National Geographic is one of those big, iconic
magazines—paid circulation of 4. 4 million in this case—
whose excellence recommends it year after year. It
appeared on our A-List in 2008 and 2009. And it’s having
another great year in 2011. First-half newsstand sales
increased 4.7% from the first half of last year while
January-though-October ad pages rose 13.6%, according
to the Media Industry Newsletter.
The pub also enjoys the admiration of its peers. It was
named Magazine of the Year at the National Magazine Awards in May.
PUBLISHER
CLAUDIA
MALLEY
PUBLISHER
OF THE YEAR:
KIM KELLEHER
MONOCLE
6
“She recognizes
that one size
doesn’t fit all, so
she encourages
her team to
bring us
customized
opportunities
for clients.”
London-based
monthly
Monocle is the
smallest title on
our list, but in its
four years of
existence it’s
managed to
build an impressively multi-
platform international profile
from its modest 66,000
circulation. The global-affairs
title competes for some of the
same business-class readers as
fellow A-Lister The Economist,
but also attracts jetsetters
keenly interested in design,
culture and urban planning.
Founded by the creator of
Wallpaper, Tyler Brûlé—our A-
List Editor of the Year—Monocle
charges its devoted readers a
premium: single copies are $10
at newsstand and a 10-issue
subscription comes to
approximately $123 (£80.00,
an amount that is never
discounted). Revenue is on
track to spike 15% in 2011.
EDITOR
TYLER BRÛLÉ
PHOTO BY CHRIS LANE
5
VANITY FAIR
Kim Kelleher’s plan to merge the print and digital operations into one unified
team has paid off for Time, which is enjoying a great 2011. Backed by a veteran
team, the exec is off to a fine start in leading the powerful brand into the future.
EDITOR
GRAYDON
CARTER
■ BY NAT IVES nives@adage.com
KIM KELLEHER LEFT CONDé NAST after six years running
Self to take over Sports Illustrated, not Time. It was five
months before Time Inc.’s then-CEO abruptly moved her to
the company flagship.
“I was deeply embedded in what was happening at SI,”
Ms. Kelleher recalls now. “The shift happened very quickly. I
didn’t know that much about Time, to be quite candid, other
than from a reader perspective, which I’ve been since college.
I was pleasantly surprised when I got here and saw that they
too are on the cutting edge of the digital frontier.”
Time has gone on to have a great 2011. Credit belongs to
its veteran team and status as winner of the Newsweekly
War—the first round, anyway—but also to the new execu-
tive in charge, who’s made smart changes and bolstered the
magazine’s case with big ad buyers.
“What she brings to the table is the ability to effectively
listen to her clients’ challenges and respond understanding
the full strategy behind what we’re trying to achieve,” said
Allison Howald, VP-U.S. director of print investment and
group account director at PHD.
“She brings a good marketing savvy, some of which I
think she brought from Condé Nast,” says George Janson,
managing partner and director of print at Group M. “She
takes the time to listen about what it is we’re trying to accom-
plish for our clients. She recognizes that one size doesn’t fit
all, so she encourages her team to bring us customized oppor-
tunities for clients.”
In one of her first big moves, Ms. Kelleher integrated
Time’s print sales and marketing staff with its digital coun-
terpart. “The clients are sitting there with one bucket of
money and they’re charged with deciding the allocations to
different mediums,” Ms. Kelleher says. “I wanted to be able
to address them before those allocations.”
Time’s integration—a continuous process, Ms. Kelleher
says—could be a test bed for other Time Inc. titles, Mr. Janson
says. “It could be some good learning that she’s going to get
for the rest of the company.”
By May, Time Inc. had promoted Ms. Kelleher to world-
wide publisher at Time, a title that had disappeared when Ed
McCarrick left in 2008. She set about bringing the business
units back together. Significant global deals have followed.
When the
Great
Recession
arrived in
2008, it hit
Condé Nast
particularly
hard. Though
nobody
expected its general-interest
flagship, Vanity Fair, to go
anywhere, nobody expected
it to thrive, either.
Fast-forward to now: VF is
enjoying its most profitable
year ever, thanks to solid
print-ad-page sales (
Jan.-Oct. 2011 is up 5% vs. Jan.-Oct. 2010, according to the
Media Industry Newsletter),
healthy circulation
(newsstand is up 2% to a
349,566-per-issue average
at $4.99 a pop, amid
continued newsstand slides
for the industry) and
booming digital: Vanity
Fair.com ad revenue in the
first half of 2011 jumped 113%
from the first half of 2010.
