Wallpaper man's singular vision
Labels: Monocle, Tyler Brule, Wallpaper
posted by Ronnie Rocket @ 12:51 PM
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Ronnie Rocket Blog
A personal blog about Arts, Business, Culture and Design (and a lot about Japan!) by Media DJ Ronnie Rocket.
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Highbrow is back - in the magazine world. Here, Tyler Brule tells James Robinson why jet-setting readers will flock to his new glossy
Sunday February 11, 2007
The Observer
It is eagerly-awaited, but already much-lampooned. Monocle, Tyler Brule's new monthly magazine, aims to satisfy a demand for serious news stripped of PR-generated content.
It is a brick of a book, with some heavyweight content. Issue one, out this week, carries lengthy articles about Chinese imperialism in Africa and the expansion of the Japanese navy, and the entire magazine contains 50,000 words - not much shorter than the average novel.
Brule hopes it will be read by people like him, members of a jet-setting global elite who want to read about business, culture and current affairs but are also fascinated by design, fashion and all things visual.
Backed by investors including a Spanish conglomerate and a Japanese bank, Monocle is nothing if not ambitious, aiming to marry highbrow writing with cutting-edge design.
The magazine is beautifully packaged, as you'd expect, but that will not appease critics, who agree there's an appetite for 'serious journalism', but question whether Brule's the right man to meet it.
The 38-year-old Canadian will be forever associated with Wallpaper, the uncompromisingly aspirational interiors magazine that became one of the publishing sensations of the 1990s.
After selling the title to Time Warner, Brule reached a wider audience in the Financial Times and the New York Times with columns that celebrated conspicuous consumption with unbridled enthusiasm.
'I was amazed how many letters I'd get by mentioning a new Japanese hair product,' Brule says at one point. It's the kind of statement that will be seized on by detractors, who mutter that, for all the good intent, Monocle may prove a triumph of style over substance. 'It's destined to become a coffee table book,' snipes one.
Brule is braced for such criticism and responds with a shrug: 'Look at the product,' he says.
The tone is serious from the outset, with a cover that could grace an academic journal - imagine History Today printed on glossy paper,
Articles are long and well researched, with every picture and story generated internally, and all foreign travel and expenses paid for by the magazine. 'There is not one story generated by a press release,' Brule says. Nor are there 'freebies' or cosy trips laid on by friendly PR agencies trying to procure favourable coverage for clients.
So how on earth can he afford all this when some newspapers can't? 'We have a lean team,' he smiles (seven editorial staff in London and bureau chiefs in New York, Zurich and Tokyo)
The title will cost £5, and he reckons it needs to sell only 60,000 to make money, bank-rolled as it is by the luxury goods advertisers he got to know so well in his Wallpaper days.
They seem to trust his judgment, and are ready to back the venture, even if it's based on a hunch rather than extensive research. 'We didn't focus group it,' says Brule, emphasising that advertisers are paying full rate from the outset. 'They had to buy a first-class seat,' he says. There were no discounts and no special favours.
He claims other major advertisers, including financial services groups and aerospace companies, will also want a presence in the magazine, although most advertisers in the first issue are resolutely high fashion.
Around 65 per cent of revenue will be generated by advertising, and the rest from newsstand and subscription sales.
It will be available worldwide, and Brule expects around 50 per cent of sales to come from Europe, 30 per cent from North America and 20 per cent from Asia, including Australia.
'We want to appeal to the most interested, interesting people,' Brule says.
A typical reader might run a small design company or work in marketing for a major multinational. 'It will give them a view about the way the world is going, but it will also tell them about a business they might be interested in buying, or investing in, or poaching from.'
Regular features will include guides to towns and cities that don't often appear in travel books, and surveys of areas - parts of Mexico, perhaps - that are experiencing an economic renaissance but have yet to come to the attention of the wider world.
Some content, such as a pithy deconstruction of the outfits worn by world leaders, may be easy to parody (Iran's President Ahmadinejad is the first subject), but there is little in the mag that is not informative.
Brule claims advertisers and readers will flock to the title because they are tired of celebrity-driven, dumbed-down news. 'The lead item on the BBC news recently was about the wrap-up of Big Brother and the second was about the guy who flipped his car over on Top Gear,' he exclaims. In the meantime, major US papers are closing foreign bureaux to save money and networks are carrying less overseas coverage.
'The Economist or Der Spiegel shows you can do quality journalism and hold your ground. We'll just do it in a more visual way.'
Who knows, he may be on to something. If not, people can always look at the pictures.
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