Mr. Magazine

“Surely it’s (digital) enhancing the quality of journalism with the speed in which we get our news It’s enhancing it in ways that I spoke about earlier, where in addition to text, you’re also seeing videos and gifs; you’re able to be there behind the scenes; you’re able to be there the instant something is happening and I think that’s a tremendous enhancement and increases the value of storytelling exponentially. At the same time, I think it’s incredibly important to get the story right and have multiple sources. It’s incredibly important to check your facts and I think we’re all racing, and in some cases rushing to get that story out there and that at times can risk quality to some degree.” Dan Peres

Men’s fashion and style, interspersed with social and political topics that are important to today’s men; Details is a magazine that pays attention to just that: the details of its niche audience and their desires when it comes to the content they want from the magazine. It’s beautifully crafted and exceptionally well-written and navigated by a captain-at-the-helm who knows the brand better than anyone else, having been around since its inception 15 years ago.

Daniel (Dan) Peres, the editor in chief who relaunched and reinvigorated the brand in 2000, is a man who is more passionate and excited about the Details brand today than he was all those years ago when he first started, especially when it comes to the 2015 anniversary issue. For this milestone, Dan worked with the editorial team to curate the who’s who of groundbreaking icons, naming 15 of today’s most notable men who have changed our world culturally and positively. It is an amazing list.

I spoke with Dan recently and we talked about the magazine’s past, present and future, emphasizing the evolvement the publication has seen over the years. The true dedication and vision he has for the brand was evident in his voice as we discussed the process of putting an issue together, from choosing the cover to the right photographer to document a story. It was an intriguing and informative interview that I thoroughly enjoyed.

So, relax and let the “details” of your day melt away as you enjoy the more entertaining “Details” of a man who knows his brand and how to keep it necessary and relevant in today’s fast-paced world – the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Dan Peres, Editor-In-Chief, Details Magazine.

But first, the sound-bites:

Dan Peres, Details’ editor in chief, circ. 2015.

On how his job as editor has changed over the last 15 years: An excellent question. I would say that the job has changed radically, and in many ways, for the better, of course, and in some ways, not. Fifteen years ago, we were really focused only on print and in building great features and great fashion stories and putting out great covers for our magazine. Obviously today, we are looking across a variety of platforms, most notably of course, is the rise of digital, which has, if I’m being honest, more than 50% of my attention now. So, I would say that’s a fairly dramatic shift.

On whether today he sees his audience wanting to play a bigger part in the creation and engagement process of the magazine through its digital components: Our audience does want to have a say and in fact, in the letter from the editor that I wrote for our 15th anniversary issue, I acknowledged the fact that our audience deserves to have a say. We’re still here after these 15 years because of our audience and our interaction with our audience has changed so dramatically that it’s important to hear what they have to say. We’re interacting with our audience extremely directly on social media. We’re looking at their comments on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and engaging in conversations with them in ways that we never have before, or have never been able to before.

On why the cover of a magazine is still so vitally important in today’s digital world: I think the cover of a magazine is extremely important because it’s your calling card. It’s something that you use to draw someone in with a just a glance. So, if someone passing through a train station or an airport or a bookstore saw it, they’d take notice. You’re competing with an extremely cluttered magazine landscape and it’s important to note that magazines are alive and well and print is alive and well because if you go to a Barnes & Noble or to a Hudson News or your local bookstore and newsstands, you’re going to see tons and tons of magazines. And I’m grateful for that, but at the same time, you have to cut through all of that noise. So, you have to choose a cover that represents your brand and that is hopefully going to connect with the people you are trying to attract.

On whether today’s Details is a more mature, more evolved read than it was 15 years ago or it’s basically stayed the same: It’s definitely not the same Details as it was 15 years ago and that’s true for a number of reasons. First of all, I think it’s really important for a magazine to evolve and for a magazine to grow with its readership. And I think that’s what we’ve done. I also think a lot has changed in the last 15 years. We’ve had a stronger point of view when it’s been necessary. We’ve done more service when it became obvious that readers were responding well to that. We had a little bit of a snarky attitude before “snark” was all over the Internet. So, we’ve certainly evolved and we’ve pushed our contributors and our photographers and writers to grow with us and they have.

