MMM by Maison Moderne

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Cover: Happy Accidents, by Edwin Tse

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Welcome Since it was founded in 1994, Maison Moderne has become the leading independent media firm in Luxembourg. First and foremost a magazine publisher, the company has greatly diversified owing to an ambitious diversification strategy and the passion and commitment shown by its employees. Today Maison Moderne employs approximately 70 staff and has an annual turnover of â&#x201A;Ź7 million. Specialising in producing quality content across multiple channels, Maison Moderne also provides services ranging from paperJam Business Club to content marketing and an in-house advertising sales agency. Its flagship media brands notably include: paperJam, Delano, Archiduc, Explorator, City Mag and Flydoscope. Maison Moderne offers a unique Media Quartet: print media, digital and mobile media, live media and content marketing. Welcome to the third issue of mmm, Maison Moderneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual magazine about the publishing and media industry. In the interview section of this issue, we sit down with Joe Pulizzi, Edwin Tse, Jeremy Leslie and Francesco Franchi. The central pages are feature news about our latest endeavors and activities as a media company. Exciting things are happening here at Maison Moderne, and we would like you to be the first to know. Enjoy, Mike Koedinger Founder and CEO

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Illustrations: efer hebenstreit

Joe Pulizzi is a self-proclaimed content marketing evangelist and probably the person with the most air-time on the subject in the world. Throughout the second half of 2013, the founder of the Content Marketing Institute has been in the headlines with his new book Epic Content Marketing. He talks to Thomas Schoos about the boom of the trade and its relationship to classic advertising.

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Guides michelin, edition 1911 & 1914

“i still believe in advertising” joe pulizzi

Joe, you’ve coined the phrase that “publishing is the new marketing.” What does this concept of “thinking like a publisher” mean to you? The turning point really came around 2007 when all the barriers to entry came down. Brands had the same access to publishing tools as publishers. Google became the starter to almost every buying decision, so brands started to notice that great information rose to the top. Journalists, who were getting sacked from their media jobs, were starting to get hired by brands. Social media exploded (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) and those channels don’t work very well without compelling stories. Simply put, brands started to realize that they needed to focus on scalable, owned channels instead of putting all their money

into renting (advertising). Mix all this with consumers being completely in control of the buying process, it created the perfect tonic calling content marketing. So, every day, brands are thinking more about publishing than marketing... and we are just at the start of this thing. Strategic storytelling has been around for as long as businesses and mass media coexist. Brands like John Deere, Michelin and Jell-O had magazines, guides and cookbooks out long before World War I. What’s really new about content marketing? We are just beyond early adoption phase with the practice of content marketing, even though content marketing has been

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around for over 100 years. This means we are just getting started in terms of education, staffing, integration, global content distribution, content management and more. Content marketing is just getting started. After all, most marketers were never trained as publishers, journalists and storytellers. We are starting to see more of these roles being developed on the enterprise side. The majority of journalists in the world are being hired by enterprise brands, not by traditional media. Future CMOs will have backgrounds in publishing. The entire way we looked at the marketing, public relations and communications departments has changed. Why are these trends important? Because it means that interruption marketing, which will always be part of the marketing toolkit, now takes a backstage part to content and storytelling strategies. Marketing in the future is about telling consistently engaging stories and become the go-to informational resources for our customers and prospects. In order for content to be perceived, retained and passed on, your audience needs to buy it first. How do you make sure a story is accepted in the first place? The first step with Epic Content Marketing is to understand that your customers don‘t care about your products and services at all. It’s tough to swallow,

The first issue of Lego’s Brick Kicks, 1987

but it’s critical to this whole thing working. Customers care about their own needs. That’s where you need to find your story or stories... around a concept so truly niche that you can actually be the world’s leading expert in that area. Most brands try to boil the ocean with their content. Don’t fall into that trap. Find a content niche for which you can realistically make that leading position happen. For example, we did this in the content marketing niche in 2007. Today, content marketing would be too broad (we would need to focus on financial content marketing or content marketing for non-profits to truly be successful). Go big by going small. German marketing expert Olaf Kopp claims that marketers “shouldn’t interrupt what people are interested in. They should be what people are interested in.” That’s like a content marketing credo. I would agree 100%... although I still believe in advertising and other forms of traditional marketing. It’s just that most brands are overweight in paid media and underweight in owned media. So, ideally, both would be partners complementing each other, rather than die-hard opponents... There is no silver bullet to marketing. Advertising has its place. I believe that content marketing can make advertising

The Jell-O Recipe Book, 1932

better, and that advertising can help get our content found. It’s short sighted not to look at an integrated marketing strategy. I laugh when many of those “experts” out there say that content is the only way, but then I see them launch these huge advertising and outbound marketing programs. Many companies seem to see content marketing as something to use when PR doesn’t work. If they can’t earn an article, they simply buy it. Isn’t that flawed thinking, in the sense, that the reader’s attention always needs to be earned, no matter what you do? Content marketing and PR are not mutually exclusive. For example, we can make our PR better by telling amazing stories through our releases. To your point about flawed thinking, I believe there are many different ways that content can attract and retain customers. Advertorials can work (i.e. native advertising) to solve a particular goal. I’ve also seen plans work that have no PR component at all. We test, we learn, we adapt. We always tell our clients that a coherent content strategy should be at the operational core of every communications & marketing …

John Deere’s The Furrow in it’s 64th year of existence, 1959

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;I believe in the digital first strategy for content, but I SO believe that there is a huge opportunity for printâ&#x20AC;? joe pulizzi

department, with PR and advertising fitted into this greater logic of branding a story. Where do you see its place in the toolbox? We believe that the content marketing strategy sits smack dab in the middle of the entire marketing function. Everything we do to attract and retain customers starts with the story we want or need to tell. This means that we kick this off by developing our content marketing strategy. Unfortunately, the majority of brands have no strategy at all for their content. Most content is used tactically, and is siloed in the organization. The best way to make this work is to develop an integrated strategy, work with content ambassadors in each silo, and make sure that, in each channel, we are telling a consistent story. And most of all,

consistency makes a difference. Most content programs fail because they stop. Content marketing is not a campaign. It is a marathon, not a sprint.

How can we leverage our employees in the initiative? What is the overall objective for the program? What are the metrics to measure our progress?

Changing the way companies think of marketing also requires a change in procedures. What are the key steps leading to a workable content strategy? Make sure you have the answers to these questions before you create any more content: Who is the buyer Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m communicating with? How do they buy? What are their informational pain points? What keeps them up at night? What content niche can we be the leading informational expert in? What will be the style and tone of our content? What channels make the most sense? Who will oversee the program? What content assets do we have (do a content audit)?

Then, someone in the organization needs to be accountable for your content as marketing. This could be a VP of Content role or you could integrate this role into another marketing role. That is critical. Then that person can work to find the internal content ambassadors and start the content marketing strategy process. As independent magazine publishers, our hearts beat on paper. But as digital natives, we produce web and mobile content as well. What is your take on the ongoing print vs. digital debate? I believe in the digital first strategy for content, but I SO believe that there is

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Simply put, if smaller companies don’t see the value in content marketing, tell them to just think about how their buyers buy today. Talk to your customers. It’s chilling with how consumer behaviors have changed. If you are not involved in how they make buying decisions, you will be left out.

