Du Jour, the digital and print media company headed by Jason Binn, will debut its luxury magazine this month with 110 ad pages and an estimated $4 million in booked advertising right out of the gate.
The quarterly magazine, supplemented with a monthly digital version, qualifies as one of the larger launches of the 2012-13 season, if not the largest.
The digital version will go live on Aug. 20 to about 3.5 million high-net-worth individuals culled from its strategic partner, the Gilt Groupe. Gilt is not putting money into the mix, however.
The following day, the printed version will be mailed to 250,000 high-end readers in top-tier cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami.
Binn’s financial partner in the deal is James Cohen, who sold his Hudson News to the Swiss-based duty-free chain Dufry but continues to run the newsstand retailer as its chief.
“I’m creating a new category and new business model,” said Binn, who spent two years researching the idea before officially announcing it in February. He did not finish assembling his staff until July — just two months before the launch.
One twistthat he used to attract top-notch talent was to offer a slice of the equity. Binn said 10 percent of the equity was assigned to a group of key editors and executives.
Alan Katz, former publisher of New York and Vanity Fair, is chief revenue officer; Cindy Lewis, former publisher of Hearst’s Shop Etc., Marie Claire and Harper’s Bazaar, is vice president of sales; and Gayle Perry Sobel, once a European fashion director for Condé Nast, is executive director.
Max MacDonald, the former CEO of the recently sold digital magazine Lonny, is product development officer and was Du Jour’s first employee.
Binn also took the gamble of assigning co-editors and giving them equity holdings as well. Former In Style Senior Editor Nicole Vecchiarelli and Keith Pollock, the former editorial director of Elle.com, will split duties as co-editors.
Binn is the controlling shareholder but wouldn’t reveal the exact split in equity between the partners in the company.
Binn believes his venture will work because he is not trying to add digital as an afterthought to print. “It’s a full-fledged, multi-platform seamlessly integrated business model talking to luxury goods consumers,” he said.
He added that readers must pass five of seven filter checks. Among them is an average income over $250,000, net worth of more than $5 million and a house valued at over $1.5 million.
While many advertisers tend to avoid startups, Binn seems to have hit a chord.
“I think it is exciting, it’s a new model,” said Shenan Reed, chief marketing officer of Morpheus Media, which represents LVMH and Richemont. “They’re where we can find a high concentration of luxury consumers I don’t find that anywhere else.”
And while the magazine media world has not recovered from its post-2008 slump, luxury seems to have rebounded.
Trent Frazier, a vice president at Don Perignon, jumped on the Du Jour, bandwagon, adding, “I think the luxury market will continue to expand.”
But that also means lots of others are in the hunt. Next month the Fashion Media Group at Condé will unveil a new high-end men’s fashion magazine, M.
Condé’s Fairchild division already publishes a magazine version of Style.com twice a year as a companion to the website, which pulls in between 2 million and 3 million unique visitors a month.
Best Life, the high-end men’s mag that folded in 2009, is being relaunched as a special publication spun out of Rodale.
Bloomberg Businessweek is also putting out the second issue of Pursuits to readers of Bloomberg Markets next month and is considering taking it monthly in 2013. It just signed John Birmingham, former editor of DNR at Fairchild, as a contributing fashion editor.
Worth, now owned by Sandow Media, is reporting booming ad sales. And Departures, which goes to American Express platinum card holders, doesn’t seem to have lost any momentum.
Departures’ September issue will carry 117 ad pages, a 20 percent jump from a year ago. It is up double digits year-to-date.
“I think established brands like Departures will continue to thrive and be a trusted resource for luxury brands,” said Publisher Steve DeLuca. ”Only time will tell if the category can absorb these new entrants,” he said.
It’s electric!
Vibe is expanding beyond its hip- hop roots to cover the electronic dance craze. In January, the company was taken over by Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos. in a joint venture with Magic Johnson and merged with BlackBook and Access Network.
The August/September issue, which hits Aug. 28, will feature Diplo and Azelia Banks on its cover, marking the first time an electronic dance music DJ has graced the cover.
Editor-In-Chief Jermaine Hall said it’s part of a strategy to expand into other musical genres. “DJs are the new rock stars,” he said.
Sarah Polonsky, former managing editor of Elektro magazine, is a new senior editor.
Dylan book bash
Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman, whose book “Forget About Today: Bob Dylan’s Genius for (Re)invention, Shunning the Naysayers and Creating a Pesonal Revolution,” hit this week and was toasted at a party held at Vibrant Media’s Fifth Avenue terrace and hosted by Ed Adler, the former head p.r. man for Time Warner who is now with RLM Finsbury.
The book from Penguin jumped about 25,000 places on the Amazon.com chart to around 5,000 after Friedman’s appearance on the Don Imus radio talk show on Monday.
Dylan was as taciturn as ever and did not grant the author access. But unlike the controversy that dogged another recent Dylan book, Friedman says none of his quotes are made up.
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