On the process of putting the magazine together each time: First of all, when it works well and when everyone is firing on all cylinders and at the top of their game, it’s the most exciting process and it can be absolutely electric. And that’s what we strive for. So, when we’re sitting around and discussing content and there’s great ideas whizzing around the room, there’s no experience, at least at the office, that is as energetic, exciting and electric and as inspiring.

On the fact that he personally wrote one of the 15 leading men features in the anniversary issue and where he finds the time to write considering how busy editors are these days: First of all, thank you for paying close attention; I appreciate that. Second of all, let’s be honest; I was never the world’s greatest writer, but I love writing and it is something that I’m trying to do more often. The realities though, as you point out, are that there’s very little time during the workday to get any writing done. In the case of the Dries Van Noten piece, the write-up for this anniversary issue, I did that over the weekend. I sat down on a Saturday and was able to do that. I had interviewed him while I was in Paris at the men’s fashion shows over the summer. And I think that’s probably how I would have to work, if I were going to write, on the weekends because there is very little time.

On what makes him tick and click and motivates him to get up in the mornings: We need to continue to make a beautiful magazine that gets published ten times a year that goes out to a growing number of subscribers and newsstand readers. The challenge in maintaining that and continuing from one issue to the next; I always say you’re only as good as your last issue and I believe that’s true. So, we try to raise the bar every month. It’s an amazing challenge to continue to do that while developing and creating content for a digital audience. And that’s really what motivates me now. It’s a fresh challenge and I’m surrounded by an extraordinary team who push me and educate me and who stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me as we look to grow our digital audience, which we’re doing by leaps and bounds. I’m probably more excited to come to work today than I was 15 years ago.

On what he does for relaxation at the end of a long day: (Laughs) OK – brace yourself. You would most likely find me sitting on the floor surrounded by a pile of LEGOS and toy soldiers and coloring books with my three sons, because they are everything to me, so at the end of the day I really do everything that I can, I don’t always succeed, but I do everything that I can to leave work at the office and engage with my kids.

On anything else he’d like to add: Journalists today are living and working in really interesting times. This is the era of the citizen journalist, right? And I really appreciate that anyone can report on what they’re seeing, can post something on the Internet about anything from their vacation to their thoughts about a sitting Pope to comments about a presidential debate. Anyone can do that and anyone has the right to do that and I appreciate reading those things and seeing them. I value them tremendously. But I would also point out that journalism as a trade is a profession. It’s something that’s so valued and so important to me in my life; I have such a deep admiration for people that can write beautifully and that’s something that really gets me through the day sometimes. Reading a beautifully written magazine article or an incredibly well-reported, well-crafted newspaper article or feature is still unbelievably motivating and inspiring to me.

On whether he believes the quality of journalism is enhanced by digital or there’s a darker side to the Internet that could have a detrimental effect: I’m sure it’s both. Surely it’s enhancing the quality of journalism with the speed in which we get our news It’s enhancing it in ways that I spoke about earlier, where in addition to text, you’re also seeing videos and gifs; you’re able to be there behind the scenes; you’re able to be there the instant something is happening and I think that’s a tremendous enhancement and increases the value of storytelling exponentially. At the same time, I think it’s incredibly important to get the story right and have multiple sources. It’s incredibly important to check your facts and I think we’re all racing, and in some cases rushing to get that story out there and that at times can risk quality to some degree.

On what keeps him up at night: It’s just are we doing it right because more than anything else, we’re all running at a very fast pace here and there are a lot of people on this team doing a lot of different things, which again, is both exciting and terrifying. When I’m in a quiet room alone at night, it’s are we getting it right, because we have people coming to us every month in the magazine and every day, sometimes multiple times a day, on the website and we have a responsibility to them to get it right. And that’s what keeps me up at night more than anything else.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ conversation with Dan Peres, Editor-In-Chief, Details Magazine.

Samir Husni: Details magazine, as we know it now, has 15 years under its belt. And a lot of things have happened over those years. How has your job changed as editor? Is your role the same as it was 15 years ago when you began this journey?

Dan Peres: An excellent question. I would say that the job has changed radically, and in many ways, for the better, of course, and in some ways, not.