Epic Content marketing, Joe Pulizzi

a huge opportunity in print. Maybe the biggest opportunity we’ve ever seen. So many brands have stopped their print initiatives altogether. This is shortsighted. I believe there is a competitive advantage to leveraging print, which is why we launched our Chief Content Officer magazine. A lot of the bigger recent jumps in content marketing have come from large companies with large marketing departments, hiring journalists and content strategists. How do you convince small and medium size businesses to invest in a consistent media output? Let’s face it. Customers are going out of their way to avoid salespeople and sales speak as much as possible. They are bombarded by 5,000 messages a day, and the last thing they want is to

be pitched anything. My question is this: if we don’t work to develop relationships with customers and prospects by telling compelling stories, how else do we do it? Not through advertising or sponsorship. Not by knocking on doors or making phone calls. Consistent content that helps customers solve their pain points is just about the only way customers will let us into their lives. For those reading this, what do you let into your lives, beyond the clutter of spam? Only the really good stuff, right? So go out and be the really good content and stop producing content that doesn’t move the needle. Successful social media, getting found in search engines and any kind of online demand generation starts and ends with—you guessed it— publishing. Marketers today are publishers, like it or not. It just depends on if you want to be successful publishers.

What about the quality of media between businesses? B2B shouldn’t stand for twice as boring. What is stopping companies from creating more attractive content in this sector? B2B has the best opportunity with content because the buying journey is more complex and there are multiple buyers in the process. If you want to stand apart from your competition, focus on being the “go-to” resource for your customers. Commit to content as a promise to your customers. Deliver on that promise. It’s hard to take, but your product is most likely no better than anything else out there. So how do you differentiate yourself? By what you say and the stories you tell. That’s it. Everything else can be copied. So that‘s why we say to “sell more” you have to stop all the “selling” speak. Develop a long-term relationship with customers through interesting content and they will reward you with loyalty. B2B companies are ripe with content about their products and services. You most likely have a mountain of that type of content. The problem is that type of content is only useful for a very short portion of the buying cycle when your customers need it. What about the other 99% of the time? Are you going to advertise your way into their lives? Yes, advertising still works and should be used. But advertising doesn’t create an emotional connection like storytelling can. You are probably the most travelled international expert in the field. Where do you see Europe’s development compared to the U.S. and the rest of the world? For print content marketing, Europe is way ahead of the US. For digital, I’d say the US is six months ahead but closing fast. |

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Illustrations: efer hebenstreit

Edwin Tse is a New York-based photographer whose work has been featured in numerous magazines around the globe. What especially stands out in his body of work are his timeless and sensual nude portraits, a cross between the girl-next-door and a scene out of the Last Tango in Paris. Here he talks to Angelina Rafii about his journey and honing his craft in the city that never sleeps. 10-23_mmm3_itw_2.indd 10

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Can you start by telling us a little bit about your background. What kind of neighbourhood did you grow up in Toronto and how do you think that experience influenced your work? I grew in a suburb of Toronto called Thornhill. I think it was a pretty typical suburban upbringing, I would go to school and hang out with my friends after school and get into whatever trouble kids get into. I’m not entirely sure how it relates to my work today, but I do feel nostalgic about my youth at times. There are certain things that trigger moments of my past. I speak to people about having an affinity for cartoons because they remind me of my youth and childhood. Did you stumble upon photography by accident or did you pursue it academically? And if it was the latter, what singular moment attracted you to the idea? I guess, growing up, often my parents and my sister and I would go to a mall on any typical weekend afternoon. My mom would always let us explore on our own and I often ventured off to the bookstore. You could often find me in the photography book section. I think that is sort of the early beginnings of my love for photography. I just had some natural attraction to photographs, it was like experiencing different parts of the world through photo books. My uncle who was an amateur artist lent me his Pentax and from there I started to approach photography more seriously as an art form as opposed to just vacation snapshots. As I grew older I was on staff for my highschool senior yearbook. The yearbook staff would give me film to shoot “student

PLANESPOTTING

life” around the school, but I would shoot one roll for them and then take three rolls and venture off into the woods and shoot landscapes for myself. I never studied photography academically but do remember doing a few darkroom classes on my own. I actually ventured off into design in art school which definitely had a strong influence on how I approach photography to this day. There tends to be a lot of minimalism and cleanliness in my work. I learned that through graphic design. I started my career on the other side of the lens in art direction and editorial magazines and got a feel for what it was like seeing real professional photographers work. It was during that period when film was slowly making its way to digital, so it was great to see that.

I eventually started assisting photographers on the side and later moved to New York. My first roommate in Brooklyn was an amazing award-winning photographer Adam Nadel. We do completely different things, but what I learned from him was incredible. From there I decided to venture off on my own into the world of photography. Can you pinpoint the moment you decided that you would dedicate your time and resources to it? I think the time I really started to take photography more seriously was when I moved to New York, being surrounded by so much talent really rubs off on you. You see what people are doing around you and it really makes you want to try and attempt to get to that same level

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GAS STATIONS

as well. I started photographing people more and began using my friends as my subjects. It was a slow build and eventually I started using amateur models, building up to professional models and from there to build my book up. My work today wouldn’t be what it is without the move to New York.

there would be fewer opportunities. All things considered, I think for now it’s just better to be in New York where I have so much potential and opportunities. I don’t often think too much about the competition, if you worry about that, it’s going to drive you crazy.

I suppose that even though the opportunities are more abundant in a place like NYC, the challenges and competition must also be fierce. How do you navigate these waters? I agree New York can be a difficult place to work as a photographer at times. It’s insanely competitive, but at the same time the resources here are amazing as are the opportunities. It’s all relative, if I was in a smaller market with fewer photographers

Do you think having worked on the other side of the fence gives you a better understanding of what art directors are looking for? Often, especially in commercial work, there can be a pushpull between the creative vision of the photographer/artist and the commercial constraints. Do you still have to face that or do you tend to try and stand in their shoes? Every art director is a little bit different

in what they are looking for, but yes, I do understand a bit of the dynamics and sometimes politics of the game better because I have seen it myself. Some clients are very easy to work with and are very open to ideas and there are a lot of others who really want to put their mark on the project. At the end of the day I find if you give them a bit of what they are looking for, yet try your own ideas, you cover all your bases which is what I try to do. Who are some of the past and present photographers, movie directors or other visual artists that inspire you? One of my favourite photographers of all time is Richard Avedon. His work is absolutely timeless and classic. No one shot better than him commercially. …

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“I like doing both advertising work and fashion editorial” Edwin Tse

I consider him one of the best, if not the best fashion photographer. I am also a big fan of Robert Frank. His book The Americans was such a huge influence on me venturing off into portrait photography. Robert Frank’s ability to capture his subjects so in the moment, is second to none. Some film directors who I really like are the Coen brothers. I’m a huge fan of their cinematography. Fargo and No Country For Old Men are two of my favourite films by them visually. The stark and bleak landscapes that they captured in those films are breath-taking.

Everyone has a particular style and it’s important to keep evolving your work to the point where you don’t get pigeonholed. At the same time, it is important to have a particular look or style. Creative directors or photo editors are hiring you based on a look they want. If you are all over the place, people don’t know what they are going to get and you’ll never get hired that way. Evolution through a slow gradual process is the best way to go. I’ve noticed these things over time, where out of the blue someone will ask me to shoot something I never thought I’d be asked to do.

In your commissioned work, which do you feel closer to, fashion or advertising? What are some of the challenges in both and what are the things that you particularly appreciate? I like doing both advertising work and fashion editorial. Often though I do get to be a little more creative with fashion editorials. Some of the challenges are one and the same with both, often you are executing somebody’s vision and direction. It’s learning to work together to bring out the best possible product in the end. Often a lot of creative people bring a number of ideas to the table and can transform a good idea into a great one.

