Magazines

Maine Magazine Launches 2011 Guide Books

Filed under: Decor, Dining, Luxury Travel & Hotels, Art, Books

Maine magazine, the stylish bible of "more than just lobsters and lighthouses", has debuted its 2011 guides to the best the Pine Tree State has to offer. This year in addition to the Eat Maine edition launched last year they've added Art Maine and Home Maine versions with help from sister publication Maine Home + Design. Indispensable for both visitors and natives alike, the pocket-sized booklets act as a Baedeker to the best in dining, decor and the arts around the beautiful northern and easternmost bit of New England. Of course they do list the best lobster rolls in the Eat edition but that's just the tip of the icecap. The guides are priced at $5.95 and come free to subscribers; alternatively they can be found at many Portland businesses and are also available from the magazine directly.

Tags: art, decor, dining, eat+maine+2011, eatmaine2011, guide, lobster, magazines, Maine, Maine Home + Design, Maine magazine, New England, travel

$44 Million Yacht Tops Robb Report's 'Ultimate Gifts'

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Yachts & Sailing, Luxury Cars & Autos, Wings, Holiday Guides, Wealth

It seems that Robb Report, the glossy chronicle of the filthy rich, has come back down to Earth a bit after last year's offering of the world's most expensive Christmas present, a matching custom private jet and megayacht set costing $500 million. Each year the profligate publication features an Ultimate Gift Guide, a seasonal offering of over-the-top exclusives. This year's sybaritic selections top out at a measly $44 million, which gets the recipient Aquos Yachts' 164-ft. expedition superyacht Star Fish to be delivered in 2012 and a luxurious three-week, 10-person charter trip aboard her sister ship, the 148-ft. Big Fish, while you're waiting. Among the other big ticket items for the price-is-no-object set:

Tags: Bahamas, Bugatti, Bugatti Veyron, diamonds, fighter jet, gifts, Holiday 2010, magazines, Parmigiani, private jet, Robb Report, safari, submersible, supercar, superyacht, theme park, wealth, yacht

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V Magazine's Fashionable Tribute to Pinup Girls [video]

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Video

Hipper-than-thou high fashion rag V Magazine re-imagines classic 1950s pinup girls in its new issue devoted to alluring figures. The Sexy Body issue features 50 of the world's sexiest bodies, as seen by famed photographers like Mario Testino, Glen Luchford, Arny Freytag and more. The issue also features a limited-edition scratch off cover revealing more than usual of Brazilian bombshell Adriana Lima. For the Pinup Girls story, legendary pinup photographer Frank de Blase shot hot models Ana Beatriz Barros, South African Victoria's Secret stunner Candice Swanepoel, Bette Frank, Hilary Rhoda, Kim Cloutier and Tori Praver wearing scanty creations from various luxury labels. Also in the issue is a humorous and sexy take on Footballers Wives, an eye-popping photo essay on the hottest new Spanish models, an inside look at Jade Jagger's compound on Ibiza, and more.

Tags: Adriana Lima, fashion, fashion magazine, Jade Jagger, magazines, Mario Testino, photography, sex, supermodels, V magazine

The World's Coolest Hotel Rooms

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Books

Condé Nast Traveler's popular "Room With a View" column has been compiled into a beautiful new book from Assouline. Culled from the highlights of the column's 20 years chronicling the world's most fabulous hotel rooms, the Room With a View book features the very best "frame-worthy vistas" to be found anywhere on Earth. 160 breathtaking sights from beaches in Bali to Asia's bustling metropolises to African savannahs "teeming with wildlife rather than nightlife" are lavishly portrayed within. Standouts include the bathtub vista from the Royal Park's Urban Spa room in Japan's 971 foot-high Yokohama Landmark Tower, and Room 609 at Badrutt's Palace Hotel, the perfect box seat for the Cartier Snow Polo World Cup played on the frozen Lake of St. Moritz below.

