Who Watches the Watchmen?
by habituallychic
03 . 21 . 13
Since I live in New York, I have a lot of friends who work for fashion designers, magazines, and pr firms. I am often privy to how things really work behind the scenes. If you want insight into it too, I suggest reading Who Watches the Watchmen? an Op-Ed piece on the Business of Fashion site. What’s always amazed me is that bloggers are required to state when they’ve been paid for a post or given free product but magazines who always place products by advertisers in editorials are not. Something to ponder today. The piece also makes me really miss Full Frontal Fashion, Fashion File, and Style with Elsa Klensch.
Photo taken by me during fall 2011 fashion week.
6 Comments
Keep in mind there’s a chicken and an egg relationship with editorial mentions of advertisers’ products in magazines. At the magazine I work at (not fashion related), we select the products we will feature in a review or other story and then, AFTER the story is written, the advertising staff contacts the companies whose products have been used to see if they would like to advertise in that issue. Stories are written months in advance … most advertising is purchased two to three months before the publication date.
Not to be nasty Erin, but I (as a former print buyer for P&G) know for them anyway the books would if fact know months in advance if we were running pages with them, as this would be part of our annual planning and negotiations. Though I don’t know how much of this info is given to the editorial staff. As much as I love love love magazines (and blogs), ad/editorial is always quite a self feeding relationship, and yes many don’t fully understand this.
Oh my goodness, Tim Blanks from Fashion File! Loved loved loved him! And Elsa, she was the best. Back before all this garbage was on tv 24/7, I couldn’t wait for my Saturday mornings with my coffee & Elsa on CNN. I realize this makes me sound ancient, but I’m only 42, so when I was a teen it was my only link to fashion.
Heather, something to think about for sure. A few years ago the ancient company Leonard suddenly showed up in a major fashion magazine’s editorial pages. I was really surprised, as I thought they had sort of disappeared. Needless to say, there was a Leonard ad in the same magazine a few pages further. I know these things happen – but aside from the monetary gain for the magazines, i find it unfairly misleading to the readers to give an editorial stamp of approval to something which was not honestly chosen for that purpose. Great post.
I have to laugh with Cocktails & Gelato! I am 38 and I remember watching CNN’s Style with Elsa Klensch after church on Sunday mornings. I must have been 12 or 13, but my parents certainly humored me.
Heather,
I too miss Style with Elsa Klensch and Full Frontal Fashion.
Lisa