How is it working with an agency? What are the pros and cons, beyond the obvious? I have in the past been with an agency that shall remain nameless! It wasn’t the best experience for me and I’ve entertained the idea of going back to one, but am not necessarily jumping at it right away. If you can find one that really believes in you and wants to help you push and evolve your work that is the best. I think in my situation it was one where they viewed me only as a money making tool for them. I would be put on jobs at the last second for things I never wanted to do. I would cringe when I saw their number pop up on my cell phone, I knew at that point it was time to go.

Do you ever feel like you are getting pigeon-holed in a specific category? And from a different perspective is a “specialization” necessary to being more bankable?

What are some of your current personal projects? I’ve got a few personal projects on the go

right now which are a bit more in the fine art photography field. It includes gas stations in the middle of nowhere shot at night. I’ve been told there is a strong Edward Hopper feel to them. I just love the sparseness of night being illuminated by these gas stations, it brings a rather bleak landscape to life. I’ve also got another project photographing commercial airplanes landing and taking off and the relationship of people who follow them. It’s a whole subculture that I’ve gotten to know since I started this project. It’s usually men …

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Sky

Yulia

Polett

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Shujaa Graham

You go one day feeling everything is fine, and the next the government is saying they are going to kill you for something you didn’t do. What I’ve been brought in to do, is to show the more intimate side of life after they have been exonerated and the challenges they face today. It’s not like you get off of death row and are released to resume your life as it once was. You don’t come out the same person as when you went in. Often these people develop a lot of mental problems, drug and alcohol abuse, PTSD. There is a big chunk of time where your life has been put on hold and when you get out it’s really hard to play catch up with a world that is 10, 20 years ahead of you. Some of the people released have a hard time coping with a new world that is foreign to them. It’s really a sad set of circumstances that these people have gone through and we are trying to document their lives as they are today. The experience has been so humbling. It has made me a better photographer and person just for being around these great people. It’s maybe the best thing I’ve ever done photographically.

Kirk Bloodsworth

who have radios and know what planes are flying that day and at what particular time and what type of plane it is. I think they really get off on getting a snapshot of a big 747 that might be flying in. It’s a very interesting group of people. You have mentioned being drawn to personal photography projects that have a humanitarian component. Can you talk about that? I’ve started another larger project with a non-profit organization based in Philadelphia called “Witness to Innocence.” WTI work with exonerated individuals that have been on death row in America for crimes that they have not committed. A lot of the people who I have photographed have spent anywhere from 4 years up to 20 years on death row. It’s an insane thing to think about, an absolute horror story.

How did the collaboration with the non-profit come about? Humanitarian work, photojournalism has always been something I’ve had an interest in. My first roommate in New York specialized in that and the more I saw what he was doing, the more it really rubbed off on me. I guess working mostly in fashion, it’s an all too consuming industry about buying clothes, selling clothes, making money for other people. I get that and it’s fine, but in the end I needed to do something else on the side. My photographic career cannot be about that and only that. I have been following the West Memphis 3 case since the early 2000s, it’s a case of exoneration and death row and really hit home for me. When they were exonerated in the summer of 2011, it really made me want to do something and affect change. …

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reny

“I believe that everyone has a story to tell” Edwin Tse

I knew my photographic sensibility could lend itself well to this topic. I knew I needed a fixer in this situation. I first reached out to a few authors who had written on this sort of subject in the past and asked them for help. They then put me in touch with a few ideas and avenues to go down and eventually it led me to Witness to Innocence in Philadelphia. Portrait photography is close to your heart, and seems to be the main focus of your work, although you work on

other projects as well. What is it about portraits that draws you in? I think at heart I am very interested in people and their stories and I like to try and exhibit that visually. It’s a very intimate relationship where one trusts you so much to exhibit them in a positive way. I really like portraits and believe that everyone has a story to tell and I like to try and bring that out of everyone I photograph. Some of your most seductive and appealing work is your nude

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Eva Doll

photography, there is a real sense of longing that emanates. Some feel like scenes cut out of a movie. Are you trying to tell a story? I think in the nudes there is some selling of fantasy, with these really beautiful girls, often people wonder what they are like in more intimate moments. It’s trying to show that sort of sexy girl-next-door idea. I try to use natural light to generate shadows and very soft intimate lighting. That helps create a very compelling image.

Further to that, do you start with an idea in mind or does most of the work flow spontaneously out of your encounter with a particular person at that moment? I usually have a mental map of where I want to go and the direction I want to take with the photos, but there are always inevitable factors that you can’t control for better or worse. Sometimes these surprises work in your favour and you take a photo you didn’t even think you could. Then sometimes you have factors such as weather that can really rain on your parade.

Other times there will be a spontaneous moment where we will try something new and it will work out, or somebody will suggest something that I wasn’t thinking about. How important is print media to your work? What magazines do you really like? Which ones do you read and which ones do you flip through to get a visual fix? Print is very important to me. I think paper and texture make a big difference. …

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Hannah

Work-wise I still target a lot of printed editorial. I think it’s important since many online magazines are just everywhere. Most magazines I like are ones that I like reading a lot, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, and Mother Jones. It is definitely a tactile experience and something that is palpable to the touch. What do digital magazines bring to the table? I normally am not a fan of digital magazines. I don’t think they really offer a great experience for the viewer and the product on screen. So much of it is determined by what device you are using. There sometimes is a real loss of importance and quality when you are viewing it on a mobile device or a smaller screen. I’m also not such a fan because it seems like just about anyone can start one. It really over saturates the market and downgrades the quality of work out there.

that one sees in all sorts of media touching on journalism, photography and fashion. What are we losing and what are we gaining in the process? I think the filters often take a somewhat mediocre picture and can transcend it to becoming a better picture, but that is very much our reality now anyways with photoshop and computer manipulation. No photo that you see out there hasn’t gone through some process of manipulation. I think Instagram hopefully gets people excited about the process of photography and maybe gives people an appreciation for what real photographers go through. I find most people do approach it with a sense of “this is my life in pictures.” whereas I approach it with a more artistic approach

What is in your opinion the role of digital media in photography? How do you see it evolve? I can definitely see more emphasis on Instagram photos. Instagram has just picked up so much steam these days. I don’t really see it slowing down. There are certainly pros and cons. I’m happy that more and more people are expressing themselves visually, but at the same time there is just so much visual noise out there now, and photos have a feeling of becoming more disposable. So many pictures are posted and if it’s older than a day it’s already old news.

and hopefully more and more people will approach photography this way too. In some ways, I think Instagram is hurting the photography business. Now publications are going to Instagram as an actual photo source for getting images for professional use. This is obviously a cheap route to go as opposed to hiring a professional to get the job done. What is going to be the next big revolution in your opinion? I can’t really predict what the next big thing will be. We’ve seen things that we thought might be the next big thing turn out to be flops. I don’t think any of us thought the iPhone would really be as revolutionary as it has been. |

“I think in the nudes there is some selling of fantasy”

Do you feel like it undermines the work of professional photographers who dedicate much more time and money to their craft? There is a movement of “democratization”

Edwin Tse 21

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New Tools for a New Era Growth strategies, a new governance model and a forthcoming 20th anniversary. We take a look at the future with the CEO and founder of Maison Moderne, Mike Koedinger.

