Media: Publishing brands

Grazia Cina is a media partner of the Italian Pavilion at the Universal Exposition in Shanghai which begins on 1 May.

A showcase for made in Italy excellence in China, the area dedicated to Italy has in Grazia – an international ambassador of Italian style – the ideal partner. Grazia is the only weekly in the world published in Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy as well as other leading foreign markets.

The journalists of Grazia China were able to have a preview, accompanied by the Italian government’s General Commissioner for the 2010 Shanghai Universal Exposition Beniamino Quintieri, of the Italian pavilion and to complete an exclusive fashion shoot Song Jia, one of China’s most talented actresses. The photographs, published this week in the magazine, have as a running theme the multiple facets of Made in Italy, as inspired by a range of Italian designers.

Grazia China will also produce an official guide for all of the events organised at the Italian Pavilion: ‘Grazia Expo Express’ will be a live showcase of the Expo, what’s new and what should not be missed. The guide is published from today across China as a monthly supplement to Grazia (a circulation of over 600,000) and will be distributed with an extra print run directly from the Italian Pavilion, in six separate issues over the course of the Expo.

Grazia China, the country’s first news and style glossy, was launched in 2009 thanks to an agreement between the Mondadori Group and SEEC Media Group Limited. The magazine celebrated its first anniversary in March with a special issue, which sold out in just two days, and a series of promotional activities that were widely successful around the country. Grazia China is also online at www.grazia.onlylady.com.

Mondadori and Mediengruppe Klambt signed an agreement for the German edition of the weekly Grazia, which is expected to make its first appearance in German newsstands from next February.

Following the successful launches in the UK and France, with this licence the international expansion of the Grazia brand adds a significant new area of the European market. Indeed, Germany is one of the most important countries in terms of circulation and revenues in the magazine sector, with annual sales of more than 2 billion copies (2008 IVW figures) and €3.1 billion in gross advertising revenues (Nielsen Media Research figures for 2008). The women’s sector on its own – which includes entertainment and celebrity titles, service titles and fortnightly and monthly lifestyle titles – last year sold some 801.4 million copies and generated gross advertising revenues of more than €1 billion.

“The launch of Grazia Germany consolidates the reach of the Mondadori weekly in Europe’s most important and profitable markets”, declared Zeno Pellizzari, head of the Mondadori Magazine Division’s international activities and syndication area.

“The UK and French editions have achieved exceptional results and, along with the Italian edition, these four editions will represent a unique and unparalleled proposal: no other international publisher has such a vast weekly offer. Grazia Germany will also fill a gap in the already rich German women’s magazine market as the only weekly lifestyle title,” concluded Pellizzari.

The other strong European markets, the United Kingdom and France, are producing very positive results.

Grazia UK reported average sales of 228,694 in the first half of 2009 (source: ABC) with a significant increase in terms of value (+18.3%) and pages (+19.8%) on the advertising side in the third quarter of the year, especially when compared with the average trends in the up-market women’s segment (-14.3% and -14.2% respectively; source: Nielsen).

Grazia France, which was launched in August 2009, reached a total average circulation of 198,521 copies with the first fourteen issues (OJD figures to 30 November 2009) with an average of more than 30 advertising pages per issue.

Alongside the increasingly strong presence of the brand in Europe, the expansion of the Grazia International Network has continued to be marked in countries with the highest growth potential – Russia, China and India – as well as South East Asia, with recent launches in Thailand and Indonesia.

MEDIENGRUPPE KLAMBT

The origins of the company go back to the publishing house in Silesia founded by Wilhelm Wenzel Klambt in 1843. In over 160 years of publishing activities, magazine publishing, in particular, has remained at the centre of the company’s attention.

There are currently more than 50 titles in the portfolio; including, the Germany edition of OK! which is published in a joint venture with Northern & Shell and is the country’s most recent and fastest growing people title which, with a jump of 34% in the third quarter of 2009, has reached sales of 239,000 copies. Klambt also publishes, in a joint venture with Gruner+Jahr, Healthy Living and in – Das STAR & STYLE Magazine: a new German format celebrity title that is among the most dynamic in the German market and recorded 20% growth in the third quarter of 2009 reaching sales of 295,000 copies. In a joint venture with Bauer, Klambt is also the publisher of Freizeitwoche, a mass-market weekly with a circulation of 500,000 copies.

