Yesterday it was announced that Vogue publisher Tom Florio is leaving Condé Nast after 25 years. According to sources, the relationship between the Florio and the publishing house has been rocky for some time with reports that he nearly left late last year.
The move didn't come as a surprise. Last year Florio told the Journal that, "I want to be CEO of my own company" so it was only a matter of time before he jumped ship. Since being spotted in meetings with IMG, many are already speculating that he's switching to the world of entertainment but Florio is keeping tight lipped on his next move. “I’m just in a position to do something else,” he told WWD, coyly adding, “It could be in TV; it could be on many platforms. It also could be that I will be working closely with Condé Nast. We’ll see,” he told The Cut.
Carol Smith is making the move from her position as ELLE's senior vice president and chief brand officer tat Hachette Fillipachi. After working with the magazine for the last eight years Smith has decided to move to Conde Nast where she will come in as vice president and publishing director of Gourmet and Bon Appetit.
“Carol Smith will oversee business developments for the brands that will include TV, books, and online opportunities,” said a Conde Nast corporate spokeswoman.
Recent speculation alleges that the role will act as an audition for Smith, who will report to Tom Florio, Vogue's publishing director and vice president who is set to move up in the company and is looking for his replacement.
Elle magazine is a publication that has always been one of the nation's favourites, but clearly never popular enough to pip fashion bible, Vogue, to the top spot in the performance poll relating to the number of ad pages sold in each magazine. Although InStyle magazine actually ranked top of the group, the competition seems to be running between two magazines only - Vogue and Elle.
This time last year, (pre-recession), Elle was forced to 'eat Vogue's dust' and was left 317 ad pages short of its competitor. That is until now. WWD's '2009 Ad Page Performance' poll shows that Elle managed to beat its old rival this year, having lost only 473 ad pages, whilst Vogue lost 900. Tom Florio, a Vogue publisher, couldn't resist offering an explanation for the defeat saying, "I learned how important it is to lead the market in terms of editorial standpoint, versus heavily discount and use our editors to sell ad pages. What we saw happen this year, which we haven't seen in a while, is the discounts were approaching 70 percent. Some of the deals that were being done were just crazy."
Last week we broke the news that, for the first time, ELLE bagged more ad pages than Vogue. When asked about how the magazine's advertising is doing, as they begin to close the big September issue, Vogue's publisher Tom Florio tried to diffuse the situation but actually revealed how bad the situation actually is. "We'll have over 400 pages of advertising," he told the NY Post.
As Jezebel said, 400 pages is a considerable drop from the 727 ad pages they had for the 2007 September issue, and the 607 pages last year.
People are quickly beginning to question whether this is a result of the economy, or whether it shows that Anna Wintouris losing her touch.