2014 marks the 20th anniversary

Mike Koedinger Founder and CEO, director of Publishing

Maison Moderne will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2014. What does this mean for you? It is a time for reflection. A good opportunity to try to understand the past, learn from it and prepare for the future. To realise that Maison Moderne has a unique place in the media landscape, having become the leading independent media company in Luxembourg. This anniversary is also a time to celebrate our successes, the culmination of the work carried out day after day by all of our dedicated and unstinting employees for the past two decades. The company has grown significantly in recent years. How do you explain this? We decided, in spring 2008, not to pursue our plans to open offices in Switzerland and Belgium, but instead we opted to focus on growth in Luxembourg. It was the right choice. Firstly because there was, and there still is, a lot to do in Luxembourg, and then because a few months later, Lehman Brothers collapsed and the economic and financial crisis began. The advertising market experienced a contraction which would have made the launch of brands on new markets very difficult. In Luxembourg, however, we launched new titles – Archiduc and Delano; and new services – Business Club and Content Marketing; we added new skills – Digital, TV; and we began to publish books. During this period,

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our headcount almost doubled. Today, thanks to our 70 employees with their outstanding and diverse skills, we are ready to cross a new threshold. A new threshold—does this mean new launches? Yes and no. 2014 will not be a year of major launches or of the creation of new media brands. Although launching a new title is the most exciting aspect of our trade, it is also the simplest aspect. We have decided instead to tackle some of the more difficult aspects. First of all, to improve the intrinsic quality of each product and of each service—its content, its form and its positioning. Second, to increase its profitability, and finally, having managed to pull off the first two goals, to work on enhancing “Happiness at work”, improving the quality of life at work for all our employees. In order to pull off this entrepreneurial challenge, I proposed to my partners, in the summer of 2013, the implementation of a new governance model to change the way in which all decisions are taken. At the heart of this new organisation will be a board of directors consisting of the members of the management board plus two independent directors who will contribute a new outlook as well as their expertise in corporate management. We therefore delighted to welcome Jean-Claude Bintz and Daniel Schneider on our new board of directors.

Jean-Claude Bintz joins as president of the board of directors

Daniel Schneider joins the board of directors

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2013 productions Approximately

2,2 millions

unique visitors to our websites

magazines, guides and books published

138 events on 38 dates for a total audience of 6,661 people

468 electronic newsletter editions sent

8,200 print pages produced

5,5

approximately million pages viewed across all sites and applications

309

5,360,400

videos produced

total newsletters sent

Staff evolution from 1994 til today

staff stats

38 32

22 collaborators 20 collaborators Studio 20 collaborators Administration & support 8 collaborators

Publishing

women

Media Sales

men

43%

women

nationalities

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57%

Gender distribution in management positions

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Etienne Velasti Administrative and financial director

Francis Gasparotto Partner and director of Media Sales

Guido Kröger Partner and director of Studio

Rudy Lafontaine Partner and innovation, quality and operations director

Luciana Restivo Sales director

What other changes will the group’s organisation undergo? A number of new management positions are being created, such as that of financial and administration director, also business development, marketing and communication manager. The management board is being pared down to four people, the administrative and financial director Etienne Velasti as well as the directors of the three departments: Francis Gasparotto for Media Sales; Guido Kröger for Studio; and myself for Publishing, in addition to my duties as CEO. To help the management board operate, it will have six advisers in the following disciplines: creative work; innovation, quality and operations; business development, marketing and communication; sales; business club and content marketing. Finally two other circles of skills will be implemented: one comprising editors-in-chief, desk editors and managing editors, and another consisting of operational managers (IT, studio, etc). The responsibilities will thus be made clearer and the skills will be multiplied.

What are your main areas for growth in 2014 and beyond? The two main areas for growth in 2014 will be services-oriented: the business club and content marketing. The success experienced by the business club since its inception in 2008 has encouraged us to grow it further. We believe that there is still a lot to be done both in terms of the offerings proposed to the members and in terms of the acquisition of new members in Luxembourg and beyond. The other strategic development involves the creation of an agency specialising in content marketing—the communication of companies or institutions via content in addition to traditional advertising. Telling stories is another way of putting across messages to predefined targets. Although it is true that this sector is experiencing significant growth worldwide, the market in Luxembourg has yet to be developed, and this approach is more suited to a publishing house which is geared to creating and publishing content, than to a classic advertising agency.

Maison Moderne is first and foremost a publisher of magazines, but the company has diversified. Can you give us some details? We initiate both our own projects and work for our clients. We specialise in the creation of quality content for various target audiences, ranging from mainstream to a number of niches. We are expert at multichannel publishing— publishing content via print, digital media, social media and live. We foster the emergence of communities around content and we create value for the brands that are interested in reaching out to those communities. To put it another way, we are an independent publisher, an agency specialising in content marketing, a media sales house, and a business club.

What about your media brands? We are continuously working to improve our media brands, reworking the formulas, refreshing the designs and striving to improve the readers’ experience overall. The appointment of Jeremy Leslie as creative director reflects our ambitions. Jeremy is an international authority in the fields of magazine publishing and media. He will help Maison Moderne to position innovation and quality at the heart of our thought processes and to challenge our teams of designers and journalists. Our media brands are well-established in their respective niches. They are already very successful, both among our readership and among our advertisers. The readership surveys bear witness to this, as does the growth in our income from advertising. It is in the digital field that we have the greatest scope for progress, this is therefore a priority for all of our brands. Our flagship media brand paperJam will have two editor-in-chiefs: Jean-Michel Gaudron for the print and, the newly appointed, Pierre Sorlut for the digital.

José da Costa paperJam business club director

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In 2014, Maison Moderne becomes the 12th member of CUSTO, the belgian association for content marketing agencies. Another quality label for Maison Moderne.

Jeremy Leslie Creative director

Jean-Michel Gaudron Editor-in-chief of paperJam

Pierre Sorlut Editor-in-chief of paperJam.lu

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Grand Théâtre of Luxembourg City will host the 20th anniversary celebrations on October 16, 2014.

Maison Moderne Kiosk for your tablet. Browsing through 20 years of independent publishing.

Let’s talk about the forthcoming anniversary of Maison Moderne. What should we expect? We are known for our parties. In fact, our company began with a party that was held in an industrial building for building film sets, a place now known as “Banannefabrik”. It was in October 1994 for the launch of the first Explorator. It had been a great evening, with a fashion show by young Belgian designers and a cocktail party laid on by Mesa Verde with countless drinks available, which was just as well because the winter had arrived early that year and the building was poorly insulated. It was very cold. We are therefore going to organise a party. This time we’ll be holding it in the Grand Théâtre in the City of Luxembourg where we’ll be staging a Maison Moderne style academic session, followed by a cocktail party. It will take place on 16 October. But as parties tend to always finish too early, we have also decided to publish a book to mark our first 20 years in operation, so as to offer our guests a lasting memento. We are working on it right now, and it will be the kind of book that we wish our clients would ask us to produce for their own anniversary celebrations. As a prelude to these festivities, we have launched an app for tablets which provides access to all the back-issues of our magazines published since 1994—around 500 souvenir editions—provided free of charge to thank our readers, who are the main reason for our existence, our clients who continue to put their trust in us, our partners who help us achieve success and our employees, past and present, who have all played a part in writing our history.

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Maison Moderne partners up with Croix-Rouge in 2014 to celebrate their 100th anniversary.

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Maison Moderne offices as designed by Polaris architects in 2013. Photography by Ă&#x2030;ric Chenal.

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Celebrations

Maison Moderne 20th anniversary celebrations at Grand Théâtre Luxembourg Save the date! Thursday October 16, 2014

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Be part of our story!

Go to www.maisonmoderne.lu/20years and simply tell us in a few lines “For me, Maison Moderne is...”. A selection of quotes will be published in our anniversary book.

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Maison Moderne TV Studio photographed by Ă&#x2030;ric Chenal

Digital archives

Download the Maison Moderne application for tablets and browse through two decades of independent publishing.