The international network for Grazia will, from tomorrow, include a new edition to be published in Indonesia by the Femina Group, the country’s leading publisher of women’s fashion and lifestyle titles.

With this new launch, following on from recent launches of Grazia in Thailand, France and China, the total number of foreign editions of the magazine rises to 15; confirming the position of the ‘Grazia International Network’ as one of the most significant players in the magazine business in terms of the rate of growth of licences since 2004 to today.

The new glossy monthly, edited by Zornia Devi, will consequently also bring to Indonesia the ‘easy chic’ formula that is the international characteristic of the Grazia brand: fashion, news and celebrities, along with glamour ideas and suggestions and information about the latest trends.

Femina Group is one of Indonesia’s leading media groups, with a strong presence in the fashion sector. The titles in its portfolio include, Femina, the country’s leading women’s weekly; Dewi, one of the most important luxury and fashion monthlies; Gadis, the leading magazine for teenagers; as well as the international titles Men’s Health Indonesia and Reader’s Digest Indonesia.

Mediamond is the name of the new sales company for online advertising set up by Mondadori Pubblicità and Publitalia ’80, announced last July.

The new jointly-owned company, with Angelo Sajeva (chairman and managing director of Mondadori Pubblicità) will be chairman and Yves Confalonieri (deputy chairman of Digitalia ’08 and director of RTI Interactive Media) deputy chairman, will manage an extensive advertising pool that has been created by the union of two complementary properties including both the internet spaces of the Mondadori Group and RTI, as well as the sites of third-party publishers.

Among the objectives of the joint-venture, lead by managing director Davide Mondo, will be the creation of a strong new player able, in the short term, to reach the top of Italian online advertising, thanks to integration of the sites in the portfolio, the maximum coverage of the targets and a close attention to innovative formats and special projects.

“With Mediamond we bring to the web the assets, the professionalism and the know-how of Mondadori and Mediaset, with a structure that can exploit the multiple synergies offered by the two groups,” declared the managing director of Mediamond Davide Mondo. “By making the maximum of the identity and positioning of our products, we will also be able to guarantee to our investors,” Mondo continued, “an offer and an audience of the highest quality.”

Mediamond, that will be fully operational from January 2010, can already count on a portfolio of products that every month reaches a total of 7 million unique users with 500 million page views.

To the news portals TgCom.it, SportMediaset.it and Panorama.it will be added the appeal of sites aimed at specific targets, including Focus.it, Moto.it, Finanza.com and Finanzaonline.com. While news and sports areas will be sustained by Mediamond with a strong presence in the women’s target with Donnamoderna.com, an online hub for Italian women, and Cosmopolitan.it.

From tomorrow the monthly Flair will be present in six different countries: the Mondadori fashion and lifestyle title, which was born in Italy, will be published under licensing agreements also in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary by Ahead Media, the publisher that launched the Austrian edition in 2008.

“With this new operation Mondadori takes the style of one of its most innovative brands to the very heart of Europe,” stated Zeno Pellizzari, head of International Activities in the Magazine Division of the Mondadori Group. “We are sure,” Pellizzari continued, “that after the success in Austria, Ahead Media will be able to make the best of the opportunities offered by the style and international outlook of Flair in these four new countries.”

First launched in 2003, the Mondadori magazine is now leading the upscale women’s title in fashion images and anticipation of trends, thanks to its unique approach to international fashion and news.

The four new editions of Flair will share, each in its own language, dedicated fashion services, beauty, lifestyle, as well as celebrity interviews. Every month the separate editorial teams will enrich the issue in their country with content that best reflects local habits and news, including reportage, surveys and articles on the most well-known personalities.

The launch of Flair in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary will be supported by an outdoor campaign, as well as satellite TV and point of sale.

Along with the Austrian edition, the four new international editions of Flair will have a total monthly circulation of more than 100,000 copies.

