into six editorial areas (news, sport, gossip and celebrity, opinion, arts and life, and apps and games) with capabilities for sharing content on Twitter and Facebook (MySpace?) and in-building celebrity feeds. There will be up to 100 pages everyday including 360-degree images and video; some text, headlines and images will be available online for free; and the target audience is "everybody" (with an iPad in the U.S.). Revenue aims to be 50/50 subscriptions and advertising (Murdoch says, "The Daily will attract a better class of advertiser and a better rate.").

- The Australian also reports on The Daily: "Chief executive Rupert Murdoch said at The Daily launch event he believes the experiment could prove to be a viable business model for newsgathering in the digital age. His company has substantial holdings in the struggling news publishing industry. Mr Carey said the initial response today following the launch of The Daily exceeded expectations."

French publishing house Jalou Media Group (JMG) is looking to license its women's fashion title L'Officiel, in addition to other magazines (Jalouse, Muteen, Optimum, L'Officiel Hommes), for publishing in Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.

Sold in 70 countries and published since 1921, L'Officiel is an established international brand with its 90-year archive available online. Peter Hammond of Saxon Agencies is handling the business from the Australian end (contactable via email).   

- The AFR's marketing and media editor Neil Shoebridge has made some predictions for 2011, including, "sales of celebrity-dominated weekly magazines...will continue to slide, hit by higher interest rates, rising food and utility prices and dwindling interest in shock-horror celebrity stories" and "A cautious view of media advertising spending this year will prompt private equity firm CVC Asia Pacific to delay the float of Nine Entertainment Co from March/April to June/July". Shoebridge also doubts earnings for ACP Magazines and ninemsn will perform as expected. 

- A study by ComScore has found local websites that use cookies to count unique browsers may be overstating their unique visitor numbers by as much as 170%. AdNews reports that ComScore is one of the five measurement organisations pitching to become the sole online audience measurement provider in Australia.

- "Australia’s advertisers are attempting to persuade website owners to more than double the file size of display ads to allow for more interesting creative executions," reports mUmBRELLA. "The campaign – known as The 100kb Project – is being led by The Communications Council’s digital committee, which is chaired by Amnesia Razorfish ECD Iain McDonald"

- Issue #6 of Apartmento has hit the magnation stands: "perhaps the most interesting thing about Apartamento is that it breaks the mould of what an interiors magazine should be… instead of dealing with interiors, necessarily, it deals with space and how people occupy it."

- Jezebel writes on Naomi Campbell's interview with Vladimir Putin for British GQ.

- Mark Fletcher writes 'Easy cash flow from magazine distribution model' for Australian Newsagency Blog. 



Girl With a Satchel

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad Gwynnie's sticking by GOOP.
It's so entertaining!

Alison said...

Great round up Erica!
I too have a sneaking love of Goop.
Its like a real fairy tale!

Style On Track said...

I love your roundups, they always contain the snipits of information that are actually fascinating :) thanks Erica