Industry hottie Jared Kushner didn't even have the decency to wait one day after his people snarked up a review of WSJ., the new glossy from the Wall Street Journal, before pulling a hat trick and yanking a New York Observer glossy from out of his ass: CONTINUED »
Doesn't Tina Gaudoin know not to serve food during the talking portion of a breakfast — the portion where you want attendees to pay attention to whatever it you're going to be showing on the overhead? Perhaps that explains why the journalists at this morning's meeting to unveil the Wall Street Journal's new glossy — the obnoxiously punctuated WSJ. — weren't paying attention. Or maybe it was because Gaudoin showed them the cover of the magazine: A model wearing a dress made out of the Wall Street Journal. If the meta joke — "We crumpled together all the dignity at the newspaper and came up with this crap!" — fell flat on reporters, just think of all the readers with average household incomes of $265,000 who won't be won over.
The Wall Street Journal's new luxury magazine WSJ. hits on Sept. 6, and publisher Ellen Asmodeo-Giglio has some good news to announce: Some 51 advertisers have signed on, and 19 are new to the Journal's brands. This is a sure sign there's a future for the upscale title, just like when Conde Nast launched Portfolio and also welcomed a slew of new advertisers to the publisher's roster, only to see the magazine become anemic and thin, while advertisers cut back on their print budgets.
In a publishing niche where a magazine exists to serve its advertisers, it's easy to eschew the idea that it these uncertain economic times, advertisers are dictating what appears in the editorial. And such is the case for WSJ., the glossy period-ending luxury book debuting this fall from the Wall Street Journal, which is being led by publisher Ellen Asmodeo-Giglio, who has no periods in her name.
"We have such a divided line between editor and advertising that we sign a code of conduct," insists Asmodeo-Giglio. "We take that very seriously here. If my advertisers get to dictate the topic, they might as well create their own magazine, and that’s the last thing we want to do."
Hello, ridiculous. CONTINUED »
In case the Wall Street Journal's uppity new luxury lifestyle magazine WSJ. doesn't come with a slogan at launch, use this quote from editor-in-chief Tina Gaudoin: "Don't disrespect rich people's respect for money." [WWD]
PUNCTUATION STATION The Wall Street Journal’s new magazine will be called WSJ. Not WSJ, but WSJ. Right about here, we wish italics made a difference on periods. The point is, we care. And we don’t understand why either. [WWD]
