Bye, Men's Vogue, I Barely Knew You

The magazine industry really is having a hard time.

I just read from Condé Nast Portfolio's website that Men's Vogue, the barely two-year-old Condé Nast title that was supposed to be the more upscale brother of GQ and Details, announced that it's going to fold. Read the blog post here.

Although the really young publication won't be closed completely, existing instead as a biannual supplement to Vogue, which really was how Men's Vogue came to be. (Rumor has it that it's only doing such for Anna Wintour, the magazine's Editorial Director, to save face. Even then it's not really a good sign: Anna's Vogue also is losing revenue while its fiercest rival, Elle is gaining.)

News like this is very disheartening especially for someone like me who works in the publishing industry. (Numerous publications have folded this year due to economic hardships and the shift in viewer's reading habits from print to digital.) But I also have to realize that a lot of magazines come and go each year, regardless of market conditions. Maybe it came out at the wrong time (Rodale's Organic Style), didn't establish its target reader quick (Condé Nast's Cargo), or it simply competed with a similar title in the same publishing house (Hearst's Cosmo Girl).

Men's Vogue was quite the promising publication, targeting the older, more established men that found GQ's articles too pop-py or too fratboy; and is scared by Details. (Coverline of the year: Do You Have Douchebag Hair?)

Question is, is there such a reader? I mean, will the older, more established men that Men's Vogue is catering to, buy the magazine?

Maybe there was and still is—after all, Best Life still remains a healthy publication, as evidenced by second quarter reports from Rodale.

So what happened?

Methinks it suffered from the Cargo syndrome. It took its time to find its voice, and unfortunately, publishing houses can't afford to do it now when things are so crazy. Men's Vogue did finally put an end to the question of who its readers are, saying that by the November issue, it's going to go with the tagline "Style is how you live." (Link here.) But it's too little, too late—by the time this new tagline is rolled out, the magazine's gonna cease to be a monthly. (There's also the issue with declining ad pages, but you probably already know how much magazines depend on advertising to survive.)

Pure speculation, but I do think it makes sense. (I also want to say, it's a pretty dry, staid publication. But it's most likely because I'm not its audience.)

Oh well. Now I gotta give a Condé Nast customer rep to not give me GQ or Details as replacement subscription. I'll take Vanity Fair, thanks.

Image from USAToday.net