Based in Vienna, Ahead Media is one of the leading publishers of up-market magazines in Europe, thanks to a portfolio especially focused on important international lifestyle titles such as IQstyle, Ahead, H.O.M.E, anyway.

Mondadori is launching a new international edition of Grazia: from tomorrow the Italian women’s fashion title will also be published in Thailand.

The new magazine is the result of a licensing agreement with Inspire Entertainment Company Limited, which is already the local Thai publisher of the interiors monthly Casaviva.

This international partnership further reinforces Mondadori’s presence in the Far East, an area with the highest rate of growth in the magazine business.

Edited by Sudarampai Chiang, Grazia Thailand will every month offer its readers the new trends from the world of fashion, beauty and lifestyle – paying particular attention to the excellence of Made in Italy and to a ‘local flavour’ – as well as all the latest news about celebrities.

Inspire Entertainment Company Limited, one of Thailand’s leading publishers, has a portfolio featuring numerous international titles, in the male lifestyle segment, FHM, Car, Zoo, Stuff, and for women Women&Home, Ray and Cawaii!. The company is part of the media group Siam Sport, the country’s third biggest group with a portfolio of more than 40 titles.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. and Gruner+Jahr AG, the joint owners of Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori S.p.A., have appointed Giacomo Moletto, currently the head of digital activities at the Mondadori Group’s Magazine Division, as chief executive and general manager of Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori S.p.A with a three-year contract.

Moletto will succeed Rolf Henz on Thursday 1 October, aAfter the relevant corporate boards have discussed and approved the proposal.

On the same day Heinz will be appointed as chief executive of Prisma Presse, the French arm of Gruner+Jahr.

Giacomo Moletto, 40, was born in Milan and has a degree in business administration from Milan’s Bocconi University. He began his professional life at the The Walt Disney Company Italia.

From 1998 to 2000 Moletto worked for the Mondadori Magazine Division as marketing manager in the news area, before moving to Bain & Company where he remained until 2001, when he returned to Mondadori, first as the publisher of news titles, and then as the director of the business unit for male-oriented titles and, subsequently, the business unit for women’s titles.

At the end of 2006 Moletto moved to Mondadori France as managing director of operations. Since December 2008 he has been director of digital activities for the Magazine Division in Italy and in France.

The Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori joint venture, which was established in 1990, publishes Focus, Italy’s biggest selling monthly, and its brand extensions Focus Storia, Focus Extra, Focus Junior, Focus Domande e Risposte, Focus Brain Trainer and Focus Pico. The company’s portfolio is completed with the monthlies Jack and Topgirl, the Italian edition of the international title Geo and the portal for families Nostrofiglio.it.

A new international edition of Grazia: Mondadori’s women’s weekly, will be launched tomorrow in France by Mondadori France, one of the leading consumer magazine publishers in Europe’s most important market in terms of both circulation and advertising.

“The launch of Grazia in France is an operation of considerable significance for the Mondadori Group crowning a strategy that began more than three years ago with the acquisition of EMAP France and continued with the process of close integration and cooperation, on both management and editiorial levels,” declared Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of the Mondadori Group.

“The focusing of the portfolio of titles on segments of the market with greater growth potential,” Costa underlined, “will today be enriched, thanks to the launch of Grazia, by a thoroughly modern and innovative magazine for the up market women’s sector.”

The launch of Grazia in France raises to thirteen the number of countries in which the Mondadori title, a symbol of elegance and the style of Made in Italy, is published. From Italy to Great Britain, taking in Russia, China, Australia, Holland, India, United Arab Emirates, Serbia, Croatia, Greece and Bulgaria: a network of international publications that in just five years has achieved an overall monthly circulation of more than 4 million copies.

Grazia France is aimed at a target that is passionate about fashion and highly conscious of what is going on in the world: the new magazine will offer its French readers an entirely new editorial mix that will include everything they absolutely need to know about the world of fashion, beauty and lifestyle, along with the most glamorous celebrity interviews, and news with a feminine touch.

And next week there will also be something new for Italian readers. In fact, on Tuesday 1 September the first issue of the French edition will be included as an exceptional supplement with Grazia Italia.

