Mock-up Cover of ForbesLife, Relaunching later this month
INTERESTING READING: : Amy Chozick does an adequate job in giving an overview of the new semiannual Bloomberg Pursuits—certainly it was among the best articles out there covering the somewhat quiet launch. Unsurprisingly and rather predictably she has Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni weigh in—aren’t we done with this guy yet? Curiously she does not mention the forthcoming relaunch of direct competitor ForbesLife (left) or luxury media king Robb Report, focusing only on other controlled circulation books such as AMEX’s Departures, FT’s How to Spend It, and WSJ Magazine The Wall Street Journal glossy—fair enough, but hardly comprehensive survey of the entire category. All that said, it’s well worth the read: READ NYT BLOG POST HERE
SIGnature REVIEW OF BLOOMBERG PURSUITS : The premiere issue of Bloomberg Pursuits misses the mark by a country mile—period. First, and foremost, the tactile quality is lacking. If one is going to bother to launch luxury print periodical in a digital era then go to the trouble of making it feel like a luxury publication—the size, the paper stock, cover stock—nothing here screams luxe. Undoubtedly charter and future advertisers, as well as readers, are sure to take note of this bean counter victory.
March/April 2012 Departures
Moving on to the cover where we start with the logo—a mediocre and perfunctory effort that easily could have been executed by any junior designer. And while I welcome the clean and simple cover design, the cover image itself isn’t compelling in the least—in fact it’s down right boring even to a Ferrari lover such as myself who also happens to be the
Past Departures Style Issue
Lifestyle Editor of an automotive magazine—that’s bad. I realize that Pursuits is a controlled circ book, but that doesn’t mitigate the need for a visually compelling cover (see side by side with new and previous Departures (above right). Which would you read?)
Inside there is just a lot of “me too”, “been there done that” content which we’ve seen a thousand times before, though Niria Portella somewhat austere still life stylings are worth mentioning as a highlight. Another article on Picasso? Really?! Has nothing else happened in the art world and market in oh, say, the past 100 years? Absurd. At least the Picasso baby momma Françoise Gilot feature in the March 2012 issue of Vanity Fair on had a very timely element with the forthcoming Gagosian Gallery shows.
In short, there is nothing fresh here. I could go on, but it’s rather pointless. With all the resources of Bloomberg Empire at their fingertips, the combined Bloomberg Markets and Pursuits staff simply squanders this opportunity and unfortunately comes up with a major miss, and on a personal note, a genuine disappointment… Next Up: ForbesLife.
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