ANDROID APP ON

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MULTICHANNEL MEDIARAMA All brands sustained by Maison Moderne share the vision that today’s media output needs to be customised and adapted to the fast-changing behaviors of communities and subcultures. From the magazine to the mobile screen, from guide book to facebook—our brands are designed to be at the right place, at the right time.

Among the plethora of products and services offered by Maison Moderne, Luxembourg’s biggest independent publisher, vibrant and recognisable media brands are more than just the stars in a team of skilled players. In many ways, they are key to the success of the company as a whole. Media brands create value. Through relaunches, digital extensions and other vertical additions to the brand value chain, the media brands of Maison Moderne are testing grounds for editorial, technical and social innovation. By evolving, they create new business opportunities, new partnerships and new jobs. Media brands generate knowledge. Thanks to the constant feedback from readers, the conversations at brand events and the data collected through surveys, market studies and online tracking systems, every brand is a barometer for the behavior and composition of specific target group. This knowlegde is an integral part of the workflow at Maison Moderne and taps back into the value chain of each brand. Media brands build standards. As curators of exhibitions, co-editors of book projects or sponsors of social events, brands such as paperJam, Explorator and Archiduc act as ambassadors to the quality of all Maison Moderne activities. Moreover, they often serve as reference points for clients at the beginning of a strategic audit in content marketing. Media brands make promises. Every successful brand is built around the promise, that you know what you get and that you will get what you want. While this is true for the media brands of Maison Moderne, you just might not always get what you expect.

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City Magazine City Mag—or the magazine with the monthly name change. Having won close to ten international awards, it’s by far the most prized publication in Luxembourg. But that’s not all: Luxembourg City’s official magazine is also profusely read, and more and more so. According to the Plurimédia 2013 survey, City Mag has seen a spectacular 32% reader increase. There’s never been a more profitable time to invest in City Mag. Duncan Roberts Journalist Deborah Lambolez Managing editor Monthly www.citymag.lu

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Archiduc Archiduc started celebrating Luxembourg architecture in 2010 and rapidly became a reference for the real estate, construction, designer and architecture communities alike. At the same time Archiduc developed into a multi-channel media brand, including a magazine, a website, a newsletter and an organiser of conferences. A high-end product, Archiduc targets a readership of architects and engineers as well as private contractors and individuals concerned by architecture and design. Céline Coubray Editor-in-chief Bi-annual magazine Website Bi-monthly newsletter Events www.archiduc.lu

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City Magazine

Delano

Explorator

City Mag—or the magazine with the monthly name change. Having won close to ten international awards, it’s by far the most prized publication in Luxembourg. But that’s not all: Luxembourg City’s official magazine is also profusely read, and more and more so. According to the Plurimédia 2013 survey, City Mag has seen a spectacular 32% reader increase. There’s never been a more profitable time to invest in City Mag.

A monthly magazine, a website with news and services, a weekly newsletter, an app for smartphones and tablets and even a big yearly cocktail party are all part of what Delano offers. A unique media mix to suit the English-speaking international expat community in Luxembourg—a target of 50,000 high incomes that surely deserves it. As for the local celebrities, they are revealed by Delano in the Lifestyle, Current affairs and Business pages. Enjoy!

For nearly 20 years Explorator has toured restaurants where celebrity chefs as well as promising gourmet newcomers make things happen, sharing favourite places and culinary discoveries with their loyal and ever growing readership. Explorator is not only known for its annual restaurant guide but also for its website, bimonthly newsletter and much awaited annual cocktail party. Written by local insiders, Explorator will celebrate its 20th birthday in the autumn of 2014.

Duncan Roberts Journalist

Duncan Roberts Editor-in-chief

France Clarinval Editor-in-chief

Deborah Lambolez Managing editor

Aaron Grunwald Desk editor

Monthly www.citymag.lu

Monthly magazine Website Weekly newsletter Mobile and tablet apps Events www.delano.lu

Annual guide Website Bi-monthly newsletter Events www.explorator.lu

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Nico

paperJam

paperJam.Index

With over 200 pages of cutting-edge, ad-free interviews and fashion, this is Luxembourg’s one and only award winning trend bookazine with worldwide distribution. Nico can be found in bookstores, museums, art galleries and select cultural venues in over 30 countries.

paperJam is an uncontested reference in the business world with a strong, stabilised readership of 50,000 per issue. Since the magazine was launched in June 2000, paperJam has become one of Luxembourg’s most vibrant media brands thanks to its many channels, from the magazine, website and daily newsletters to the business club, jobboard, apps and TV productions. In order to meet its reader’s expectations, paperJam has phased out publication of its different sections, and is now published every two weeks instead of monthly. As for the daily electronic newsletter it is sent twice a day, with a morning edition at 8 am completing the traditional 4 pm newsletter.

Launched in 1997, paperJam.Index quickly became an essential business guide to Luxembourg. It offers a structured portrait of the economy thanks to in-depth articles written by experts and paperJam’s editorial team, a selection of the country’s companies arranged by activity and sector, plus an extensive Who’s Who with 1,000 biographies. Published for over 15 years, paperJam.Index now also has a website, an app and a B2B fair.

Mike Koedinger Editor-in-chief Angelina A. Rafii Deputy editor-in-chief International magazine www.nicomagazine.com

Jean-Michel Gaudron Editor-in-chief Alain Ducat Desk editor Pierre Sorlut Digital editor-in-chief

Jean-Michel Gaudron Editor-in-chief Sarah Macri Managing editor Annual guide Website Mobile and tablet apps Events index.paperJam.lu

Monthly magazine Website Bi-daily newsletter Mobile and tablet apps Business guide Business club Jobboard TV www.paperJam.lu

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PUBLISHING IS THE NEW MARKETING

r w you u kno o y , o n issio Ok, s . y’s m n a does p it com what d n a works how it atters hat m w t u B g is: rketin L? in ma FEE HOW

S IT

DOE

How to increase the quality of brand communication through content marketing.

The digital era has expanded consumers’ freedom of choice enormously. For the first time, people can fully customize their reality, choosing to find, follow and share only those things they are truly interested in. This has previously unseen consequences on how we think about marketing. In order to reach the mind and hearts of people today, we have to tap into manifold subcultures and individual lifestyles. The only way to do this,

is to think of the target, as we like to think of ourselves. Not as customers, but as people. Not as buyers, but as readers, dreamers, problem solvers, fun seekers, life builders and family lovers. Instead of INTERRUPTING what they are interested in, we’ll have to BE what they’re interested in. That’s the intrinsic logic of content marketing. Marketers becoming publishers by owning, instead of renting media.

YES

START Imagine this is your company, organisation, institution or any other group of interest. As you go along, try to answer the questions in accordance with your strategic objectives.

Are you interested in making your customers like you and identify with your brand, product or service?

You don’t need people to like you. Power-selling probably sounds erotic to you. If you can sell bottled water to drowning children, you will.

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Have you thought about where you want to move your brand strategically in the future?

YES

You’re standing at the gates of content marketing—and you can have a peek. But without strategy, your options are limited: try advertorials, sponsored news or sponsored videos placed in media you don’t own (you’re still renting it).

Are you planning to spend regular money on your marketing and strategic storytelling obectives?

YES

Do you want to place your brand, your product or your service at the center of your storytelling in order to make it more visible?

YES

That’s too bad, but there’s hope. You’re already telling your story through one-shot projects such as anniversary books, event brochures, teambuilding videos or special-interest microsites. The feedback you get will make you hungry for more.

You now have almost everything: you produce and own a distinguished magazine, newsletter, video channel, internet platform, or mobile application, filled with branded content that is strategic to your objectives. Your return on investment is measurable through an increase in traffic, demand or sales. Could it be any better? Yes, actually it could.

