Condé Nast Germany discontinues Vanity Fair
The end for one of the most pompous media projects of recent years: Condé Nast Germany is discontinuing its people title Vanity Fair with immediate effect. The current issue will be the last.
The end for one of the most pompous media projects of recent years: Condé Nast Germany is discontinuing its people title Vanity Fair with immediate effect. The current issue will be the last.
The astonishing thing: As recently as December, publisher Jonathan Newhouse had given a guarantee for the German edition. "The world is changing rapidly and in a way that no one can really be prepared for," Newhouse now explains. The global economic crisis is responsible. "In a normal economic climate, we would have bravely stuck with Vanity Fair". In the current bleak economic climate, however, this is impossible.
According to Spiegel Online, the news of the closure hit the paper's Berlin editorial team like a bombshell. Publishing director Newhouse announced the bad news personally. Several editors told Spiegel that no one had expected Vanity Fair to be taken off the market at this point. The decision came as a surprise to staff, especially as Newhouse had only recently given the aforementioned guarantee.
Vanity Fair was launched in February 2007 with a circulation of 500,000 copies. The target group at the time was "Germany's new performance elite". At around 50 million euros, it was the largest investment outside the USA by the Condé Nast media company (Vogue, GQ, The New Yorker) and probably the most spectacular start-up on the German magazine market in recent years.
Despite several changes of course, the magazine never managed to reach the circulation and reach level that would have been necessary for success. Officially, the weekly magazine's last paid circulation was 196,727 copies. However, with 38,000 subscriptions and 75,800 copies in single copy sales, the title was treading water.
The astonishing thing: As recently as December, publisher Jonathan Newhouse had given a guarantee for the German edition. "The world is changing rapidly and in a way that no one can really be prepared for," Newhouse now explains. The global economic crisis is responsible. "In a normal economic climate, we would have bravely stuck with Vanity Fair". In the current bleak economic climate, however, this is impossible.
According to Spiegel Online, the news of the closure hit the paper's Berlin editorial team like a bombshell. Publishing director Newhouse announced the bad news personally. Several editors told Spiegel that no one had expected Vanity Fair to be taken off the market at this point. The decision came as a surprise to staff, especially as Newhouse had only recently given the aforementioned guarantee.
Vanity Fair was launched in February 2007 with a circulation of 500,000 copies. The target group at the time was "Germany's new performance elite". At around 50 million euros, it was the largest investment outside the USA by the Condé Nast media company (Vogue, GQ, The New Yorker) and probably the most spectacular start-up on the German magazine market in recent years.
Despite several changes of course, the magazine never managed to reach the circulation and reach level that would have been necessary for success. Officially, the weekly magazine's last paid circulation was 196,727 copies. However, with 38,000 subscriptions and 75,800 copies in single copy sales, the title was treading water.
