Time Inc. gets the luxury memo and launches a bespoke U.S. edition of its gorgeous collectible title. Are you on the super select list that will receive one?
What do you get when you buy a chunk of business that includes a mailing list of super high-end consumers? If you’re Time Inc. and the acquisition was American Express’ publishing arm, you launch a bespoke U.S. edition of one of your most gorgeous publications and send it out to the top U.S. consumers.
The magazine in question is Wallpaper, that gorgeous imported title that is a must-have for design and architecture aficionados.
“The Wallpaper familiar to American readers has always been an import,” writes Simon Dumenco in Advertising Age. “Launching with a November issue, and then going quarterly in 2016, complimentary copies of the ‘bespoke U.S. edition’ of Wallpaper, as Mr. Chambers calls it, will be mailed to 250,000 U.S. residents.
“That will dramatically expand Wallpaper’s distribution, given that international circulation of the existing ‘global edition’ is just over 100,000 (with roughly 20,000 in sales on the U.S. newsstand),” he continues.
Okay, so we aren’t really expecting our copy any time soon, but for the lucky quarter million who are on the list, they’ll be treated to what’s been described by Dumenco as “just the most magazine-y magazine imaginable — a beautifully executed media product, with elegant layouts and gorgeous photographs printed on premium stock.”
According to Dumenco, the team at Time Inc. got the memo that print is increasingly seen as the perfect platform for the luxury reader, and they could “zero in on a critical mass of affluent, design-obsessed U.S. consumers and create a special edition of Wallpaper curated just for them.”
Advertisers agree, as the title is launching its U.S. edition with a roster of the who’s who in affluent luxury retailers: Hermes, Prada, Max Mara, Cadillac and the Marriott Autograph Collection are just a few of the names, Dumenco notes.
Congratulations to the team at Wallpaper for creating something of lasting – and growing – value. And if you could throw one our way, that’d be great.