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Article: Musical Chairs: Movement In The World Of Magazines

Article Group List / Entrepreneurship / Musical Chairs: Movement In The World Of Magazines

Musical Chairs: Movement In The World Of Magazines

This past summer, women's consumer magazines Harper's Bazaar, Redbook, Glamour, and Marie Claire, among others, felt the domino effect of the hiring, firing, and recycling of its top editors.  When one editor-in-chief goes, inevitably others will soon follow, and not always willingly.

The former editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar, Katherine Betts, was a wunderkind of sorts.  Some speculated that this former fashion director was second in line to inherit Anna Wintour's post at Vogue.  But when Betts made the leap from Conde Nast Publications to another company, she found the transition to a vastly different corporate culture a difficult one.  It's never easy for an editor to take over an entire magazine, especially one with an already well-established look and style.  What makes it even more difficult is the potential hostilities of those working under the new editor, who may not feel an instant loyalty to their new boss.  For this reason, editors-in-chief usually bring a few top-level loyal subjects the way the editor works and to act as a buffer zone to resentful or hostile employees.

Though many loyal editors joined Betts in her defection to Bazaar, the magazine floundered on the newsstand.  Although Betts attempted to bring a fresh young voice to Bazaar, with intelligent articles and journalistic reporting and editing, she also seemed to ignore all that made Bazaar a hit in the first place.  Betts' changes were fast and furious as she battled her way through disagreements with the editorship. 

In May, Betts was asked to leave.  It was a Thursday.  On Friday the new editor in chief took over.  Glenda Bailey, formerly of Marie Claire, was the new sheriff in town. 

Nowhere is change more a mandate than in the magazine business, especially when it comes to covering the fickle subjects of fashion and celebrity.  There are very few editors and publishers that can maintain their readership through all the ups and downs of trends and changing sensibilities of their readers.

This year, with fast declining ad sales and the rise and fall of imaginary Internet money, magazines are at each other's throats to get the ad dollars they need to produce and survive every month.  The ads pay for the editorial pages.  The more ad pages the more successful the magazine.  Successful magazines can produce top quality content, which also means more readers.  And more readers is the name of the game. 

Since getting ad pages is the job of the publishing department or publisher, why would an editor be in danger?  The answer is simple: If a company chooses not to advertise in a particular magazine, it is usually because the magazine is no longer giving the company the readership it needs to sell its product.  The reader is the responsibility of the editor, so the responsibility falls on her, even if the publisher is also fired for a drop in ad pages.

Keep your editors close and your ear to the ground?

Women's consumer magazines are the most volatile of the bunch, as they report on a fickle multi-billion dollar industry.  Predicting what readers will want to read and see and wear is an art in itself and there have been a select few in history who have demonstrated a talent for predicting the trends, from micro-minis to masculinity, from the '70s to the '90s.

Here are a few rules for surviving potential executive changes and editorial overhauls.  This applies to all magazines - from women's fashion to business news. 

• Know your job.  Know your superior's job.
• Know your reader, even if no one around you seems to care.
• Don't write, edit, or work for your career advancement.  Instead work to bring something useful, attractive and innovative to your reader.
• Don't be defensive about constructive criticism. 
• Keep your options open.  You never know where the axe will fall so never burn bridges.  Today's enemy may be tomorrow's new boss.
• Be involved.  Don't just do your job and pass off any extraneous details to others on the factory line. This isn't car assembly.  The successful editor knows how to do it all if she is asked.
• Always be open to a promotion, even if you are happy where you are.  If you don't get the promotion, someone else will. 
• Always take time out to listen and learn.  You can never know everything.
• Know how to distinguish trends from eternal needs, and make use of both.
• Don't get comfortable.  Stay on your toes with your ear to the ground.