Grazia stops the press

The hits just keep on coming for ACP's apparently unstoppable fashion weekly, Grazia, judging by this mock newspaper promo mailout (above) just sent to advertisers by ACP and which floated frockwriter's way on Friday afternoon. Evidently jack of all the negative press coverage, ACP decided to go into the news business itself. And guess what? When it comes to Grazia, it's all good news!

The headline blasts:

"Grabbing headlines for all the right reasons!"

Underneath, a score of more good news headlines, which include the revelation that television advertising is due to recommence in March.

Among the bullet points:

"Blitzing the newsagents with sexy solo point of sale initiatives"

"Increasing presence at premium supermarket checkouts and reading centres"

"Grazia.com.au stronger than ever - 16million page views and 1.5million unqiue browers since launch"

And the pièce de résistance:

"Advertising revenue surpassing all expectations"

Given how many names of industry experts and authorities are rattled off, it's a wonder that grazia.com.au could not ID a photograph of Australia's hottest new modelling export, Myf Shepherd, two weeks ago. But look, let's not dwell on that. With one fashion staffer recently moving off the masthead and into a consulting role - Lenna Boord - perhaps Grazia's authorities just have a little too much on their plates.

You can’t blame ACP for wanting to make its own headlines, considering how bad some of Grazia's press has been.

First there were retrenchments, amidst rumblings of 150 job cuts, at ACP parent PBL – with Grazia’s future mooted to be uncertain.

Then there was the rumour that the magazine might move monthly.

The rumour was swiftly refuted by ACP Magazines' Publishing Director Women’s Lifestyle Pat Ingram - shortly before ACP made the announcement that Ingram had decided to transition to retirement.

Most recently came the news that Woolworths plans to move Grazia from the prime checkout position in “the majority” of its 780 stores to the general magazine section, due to slow sales, with predictions that circulation figures for the December quarter will be lower than the 70,000 of the initial audit.

As noted by Australia's leading fashion media-specialist blog, Girl With A Satchel, advertising/promotional pages accounted for a mere 10percent of Grazia's recent issue #27, compared with 38percent of the launch issue and 19percent and 23percent of the September 1 and December 1 issues respectively.

“But it is just hanging in” one industry analyst told frockwriter.

Obviously there was some terrific news for Grazia in November, with the news that the magazine had “hit launch expectations” by achieving its target circulation of 70,000+ copies for its preliminary Audit Bureau of Circulations audit, based on an average of the first 10 weeks of sales.

According to Nielsen Online data, the grazia.com.au website generated 9,830,512 million page impressions in the first three months, a result Pat Ingram described as “incredible”.

Indeed some considered the news so incredible that they bitched about the figures on GWAS, accusing ACP of manipulating figures.

Friday's even more terrific Grazia news coincided of course with some very bad news for the media sector.

News Corporation announced a 42percent profit nosedive, the company's biggest trading loss in its 50 year history: a $US5.9billion first half net loss (A$9.2billion), due to a second quarter net loss of $US6.417 billion ($A9.82 billion).

News Corp’s Wall Street Journal subsidiary announced 25 job cuts, with the title’s newly expanded retail and luxury division the hardest hit. Sending tremors through the fashion business, those departing include the WSJ’s 23 year veteran fashion reporter Teri Agins, for whom the WSJ’s fashion round was original created in the 1980s.

Earlier in the week ACP’s PBL stablemate Ninemsn announced 20 job cuts.

The news that ad revenue at Grazia is "surpassing all expectations" follows the release of the March issues of Australian Vogue and Harpers Bazaar, whose bumper ad pages from luxury fashion and beauty companies suggest that both magazines are defying the global economic meltdown.

Given today's media story in The Australian however, which cites one industry source claiming that LVMH Group, the world's biggest luxury conglomerate, has cut its Australian advertising budget by 30percent, it's more than a little confusing trying to work out precisely what is going down.

Another local media industry insider told frockwriter that "distress rates" have become the new black in the Australasian fashion and beauty media, with 25percent off ad card rates offered by some outlets - with last-ditch, last-minute offers of 40percent off not unheard of.