Fifteen years ago, we were really focused only on print and in building great features and great fashion stories and putting out great covers for our magazine. Obviously today, we are looking across a variety of platforms, most notably of course, is the rise of digital, which has, if I’m being honest, more than 50% of my attention now. So, I would say that’s a fairly dramatic shift.

The most incredible thing about the digital space, as you well know, or as anyone who operates on that space knows, is that it’s immediately quantifiable. We are looking at data and analytics every day that tells us what people are reading and not reading; how they’re coming to us and what they’re sharing with other people.

So, 15 years ago, we built a magazine that we were extremely proud of and excited to publish and we put it out there and occasionally people would write a letter to the editor, taking issue with one thing or another or congratulating us on something, but we really didn’t have a sense of what they were paying attention to; it was all instincts. And that was a wonderful thing, instinct, and remains a wonderful thing. I think the editor’s instincts are priceless, and I don’t speak of mine, but of all editors’. And still remains a valued asset with print magazines.

With digital space, instincts also factor in of course, but you’re really able to look at the outcome and see what people are paying attention to. So, it has transformed to some degree the editing process.

Also, 15 years ago we were less brand managers than we are today. We weren’t doing, to the degree we are today, events and bigger marketing programs, native advertising and licensing agreements. The focus was really just on making the product. And that hasn’t changed. And as I said at the outset, most of these changes have been for the better, there’s no question about it.

Samir Husni: My most recent book that I wrote with two of my colleagues is called “Audience First” and in it we talked about how the audience wants a seat at the editorial table in today’s world; they’re not just content with writing a letter to the editor anymore, they really want to be engaged in the creation of the product. Do you see that happening with the rise of digital and its impact? As you said, you’re almost on a daily basis or an hourly basis even, monitoring the reaction, the clicks and the data from your readers.

Dan Peres: First of all, I will say that you can get incredibly obsessed with the data as it comes in, so I make a point of not looking at it until the following day. However, every now and then during the day I’ll go over to some people on our digital team and I’ll ask them where we are at that moment in time and they’ll pull up a screen that allows me to see exactly where we are then and what’s doing well for us and what isn’t working.

So, it can really become an obsession and I’m doing my best to not be plugged into it every minute of the day. Although, I have to say I would imagine by fall, I’ll be glued to it on an hourly basis.

That said, I think that’s a good question. Our audience does want to have a say and in fact, in the letter from the editor that I wrote for our 15th anniversary issue, I acknowledged the fact that our audience deserves to have a say. We’re still here after these 15 years because of our audience and our interaction with our audience has changed so dramatically that it’s important to hear what they have to say.

So, to some degree it’s direct and to some degree it’s indirect. Indirectly they have a say by just what they’re paying attention to, because that in essence motivates us to generate more content in that specific category. Paying attention to a story about a crime or a story about fall fashion trends; we take that into our story meetings and it informs some decision-making. Not all decision-making, and I want to be clear about that, but it certainly informs some of the decision-making process. And that in many ways is extraordinary audience impact on the editorial process.

In a more direct kind of way, we’re interacting with our audience extremely directly on social media. We’re looking at their comments on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and engaging in conversations with them in ways that we never have before, or have never been able to before. So, it’s pretty extraordinary.

Samir Husni: Let’s shift gears a bit and talk about the 15th anniversary issue of the magazine. I recall the first issue with Robert Downey, Jr. where he was completely bare from the waist up compared to this 15th anniversary issue with the fully-clothed Bradley Cooper with his dogs on the cover. You had 15 great men of the world who could have been on this particular cover, but you wrote in your editorial letter that Bradley Cooper was a no-brainer. How do you reach such a decision when you have 15 choices and why is the cover of a magazine, as is evident from your next-door neighbor, Vanity Fair, when Caitlyn Jenner was on the cover; why is the cover of a magazine still so important in today’s digital age?

Dan Peres: I’ll answer that backwards. I’ll answer the last part first. I think the cover of a magazine is extremely important because it’s your calling card. It’s something that you use to draw someone in with a just a glance. So, if someone passing through a train station or an airport or a bookstore saw it, they’d take notice. You’re competing with an extremely cluttered magazine landscape and it’s important to note that magazines are alive and well and print is alive and well because if you go to a Barnes & Noble or to a Hudson News or your local bookstore and newsstands, you’re going to see tons and tons of magazines. And I’m grateful for that, but at the same time, you have to cut through all of that noise. So, you have to choose a cover that represents your brand and that is hopefully going to connect with the people you are trying to attract.

