The GWAS Glossy Yearbook 2010
It was the Year of the iPad, phone app, Twitter and WikiLeaks in medialand, though the glossies were hesitant to jump on board; ironic given they never saw a fashion trend they wouldn't try.
As with 2009, there wasn't a terrible lot of innovation going on: safe as houses was the game as the gun-shy glossies recovered from the GFC fallout. Fair enough. Still, our national obsession with food (commensurate with our growing girths) saved the day.
This is GWAS' annual account of what happened in the glossysphere, from new launches and editorial movements to the month-by-month news headlines that had us talking. Read it intermittently, print it or bookmark for later; there's a lot of homework here. Happy trawling!
As with 2009, there wasn't a terrible lot of innovation going on: safe as houses was the game as the gun-shy glossies recovered from the GFC fallout. Fair enough. Still, our national obsession with food (commensurate with our growing girths) saved the day.
This is GWAS' annual account of what happened in the glossysphere, from new launches and editorial movements to the month-by-month news headlines that had us talking. Read it intermittently, print it or bookmark for later; there's a lot of homework here. Happy trawling!
NEW LAUNCHES- SHAPE magazine (which went monthly, then scaled back to quarterly)
- GQStyle, published for September and March, taking the masthead's annual offering to eight issues.
- MasterChef magazine (biggest launch of the year)
- The Outdoor Room with Jamie Durie
- Younger You (digital turns to print)
- Body + Soul magazine
- Anthology Magazine
- The Gentlewoman
- INDUSTRIE
BYE-BYE GLOSSY
It was time to say good-bye to some beloved glossies this year, as the GFC and market conditions impacted on sales growth.- Vogue Entertaining + Travel (integrated into Vogue Living)
- Notebook:
- Sport & Style
- Ralph
GLOSSY BIRTHDAYS
- InStyle Australia celebrated 10 years in print.
- InsideOut celebrated its 10th birthday, too, and appointed a new editor, Richard Waller, to see it into the new decade.
- O The Oprah Magazine went all out for its 10 years with a party at Radio City Music Hall in May.- 50th issue milestone for Footprints magazine.
- UK ELLE's 25th anniversary.
- Vogue Paris: 90 years in print.
- American ELLE celebrates 25 years.
- Women's Wear Daily celebrated its 100th anniversary.
- France's Madame Figaro had its 30th birthday, as did i-D.
MUSICAL CHAIRS
Did anyone else get head-spins keeping up with the magazine world's musical chairs this year?
- Sarah Oakes resigned from CLEO to edit Fairfax's Sunday Life.
- Gemma Crisp, formerly editor of DOLLY, resigned from freelancing and The Show Pony to edit CLEO.
- Paula Joye made way for Lizzie Renkert to take over as editor of madison (Joye is now rumoured to be returning to ACP to take the helm of Grazia, though her Life.Styled site is now running at full throttle).
- Dumbo feather founding editor Kate Bezar handed over to Patrick Pittman.
- ACP sales director Lynette Phillips parts ways with Park Street, as does Ian Law, the company's chief executive (replaced by David Gyngell).
- Former boss of ACP women's magazines Louisa Hatfield is made executive producer of KAK (aka Mornings with Kerri-Anne).
- Political Twitterati star Latika Bourke has been made the ABC's first social media reporter.
- Robyn Foyster resigned from Channel Seven to return to ACP Magazines.
- Grazia's Alison Veness-McGourty exited Park Street before Christmas.
GLOSSY HAPPENINGS
- marie claire Australia kick-started the year with a controversial cover showing Jennier Hawkins in the nude. The cover and its message about female body-image were debated across the glossy media spectrum. GWAS asked, Is naked necessary?
- V magazine weighed into the skinny model v "plus-size" model debate.
- The January issue of Brigitte magazine, the glossy selling itself on featuring more real women, came with a handy calorie-counting handbook for your handbag. Glossy hypocrisy? Never! Still, this mag did make headway in 2010.
- Conde Nast entered a "warm and cuddly" era.
- New Idea got a new look.
- We went good covermount hunting.
- And debriefed on body image.
- Hadley Freeman asked why fashion finds it difficult to design for women with breasts.
- Author Lori Gottlieb starts a viral frenzy over settling for Mr. Almost-Right.
February- Glossip weekly NW got a new look.
- Women's glossies make their political mark.
- GWAS Takes an iPad poll.
- News Magazines integrated Vogue Entertaining + Travel into Vogue Living.
