The September issues are all out so you know what that means. The reports on what we can expect from the December issues are coming in and the most surprising one is the news that US Glamour editor Cindi Leive recently sat down with President Obama for an interview that will appear in the magazine's next issue.
Appearing in the magazine makes sense for the President, especially as his campaign has recently shown signs of diversifying their media strategy to press their message forward and after all, Glamour does have a big female audience.
The surprise comes from the fact that the magazine pushed so hard to have the interview in the first place. As part of their shake-up they decided to opt for a lot more weekly-style celebrity content to help increase circulation numbers so having Obama in the issue seems like a departure away from that, albeit a departure that I can totally jump on board with. According to WWD, the interview touches on women's health care and the recent controversy over the Todd Atkin's rape comments.
Earlier on this week US Glamour revealed their September issue with Victoria Beckham. Regular readers will know that I'm not the biggest fan of the magazine's recent cover redesign and sadly, even Victoria on the cover hasn't changed that but aside from the cheese, the issue itself does seem like a strong one.
As well as covering the issue, Victoria also served as a guest editor working on everything from casting people to be including in a shoot titled 'fashion's most wanted' to organising an interview with Quentin Jones and booking Lily Collins for a big hair story too. Hopefully we'll see her do something similar in the future but for US Vogue. Now that's one cover that's long overdue.
US Glamour had a bad 2011. Advertising pages were down and circulation numbers were significantly lower than usual dropping 17 percent. The magazine blamed their layout and design for the big drop arguing that what was once their wining formula made them indistinguishable from their competitors.
To tackle the problem the magazine has unveiled a big redesign for their big March issue. While Harper's Bazaar have received a lot of praise for their new look, Glamour hasn't been so lucky. Rather than having cover star Amanda Seyfried shot against a white background as usual with the magazine name in their normal pink, this issue sees her pose with a hairdryer in a bathroom with the title in bright yellow. "To me, yellow means breaking news," Cindi Leive, the magazine's editor-in-chief, told WWD.
At the end of last year Glamour, along with several other magazines, confirmed that they have some big changes planned for 2012. What we didn't know, though, is that they were talking about new employees as well as their big redesign. Today the magazine confirmed that Louise Roe has been appointed as their new fashion editor at large.
“Anne Christensen and I are so excited to have Louise on board just as we’re rolling out a new kind of Glamour,” Cindi Leive said on announcing the news. “Louise is both aspirational It-girl and accessible chic, which exactly sums up what we’re into at Glamour.” Naturally, Roe is happy about the appointment. “This is honestly a dream job for me,” she said. “Having started my career working in the magazine industry, it’s awesome to be working with such a huge, brilliant publication in a range of ways including print, online and TV. We’ve got some exciting projects up our sleeves. Bring on fashion week!”
That's the big question in publishing right now. Before we all complained about the prominence of actresses on the cover of fashion magazines but over the last two years reality stars have taken over. "If you look at what works for us, it's not the same stuff that used to work for us," Cindi Leive, American Glamour's editor-in-chief, told WWD recently.
And the numbers speak for themselves. Take US Glamour for example - in 2010 Lauren Conrad was their biggest selling cover and Kim Kardashian, who appeared on the most covers in 2011, had their best selling cover last year for their January issue. As part of their big revamp set to unveil in March, the magazine have confirmed that they intend to tap into this love of all things reality TV by giving it a big push in their editorial content.
2011 hasn't been a good year for magazines. Although Vogue fared relatively well, just about every other magazine saw a considerable reduction in ad pages and circulation numbers and like Harper's Bazaar, Glamour have announced that they're going to tackle to problem head on with a shake-up.
Talking to WWD this morning, the magazine's editor-in-chief Cindi Leive confirmed that both the magazine and website will be completely revamped with the big unveiling set to take place in time for the March issue. Unfortunately but hardly surprising, the magazine's content will move towards popular culture and celebrities. "The format of many women’s magazines — Glamour included! — hasn’t changed much for a decade, but young women are consuming media in totally different ways now,” she explained.
As we reported on Tuesday, 'plus-size' model Crystal Renn has been very keen to reveal the reasons behind her weight loss - stressing that the shockingly thin photos for the Fashion for Passion charity campaign were photoshopped, and that any other weight loss is down to a healthy exercise routine. Yesterday Renn spoke on the Today show of the shock she felt after seeing the final images, and revealed that her message to girls across the world is to banish the plus-size, straight size "titles", as they "demean women, and there's no need for that."
Renn proudly proclaims that she is "proud to be a part of the whole [plus-size] thing," despite others "scoffing at the title". She revealed that the slight weight loss she has achieved recently was because she felt it was the right time to "start taking care of myself, after being in seven years of recovery", admitting that there was a time in her life when "eight hours of gruelling exercise a day was normal," reinforcing that she has no need to look that way nowadays. "It's funny because people I keep running into for work say, 'Don't you lose any weight', that's Carine Roitfeld, Karl Lagerfeld and Cindi Leive, who's fantastic, and you know it's just great that you have these wonderful people supporting you." Click here to watch the video in full.
It looks like the movement between magazines won't slow down any time soon. After Stefano Tonchi's move from T, many expected that Anne Christensen - the magazine's fashion director - would take his place but eventually lost the position to Vogue's Sally Singer. Christensen went on to resign from her role causing even more speculation as to who will take her place.
Tabbitha Simmons is a name that has been thrown into the hat of likely successors. Many think she's a firm favourite particularly due to her longtime close relationship with Singer and her ties with Vogue who she frequently styles for. However, Meredith Melling Burke is also tipped to be in the running for the job. However, as The Cut pointed out, it's unlikely that she will make the move because that would be the second big editor to leave American Vogue.
In other news, there's been a lot of competition of the fashion director position at Glamour after Zanthipi Joannides left the magazine in June. Despite moving to Marie Claire from ELLE only a year or so ago, Nina Garcia is said to have been interested in the position but "discussions with ended shortly after they began" a source told WWD. Kate Lanphear has also met with Cindi Leive, which if it resulted in a move from ELLE, would be really sad. ELLE without Lanphear?!