In our case, Bradley Cooper, as I acknowledged in my letter from the editor, really represents the ideal of the Details reader. He is successful, but not an overnight success, he’s worked extremely hard. He is a stylish, attractive guy who plays roles that are both humorous and serious and he has great range as an actor. If you read or watch an interview with him, he’s very articulate and knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects. And this is the type of person that the Details reader inspires to be.

When we sat down to look at celebrating this milestone and filling this issue, Bradley really did seem to be the obvious choice. This is his 4th time on our cover; no one has been on the cover of Details more, so it really felt right. He’s at the top of his game and we believe that we’re at the top of our game and so it just made perfect sense.

But you’re right; we had this amazing group of people. We chose to look at 15 cultural influencers who have impacted our lives in any number of ways over the course of the last 15 years. And certainly any number of them could have appeared on the cover, but Bradley made the most sense.

And again, let’s not forget as we all race to embrace this digital age, the print product and the importance of the cover on that print product cannot be forgotten. And we believe that this image of Bradley works extremely well and to go back to your point about Robert Downey, Jr., that shirtless cover of him we did on our first relaunch issue 15 years ago; it was an incredibly impactful image of an actor whom we had known and loved, but who had gone through some struggles.

In fact, about two weeks before we had took that photograph he had been in prison and now Robert Downey, Jr. is really one of the most successful movie actors and producers in the world. So, it was a transformation for Robert Downey, Jr. at the time, coming out of prison and working through some extremely difficult times and starting over. And it really made perfect sense at the time as we were going through a transformation and starting over ourselves. So, it made a whole lot of sense for us to do it then. And it remains frankly one of my favorite covers from the last 15 years.

Samir Husni: As you’ve grown with Details over these last 15 years; are we seeing now a more mature, more serious, more evolved Details that we did at the beginning? Or is it the same Details that you created 15 years ago?

Dan Peres: It’s definitely not the same Details as it was 15 years ago and that’s true for a number of reasons. First of all, I think it’s really important for a magazine to evolve and for a magazine to grow with its readership. And I think that’s what we’ve done.

I also think a lot has changed in the last 15 years. We’ve had a stronger point of view when it’s been necessary. We’ve done more service when it became obvious that readers were responding well to that. We had a little bit of a snarky attitude before “snark” was all over the Internet. So, we’ve certainly evolved and we’ve pushed our contributors and our photographers and writers to grow with us and they have.

If I’m going to be honest here, I’ve matured over the last 15 years. I was a 28-year-old man when I was given this job, maybe entirely too young, but nonetheless; I’m now a 43-year-old man and so my perspective on just about everything is different than it was 15 years ago. And to some degree, and certainly you know that I don’t build this magazine on my own, there is an extraordinary team of contributors, both on-staff and off, that do it with me, but from this office the view has changed. And I think that has also impacted our content.

Samir Husni: Even this 62-year-old man still enjoys the magazine. In fact, I enjoy it better now than I did when I was younger. (Laughs)

Dan Peres: I appreciate you saying that.

Samir Husni: If I can get into your mind for a moment, into that process where you and your team sit down and start discussing, let’s say the December issue in this case. How does that process work and do you realize those “aha” moments at the end of the day where you just know you made the right decision, such as the one you made with the Bradley Cooper cover?

Dan Peres: First of all, when it works well and when everyone is firing on all cylinders and at the top of their game, it’s the most exciting process and it can be absolutely electric. And that’s what we strive for.

So, when we’re sitting around and discussing content and there’s great ideas whizzing around the room, there’s no experience, at least at the office, that is as energetic, exciting and electric and as inspiring.

What happens now, and this is really one of the most exciting things, is that we’re able to ask with any idea that gets thrown out onto the table; we’re able to ask what’s the best way to tell this story. It used to be that there was only one way to tell that story, which was by having a writer put something together for the magazine and publishing it on a monthly basis. Now, we can sit around and discuss the best platform to showcase a particular idea for our audience. And maybe it’s a video, or a list that we put out on social media or a series that we do on the website, or a straightforward magazine story or some sort of combination of those things.