ACP Media: Denies websites are shutting, but confirms consultations with staff

An update on yesterday’s Runway Reporter story. ACP Media ceo Paul Dykzeul has just told Fairfax New Zealand’s stuff.co.nz news portal that claims by an unnamed ACP Media source that the company is to shutter its websites, starting with Runway Reporter, and make eight staff redundant, are “defamatory and incorrect”. Dykzeul did not clarify precisely which information was incorrect, but said the company would release a statement tomorrow. Up until midday today, Dykzeul was not returning anyone’s calls – including frockwriter’s. ACP Media group publisher Debra Millar has however proven more helpful in communicating with computerworld.co.nz, confirming that the company is in consultations with staff, adding that “It’s premature to be making any announcements”.
UPDATE 12/12/08: RUNWAY REPORTER SHUTDOWN BLOGGER VINDICATED, FIRED - AFTER BEING RETRENCHED.

Debra Millar described claims that 12 staff were to be made redundant as “incorrect”.

As readers may recall however, the figure cited by the original source was eight staff, not 12.

ACP Media’s head of digital Lee Williams tells Computerworld that the company is “always reviewing operations” and is in fact planning expansion, with work in development for ACP Australia.

Computerworld nevertheless cites two additional sources who claim that redundancies are occurring at ACP Media and that websites are to be closed.

Runway Reporter to shutter as the axe falls at ACP Media?

According to a source within the Auckland-headquartered ACP Media, ACP Media is about to shutter some, if not all, of its websites, starting with Runway Reporter. The company's other websites include Cleo, Metro and Taste. Eight staff are said to have been made redundant. Launched by NZ fashion writer Stacey Gregg in 2006, Runway Reporter was acquired by ACP Media later that year and has since evolved into one of the region's more high profile fashion sites. Frockwriter has sought comment from both ACP Media and ACP Magazines in Sydney, with as yet no response.[Isaac Likes]
UPDATE 10/12/08: ACP MEDIA DENIES WEBSITES ARE SHUTTING, BUT CONFIRMS CONSULTATIONS WITH STAFF.
UPDATE 12/12/08: RUNWAY REPORTER SHUTDOWN BLOGGER VINDICATED, FIRED - AFTER BEING RETRENCHED.

The (3D) World is their Oyster

Behold the 79th cover of Oyster – Australia’s longest-surviving indie fashion/lifestyle magazine. The issue is out next week, but here’s a sneak peek at the contents: profiles on Alber Elbaz, Gaspard Yurkievich, Peaches, Gang Gang Dance, Diane Pernet and the founders of Sixties counterculture bible OZ, Richard Neville, Albie Thoms and Louise Ferrier. Also, diary entries by Catherine Holstein, Michael Angel, Jason Wu and Ohne Titel and images/shoots by Karen Inderbitzen-Waller, Petrovsky & Ramone, Ben Sullivan, Frederic Bastin, Sonny Vandevelde and Jonas Bresnan. The latter’s images include this cover shot of Czech model Jana Knauerova.

And just in case there is any confusion here – because, by all accounts, it has been a stressful coupla weeks for all concerned - Oyster is most definitely still standing.

On November 20, Oyster’s parent company, 3D World Publishing, was reacquired by founder Jonathon Morris and Monika Nakata – seven days after the digital media and entertainment company to which it was sold 12 months ago, Destra Corporation, went into receivership.

All 15 3D World Publishing staff have been retained.

Not a bad outcome, at a time when even mainstream publishers are handing out redundancy letters with alarming frequency.

After hooking up with deputy ed Paul Bui at New Zealand Fashion Week in September, and after a very long hiatus from Oyster’s pages, I have a feature in the new issue – the Alber Elbaz profile.

The last time I wrote for Oyster was at least a decade ago.

That last Oyster profile, as it happens, was on Martin Margiela and it did include a one-on-one - contrary to what you may have read elsewhere about Margiela having never done any interviews.

Carine to cross the pond?

new york magazine


Is life about to imitate art for Anna Wintour? According to Gawker, the world’s most powerful fashion magazine editor is to be replaced by her Paris Vogue counterpart Carine Roitfeld (^). Fans of The Devil Wears Prada may recall the book’s subplot to replace Runway editor Miranda Priestley – who is loosely based on Wintour herself – with Jacqueline Follet, the editor of Runway’s French edition.

Speculation has been raging since November 18 that Wintour, 59, may be about to depart Vogue after 20 years at its helm.

Although the claims were refuted by Conde Nast, sources told The New York Post that Wintour’s contract is due to expire and that she feels she has “done it all and had enough”.