- Tavi 2.0 gives the fashion world something new to talk about.
- SHAPE magazine launched.
- Frankie takes centre stage.
- American Vogue falls for Tina Fey.
- Vogue Italia launched a new website.
March
- The Magazines Publishers of America launches its The Power of Print campaign.
- Woman's Day becomes embroiled in the Lara Bingle bungle.
- Rival British fashion glossies get seriously competitive.
- InStyle Australia turns 10.
- Switzer publishes its first edition of RUSSH.
- A filmmaker takes on cover girl culture.
- Anna Wintour appears at a forum titled "Health Matters: Weight and Wellness in the World of Fashion"
- Seventeen magazine editor Ann Shoket talked about the brand's pervasiveness in girls' lives.
- Yahoo!Shine Brandon Holley is profiled by The New York Times. Holley leaves Yahoo for Lucky.
- The Big Issue attracted government funding for its Women's Enterprise initiative.
- Burke's Backyard magazine signposted a redesign.
- Stefano Tonchi takes over at W magazine.
April
- The Gentlewoman launches to the delight of many a girl with a satchel.
- Conde Nast editors wind up online.
- Dannii Minogue topped Who magazine's 25 Most Beautiful People List.
- We took a walk through Grazia's body issue featuring federal government minister Kate Ellis.
- And asked if Vogue glamourises the high-end crime lifestyle, while New Idea allegedly pays $250,000 for Roberta Williams' story and CLEO names Underbelly star Firass Dirani its Bachelor of the Year.
- Famous produced its inaugural Style Issue.
- Anna Wintour embraces fashion bloggers.
- Rolling Stone digitzed its 43-year archive of back issues.
- DOLLY editor Tiffany Dunk debuts her first full issue for the title (excerpts from her Mediaweek interview here).
- US Glamour wins the inaugural Magazine of the Year Award at the National Magazine Awards (aka the "Ellies").
- Glamour.com was named Digital Team of the Year at Min's Best of the Web awards.
- INDUSTRIE magazine debuts with Anna Wintour on the cover.
- Bec Hewitt backed out of her defamation case against New Idea.
- Who magazine got in hot water over its Carl Williams cover story.
- Danielle Long is appointed editor of trade publication AdNews.
- Former madison editor Paula Joye launched Life.Styled.
- Time published its 100 Most Influential People 2010 list. The first of many annual TIME lists.
May
- Aboriginal model Samantha Harris makes her Vogue cover debut.
- Did US Glamour get it wrong with this cover?
- Elle editor Roberta Myers shares her view on body image and the fashion industry.
- Shiny, happy fashion for all shapes and sizes, declared SHOP Til You Drop, introducing columnist Megan Moir Pardy. Hurrah!
- GWAS asked, Which glossy magazine do you miss most? You said ELLE (Australia).
- Domino magazine topped Min's poll of 'most missed' magazines scooping up 33% of the votes.
- The Sunday Telegraph had an entertainment reshuffle (covered here).
- While advertisers and media agencies were calling for issue-based results (i.e. data for sales of every single magazine), Aussie publishers are calling it a pain in the butt. (Source)
- The iPad's embrace by the magazine industry is quite different to its general disdain of the internet, said Marta Wohrle.
- Celebrities lost fashion campaign clout.
- "We're seeing more confidence in advertising dollars and hopefully that will be reflected in circulation," said former Grazia editor Alison Veness-McGourty. (via Mediaweek)- ACP launches 30 Days of Health & Wellbeing.
- Miranda Kerr in her underwear for the cover of GQ made headlines in the UK's Daily Mail.
- For £1 a day you could subscribe to Rupbert Murdoch's Times.co.uk.
- FAMOUS posted the biggest sales gain of any weekly title in the Aussie market.
- that's life! got a new look.
- The Huffington Post turned five.
- YouTube turned five too.
- iPad popularity explodes.
- Fairfax let us pick and choose our video ads; borrowed content from Network Ten.
- Celebrity covers = not dead.
- We swapped social media and online branding notes.
- Style.com composed a tribute to fashion blogging landmarks.
- We hosted a tween magazine panel.
- Katrina Lawrence imagined the iMag possibilities.
June
- The Federal Government introduced the Voluntary National Code of Conduct on Body Image.
- Google threatens third-party online ad networks with AdExchange.
- Min reports '59 Days, 2 Million iPads and Digi-Mags Keep Coming'.
