06th Aug 2007
So what’s up at Elle?
We’re taking a purely spectator view on this considering we truly know no one at Elle. Seeing as how The New York times blew the lid off of the inner workings of Elle as it is now, we decided to sort of deconstruct what it means in the grand scheme of things; on the periphery, if you will. Elle has been behind Vogue for as long as anyone can remember. It’s also been behind Instyle as well in terms of ad pages. For awhile it seemed as if it was listing along. One person was solely responsible for their photoshoots for the most part and the editorial was neither here nor there. The elephant in the room that no one wanted to talk about seemed to be Gilles Bensimmons. The elephant may be gone and assigned to a lesser role, but that might not be enough. I’ll explain.
I went to a shoe designer’s fall trunk show/preview and met up with an editorial assistant at the time (no telling what she does there now) and she said behind the scenes it was a mess, even then. She also talked about their online efforts and how it left a lot to be desired (I believe the correct word was what a vaccum does to particles). She said that Style’s efforts seemed light years ahead and that was saying something considering Style kinda does the hole vaccuum particle thing too. Hearsay you say? I say, possibly, but to use a clumsy oft-repeated saying, where there is smoke there is fire. The smoke being the dwindling ad and subscription base at the time (they’ve managed to turn it around somewhat recently), the fire being Bensimmons’ pseudo departure.
It left us thinking that someone at Elle’s parent company was in the mood for changes. That turned out to be wrong as the New York Times article said that change mostly came from within. Already Elle for September is trying something different with Lindsay Lohan on the cover. A move that has half of us saying blech… and the other half saying… ok.. controversy.. not-bad.
So the question is, is Elle going down faster than Paris Hilton’s panties at a frat party? Or is a resurgence in the making?
Posted by Eva @ 6:44 am
August 9th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
[...] deconstructs the changes at Elle and what it may mean for [...]
August 10th, 2007 at 5:59 am
[...] deconstructs the changes at Elle and what it may mean for [...]
August 10th, 2007 at 6:23 am
[...] deconstructs the changes at Elle and what it may mean for [...]
August 10th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
[...] deconstructs the changes at Elle and what it may mean for [...]
August 10th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
personally, i’m holding my breath to see how elle is going to do. I’ve always though it was a very ok magazine. As in, not good, not bad, but I’d never reccomend it to anyone versus anyother magazine. let’s hope change will be a good thing for them, eh?
August 12th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Hmmm, interesting read. I bought the issue with Sarah Jessica Parker on it and I was not impressed at all. In fact I left it deliberately on a train and I am the ultimate mag hag. Elle UK is so much better, the last issue is a complete corker.
August 16th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
[...] deconstructs the changes at Elle and what it may mean for [...]