Recent coverage of Russian Vogue editor Aliona Doletskaya prompted chatter that Doletskaya might one day be a suitable Wintour replacement.

But could Roitfeld, whose English, by her own admission “is not perfect”, realistically helm Condé Nast’s high-profile flagship fashion title, which was launched in the US in 1892?

Roitfeld also came to the editor’s chair of Paris Vogue via a styling background, as distinct from journalism, as was the case with Wintour and Diana Vreeland. That said, in between the latter two US Vogue editors, Grace Mirabella boasted a retail background.

And is Roitfeld's edgy personal and editorial style, moreover, the most obvious fit with the ultimately conservative US marketplace?

UPDATE: Since flatly denied by Conde Nast chairman Si Newhouse Jr, Roitfeld's daughter, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld - and now, Roitfeld herself.

Grazia's "incredible" figures while other weeklies slide

ninesmn

Frockwriter hinted that Grazia might have a good Friday. Well congratulations are due to Alison Veness-McGourty and her Grazia team, who have apparently dumbfounded the critics – including frockwriter – by achieving the magazine’s target circulation of 70,000+ copies for its preliminary Audit Bureau of Circulations audit. That’s obviously an average of the first 10 weeks of sales, including what one assumes would have been blockbuster early issues. It's about the only good news for ACP on the weekly front, with the circulations of all other Australian weeklies falling from 0.7 to 18.4percent in the July-September period. Pacific’s Famous fell by 18.4percent.

In a press release Pat Ingram, Publishing Director, Women’s Lifestyle, ACP Magazines, noted:

“We are delighted to confirm that Grazia has hit our launch expectations. Readers and advertisers have embraced Grazia’s unique mix of fashion, entertainment, news, trends and beauty and these figures underscore how in just three months Grazia has already made its mark.”

There remains some confusion as to the exact nature of this first audit.

Media analyst Steve Allen told frockwriter on Tuesday that it was a “publisher’s statement” - and indicated that Grazia’s figures had been flagged with the letters “PR” on the Audit Bureau of Circulations November 30 audit report.

B&T also refers to it today as a “publisher’s statement”.

Crikey today refers to it as a “publisher’s estimate”.

Yesterday, the Audit Bureau of Circulations told this blog that it most definitely is not a publisher’s statement, but a "preliminary" independent audit, based on 10 weeks of sales, because the magazine had not been publishing for the complete 13 week cycle.

Pat Ingram also referred to the success of grazia.com.au which has generated, she noted, “an incredible 9,830,512 million page impressions in just three months”, citing Nielsen Online data for the July 21-October 31 period.

Anyone who punches in the grazia.com.au URL to web intel site alexa.com might be nonplussed to find that grazia.com.au does not even register on alexa.com’s Top 100,000 list.

Punch in grazia.ninemsn.com.au however and it certainly does register in the Top 100,000 – not as grazia.ninemsn.com.au, but as ninemsn.com.au. This is for the simple reason that alexa.com makes no differentiation between the two.

A Nielsen Online spokeswoman told frockwriter that Nielsen has definitely been tracking the right site. Well, that's good to know.

Citing Nielsen data once again, ninemsn.com.au calls itself:

“Australia's leading online media company”, which is visited by "over 8.2 million people each month, representing 75 per cent of Australian Internet users".

Frockwriter understands the ninemsn.com.au site would have generated “hundreds of millions” of page impressions over the July 21-October 31 period.

With link love from ninemsn.com.au, and a A$7million marketing campaign, by all accounts it is not so incredible that grazia.com.au could achieve those results.

Grazia's good Friday?

ninesmn

Ah Grazia. Has there been another Australian fashion magazine which attracted as much kvetching from the get go? Frockwriter can’t think of one – and nor can Australia’s most high profile media analyst, Fusion Strategy’s Steve Allen. Launched on July 21st amidst a blaze of hype, and a A$7million marketing campaign, the knives were out for the mag by mid September, with reports of slow newsagency sales and word on the street that Grazia publisher Australian Consolidated Press “won’t remotely” make its November audit target of 70,000+ copies. Then last month came reports of ACP retrenchments and further speculation that 150 jobs at the PBL parent, in addition to some magazines – notably Grazia – may be under review. Which speculation prompted this opinion piece from frockwriter. The latest rumour? That Grazia is about to go monthly. Flatly denied by ACP. Now comes news that an internal ACP audit [correction: preliminary independent audit according to the ABC] of 10 issues of Grazia will be included in the Audit Bureau of Circulations' September 30 audit. The results are embargoed until midnight Thursday 13th November.