- British Glamour hosts Women of the Year Awards; unveils brand-spanking-new website.
- Jamie Durie gets his own magazine.
-Two Vogues become one – Style and the City, a glossy love story.
- Tom Florio departed the Conde Nast building.
- Vogue Australia fashion photographer Richard Bailey, 52, passed away.
- Australia's Today show got a slap on the wrist for its (rather sensationalised) treatment of Nicole Richie, which sent her publicist into a proverbial spin.
- Richie poses for Grazia. And Sunday magazine.
- Australia gets its first female Prime Minister.
- SHOP Til You Drop hosts its the first ever Great SHOP Shoe Drop to coincide with its feelgood August issue and bring the world out of doom and gloom.
- ELLE magazine gets bitchy for TV.
- Min kept tabs on the iPad in the magazine industry.
- Madison editor Lizzie Renkert talked to Mediaweek about pulling cover talent, differentiating from the competition and shaking up the editorial content for her uniquely Australian magazine.
- "What is going on is there is a real need for authenticity and simplicity in some ways. That doesn't mean it can't have sophisticated ideas, or beautiful things and glamour in your life." - Vogue Living editor David Clark.
July
- Madison magazine hosted its Sex, Frocks & Rock N' Roll event.
- TIME makes its annual pick of the blogs.
- Amanda Meade handed over her Media Diary column to Caroline Overington.
- ACP Magazines announced that CLEO editor-in-chief Sarah Oakes would be leaving her post after two years, with Gemma Crisp, former editor of Dolly, to assume her position.
- Pacific Magazines appointed Daniel Findlay, former editor of Next Media's Mania, editor of K-Zone replacing Mel Howard.
- Fiona Byrne and Agyness Deyn's online magazine NAAG.com went live.- Digital journalism: More work, more pressure but more opportunity?
- The Maggies come to Oz.
- British Glamour editor Jo Elvin celebrates her 10-year "Glamourversary" with GWAS.
- Girlfriend gets a new, girl-friendlier image in light of Voluntary Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image.
- No shilly-shallying, The Women's Weekly cuts to the chase on Gillard coverage.
- Australians in New York Fashion Foundation Party #2!
- "It has been an unusual time for the teen market in the last year in that sales have been so driven by covermounts. More than any of the other markets there's been aggressive covermount activity." - Girlfriend editor Sarah Cornish talks to Mediaweek
August
- Fashion events abound.
- Reflections on body image campaigns.- Jackie Frank celebrates 15 years as editor of Marie Claire Australia.
- PBL Media announces intention to launch deal-a-day website, cudo.com.au.
- Lady Gaga drops the Poker Face for Vanity Fair's September issue; Justin Bieber signs a deal with Harper Collins.
- Julia Roberts covers ELLE exclusively in anticipation of Eat, Pray, Love's movie release.
- "Are there fashion shops there other than Century 21?" asks WWD of Conde Nast's rumoured relocation from Four Times Square to Ground Zero.
- US Glamour becomes the fourth US Conde Nast publication to be made available on the iPad and iPod.
- News Corporation reported a net profit of $US2.5 billion ($A2.74 billion) for 2009/10, helped by blockbuster hit movie Avatar.
- News Magazines' Good Taste’s redesign revealed in the September issue, on sale August 18; Gardening Australia’s relaunched with the October issue, on sale September 15.
- American mag total circulation fell by 2.3% in the first half of 2010.
- Frockwriter tips off a Codie Young cover for Vogue Australia's October cover (one of many scoops).
- Australians' voracious magazine reading habits dipped 2.7% year-on-year in the June audit.
- Australian magazine sales contracted just 3.81% in the year to June 2010, while the weekly mag market lost -9.1% of sales dragged down by ACP titles. (More readership/circ reports here).- "What [the September cover] means for a woman of color and what that means in the fashion world, what that means to pop culture, there was no way I could say, 'No, I'm not going to be on the biggest issue of the year." - Halle Berry, US Vogue
- Deborah Thomas, former EIC for the Women's Weekly, became the new public face of ACP Magazines assuming the title General Manager: Media, Public Affairs and Brand Development.
- Former madison editor Paula Joye becomes a spokesperson for Dove.
- British glossy stats!
- LOVE magazine launched its official website.
- DailyCandy – the witty "zeitgeisty" women's service site with the smarty-pants New Yorker tone that's spawned many a copycat, a few books, several online offshoots (while making a millionairess out of founder Dana Levy) – turned 10.