Mondadori has been operating in France since 2006 through Mondadori France, one of the country’s leading consumer magazine publishers with more than 30 titles. Closer, Science&Vie, Télé Star, Biba, Pleine Vie and Auto Plus are just some of the leading titles of the Paris-based company which this year was rewarded at the “Magazines de l’Année”, a competition organised in France by the Syndacat de la presse magazine et d’information (SPMI), in which the company won five prizes out of the ten categories.

Mondadori Pubblicità S.p.A. and Publitalia ‘80 S.p.A., the advertising sales companies of the Mondadori Group and the Mediaset Group, have reached an agreement for the creation of a joint initiative for online advertising sales.

According to the terms of the agreement, the initiative will be activated through the establishment of a jointly-owned (50-50) new company that will have the concession, or sub-concessions, to sell all of the advertising space (with the exception of video) for the sites produced by the Mondadori Group, by RTI and by third-party publishers that are currently in the portfolios of either Mondadori Pubblicità or Digitalia 08.

The joint venture will also target the online advertising investments of third-party publishers with a view to aggregating and maximising the value of the advertising opportunities on offer and to reach, in the short term, a leading position in the Italian online advertising market.

Angelo Sajeva (chairman and managing director of Mondadori Pubblicità) has been appointed chairman of the newco, while the deputy chairman will be Yves Confalonieri (deputy chairman of Digitalia 08 and head of RTI Interactive Media); the managing director, appointed by both partners, will be Davide Mondo.

The new company will have its operational base at the offices of Mondadori Pubblicità, in Segrate.

By the end of this year Mondadori will launch an edition of Grazia in Thailand and another in Indonesia, close on the heels of Grazia France which, as previously announced, will be launched in September.

This new launches will take to fifteen the countries of the Grazia Network that was created in 2005: a common thread of elegance that links the historic Italian title with all the versions of the magazine published around the world, from Bulgaria, Great Britain, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Croatia, Serbia, Russia, Holland, India, Australia and, up to the most recent launch in February, China.

An international network that accounts for a total circulation of 4 million copies per month in the world.

“The creation in just four years of such a high number of international editions is certainly a unique case in the world of magazine publishing; both for the rapidity of the growth and the immediate appreciation of both readers and advertisers,” declared Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of the Mondadori Group.

“Despite a very difficult year for publishers everywhere, these new launches are a clear demonstration of our confidence in the future of the magazine market and, above all, in the development potential, also on an international scale, of the most authoritative brands, as in the case of Grazia,” continued Maurizio Costa.

“In foreign markets Grazia is increasingly recognised by readers and both Italian and international advertisers, as a reference point for style and journalistic quality in the area of news and celebrities, as well as providing a guarantee for the valorisation of the most prestigious examples of “Made in Italy” in fashion and luxury,” Costa concluded.

For the first time the editors, publishers, marketing and advertising managers of all of the editions of Grazia have gathered in Milan for the “Grazia Global Conference”, to discuss the points of strength, targets and the specific language of the various interpretations of the magazine around the world.

The partners include important international media groups of the calibre of Hearst (for Grazia Australia), Bauer (for Grazia UK) and Sanoma (for Grazia Russia).

During the working sessions contributions were also made by a number of representatives of some of the leading luxury brands, such as Diego Della Valle (chairman and chief executive of Tod’s Group), Dominic De Vetta (chief executive of Jo Malone), Francesca Di Carrobbio (chief executive of Hermès Italia) and Matteo di Montezemolo (chief executive of Poltrona Frau).

The “Grazia Global Conference” is consequently for the Mondadori network an occasion to formalise and take advantage of the exchange of experience that for years have driven the various editions of Grazia, providing continuous vigour and strength also to the identity of the Italian “mother” title.

An important opportunity to reflect and discuss ideas and suggestions concerning the guidelines for the “Grazia style”, a unique formula in the magazine sector, able to respond to the different needs of readers and advertisers around the world, and to offer communication opportunities to fashion and luxury brands who choose the Mondadori magazine to reach the most important international markets.