The latter information was delivered to ABC subscribers, including Steve Allen, on Tuesday morning.

Although obviously unable to release the information, Allen told this blog that in spite of the fact that it’s a mere publisher’s statement, it is nevertheless an encouraging sign for the magazine.

[UPDATE 13/11/08 @ 12.16pm. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, this is not a publisher’s statement, but a "preliminary" ABC audit of 10 issues - preliminary, due to the fact that Grazia had not been publishing for the normal 13 week cycle].

“If it was going to be dire, they just wouldn’t audit” Allen told frockwriter on Tuesday morning.

It was in fact an abrupt volte face from our conversation late Monday afternoon, during which Allen reiterated sentiments that he had previously expressed in The Australian, that the industry buzz was that Grazia was not doing well.

“All the other publishers are saying they’ve seen scan data results” said Allen. “Noone will go on the record. It could be that the industry is ganging up on ACP. They’re saying they haven’t got a hope in help of reaching their target, but I have no idea”.

I had phoned Allen to hear his thoughts on the monthly edition theory – to which Allen replied that although in 30 years tracking the Australian publishing industry, he could think of publications which had increased their publishing frequency, he was at a loss to recall anyone going the other way (obviously overlooking The Australian Women's Weekly, which became a monthly in 1983).

Noted Allen on Monday, “We’re going into a small recession and feeding a weekly title that has a rate card set in our view at around 100,000 copies and if it’s half that or less, it’s just a mouse you can’t feed in a downturn. So it wouldn’t surprise us (if Grazia went monthly). And we could see how they could rationalise their decision, but to us that would be really declaring defeat, we couldn’t believe then that they had got to their target. If they had got to their target they would produce evidence of their circulation. And they have produced none. We’ve always doubted that they could find a gap in the market for the numbers that they were talking about. So perhaps we are a bit negative. But everything that we are told suggests that they’re battling”.

He added, “The way they’re handling this, they’re either supremely naïve or there’s the biggest amount of bitchiness in the market that we’ve ever seen. I haven’t seen a rival publisher that will say anything positive”.

In light of the new ABC September 30 audit information however, those rival publishers will now have to “put up or shut up” according to Allen.

When asked if ACP was considering changing Grazia’s frequency, ACP spokeswoman Hannah Devereux told frockwriter:

"Grazia is a weekly magazine and will not be going monthly".

Now while Devereux is obviously au fait with what’s happening with the Australian edition of the magazine, as a general statement about Grazia, FYI the latter does not appear to be entirely correct.

Grazia was originally launched in Italy in 1938.

According to the websites of the magazine's various coeditions however, almost half of Grazia’s now 12-strong international lineup (which includes both English and Arabic editions of Grazia Middle East), does not in fact publish weekly. The Serbian, Bulgarian, Greek and even, incredulously, Indian, editions publish monthly. Grazia Croatia is published bi-weekly.

Evidently those publishers are a little less bullish than ACP.

Another Oz model blogger - and this one has a four-book deal

sophie ward by danny roberts


Once upon a time there were two beautiful sisters who lived a long way from anywhere in the most remote city on earth. With a little help from the Prada fairy, one grew up to become a fashion princess, then grabbed a balloon string and floated off into another make believe world. The other built her own castle in the kingdom of publishing.

The last time frockwriter noticed Sophie Ward, she was modelling for stellar Australian denim startup 18th Amendment and blogging for ninemsn.com.au from the Melbourne Fashion Festival.

I have often wondered how she coped shadowing the quite extraordinary success achieved by her younger sister in the same profession.

Sophie Ward, according to her LinkedIn profile, has been writing professionally for four years, and is the current New York correspondent for Perth’s Silver magazine.

Ward holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia, with English and European Studies majors and describes herself as the “founder, president and creative director” of new imprint Paper Castle Press.

Although headquartered in Los Angeles according to the company’s website, the domain name was registered in February 2008 by Chris Hemmings of the Sydney-based CGH Artists, whose relationship with Ward remains unclear.

