A Grand Dilemma

Let’s crunch some numbers. Out of 432 pages of LOVE’s A/W 2011 issue, 169 pages are advertisements. That leaves 263 pages of actual content, which can be divvied up into editorial, advertorial, or actual “writing”. That means 39% of LOVE (not including advertorials, of which there are two) constitutes advertising. For those of you who do not know what an advertorial is, it’s basically an advertisement “disguised” as a fashion editorial. It’s the fine line between art and advertising, or depending on your viewpoint, both. Magazines receive most all of their money through advertising (ask Olivier Zahm) because the distributor, and every single store that sells the magazine takes a cut, not to mention printing costs. Where most clever people know when they’re being sold to, the advertorial slides in to pull the wool over their eyes. “Oh! How cute! Look at how she is petting that Manolo Blahnik like it’s a cat! So artsy clever!” Cute and clever, yes, but a sale in the making. All the more handy when it’s Elle Fanning who’s petting said shoe. LOVE magazine was designed for customers who were too edgy for Vogue but still enjoy commercialism. Enter Katie Grand, the Queen of counterfeit auteurism. She enjoys: long walks on the beach, brushing in between her gap tooth, styling stuff, telling people what to do, and wringing every last customer of every last dime so she can replenish her toothbrush collection. She loathes: having to put in more than 60% of her efforts, her gap, and, in most cases, her penny loafing reader.

Granded headed Pop magazine, but she wasn’t satisfied until finally accepted into the Condé Nast Kingdom. Since it’s a biannual, every issue is her September issue, so naturally it would only make sense to have MORE PAGES THAN EVER BEFORE SEEN IN ONE PLACE.

QUOTES
“It’s hard to imagine her ever having been subservient. There is steeliness behind that sunny exterior. Her nickname is “Katie Ten-Grand-a-Day”, because that’s how much she’s supposed to earn for her styling work. She laughs when I try and winkle out of her what she gets paid: “Sometimes it’s a lot, other times it’s a little.” She denies that money is what drives her. “What gets me going is trying to do good, credible work with talented people. I find it very hard to do jobs just for the money. I still do shows I don’t get paid for.”

“I’m not impressed with Alessandra’s editorial at all. (not cause of Alessandra though) Katie Grand has already done that doll concept (with a similar color scheme) for POP Spring Summer 2007. It was called “I’m a Marionette”. It’s one thing for an editor to rip off another, but for Grand to re-do her own editorial is a huge turn off for me. Especially since “I’m a Marionette” is my all time favorite editorial.”

“Authority is knowledge. If someone goes onto the Fashion Spot and writes that a magazine is dreadful, that’s different from Cathy Horyn saying it is dreadful because there is an authoritative, experienced voice behind the latter point of view.” - Katie Grand in Industrie

If someone goes onto the Fashion Spot and writes that they didn’t buy your magazine because they didn’t like it, that’s a type of knowledge that’s perhaps worth paying attention to, so you can discover how to make your magazine really resonate with all sorts of readers.

And in the end, if someone does purchase the product, they get to have an opinion on it, even if they seem offensively uninformed. Anyone who goes onto the Fashion Spot and writes that the magazine was dreadful - that person is a potential convert, not someone to be dismissed. An editor should be excited at the prospect of getting her hands on those opinions and turning them around. Read more: Industrie Magazine Premiere Issue

Tweet