- SHOP Til You Drop gets an iPad app.
- The Aussie September Issues and here and here.
- Harper's BAZAAR Australia editor Edwina McCann appeared on the Today show to discuss the dilemma faced by the magazine after the 'Australia's Next Top Muddle debacle.
- MySpace begins to reposition in the market.
- First sniffs of WikiLeaks.
- Vogue Italia goes 3D with Miranda Kerr. Kerr's pregnancy goes public.
- Ziggy Switowski writes 'Why paper tigers must see the iPad generation as main course', for The Australian.
- Harold Mitchell wrote for Fairfax that the Federal Election proved traditional media brands, even when consumed online, command respect. "Traditional media clearly still dominates our lives, and so it was in the election."
- Swimmer Stephanie Gilmore in hot water over Twitter slur.
- Vogue Australia hosts its first Fashion's Night Out. (News Magazines' Mark Kelly talks to Carla Efstratiou)
- Mr Porter appoints Jeremy Langmead.
- Lady Gaga donned a raw meat bikini for the cover of Vogue Hommes Japan.
- We meet Anthology magazine (living with substance & style).
- MySpace redesigns.
- Pacific Magazines launches The Outdoor Room with Jamie Durie.
- Woman's Day has a makeover. (Media Satchel)
- New York Magazine sets online precedent.
- Condé Nast U.K announces launch of the December issues of British Vogue and Wired as iPad apps.
- Tom Florio, former publisher of American Vogue, is named IMG Worldwide's senior advisor for fashion.
- Fairfax Media has launched a range of subscription based iPhone apps for its online mastheads, including smh.com.au, theage.com.au and brisbanetimes.com.au, charging $2.49 a month.
October
- ACP Magazines announces Park St TV show.
- Sunday magazine to get a refresh.
- Net-a-Porter launches a FREE iPad magazine app.
- Facebook gets new features.
- The Social Network made $US23 million in its opening weekend.
- We paid tribute to Notebook:.
- Sunday Life takes our breath away. In contrast Younger You magazine enters the market.
- Newspaper inserted magazines (such as The Daily Chic Report) and Gen-Y focused print spinoffs help to keep mastheads afloat.
- UK Vogue gets its own iPhone app starting with the December issue. Conde Nast UK predicts that 40% of future sales could be on the iPad.
- Perez Hilton vows to quit bullying celebrities.
- David Penberthy, founding editor of The Punch, has been made editor-in-chief of news.com.au.
- Vogue's 50th anniversary cover wins The Maggies.
- IDM launches The Knot in print.
- Parity!
- The Australian Women's Weekly gets a makeover.
- TV Hits magazine lives on as a brand, not a mag.
November
- We looked at men's magazines.
- The Economist set us straight on a few things.
- Maggie Alderson to pen her final Style Notes column for Good Weekend.
- Fairchild Fashion Group takes Style.com under its wing.
- More news on MySpace's makeover.
- Vogue Australia founder Bernard Leser is inducted into AMA Hall of Fame.
- Lara Bingle covers the relaunched issue of Sunday magazine. Editor Claire Bradley talks shop.
- September readership results boosted by food, health and home titles.
- FAMOUS magazine outpaces the weekly magazine market.
- CLEO posts the biggest readership gain of the women's glossies.
- Newspaper Inserted Magazine (NIM) circulation under the microscope.
- News Magazines launches glossy Body + Soul spinoff.
- Wired magazine's 100% Natural breast cover attracted the derision of blogger/journalist Cindy Royal.
-The New Yorker's music critic Sasha Frere-Jones is made culture editor of News Corp's iPad newspaper, The Daily.
- The Daily Beast and Newsweek to merge.
- Wills and Harry announce their engagement; Woman's Day publishes a special edition.
- Jemma Baines wins the 2010 Girlfriend Rimmel Model Search.
- Google launched its fashion shopping site, Boutiques.com (TheOutnet.com gets a makeover).
- The Australian's editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell moves toward suing prolific Twitterer and journalism academic Julie Posetti for defamation.
- The National Library of Australia makes issues of The Australian Women's Weekly 1933-1982 available online.
- Paywalls, paywalls, paywalls. "At this stage, we think a Wall Street Journal style model – with a mix of free and subscription content - is probably the best model for our websites," News Limited director of corporate affairs Stephen Browning said.
- American Vogue gains back ad page momentum.
