Four months ago, Interview magazine was closed down, consigned to the dumpster of pop culture memorabilia and detritus. Now Brant Publications has reversed that decision and is set to embark on a contentious restoration of the title with a September issue fronted by the transgender model Hari Nef.
The turnaround, or what might more accurately be described as a relaunch, is a rare creature in an industry where dozens of titles, from fashion to finance to sports, have shut down or are struggling to get by on diminishing advertising revenues and hoping to find buyers.
This month, Condé Nast, publisher of flagship titles Vogue, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, confirmed what it had long denied: that the fashion publication W, Brides and Golf Digest are up for sale, part of a strategy to cut losses that reached $120m last year.
Executives said the company’s turn-around strategy, which forecasts a return to profitability by 2020 and a $600m boost to revenues two years after, hinged on reducing its dependence on advertising revenues and embracing the readership in new and diversified ways, including business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing, and consulting services.
“We’ve invested in creating a data platform, an events business, and scaling our digital business,” Condé Nast’s chief executive, Bob Sauerberg, told the Wall Street Journal.
Though recent strategic decisions, including an e-commerce venture that lost $100m and abrupt changes in focus, have undermined confidence that the publisher can reform and maintain a lavish, aspirational aura, Sauerberg said the company would be able to manage existing costs while reshaping itself.
“I’m investing in a more diversified future. I’m doing necessarily tough things. But we have a blueprint,” he added, warning there could be more layoffs as cost-cutting continues. But he made no mention of any buyer or buyers for the titles – W was reportedly first put up for sale four years ago – suggesting that the new round of energetic cost-cutting and reform could be a prelude to the sale of the company itself.