Are you ready to think like a publisher and create a media brand that attracts people based solely on its ability to inform, entertain and inspire a specific feeling in life?

YES

finish

That’s perfectly fine. Continue to do what works for you. There’s good work to be done at all stages of the content marketing adventure.

You are one of the brave. And only the brave get to go to marketing heaven.

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Illustrations: efer hebenstreit

Jeremy Leslie is one of the few names in the publishing industry to combine day-to-day field knowlegde in both creative direction and writing. Second only to his love for magazines, the founder of magCulture is particularly interested in the print versus digital debate. In this interview, he speaks to Steven Gregor about his brand new book The Modern Magazine.

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the modern magazine, visuAl journalism in the digital era, Laurence King PUBLISHING, 2013

Congratulations on the book… are you happy with? I’ve barely been able to look at it. Like finishing a magazine? It’s like finishing anything. I’m definitely happy with it as an object. Were you always going to design it? Oh, yeah. How long did it take? It’s been two years from beginning to end, during which time there were some particularly intense periods. It’s probably been about seven or eight months of solid work. It was like doing a magazine. The two [writing and designing] go hand-in-hand. I couldn’t possibly have handed the design over to someone else. Why a book? There’s a hierarchy to these things. Day-to-day, I have the magCulture blog and the writing I do for magazines like Creative Review. But a book has a different significance. It marks a moment. By its very nature, it’s a year out of date by the time it’s published, so it has to be… definite. Did much change during the time you were making the book? Yes. There are magazines I really regret not being in the book. But we couldn’t

quite get them in. I’m talking about magazines that made a splash in the time since I finished work on the book, back in December 2012. Cereal magazine, for example. It didn’t exist when I finished the book, but it’s now a striking omission. It’s had a real impact on the industry. It’s very quickly become ever-present and it’s a real shame it’s not represented. On Monocle 24’s Stack programme, you mentioned Colors magazine. Yeah, Colors. I think it figures once in the book, but I would definitely have built it up more had recent issues been available. There’s always something new—a new title in the shops or online. We just had to draw a line. Which magazines did just make it in time? I expanded The Gentlewoman’s presence in the book. I’ve always really liked it, but all of a sudden it has come to matter more. Gratuitous Type is another. How has The Gentlewoman improved? Why is it more significant? I think it’s much harder to do something different in the women’s market than it is in the men’s. The men’s market is much smaller, much less attention is paid to it, so you can take more risks. The sense of tongue-in-cheek humour that [publishers] Jop van Bennekom and Gert Jonkers exert

in Fantastic Man is hard to translate into the women’s market. Some of the earlier covers of The Gentlewoman were really just testing the audience, to see what they could get away with. With more recent issues, the covers are still challenging, but more appropriately so. I think [designer] Veronica Ditting is doing a fantastic job with the design. It really is the most exciting magazine for me at the moment. What’s happening in magazines today that makes your book relevant? It’s been 10 years since my last book, magCulture. There have been a number of more specialised books—covering zines or books that are very graphic design focussed, for example—but there hadn’t been the book I wanted to write. I really believe this is a golden age of magazines. I wanted to do something more general… not just zines, or independents, or glossy mainstream titles. I wanted to take a look at the industry as a whole. When I speak to people who work at the big mainstream titles, I find they’re actively interested in what’s happening with the smaller independents. And vice versa. People are interested in the industry as a whole, and I wanted this latest book to cater to that. …

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“It’s about print and digital and how the two relate” jeremy leslie

Plus, it’s all up in the air at the moment. It’s a bit wild west. Are you talking about digital, or are you talking about print? I’m talking about the business model. Importantly, it’s about print and digital and how the two relate. What is a good, modern business model? The first, most obvious thing is this: there’s no single way. If you look back just 10 years, or certainly 20 years, there was quite a simple business model: print something, put it out there, and between advertising sales and copy sales you were minted… unless you really messed it up, of course. For publishers today, what’s your advice? People have to be clearer than ever about what it is they’re trying to do: from what they plan to make, to who is going to buy and read it. It’s easy to think that the publishing industry was always a huge success and a license to print money. It has been, and people have made money, certainly. A lot of big publishers made plenty of money at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one. But the current recession, which hopefully we’re on our way out of, has provided a reckoning for the magazine industry. And while I regret businesses closing down and people losing their jobs… the magazines that have

a clearer idea of what it is that they do—of their USP—will be the ones that we’ll see succeed. In a tough Darwinian way, I think it’s a positive. It comes back to mainstream versus niche. If you try to please everyone, you’ll probably end up pleasing no one. Absolutely. There was a time when publishers tried to please everyone, and largely they succeeded. But it’s much tougher now and publishers have to really identify who their niche is—who their core readers are—and cater for them. This is where digital comes in. It can be really useful… in terms of social networks: liaising, communicating and keeping readers posted. Do you think readers, on the whole, are willing to pay for tablet editions of magazines? If the tablet edition is a replica of a print edition, the answer is—largely—no. But, this comes back to what I said earlier about there not being a single answer. I work with Frieze magazine. Their magazine is big and heavy and they have a large international audience. So there’s logic in having a digital edition in terms of postage costs and speed. There’s an audience for this. Much more important are the spin-offs or the titles that are doing new things, like UK Esquire’s Esquire Weekly iPad app. It’s not about cannibalising the

Esquire, ipad application

print magazine’s content, it’s about fleshing out and making the brand bigger. I think the Esquire Weekly app is an intelligent way of looking at digital magazine apps. Other examples: Little White Lies did a film app that enabled readers to purchase film tickets for cinemas near them; it doesn’t replicate, it adds service. It’s about brand extension. Yeah. That’s the way forward. I think the app was free but sponsored by someone, so it made good commercial sense.

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Street Publishing is doing something far more valuable and innovative than the majority of Adobe DPS apps. We were sold a promise that couldn’t be delivered. Right now, there isn’t a definitive way to make magazine apps… and many art desks don’t have the perfect tools to make them. Should a print magazine even be re-purposed for a tablet? What benefit is there for a mainstream widely available magazine being published in print and on tablet? I think that’s a really interesting point. There are a number of publishers who now find themselves stuck making apps when they should have stopped and asked that question. We want to avoid magazine apps all looking the same… dark gray text on a light gray background. As editorial designers, we’re about creating worlds that are unique to individual magazines. Our challenge is to move that into the digital space. Multi-channel is a term I’m hearing more and more. What does it mean? A common misconception is that multi-channel means you need to have everything and be everywhere. Publishers shouldn’t rush to make an app just because other magazines have an app.