And that’s where we get excited. We’re able to look at things holistically and say that would make a great photograph in the magazine, let’s find the perfect photographer to document it. But at the same time maybe we’ll have our social media manager go and do a Snapchat of that process or maybe we’ll get the subject to come in and we can do a video conversation with them. And that is incredibly exciting and incredibly rewarding.

But to look at the original question, I have to say when the editors and our contributors sit around in either this office or a conference room, anywhere really, and talk about ideas and what should be in the magazine and debate ideas and decide on the best way to execute them, it’s an incredible energy that I wish I could bottle and share with people because, while this isn’t rocket science and we know that, but figuring out the right way to tell a story and figuring out the right stories to show our audience is a really gratifying experience.

And let’s not forget, there are a lot of magazines out there and there are a lot of content platforms out there and not every story is right for our audience. There are a lot of times when people come into this office to pitch an idea and I’ll tell them that while it’s an amazing idea and would make a really terrific story, it’s just not something that I see myself reading in Details. It’s the type of story that I’m probably going to see in The New York Times Magazine or The New Yorker or Vanity Fair, just whatever the case may be.

So, it’s also making sure that we have a really strong filter and that we’re, and this is an awfully overused word, but that we’re really properly curating our content for our audience. We aren’t a magazine that has something for everyone and we have to remember that when we develop content. We really have a specific reader in mind when we’re looking at magazine building. That factors into this incredibly exciting process as well.

Samir Husni: And I think you’ve mastered that art of curation with your selection of the 15 men and the presentation. You could feel the balance, each of the leading men were given equal treatment. But what surprised me more than anything else is with all your busyness, you still find time to write, because I noticed that one of the featured men, the Dries Van Noten piece; you wrote it. When do you have time to write? I hear from editors all of the time that they’re busier than busy these days, between handling the brand, digital, social media – you name it. I was really surprised to see your byline as a writer in the magazine.

Dan Peres: First of all, thank you for paying close attention; I appreciate that. Second of all, let’s be honest; I was never the world’s greatest writer, but I love writing and it is something that I’m trying to do more often.

The realities though, as you point out, are that there’s very little time during the workday to get any writing done. In the case of the Dries Van Noten piece, the write-up for this anniversary issue, I did that over the weekend. I sat down on a Saturday and was able to do that. I had interviewed him while I was in Paris at the men’s fashion shows over the summer. And I think that’s probably how I would have to work, if I were going to write, on the weekends because there is very little time.

But I will say this, I don’t think that I’m going to be doing a ton of writing for the magazine, maybe once or twice a year I’ll grab something that interests me that I think I can pull off. The great thing about these features is this 15th anniversary portfolio was their brevity. They’re no more than 800 words, which is a fairly manageable length for someone like me.

Samir Husni: What makes you tick and click and motivates you to get out of bed in the mornings?

Dan Peres: I’ll be honest with you; I’ve gone through peaks and valleys in this role with respect to the energy that I bring. I think that I’m more energized today about this brand than I’ve ever been. And that’s because we have extraordinary challenges in front of us right now. And they are unbelievably exciting challenges.

We need to continue to make a beautiful magazine that gets published ten times a year that goes out to a growing number of subscribers and newsstand readers. The challenge in maintaining that and continuing from one issue to the next; I always say you’re only as good as your last issue and I believe that’s true. So, we try to raise the bar every month. It’s an amazing challenge to continue to do that while developing and creating content for a digital audience.

And that’s really what motivates me now. It’s a fresh challenge and I’m surrounded by an extraordinary team who push me and educate me and who stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me as we look to grow our digital audience, which we’re doing by leaps and bounds. I’m probably more excited to come to work today than I was 15 years ago.

That said I’m sure that I have other things that make me tick; I’m an editor. At the end of the day, typos drive me nuts, simple, avoidable errors really make me crazy. You’re moving at the speed of digital on a website; it’s designed for you to put things up and if they don’t work, take them down or change them or edit them throughout the course of the day. And I’m getting used to working at that pace, because I’m still the type of editor that if I look at something and it doesn’t seem quite right, I want to fix or change it.

