InStyle has named Melissa Rubini its new style director. Rubini has been the style director for MR Studio since 2005 and was previously fashion director for Bullet.

Rubini has also styled campaigns for Prada and worked with Blake Lively, Scarlett Johansson and Katie Holmes.

Martha Nelson, an editorial director at Time since 2010, has been promoted to editor-in-chief. Nelson, who assumes the top editorial position next month, becomes only the seventh editor-in-chief in the company’s 90-year history, and the first woman to hold that role at Time.

“This is the most exciting time in our company’s history and I’m thrilled to take on the role of editor-in-chief,” Nelson says. “We have a unique group of powerful brands led by talented and passionate people.  Our commitment to journalistic excellence combined with our drive for innovation makes me confident in our future.”

Nelson has spent 20 years at Time Inc. — launching new franchises, reinvigorating others, and amassing numerous honors along the way, including being named one of the World’s Most Powerful Women three years in a row by Forbes magazine.

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Redbook editor-in-chief Jill Herzig has announced a trio of appointments to the editorial team. Leslie Robarge and Sarah Smith join the magazine as deputy editors, while Tiffany Blackstone has been promoted to deputy editor.

Robarge comes to Redbook after a stint at Bon Appetit, where as project manager she developed a line of branded small appliances, cookware, and kitchen tools exclusively sold on HSN.  Prior to that, Robarge was  freelance writer whose articles appeared in several periodicals including The New York Times Magazine, InStyle, and BusinessWeek. Earlier in her career, she was a senior editor at Glamour.

Smith most recently was editorial director of KIWI. During her tenure, the brand won two Folio Eddie awards. She was also a senior editor at Parenting and news editor at Psychology Today.

Blackstone has been a senior editor at Redbook where she edited the ASME-nominated Would You Get a Mommy Tuck? Prior to joining Redbook, Blackstone was a freelance writer for Glamour, Self, and Essence.

March is an important issue for fashion magazines, so it’s good to hear that many of them are seeing strong ad sales. As the reports roll in, let’s look at the big winners so far.

Ad Age reports that Vogue sold a massive 443 ad pages for its March issue, up four percent from last year. InSyle, according to min, racked up 347 pages, making it the biggest March issue ever for the magazine. Elle also had successful results for the all-important spring fashion preview, grabbing 319 ad pages. Harper’s Bazaar and W both crossed the 200 page mark, with 271 and 204 ad pages, respectively.

The strong showing can mean good things for the economy. Nina Lawrence, Vice President and Publisher at W, explained to Ad Age, “Spring is the introduction of the new season that ignites the engine for consumers to spend.”

WWD reports that InStyle magazine has named Samira Nasr, a freelance stylist, as its new Style Director. Nasr has previously contributed to Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and the Spain and China editions of Vogue. She will report to InStyle’s Editor-in-Chief, Ariel Foxman.

On Monday minonline is going to release its report on first half ad pages for monthly magazines, but today The New York Post offered some insight into how the top fashion magazines did.

Elle is the big winner, with a 15 percent increase in ad pages to 1,082, up from just 940 in the first half of last year. Coming in second is InStyle with a 14 percent gain, followed by Vogue with a gain of 11 percent. That’s good news, but even better news was just posted by min in a preview of its ad page report:

With 87 titles out of the 152 magazines that we track showing upward gains year-to-date (January-June 2011 vs. 2010), the small +1.44% cumulative differential suggests that print is holding its own in 2011.

Now that’s the way you start a weekend!

Or with a beer or five. Either way.

Time Inc. is the big winner in monthly magazine ad pages, at least for May. MinOnline reports that Instyle, People StyleWatch, and People en Español posted the biggest ad page gains among monthly magazines, when comparing May 2010 to this year.

InStyle, the biggest winner, saw 50 more ad pages. Publisher Connie Anne Phillips attributed that to the issue’s “Best Beauty Buys” feature:

The strength InStyle showed in May is directly related to our growing Best Beauty Buys franchise. We know that Best Beauty Buys get consumers into the store: Our research shows that 84% of our readers purchase products directly from this annual feature.

In other words, when companies produce 758 different shades of red lipstick, they know what they’re doing.

Shopping can be overwhelming during the holiday season; fortunately InStyle magazine is in the giving spirit and looking to lend a hand to fashion fans.  Amy Wicks of WWD reports that InStyle rolled out StyleFind this morning and introduced consumers to the first-ever independent shopping site to branch off from a magazine.  In addition to some of the newest clothing styles, StyleFind will feature fashion and beauty accessories from 150 retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Net-a-porter, Gap, J. Crew, Mulberry, Topshop, and Mango.

InStyle managing editor Ariel Foxman touted the user-friendliness of the magazine’s new companion site:

It will be like shopping with one of our magazine editors.  The experience is edited and the search function actually works. If you search for bags with a chain, you will actually see that, but in different price points and brands.

Time Inc. plans to add complementary shopping sites for their other titles such as Real Simple, People, Essence, Entertainment Weekly, and People Stylewatch.

Yesterday’s column by Larry Dobrow was anything but kind to Time Inc. title InStyle. Calling the magazine “stale” “semiliterate babble,” the Advertising Age journo manages to eviscerate the 424-page March issue of the magazine, and in doing so raises some interesting questions. If it’s true that InStyle has just become a thick imitation of its competitors (Glamour, Lucky), than how come it remains one advertising feather in Time Inc.’s cap? Even if the magazine did, say, ripoff Esquire with its augmented reality cover, InStyle has managed to conform itself to whatever is selling in the market. And while that might not lead to the most original brand, it certainly remains a successful one.

Read More: Success Breeds Imitation, Which Breeds Trouble –AdAge

Previously: InStyle Tries Augmented Reality, Too

Cortney Pellettieri, the entertainment editor at InStyle, has been hired for the same role at Good Housekeeping, the magazine’s editor-in-chief Rosemary Ellis announced today.

Pellettieri, who will be working primarily from Los Angeles, will be in charge of gathering celebrities for covers and editorial features in the magazine starting March 1.

Prior to InStyle, Pellettieri coordinated celebrity interviews for E! Entertainment channel.

Previously: Good Housekeeping Gets New Fashion Director