Monocole, iphone application

Monocle is another example. Monocle’s my favourite example. Monocle’s editor-in-chief Tyler Brûlé has said on numerous occasions that he has no interest in publishing a digital replica of Monocle’s print edition. But as I understand it, the magazine’s had financial success with the Monocle 24 smartphone app. At The Modern Magazine conference [held in London, October 2013], there was a really interesting panel of independent publishers. Most panelists said they had looked at publishing an iPad app, but decided because

of the amount of investment required—in terms of time, resource and effort—that it’s just not worth doing. So they’re not doing it… yet. But that might change. When the first iPad launched it was seen as a beacon of hope, but I think it’s largely not delivered. I don’t believe Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite—used widely by major publishers to create magazine apps—are the best tools. I make the point in the book, Tim Moore of Letter to Jane magazine and 29th

I think the publishers who are doing it best are those who are concentrating on social media. It can be an easy win and a great way to open a sincere dialogue with readers that wasn’t possible before—on an official magazine level and on a more candid one-to-one level between editors and art directors and readers. Harper’s Bazaar UK is doing a good job with this. They’re present and intouch with their readers on Twitter and Instagram. Another example is Bloomberg Businessweek. They’re up-front with their readers in print and in the app about how each cover is made. It’s a very simple and clever way to involve the reader in the …

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Pictures of iPhone and iPad are used with the only purpose of describing the functionality of D’E-light. All rights on trademarks and products iPhone and iPad are of exclusive property of the manufacturer, and are not referable to Flos or its affiliates.

an everyday life interiors magazine – issue #09

Featuring: Tierney Gearon, Duncan Fallowell, Yrjö Kukkapuro, Conor Donlon, Nanos Valaoritis, Tomás Nervi, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Jean Abou, Li Edelkoort, Wolfgang Tillmans, Nic & Jackie Harrison, Gonzalo Milà, Jordi Labanda, Jem Goulding, Ramdane Touhami, Chris Johanson & Jo Jackson, BOPBAA, José León Cerrillo, India Salvor Menuez, Nicolas Congé & Camille Berthomier, Henry Roy, Jeff Rian, Max Lamb, Reg Mombassa Plus: a fiction supplement by Jocko Weyland and Amanda Maxwell

SPAIN €10.00

EUROPE €12.00 ISSN ISSN ISSN 2013-0190 2013-0190 2013-0190

D'E-light, design P. Starck

FLOS_DELight_GB.indd 1

decision-making that goes into each cover. It’s an extension of what Elle UK editor-inchief Lorraine Candy is doing when she reveals new covers on Twitter. These are base level, simple techniques.

“There’s some great, creative and innovative work happening” jeremy leslie

Monocle’s strategy to start a radio studio is genius. It’s a double whammy: it appears to have worked commercially but it’s also a very good story. A lot of what we’re talking about is a having a good story, having something to tell people about. WIRED UK’s annual conference has proven very successful for the brand. Events are another way for magazines to connect with readers… and indeed find new ones. Many magazines have grown up around

www.flos.com

000999

999 7777272020101313300101919090003033

02/03/12 10.27

hosting events. It’s quite traditional to start a magazine and then host events and sell tickets around that magazine—whether it be a big-budget technology conference held in London’s Docklands, or a more intimate paidfor dinner at London’s KK Outlet courtesy of The Gourmand, or indeed hosting film screenings like Little White Lies does. That shared community feeling is what good magazines do so well. Which of the magazines around now will be the titles we romantically look back at in 20-or-so years? That’s the question. It’s hard to say, but at the big end, it’ll probably be Bloomberg Businessweek, UK Elle from the Marissa Bourke [creative director] era, both New York and The New Yorker.

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From the smaller, more independent titles, I think The Gentlewoman, Fantastic Man, Apartamento, Self Service and Purple are titles that will have enduring appeal. Coming back to my point about now being a golden age, I think magazines get written off too easily. It’s easy to point at closures and to magnify the things that go wrong. But there’s not enough appreciation for what’s going right. There’s some great, creative and innovative work happening. Magazines are always evolving, that’s what I love about them. Love, passion and a legitimate interest in the stories being told are what define the best magazines. Magazines are about creating a world for the reader…

there’s no confusing Grazia, The New Yorker or Esquire once you’re in them. And it’s this eco-system that magazines create that I love so much. We’ve spoken a lot about newsstand titles, and what goes into making a successful one. What about customer publishing? What’s your advice for customer magazine publishers? The magazines that I was most proud of while working at [London-based customer publisher] John Brown were the ones that knew what they were trying to do and knew their audience—and connected the two really well. Such as Sky Magazine for BSkyB. It was brash and in-you-face and exactly what Sky needed. And we were also doing

Carlos magazine for Virgin Atlantic. The two titles were polar opposites, and it would be so wrong to invert them. But they were both so great in each of their markets. The goal is simple: connect with your audience in the best possible way. Aim to establish a meaningful, profitable relationship with fewer people rather than reaching more people by diluting your message. You’ve hit the nail on the head, for a customer magazine and for a newsstand title. Readers are savvy. They don’t want their time wasted. But they’re happy to be sold to if they’re sold to in the right way. Vogue wouldn’t be Vogue without the advertisements. It’s a commercial operation. |

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Illustrations: efer hebenstreit

Francesco Franchi is something like the forethinker of a growing community of infographic storytellers and visual journalists. The art director of italian IL â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Intelligence in lifestyle has just come out with his first book published by Gestalten. For mmm, he talks to Sven Ehmann about Designing News and how to stay balanced in what he calls the visual language.

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La grande corsa alla terra rossa, by francesco franchi

“The death of the newspaper, often denied but much feared, may be avoided by adapting to new circumstances” Francesco franchi

From a designer’s point of view how would you describe the situation of the news business these days? I think right now is the most interesting and ambitious time for a designer to be working in the newspaper market. There is a lot going on in this sector all over the world. We see a continuous series of redesign projects, as editors rethink their strategies, analyze what they are doing and how, and seek new solutions and new tactics. In addition to that the rise of the tablet has created a whole new market that also remains to be discovered and invented. So you are a firm believer that newspapers still have a relevance—and a future? I think we have to be optimistic about the challenges and opportunities that we in the media business face today. The death of the newspaper, often denied but much feared, may be avoided by adapting to the new circumstances. Design can play a strategic role in this transformation, but it can only be of value if it manages to capture the meaning of things. Could you describe these “new circumstances” a little more? The world of information seems to be evolving in two different directions. On one hand, there are the digital

newsstands, designed to reproduce the rationality and dynamism of the printed media. On the other, there is the complex system of aggregators. A system of readers, and social magazines that are based on breaking up and fragmenting the classic magazine format. Digital newsstands seem to be seeking an answer to a specific question: what is the best way to transfer newspapers onto the new devices, making the most of their physical and multimedia properties and their internet connectivity? While aggregators, social magazines and reading tools, on the other hand, seem to respond to another important question: how can the structure of the internet, combined with the characteristics of these new devices, change our concept of the newspaper? How would the media world adapt to that? How would you answer these questions? At the digital newsstand, the challenge is to take advantage of the physical and technological properties of the new tablet devices. This would allow us to reintroduce the typical structure of the printed newspaper format in the digital world und probably to reconstruct a market similar to the one the publishers have managed to dominate so far. This

search for a closed structure in which the basic atom of distribution and meaning is still the magazine or newspaper as a whole tends to cut out—or at least diminish—all the tools for recombining, destructuring, and redistributing information typical for the internet. Instead innovation in this field focuses mostly on the multimedia possibilities of the device and on organization and interpretation of the hierarchy of content in a finished product. From the aggregators’ point of view the newspaper format is not so much a model to be reproduced but as a metaphor, a source of inspiration for the creation of a new way of structuring and organizing the content available on the web. Which leads to a different attempt to “making sense” amidst the enormous flow of information online. For aggregators a new newspaper has to respond to the new needs of the information society, which are definitely different from those of the society in which the conventional newspaper format developed. In the context of such new approaches, how would you define the role of editorial design? Design is the method of putting form and content together, said Paul Rand. Editorial design focuses on the function of communicating a journalistic idea or story through targeted, combined use of images and words that organize and present the information, transforming it into comprehension. It is the structure through which a journalistic story is read and interpreted—afterwards or in parallel— in the best possible way. Editorial design embraces both the publication’s overall architecture and the logical structure implicit in it and the specific way in which a story is treated (i.e. how it is adapted to suit the publication’s logic or attempts to break out of its framework). …

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Il magazine, by francesco franchi

What does the visual journalist add to that with visual storytelling? A good visual journalist must move within a spectrum that includes raw information at one end and communication at the other, while staying somewhere in the middle. Consciously choosing this position ensures not to fall into the trap of either supplying a plethora of facts and figures or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, editorializing by guiding readersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; opinions and employing an aesthetic that is an end in itself. In the world of publishing, design is often considered in only its most basic sense, in terms of mere graphic and aesthetic appearance. It is often linked to such ephemeral values as style, fashions, and visual trends. Daily papers often fail to recognize the most advanced aspects of design, those that result in formally simple and objective pages and are developed according to precise methods and strategies of their own. This is a very awkward situation, for quality content will remain sterile if it is not underpinned by an appropriate form capable of giving it an own identity. Contentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which takes form in texts, titles, photographs, infographicsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is often viewed almost as separate from design. But content consists of the very elements that form the design of a page.

