The Complex Generation
Dylan Stablefood does a Q+A with the editor and publisher of one of the last men’s product-driven magazines standing – just don’t call them ‘urban’
mb: Are you looking to compete with bigger magazines like GQ?
Antoniello: Our strategy hasn’t been to blow Complex up to a GQ level or a million circulation. We have a very targeted readership at 330,000, and have grown that number carefully. We’re gonna let the people who really want to read us define our circ, not the other way around.
mb: Was that the problem with Vitals and Cargo?
Antoniello: I don’t think it stops there. I think it is the poison that has been swallowed by the laddie category – trying to be all things to all people. It’s not just that people are tired of T+A; there’s just not a deep connection to the reader. You’re getting a whole bunch of everything, all framed by T+A. Those publishers will say, “We reach 1-point-whatever million young men.” Yeah, but about what? Plus Vitals was extremely luxurious. It was for the guy who reads Departures who is under 30. How many of those guys are out there? You wanna talk about being surgical – that’s like 7 people in New York. That was Vitals’ problem. But it was a superior editorial product to Cargo. At least they knew who they were going after.
More here.
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