Marie Claire and Who What Put on took very completely different journeys to the identical place.
The primary difficulty of Marie Claire was revealed in 1937 in France, and since its launch within the mid-Nineties, the US version has served as a go-to month-to-month for the profession lady. The web site was principally an afterthought till the mid-2010s, when digital opponents and social media have been steadily eroding the journal trade’s cultural clout, and profitability.
Who What Put on was a kind of on-line upstarts. It began as a publication in 2006, the place two former Elle editors, Hillary Kerr and Katherine Energy, chronicled movie star road fashion. They later branched out with a web site, a clothes line at Goal, and podcasts.
At the moment, nevertheless, the 2 publications are underneath one roof at Future Plc, the London-based writer of titles like Marie Claire UK, shelter journal Wallpaper* and the quintessentially British Nation Life journal. The distinctions that used to set them aside have largely been erased – Marie Claire ceased common print editions with its Summer season 2021 difficulty, shortly after Future acquired it. In 2022, it introduced print again in a extra restricted capability and releases two editions yearly.
Quite, Future is treating Marie Claire and Who What Put on because the cornerstones of its plans to broaden its US readership, combining Marie Claire’s legacy identify recognition with Who What Put on’s digital know-how and entrepreneurial spirit. The 2 are the UK-based writer’s first US acquisitions, however “there are at all times ambitions” for extra, Kerr, now the SVP of Future’s ladies’s and luxurious group, mentioned.
By rolling up disparate media properties, Future can also be constructing a various arsenal to tackle vogue media’s many challenges, from the dwindling internet advertising income to the rise of impartial newsletters and TikTok’s limitless scroll of free content material.
“We’re actually reaching ladies at each essential life stage,” mentioned Kerr. “[The publications] usually are not in direct competitors, they’re really extremely complementary.”
At each publications, the plan is to double down on promising income streams, together with branded and affiliate-driven content material, livestream buying and podcasts (Marie Claire is launching its first later this yr). The aim is to maximise viewers and income, reasonably than being wedded to anybody format.
“On the finish of the day … wherever [our audience] needs to eat content material, we wish to be there and create one thing bespoke for that platform,” mentioned Kerr.
“A Group Chat of Your Most Formidable Pals”
WhoWhatWear is benefitting from having the muscle of a longtime company behind it — from February 2022 to at the moment, it’s seen 30 % enhance in site visitors year-over-year from ladies ages 18 to 34.
Marie Claire, in the meantime, is making modifications. In August, Future appointed Nikki Ogunnaike, most just lately the digital director at Harper’s Bazaar and a longtime vogue editor who has held positions at Elle, Glamour and GQ, as editor-in-chief.
Since her arrival, Marie Claire has rolled out content material that’s designed to attraction to a cohort of pushed ladies, and the matters which are on their minds. It revealed a package deal, “The Price of Beginning Your Personal Enterprise,” in January, the place writers spoke to feminine founders concerning the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. That very same month, it launched a brand new franchise, “How’d You Get That Home,” which breaks down ladies’s journeys to purchasing property. Ogunnaike is writing a weekly publication known as “Self Checkout,” and the forthcoming podcast will launch this spring.
Ogunnaike mentioned she needs the journal to really feel like “a bunch chat of your most formidable associates.”
“In my private group chat … we’re discussing so much about cash, fashion, and the way energy realises itself in our every day lives,” she mentioned. “And I’m simply actually excited concerning the alternative to try this on a grander scale right here.”
Final month, Marie Claire staged its Energy Play occasion in Los Angeles, a reinvention of its former Energy Journey occasion, which noticed Marie Claire constitution a airplane from New York to Los Angeles for an invite-only day of programming for feminine founders, executives and different notable ladies. This yr, the occasion was smaller-scale than it’s been previously: Marie Claire forewent the personal airplane, and invited audio system like Sophia Bush and Courteney Cox to take the stage on the Santa Monica Correct Resort to debate their entrepreneurial efforts. The hope is to carry the franchise to completely different cities sooner or later.
“I did actually like the thought of going slightly extra intimate, slightly extra area of interest when it got here to Energy Play, and being thoughtful about bringing unimaginable expertise to dynamic entrepreneurs into completely different areas across the US,” mentioned Ogunnaike.
Zeroing in on Marie Claire’s long-standing bent in direction of “energy,” and in sensible phrases, profession and ambition, might assist the publication really feel extra specialised in a world that’s shifting away from extra generalist content material.
“It’s actually laborious to be mass now,” mentioned Amy Odell, a former Cosmopolitan editor and the creator of Anna: The Biography who additionally pens Again Row, a Substack publication about vogue and media. “Actually, individuals spend a variety of time eager about their profession. There is a chance there.”
Shoppable Content material
There aren’t any plans to place up a paywall on both website, bucking a pattern in direction of a subscription-first mannequin amid a seemingly unending advert droop.
For Future, the plan is to proceed to get artistic round different income streams. The corporate is constructing out a studio to movie livestreaming buying associated content material in Los Angeles. WhoWhoWear will maintain its first Magnificence Awards this yr, and plans to focus extra on magnificence within the coming months.
Who What Put on has already rolled out content material to make its podcasts “shoppable,” mentioned Kerr, with corresponding shoppable tales on the web site, the place listeners should purchase merchandise featured in an episode. It’s a format the staff needs to evolve sooner or later.
“We create one thing for our viewers after which suppose by means of revolutionary methods to monetise round that,” mentioned Kerr. “And on the finish of the day, if we’re doing that all the remainder of it follows.”