Tags: Assouline, Condé Nast Traveler, CondéNastTraveler, hotels, magazines

Metropolitan Home Shuts Down

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

We've lost another great home decor magazine. MediaBistro has the press release from Hachette Filipacchi which says that the December 2009 issue of Metropolitan Home will be its last. The publisher has decided to focus all of its shelter mag energy on Elle Decor, the spin off from Elle magazine. In the press release President and CEO Alain Lemarchand said that at this point "the best strategy in the upscale shelter segment is to boldly focus our resources and investment on Elle Decor, which is the ad-page leader within the U.S. market."

Fans of design magazines are reeling especially after Conde Nast shut down the beloved Domino earlier this year. As with the case with the closure of Gourmet over Bon Appetit last month, there are some who feel that Metropolitan Home was the superior title and the one that should have been saved.

MediaWeek reports that ad pages for Metropolitan Home have fallen 34 percent in 2009. Hachette will also be shutting down Pointclickhome.com, the site that was once the online presence of its three shelter magazines: Home, Metropolitan Home and Elle Décor. Now just ElleDecor.com, which is currently part of Pointclickhome.com, will remain.

Tags: hachette filipacchi media, HachetteFilipacchiMedia, magazine closures, MagazineClosures, magazines, metropolitan home, MetropolitanHome

Condé Nast Closing Down Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride

by Lisa Palladino (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Services

Condé Nast Closing Down <I>Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride</I> and <I>Elegant Bride</I>

More bad news for the magazine industry hit last week: Condé Nast is closing down several of its big-name magazines, names you know - Gourmet, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride - and one you may not, Cookie, which is about parenthood.

The New York Times noted, "[Gourmet] has suffered a severe decline in ad pages, but the cut still comes as a shock. There was speculation that Condé Nast would close one of its food titles - Gourmet or Bon Appétit - but most bets were on the latter. Gourmet has a richer history than Bon Appétit, and its editor, Ruth Reichl, is powerful in the food world. Cookie is a relatively new introduction, started in 2005, while the bridal magazines were seen as offshoots of the bigger Brides magazine, which Condé Nast also owns."

The cuts were done at the conclusion of a three-month study by McKinsey & Company, which conducted an analysis of Condé Nast's costs and recommended that several magazines cut about 25 percent from their budgets. These are the first closings announced by the company since the study.

These are not the first magazines shuttered by Condé Nast, even though, as the Times notes, the company never has been quick to close titles, and in the last year or so has closed only newer titles, Condé Nast Portfolio and Domino, along with folding Men's Vogue into Vogue.

This isn't the first time Luxist has noted magazine closings either. See this piece I did last month, which mentions in the gallery some other closings noted by my colleagues.

Tags: brides, conde nast, CondeNast, cookie, magazine, magazines

Lagerfeld, Starck Design Covers for Wallpaper* Magazine

by Lisa Palladino (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Design

Chanel top man Karl Lagerfeld and designer Philippe Starck will guest-edit the October 2009 issue of interiors title Wallpaper*, according the Guardian.

Lagerfeld has designed a "peelable" cover for the monthly title, which features model Baptiste Giabiconi. Readers can peel back this image to reveal another cover, which shows Giabiconi nude.

Starck, best known for designing high-end hotels, has constructed a transparent front cover using three layers of tracing paper (see it on the Wallpaper* home page).

Lagerfeld and Starck have each edited large sections of the issue, out now. Lagerfeld, also a sought-after photographer, has shot Giabiconi in a variety of historical settings across continental Europe, including Rome and Paris. He also writes about his collection of houses.

Starck is more philosophical, focusing on "mankind's quest to discover the meaning of life and interviewing scientists, physicists and cosmologists," the Guardian said. "It is my mission to make intelligence sexy," Starck said.

Tags: Karl Lagerfeld, KarlLagerfeld, magazine, magazines, Philippe Starck, PhilippeStarck, wallpaper, wallpaper magazine, WallpaperMagazine

Time Mag Shuts Down Its Quarterly, Style & Design

by Lisa Palladino (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Services

Though the site in question is still up as I write this, it was reported in the New York Post that Time magazine has shut down its fashion quarterly, Style & Design. The Post item states, "Time blamed the collapse of the luxury market for the move. 'This really is a suspended publication,' said a spokeswoman of the one million-circulation magazine. 'We'd hope to bring it back when the economy improves.' " Kate Betts, the one-time editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar who had been editor of Time Style & Design, will remain with the company and is expected to cover this month's Fashion Week shows for Time. Four other staffers were let go.