Frockwriter has attempted to contact Hemmings (and Ward) to as yet no avail. According to Hemmings’ agent Three60, he is a Perth native (like Ward) and used to rep Derek Henderson, among other Australian photographers. Most recently, Hemmings has been involved with his own publishing ventures, which have included the photographic book +61.

In a separate profile on the Canadian online magazine/writers network Suite 101, Ward describes herself as a “partner” in the Paper Castle Press website.

The Suite 101 profile also mentions that Ward wrote her first book in 1993, at the age of 8, winning the Miss Booker Literary Prize in Western Australia.

Paper Castle Press's stated mission statement is to be:

“...a publishing vessel created to protect and support the ideas of the future today. Our philosophy is to support creative visionaries by generating a dissemination of their body of work with utmost attention to quality over quantity. We are focused on sourcing grass roots individualism and regenerating a culture of free thinking rebellion through writing, illustration, photography and other forms of paper bound expression.”

The site lists several upcoming projects.

The first is a new novel by Ward called The Beginning of An Inexplicable Journey.

A curious precis of the tome, in what look to be Ward’s own words, describes the book as:

“Sophie Ward's philological study of a personal human journey with universal relevance. In the tradition of Pliny the Elder (23 - 79 AD) and French artist, phenomenist and linguist, Genevieve Seille (1951 - ) Ward documents her passionate observation of various phenomena with highly detailed notations which spread throughout the book. This personalized observational research technique is used to document the insights and reflections unique to Ward.”

Also in the pipeline is the first novel, I, Poet, of Lily Black, who is described as a “blackly beautiful San Franciscan poet” who negotiates:

“seques [sic] between a violent Maya Angelou to hot unicorns.”

Frockwriter is not familiar with Black’s work – and judging by a quick net scan, nor are many others – but two upcoming Ward collaborations with the prodigiously talented 23 year-old LA-based illustrator Danny Roberts would appear to be extremely promising.



'the ladies of dior'/danny roberts


Roberts has illustrated a childrens book written by Ward called The Ginger Marmalade Toastmeister.

It recounts the story of a cat and a warthog.

A second collaboration with Roberts is The Siren Who Loved, the outline of which project sounds like it may eventually embrace some element of live performance, involving an "audio" component courtesy Stacey Dupree – one quarter of the Texan sibling indie pop outfit Eisley.

Paper Castle Press also has an online store selling Roberts’ illustrations, which are quite beautiful and very fashion-focussed. Roberts' oeuvre has in fact so far been dominated by caricatures of fashion models (and occasionally also fashion bloggers) – which partially explains how he may have come into the orbit of the Ward sisters.

Where is the money coming from? That's a very good question. Book publishing is expensive, with illustrated colour books often prohibitively so. Is multimillionaire Gemma Ward perhaps a silent partner?



gemma ward/danny roberts


Roberts studied fashion design at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, later switching to illustration.

In August he told the Pony Ryder blog that he started illustrating seriously three years ago. Roberts' first studies were of Gemma Ward and Lily Cole and he has since developed the drawings into The Lily and Gemma Book, which is comprised of two volumes (describing Gemma Ward as his “dream portrait model” to another blog, Chic Intuition).

Roberts cites his first professional job as illustrating the lookbook of the Academy of Art Senior show at New York Fashion Week in 2007 - and showcases his illustrations on his increasingly popular Igor + Andre blog.

Sophie Ward also has her own blog attached to the Paper Castle Press website.

Far more esoteric than your average model blog - and in parts quite melancholic - Ward suggests the word blog could be an acronym for “big long open gash”.

In an October 15 post entitled Fractal Reflections of Reality Facets, she noted:

“This is where I am now, in a state of hard luck. I am in this big apple, but it is rotten already. There are worms and critters, slugs, slaters, maggots and mutant pumpkins, their skins blistered by some weird pulse, sitting on the rabid sidewalk and my kitchen bench too - an ugly pumpkin and a cactus amongst ripped envelopes full of the stock market’s frenzied collapse.”

And in The Lizard's Velvet Hand on October 23:

“I am a tasty chicken and my juice is gashing all down your chin. I don’t mind being eaten. All I want is to be in peace and oneness. All I ask for is to live in a nice house, on a nice street, with a nice car and a magnificent man, a magnificent career, a magnificent life.”