Vogue weighs in, literally, with September issue

Mark Garrison Jul 27, 2012
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Vogue weighs in, literally, with September issue

Mark Garrison Jul 27, 2012
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Stacey Vanek Smith: Fashion magazines seem to be en vogue again. After several years of sluggish advertising, the glossies have just posted ad sales for their all-important September issues — and the numbers are looking fat. Vogue saw a 13 percent ad page increase over last year. With 658 pages of ads, it will be Vogue’s thickest September issue since the financial crisis.

Mark Garrison reports.


Mark Garrison: It’s so heavy it’s practically a piece of carry-on luggage. Every year, media pundits dust off old jokes about mailmen getting hernias and skinny models too frail to lift the magazine they appear in. At $165,000 for a full-page ad, Vogue must be raking it in.

Not exactly, says Steve Cohn, editor-in-chief of Media Industry Newsletter.

Steve Cohn: You can’t totally judge a book by its cover or a book by its ad pages anymore.

Almost nobody pays the sticker price for a full-page ad. Publishers make deals and do discounts, so the fatness of the issue doesn’t track perfectly with revenue. And why would a fashion or luxury brand want to be in a magazine so stuffed with ads, where it’s hard to stand out? Adweek news editor Lucia Moses explains.

Lucia Moses: When you’re in the September issue, you’re in very good company. There’s definitely a prestige factor of being in there.

For certain brands, skipping Vogue would be unfashionable, maybe even unprofitable.

In New York, I’m Mark Garrison for Marketplace.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.