When the Party’s Over
Posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
photo credit: Corey Holms
A friend just passed along this New York Times article by David Carr about the Talk magazine launch party. I think it’s a revealing description of where things have been, and where they’re going.
Of this particularly decadent bash—among its attendees were Madonna and Henry Kissinger; George Plimpton narrated—Carr writes, “‘It seems like that happened in the 18th century,’ said Ms. Brown by phone last Friday.”
Interestingly, while that party took place in 1999—probably the height of media excessiveness—extravagances (and certainly parties) continued well past the middle 2000s. I worked at one magazine where festive events of some sort or another were held nearly every month; generally, they were advertising gambles to help bring in new business. Apparently, they did not work: That publication folded in 2008.
Meanwhile, and not to take cheap shots (or pricey shots, if you will), Vogue’s travel alone for the European fall fashion shows is said to be costing the company some $250,000. Yet at a sister pub, staffers scavenge for water and plastic spoons, even coffee stirrers, while discussing “McKinley’s” next moves in stage whispers.
Carr says:
Magazines are on pace to book little more than half of the advertising pages that the industry did 10 years ago, and dozens of longtime titles have disappeared. The last big magazine introduction—Portfolio at Condé Nast Publications—flamed out this spring after two years at a cost of more than $80 million. Now even Condé Nast Publications, the world headquarters of printed luxury, has brought in the bean counters from McKinsey with an eye toward further cuts. There may never be another large magazine launch ever, and certainly not one that was accompanied by the fanfare of Talk.
“It was the end of something extraordinary, but none of us knew it at the time,” Ms. Brown says now. “What followed was a very turbulent odyssey, not just for me, but for all of us. There has been a volcanic realignment that none of us foresaw.”
You might say, even, the end of an era. I guess what we have to remember is that at the end of every era is the beginning of the next one.