Time Style & Design tried to have an American and a European circulation base, in a bid to capture the eye -- and ad dollars -- of fashion designers in New York as well as in Paris, Milan, and London. About 550,000 subscribers were based in the United States, and 450,000 in Europe.

This event marks the second time during the third quarter that Time Inc. has shut down a magazine. Last month, the company closed Southern Accents, part of Time Inc.'s Southern Progress subsidiary.

Gallery: The Luxury Magazine World In Transition

What Will Be The Future Of Town and Country?

Tags: magazine, magazines, Style Design, StyleDesign, Time, Time magazine, TimeMagazine

Is Town & Country Magazine In Trouble?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Fashion Week Daily is worried about the future of Town & Country magazine. Building on a Page Six report that Hearst has been looking for a new editor to replace Pamela Fiori, T&C's editor-in-chief, Fashion Week Daily speculates that Hearst might close the title entirely. It is true that Hearst has not spent significant money building the T&C website the way they have with other Hearst titles like Esquire and Marie Claire but a Hearst spokesperson told Fashion Week Daily that the website has never been a priority for this particular brand partly because "T&C's affluent audience spends less time online" than the audience for other titles. That seems like a potentially flimsy explanation especially when paired with another quote that the magazine is a subscription-driven magazine with "a very loyal fan base for the print product." Doesn't sound like a title in growth mode.

But there are many reasons that Town & Country can, and most likely will, stay afloat. First of all, the history and tradition. This is a magazine which began in 1846 and has been part of the lives of many generations. More than a magazine, Town & Country has served as a benchmark for the affluent. Its habit of showcasing wealthy and beautiful women has made social careers. Grabbing the cover has been sometimes seen as a socialite's mark of ascension. The magazine also has a significant history with philanthropy. Pamela Fiori was a founding co-chairperson of UNICEF's Snowflake Project. Much of the magazine's content has been not just about shopping and travel but also about the responsibilities of wealth including volunteering and donating as well as points of etiquette. Another good reason for Hearst not to give up on Town & Country would be its ancillary products. The brand has spawned a travel website and wedding magazine. It also publishes a series of books.

Times are tough for any magazine and luxury magazines are more expensive to produce than some other titles. Those lavish photoshoots in exotic locales really add up. Publishers Information Bureau recently reported first half advertising and paging figures which showed that Town&Country fell 43 percent to 429 pages. Rough numbers that landed it on Magazine Death Pool's recent list of magazines in danger (a list that also included Departures, Architectural Digest and W).

Source

Tags: magazines, town and country, TownAndCountry

Guitar Aficionado Courts Wealthy Music Lovers

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

As the NY Times mentions, one would think that Guitar Aficionado was the new kid brother to Cigar Aficionado magazine. Both have covers with celebrities proudly showing off their toys, be it cigars or guitars. But Guitar Aficionado doesn't come from Marvin Shanken's empire but from the same people who created Guitar World and Guitar Legends, Future US. Guitar Aficionado courts the more upscale guitar fan, the person who buys an expensive guitar in concert with other fine goods such as a fine watch, a good Scotch, and perhaps a good cigar (maybe these magazines should swap ad space?). Guitar Aficionado will launch its first issue with celebrity chef Tom Colicchio on the cover and will publish quarterly.

The NY Times quotes publisher Greg Di Benedetto as saying that the title's similarity to Cigar Aficionado was not intentional although he does point out that the two titles rhyme. The similarities are striking though.

Source

Tags: cigar aficionado, CigarAficionado, guitar aficionado, GuitarAficionado, magazines

New York's Latest Luxury Magazine

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Is right now the time for a new luxury magazine in New York? A Singapore-based company, CR Media thinks so. The Wall Street Journal's Wealth Report is a little more skeptical. "Prestige New York" is the newest version of an ad-heavy glossy luxury magazine that is popular in Asia.

CR Media has put together a list of 50,000 subscribers in the New York tristate area with a net worth of $10 million or more. Prestige says that their list, which was developed by Larkspur and finds people using public filings on stock transfers and other data is more "purely rich" than lists culled from addresses or zip codes.