And that’s what magazine editors have the luxury of doing over a month-long production cycle. In the digital space obviously you don’t have that luxury and that’s both exciting and terrifying for someone like me. Just sort of adapting to having to move at that kind of a clip is something that I’m excited by, but it also challenges me. And I have this team of people around me that are anxious to get it up there, but ready to change something if the story develops or add to it if we have to. It’s exciting stuff, no doubt.

Samir Husni: If I happened to surprise you and drop by your house, what would I catch you doing? If you’re reading, what magazine would it be and on which platform: iPad, print or what? At the end of a long day, what do you do for relaxation?

Dan Peres: (Laughs) OK – brace yourself. You would most likely find me sitting on the floor surrounded by a pile of LEGOS and toy soldiers and coloring books with my three sons, because they are everything to me, so at the end of the day I really do everything that I can, I don’t always succeed, but I do everything that I can to leave work at the office and engage with my kids.

I will tell you though that you will find books everywhere; you will find iPads and newspapers, but I tend to not bring magazines home. I absolutely don’t think you would find a magazine in my house. I love magazines and enjoy reading them, but all subscriptions come to the office and I look at them in my down-time or over my commute, but I tend to not bring them into the house.

As I said, I can be obsessive and I want to read a great story just like any other magazine reader and I find plenty of them today and I’m grateful for that. But also as an editor you’re constantly looking at other magazines to see what they’re doing and how they’re designing things and packaging them; how stories are written and headlined, so I tend to not want to do that at home.

Samir Husni: Anything else that you’d like to add?

Dan Peres: Journalists today are living and working in really interesting times. This is the era of the citizen journalist, right? And I really appreciate that anyone can report on what they’re seeing, can post something on the Internet about anything from their vacation to their thoughts about a sitting Pope to comments about a presidential debate. Anyone can do that and anyone has the right to do that and I appreciate reading those things and seeing them. I value them tremendously.

But I would also point out that journalism as a trade is a profession. It’s something that’s so valued and so important to me in my life; I have such a deep admiration for people that can write beautifully and that’s something that really gets me through the day sometimes. Reading a beautifully written magazine article or an incredibly well-reported, well-crafted newspaper article or feature is still unbelievably motivating and inspiring to me. And I think that as a journalist it’s important for me to acknowledge the extraordinary work of the writers and editors that’s going on around me, both inside this building and around the world. It’s really amazing and I am a fan of journalism. When I read a great piece of writing, it still manages to impact me in surprising ways and I feel it’s important for me to say that.

Samir Husni: Do you have any fears about the future of journalism in this digital age? Do you think that the digital environment is enhancing the quality of journalism or there’s a darker side that will impact that quality?

Dan Peres: I’m sure it’s both. Surely it’s enhancing the quality of journalism with the speed in which we get our news It’s enhancing it in ways that I spoke about earlier, where in addition to text, you’re also seeing videos and gifs; you’re able to be there behind the scenes; you’re able to be there the instant something is happening and I think that’s a tremendous enhancement and increases the value of storytelling exponentially.

At the same time, I think it’s incredibly important to get the story right and have multiple sources. It’s incredibly important to check your facts and I think we’re all racing, and in some cases rushing to get that story out there and that at times can risk quality to some degree.

And the rise of the citizen journalist is a pretty exciting thing, but you want to trust what you’re reading. You have to understand the source of what you’re reading. I would be a fool to say that the digital age has not completely transformed this business and it has for the better, there’s no question about that. I just think we all need to be careful with what we’re putting out there with the understanding that it’s out there and it’s accessible.

I believe it’s both; there’s an upside and a downside, but I can’t really think of anything in life that doesn’t have an upside and a downside and we just need to be responsible.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Dan Peres: It varies and from one night to the next, at least with respect to work, it’s any number of subjects, but it always has the general theme of are we doing it right? Are we telling the story the right way? Have we chosen the right person to be putting the spotlight on? Should we have done this differently? Are we approaching the development of our social media audience in the right way?

It’s just are we doing it right because more than anything else, we’re all running at a very fast pace here and there are a lot of people on this team doing a lot of different things, which again, is both exciting and terrifying. When I’m in a quiet room alone at night, it’s are we getting it right, because we have people coming to us every month in the magazine and every day, sometimes multiple times a day, on the website and we have a responsibility to them to get it right. And that’s what keeps me up at night more than anything else.

Samir Husni: Thank you.