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“IL has turned out to be a very successful experiment in applying the concept of infographic thinking” Francesco franchi

A newspaper without content does not require design. And so design is content. We therefore need to work on conceiving and conveying a newspaper and its content through form, with overall strategic revision of texts, titles, use of photographs, infographics, and all the units that have so far been considered merely in terms of pure graphics. How would you position your own work at IL in that larger context of news and visual journalism? IL rethinks the magazine on Italy’s editorial scene in two ways: in terms of processes and workflows, and by renewing its graphic solutions and vocabulary. Both editors, first Walter Mariotti (September 2008–February 2012) and then Christian Rocca (since March 2012), made an effort to give up the usual newsroom paradigm based on a sole decision-maker and the idea that the editor-in-chief could govern the entire process. They managed to introduce a new work paradigm that is more horizontal and participatory, based on a collective decision-making set that includes different competences and in which the presence of designers offers added value. In this new context the designer is no longer just an executor, but someone who contributes to the collective process—both definition

of the problems and identification of the solutions—by creatively interacting with the other forms of professional expertise in the newsroom (editor-in-chief, art director, editors, photo editor, fashion editor, illustrators, and marketing people). Those who participate in the process are inclined and willing to understand the limitations on their own expertise; this ensures that the multitude of decisionmakers becomes a resource, also facilitated by the ease of dialogue offered by the spatial layout of the desks in a single open-space workroom. How about the visual language of IL? In terms of graphic solutions and vocabularies, IL has turned out to be a very successful experiment in applying the concept of “infographic thinking” throughout all the pages of the magazine. In this way the evolution of information cuts across the way the data is displayed and critically reinterpreted. One of IL’s missions has been putting this reflection at the center of an architecture and above all a mechanics so that it acts on both the meta structural level, that is, in narration, and on the structural level of interpretation of current affairs. Seen from this perspective, infographics therefore become the key to a change in culture and lifestyles and the construction of the magazines basic identity.

Right from the first few pages of the magazine, infographics fit into the various modules, combined with other vocabularies they become a key feature of the initial two-page spreads and offer an alternative to text for telling a journalistic story. They are enriching the cover story with the language of data, characterizing the fashion pages, and becoming, in the cultural pages, a way of representing the travels of the great philosophers of the past or translating some of the most famous literary stories into synoptic maps. Even the page numbers convey information, transformed into little summaries in which the number becomes an item of data supporting a news story. For all that you managed to establish a very strong, unique style at IL. How did this style evolve and what is the editorial design process behind it? After a first start-up we soon realized that the perfect team to work on these pages was made of an information designer, an editor and an illustrator. Each working on a specific stage of the process. They must filter the information, establish relationships, discern patterns and represent them in a way that allows the consumer of that information to process and digest meaningful knowledge. What makes a successful infographic is, first of all the journalistic idea, then the balance between simplicity and complexity. …

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Il magazine, by francesco franchi

An information graphic has to be an intelligent representation. We should always be aware of the message and how it will be perceived by the reader. The draft title of the page is the first step. Once the abstract is fixed, we research all the data and then we sort them following a storyboard. Storytelling is the result of content, form and order. We need to give the news and the context as well. The amount of information brings the necessity to a good space organization and layout design, so how the elements are arrange in the space is important. It is a flow of sorting elements, labeling them, integrating and prioritizing them. If we consider that illustration could be a good key too, we usually ask an illustrator to work on a specific portion of the page. This helps to contextualize, to make the page more appealing and the data less cold. That is particularly helpful for a publication that tires to create an enjoyable, accessible and appropriate experience for its readers while taking care about the aesthetics and the visual look as well.

Il magazine, by francesco franchi

We usually try to create dense and structured pages. I’m used to work with type and grid, as well as a limited color palette, to create distinctive layouts and to signal a certain association to the reader: applying the publication’s identity and appeal, aesthetics, emotional and contextual consideration. Simplicity, above all, is the key to an effective infographic

and the best way to achieve simplicity is through the intelligent reduction of the elements and objects that distract from our message. Careful editing is crucial. As difficult as it may be, it is important to delete excessive portions of the design but still insure that the intrinsic value of the message is not lost. I always try to create different layers of reading. The main visual impact of the page is important. But we also have to give the reader the possibility to dive deep into the page and to discover curious details and signals. I see this visual language like a spectrum. On one side we have the illustration; on the other side we have information. I think that works that are too close to either end of the spectrum—too arty or too utilitarian—are rarely interesting. What is the impact of the visual literacy of your readers—or maybe viewers—on this process? As a journalist and editor you have to know your audience and decide where you need to be on that spectrum for the audience you are trying to reach. While you can say that infographics are at the mercy of data designer’s imagination, they should not be works of art. Applying a graphic style to the information is not nearly as important as giving a graphic form to the actual content, with a clear understanding of how that content will be perceived and processed by an audience. …

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“In the past ten years the newsroom has undergone changes” Francesco franchi

In your recent publication you developed the ideas of the re-designer and the re-thinker, could explain these ideas? In Designing News I propose a transition from restyling to rethinking. In the past ten years the newsroom has undergone profound changes as a result of the transition to multimedia technologies and diversified distribution platforms (print, web, smartphone, tablet, social media). We may identify three phases in this process: introduction of online news in addition to print editions (newsroom 1.0), integration of the print and online processes (newsroom 2.0), and addition of new digital publication platforms such as tablets and smartphones (newsroom 3.0). These new developments have led to a new way of organizing work in the newsroom and a new approach to journalism. A newspaper is no longer simply a product published once a day. Its definition has now extended so far that we should no longer speak of newspapers but of media brands distributing multichannel stories. The name of a newspaper (the “title”) no longer refers to the paper it is printed on, but has become a brand describing a whole apparatus—the newsroom, its relationship with the public, its editorial vision, its know-how, the way it interprets events.

designing news, by francesco franchi

The re-thinker implements a process of rethinking the entire system not just implementing decisions made from above

or coming up with a new graphic look but actively participating in the process of rethinking the whole experience of use, distribution, access, and sharing of content. Seen in this light, newspaper redesign is not just a matter of redrawing but replanning the whole system. The underlying premise is that it is possible to come up with a new context for design. This development requires, first of all, comprehension of the transformations underway in the world of information and changes in users’ reading habits. Secondly, we need to discover the limiting factors for design, which, as we have seen, may be traced to three key factors: the internal structure of the newsroom, technological conditioning and external culture. Understanding the transformations now underway means experimenting with new forms of visual journalism. The technology used by the written word has been restructured, directed towards a multiplicity of languages. Combining different languages to improve our knowledge and understanding is the great challenge of our times. If you could choose a topic to visualize out of the blue what would that be? I’d like to do more with maps. And if you could choose any project to work on next what would that be? If I tell you, it will not come true. Let’s just say that I have an idea. |

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