- James Packer becomes Australia's Next Top Media Mogul. A media buying frenzy ensues.
- "We don't sell commodity news. We sell audience engagement. Rupert Murdoch talks about a paywall around his content. We've had a paywall for 100 years – it's called a cover price." ACP Magazines managing director Phil Scott. (via Media Satchel)
- "[PBL Media chief] Mr Gyngell told Media that "stabilising circulation and gaining ad share" at ACP was one of his main priorities."
- ABC Managing Director Mark Scott delivers the 2010 Journalism Education Association Conference keynote address. (Highlights here)
- Fairfax media undergoes a restructure.
- Jessica Marais, Jennifer Hawkins and Natalie Imbruglia make Who's Sexiest People 2010 cover.
- Glamour's 20th Anniversary Women of the Year Awards, sponsored by L'Oreal Paris, were attended by Julia Roberts, Oprah, Queen Rania, Cher, Donatella Versace, Hilary Swank, Kate Hudson, Fergie, Janet Jackson and Tavi Gevinson.
- UK ELLE editor Lorraine Candy has won Editor of the Year at the British Society of Magazine Editor (BSME) awards.
- PRIMPED.com.au unveils a new look.
December
- PBL Media rebrands as Nine Entertainment Co, incorporating Nine Magazines, Nine Television, Nine Digital and Nine Events.- InStyle America launched a stand-alone shopping site called StyleFind.com where the magazine's editors will curate merchandise (just in time for Christmas!).
- True Blood Aussie Ryan Kwanten took out the GQ Man of the Year 2010 Award.
- "We produce the most beautiful magazines in Australia and, I think, the world." - News Magazines CEO Sandra Hook (publisher of InsideOut, Vogue, delicious, et al)
- Kerry O'Brien says goodnight to The 7:30 Report. He's replaced by Leigh Sales and Chris Uhlmann.
- Publishers Australia appointed a new CEO, Claudia Sagripanti. The industry body aligned itself with the Magazine Publishers of Australia, which represents major publishers ACP, Pacific Magazines and News Magazines. In 2011, there will be an inaugural Australian Magazine Week, while the Magazine of the Year awards may be back on the cards. Publishers Australia also held its Excellence Awards.
- Paula Joye's LifeStyled launches online.
- News Magazines' sports title Alpha released an iPad app, the first for the company.
- Veteran journalist George Negus guest-edits INSIGHT magazine.
- Fairfax's Sport&Style magazine folds.- Australian media and marketing blog mUmBRELLA turned two.
- Mamamia is to go 3.0.
- Apple launched the first iAd for the iPad.
- Pacific Magazines' tween title K-Zone implemented a paywall.
- RUSSH + The Huffington Post?
- TIME magazine named Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg its 2010 Person of the Year.
- "Magazines will struggle to stay positive globally, essentially staying flat every year going forward. Over the next five years, magazine advertising will decline in each of the world’s 10 largest markets for magazines, with the exception of Brazil and Russia." - MagnaGlobal
- Min delivered the hottest American magazine launches of the year (and most notable launches of the past 25 years).
- There were 193 magazine launches and 176 closures in the US in 2010, according to Folio.
- "WikiLeaks is doing what the media have always done, bringing to light material governments would prefer to keep secret, newspaper editors and other media figures say in an open letter to Prime Minister Julia Gillard." (The Age)
See also:
The Best Glossy Covers 2010
GWAS Glossy Yearbook (+ GWAS Glossy Awards) 2008
Best Glossy Covers 2009
Best (& Worst) Glossy Covers 2010
Girl With a Satchel
5 comments:
Thanks Erica! I was travelling for most of 2010 and missed a lot of what happened in the mag world. Which is kinda bad, since I work in the mag world. An invaluable catch-up, cheers.
Erica, it's seems fairly obvious that writing a blog on the media industry that you will be getting alot of these people reading what you write.
With this in mind, you should probably try and show some journalistic values yourself, and check your stories, your sources and even names of the people you are reporting. Your round-up is unfortunately littered with industry gossip that you have reported as fact and embarrassing errors.
For your own credibility, lets hope you check and report things more carefully this year.
Great wrap up. Thanks Erica. PS. Saw you linked on Jezabel yesterday!!
Thank you for the comments.
Anon, could you possibly be more specific in your critique – it took me about five hours to compile the roundup, so perhaps you can lend me a hand and point to the more glaring factual errors?
Thank you.
Cheers,
Erica
great post
good work
keep it up
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