From a field of more than 900 new titles launched in the United States in 2006, my staff and I selected 30 magazines that we deem were most notable. Mind you with notable we do not mean successful, but rather magazines that edged the rest by being innovative, different, bizarre, or even just plain different. Success is a different story. Take a look here at our selection and try to see if you can guess which one of those 30 magazines will be named our most notable launch of the year next week.
Archive for the ‘New Launches’ Category
Define Luxury, one magazine at a time
March 21, 2007
A brand new weekly, with a spine, just launched in the UK. The name is So London, the tag-line is “The New Glossy Weekly/ Culture. Property. Shameless Luxury” and the magazine, according to my friend in the UK Jeremy Leslie is “designed smartly for it’s market but is let down by not being as upmarket and luxurious as it aspires to be”… It is indeed a coffe table book that will arrive every week at your doorsteps. Luxury magazines are not something new… weekly luxury magazines are going to be soon the trend of the future. So London magazine is just the beginning. And talking about soon and luxury, SOON magazine just landed with its hefty first issue, both in terms of pages and price ($70 US) and, if you really want to know, give a new meaning to the world luxury. Published in three languages (English, Chinese and French) the magazine defines luxury as “the light of a behavior, a force making beauty wiser for today and tomorrow. It permits one to understand that learning is needed to give spirit to matter.” Be prepared to use both hands when buying this magazine. It is luxuriously heavy.
A new magazine: The Garden & Gun
March 19, 2007
No it is not a typo. The name of this new magazine is indeed The Garden & Gun and it promises to be “a southern lifestyle magazine, for the 21st century Southern America.” There are big guns, no pun intended, behind the magazine. Rebecca Darwin is the publisher. She served in the same post both at The New Yorker and at Mirabella. John Wilson is the editor in chief. He has launched Charleston magazine among other things. The magazine is aimed at “the sporting Southerner, The Garden & Gun reflects the modern lives of affluent Southerners and those who aspire to the sporting life of the South.” The magazine will speak equally to men and women, thus the name…The spring launch issue of the magazine will arrive April 3 promising to be “anchored in tradition, and with the South’s greatest asset, its writers…” Hold your guns until then…
Countdown to Condé Nast Portfolio
March 17, 2007
Is Condé Nast Portfolio going to be the last major magazine launch from a major magazine company in the United States as some say? No, but the prophets of doom and gloom are running out of reasons to promote their “print is dead” concept. Every time they see a major launch on the horizon they promote it as the last and they start asking the “doubting Thomas” questions. On April 24 Condé Nast Portfolio will launch in print and on line, and it WILL BE the “the talk of the town.” The magazine promises to be “the most highly anticipated media event of 2007.” From what I’ve seen and heard so far, I have no doubt it WILL BE. Stunning photography and in depth reporting and analysis are going to be the anchors of the new magazine. Think The New Yorker meets Vanity Fair meets Vogue meets The Wall Street Journal, all trying to “captivate” YOU. Their media kit gives a glimpse of what I am talking about. Designed as the old accounting ledgers, the kit uses photography and typography in a way I rarely saw in such products. When opened the size of the spread is 34 inches wide and anything on the spreads will stop you and force to look and read. Unlike any other “event launch” that took place in years past, this one focuses on content and relevance, and not on publishers and editors. However, I must quickly add that when I visited with the group president and publishing director of Condé Nast Portfolio David Carey in New York City recently, I saw nothing but pride, passion and joy in his eyes every time he mentioned Portfolio, its content, its web site, its editor and staff and its ad pages. David Carey is going to be a proud daddy on April 24, 2007 and his “love of new magazines” is going to manifest itself in one healthy glossy baby named Portfolio.
Mr. Magazine 