The strategy sounds similar to the one employed by Worth magazine which promises that all their subscribers will have a net worth of at least $2 million. It seems like the reverse of traditional magazine strategy, instead of creating a great magazine and then getting subscribers, these new luxury magazines are creating the desired reader pool first and then creating a magazine to suit them.

Source

Tags: luxury magazines, LuxuryMagazines, magazines

100 Years of Vanity Fair Portraits

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Books

Graydon Carter and the editors of Vanity Fair have just published a book of photographs spanning 100 years of the magazine: Vanity Fair: The Portraits, A Century of Iconic Images (Abrams, $65). At 348 pages, the book contains over 100 color and 200 black-and-white photos of personalities ranging from Picasso, Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn to Julia Roberts, Giorgio Armani and Brad Pitt, by the world's most famous photographers. An accompanying exhibition will open at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Oct. 26 and will run through the 1st of March.

Tags: Celebrities, Giorgio Armani, GiorgioArmani, Graydon Carter, GraydonCarter, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LosAngelesCountyMuseumOfArt, Magazines, Photography, Vanity Fair, VanityFair

Russian Billionaire Debuts His Magazine for Snobs

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

Back in April we reported that Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov (right) was planning to spend $150 million launching a new magazine for snobs. Now the first issue of Snob is about to go on sale with a cover price of $18, but it isn't just a gaudy homage to the oligarch lifestyle as lived by Luxist mascot Roman Abramovich and his compatriots.

"A close look at both the target audience and the contents of Snob show that it doesn't promote the free-spending, bling-drenched stereotype made famous across the world by rich Russians in recent years," the London Independent notes. "While celebrating personal and financial success, it does so in a rather more restrained and worldly way." Too bad - we were kind of hoping for something a little more over-the-top.

Tags: Magazines, mikhail prokhorov, MikhailProkhorov, Russia, Russian billionaires, RussianBillionaires, Snobs

Vanity Fair Celebrates Supermodel Comeback

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Last month we reported that top fashion brands were once again bringing back the supermodels of the 1990s to star in new fall ad campaigns for the likes of Prada, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton.

Vanity Fair has now picked up on the trend, with an eight page story in the new September issue and a photo shoot by Mario Testino (right) featuring Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell.

Though they're all obviously in great shape, Testino somehow makes Seymour look as if she's made entirely of plastic, while the gorgeous Schiffer looks more like a hausfrau than a supermodel. Perhaps the lighting and make-up is to blame. The shoot was originally rumored to be for the magazine's cover, but we can see why they went with Carla Bruni instead.

Tags: Christy Turlington, ChristyTurlington, cindy crawford, CindyCrawford, Claudia Schiffer, ClaudiaSchiffer, linda evangelista, LindaEvangelista, Louis Vuitton, LouisVuitton, Magazines, Mario Testino, MarioTestino, Naomi Campbell, NaomiCampbell, Prada, Stephanie Seymour, StephanieSeymour, Supermodels, Vanity Fair, VanityFair

Mystery Buyer of World's Most Expensive House Revealed

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

The mysterious billionaire who just bought the world's most expensive house - the $750 million Villa Leopolda (above) on the French Riviera - is none other than controversial Russian precious metals mogul Mikhail Prokhorov, the AFP reports. Luxist readers may remember Prokhorov as the over-the-top tycoon who announced plans in April to spend $150 million launching a magazine for snobs in Russia, called simply Snob. Prokhorov is ranked as the 24th richest man in the world with a $22 billion fortune. Some earlier reports had erroneously identified the villa's buyer as Roman Abramovich. Last year Prokhorov was briefly detained during an investigation into a suspected prostitution ring at the ritzy ski resort he frequents in the French Alps.

Tags: French Riviera, FrenchRiviera, La Leopolda, LaLeopolda, Magazines, Mikhail Prokhorov, MikhailProkhorov, prostitution ring, ProstitutionRing, roman abramovich, RomanAbramovich, Russian billionaires, RussianBillionaires, Snobs, Villa Leopolda, VillaLeopolda