Thank you for such insightful and honest commentary Marcy. What scares me the most is not the shuttering of these fine magazines but that our economic upswing is perhaps farther off than we can even imagine.

I had the great pleasure of working with Antonia and the amazing people at Modern Bride and Elegant Bride for five wonderful years. When I started with MB, it was owned by Primedia, under-resourced and ambitiously striving to change the way bridal was perceived. In my beat, the travel section, the writing was outdated and controlled by sales. Editors were asked not to include specific hotels in their stories lest advertisers get upset; every issue contained a Poconos feature, decreed by advertising instead of what readers wanted; and brides’ true needs seemed of secondary importance ‚ it seemed almost like the minute a woman became engaged, she was demoted back to the 1950s. When we asked for the reasoning behind it, the answer was simply, “That’s how things have always been done.”

The brilliant Carley Roney and The Knot changed the game by introducing the Web component and putting the spotlight where it should be — on real life, real brides, real interaction. Similarly, Antonia challenged the sales attitude at MB and put the focus on the bride: what she needed, not which advertiser had the most money to spend. We updated the focus and played with formats, and when Primedia imploded, Condé Nast came to the rescue and bought us, letting go of much of the sales team but keeping the edit team virtually untouched.

Condé Nast was an amazing place to work, but from my viewpoint, the bridal group was always tenuous. Brides and Modern Bride were pitted to compete with, not complement, each other. Elegant Bride was purchased and then redesigned twice, but it never really found its niche despite its talented staff. When the Modern Bride and Elegant Bride websites were consolidated under the brides.com umbrella, it was the first inkling that the writing was on the wall. Still, Monday came as a shock.

I’m heartbroken for the teams at MB and EB, and concerned for the future of programs like the Trendsetter Awards, which do so much to recognize the stellar innovators in our industry. But from a cultural perspective, the move is really interesting. Taking Brides monthly means bridal is no longer relegated to “niche”; it will stand tall next to Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire and other women’s mags, as it should. The seasoned, deeply respected Millie Martini-Bratten is an excellent choice to lead that change.

The decision may also be an attempt to compete with blogs, as some have pointed out here. It may have been influenced by the increasing prominence of content-targeted publications like ours (Destination Weddings & Honeymoons), which present a focused segment of information in a print format. But comparing print to Web is apples to oranges. People go to the Web for fast snippets of information and ideas, often while multitasking — at work, while talking on the phone, while watching TV. The term “search engine” accurately reflects the Web user’s goal — they are actively searching for something NOW, and nothing delivers as quickly as the Web.

Print is an entirely different beast philosophically. Magazines force the reader to slow down and focus. People go to the Web out of need; they go to magazines for pleasure, much like sitting down with a trusted friend. To connect with readers in all facets of their lives, magazines have moved far beyond print, becoming brands that radiate from print into Web, TV, events, social media and trending technology such as iPhone apps. That’s what makes this such an exciting time to be in media, despite the current economic issues facing us all.

No matter what the platform, we as an industry share a common goal: to reach and serve our respective audiences, the modern, multifaceted couple of today who wants to mark a huge personal milestone with grace, style and a true reflection of their own personalities. I find that goal exhilarating and inspiring, and I look forward to seeing what develops as our industry plunges headlong into the future, no matter how painful some of the hurdles may be along the way.

Thank you so much for writing this insightful piece. The times they are a changing and as an industry we need to embrace changing consumer tastes to remain relevant.

Its always more troubling when you know the people involved. The loyalties and effort that went into producing these former magazines run deep. But the operative word in this case seems to be “consolidation.”

I just shot a wedding for a bride who was a sales/project manager at Domino magazine when they shut the publication down this year. My wife and other women I know were floored! They LOVED this publication and there was deep loyalty to it.

But as my bride said to me, it just wasn’t sustainable anymore. And it wasn’t coming back.

Its no surprise that companies are trimming off the fat or closing down. People are not spending money like they used to and that behavior is not going to change anytime soon. Its only a matter of time that businesses simply run out of cash and have to close it down. It will continue to happen in every industry.

And I think businesses are reassessing their marketing dollars and platform. Seth Godin had it right. Your greatest asset right now is your ability to create your own platform. Not just throwing money at someone else who has an existing readership. Whether that be print or online.

If people are smart they will start creating their own audience through social networking/web marketing and reach people directly.

I personally think, as a photographer, spending money on print advertisement is a waste and low ROI. Submitting pictures for editorials and features is the way to go. Its a win-win.

Let the venues and jewelers pay for advertisement. You won’t have a magazine without professional images. But that is another conversation

http://www.ericgraf.com

Eric Graf
Louisville, KY

I remember the day when the big *shocker* was that Conde Nast had bought Modern Bride and then later Elegant Bride. Those were major industry paradigm shifts as well. And really, it was the beginning of the end. I cannot even tell you how many incarnations of publishers and sales reps have paraded through town presenting a new set of business cards with a new name for the division and a new story on how they were positioning the ‘group’ – sometimes selling all 3 pubs then months later doing a complete 180 and selling against each other-even though they were all working for the same company…my head would spin with keeping them all straight and it actually became a joke. That’s right, I said a joke. Their arrogance in the way that they have sold advertising is old school and it killed them. I do not believe it was the editorial at all – I think it was their inability to grasp [and complete ignorance] of the seismic shifts in the rest of the industry thinking that they were so powerful, so big, that no one could touch them. That advertisers NEEDED them. That they were more important than all of the rest of the 183 competitors in print [not to mention the websites and the blogs!] and that we as advertisers did not know what was going on. Well guess what. We did and they lost. Big time.

They completely missed [by years] the wave of the internet allowing The Knot to create such a head start that their first mover advantage, in my opinion, can and will never be caught up to. They did not ‘get it’ when they really needed to get it as the bridal industry category leader.

I do not blame our wonderful friends and colleagues on the editorial side for one second – I adore them and am beyond grateful to them all for their amazing and incredible support of me personally and professionally over these many years. But I do squarely blame the publishing side for too much separation of church and state, for refusing to understand their client and the shifting needs of the client and the challenging marketplace that we are all facing. Summed up in one word: ARROGANCE.

A sobering lesson to all of in this industry in a world that is changing by the minute. It will no longer work to ’sell’ or market the way you always have – particularly if you are the oldest, the most respected, the biggest player in your market. You are a sitting duck and there are plenty of smart, brilliant, nimble and hungry competitors just waiting to move in for the kill – and offer today’s consumer [or client] what they really want.

“Change or you WILL be changed.”

A sad, sad day for sure but one that we can all learn a big lesson from if we want to stay in the game.

Perhaps you missed my post.

http://weddingmarketing.net/blog/2009/10/06/wedding-industry-print-media-decline/

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority