Media: Publishing brands

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.

Grazia, the Mondadori Group’s upmarket women’s magazine, will be published in France in September 2009.

The launch on the French market of the weekly Grazia is a markedly strategic move for the Mondadori Group aimed at consolidating its positioning in France, particularly in the up-market segment which continues to expand, even in 2008, in the country.

The launch of Grazia in France increases the number of countries in which the Mondadori brand is published to thirteen: in addition to Italy, also Great Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Holland, Russia, Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Australia, and the very recent successful launches in India and China.

Grazia is the only Italian weekly that in the space of just a few years has managed to build a network of international editions characterised by the style, elegance, fashion and news that brings together women from around the world.

Mondadori has been operating in France since 2006 through Mondadori France, one of the country’s leaading publishers with a portfolio of more than 30 magazines.

Closer, Science&Vie, Télé Star, Biba, Pleine Vie and Auto Plus are just some of the key titles of the Paris-based publishing group which was recently celebrated at the “Magazines de l’Année”, a competition organised in France by Syndacat de la presse magazine et d’information (SPMI) the French magazine publishers’ association, winning five awards out of ten categories.

From tomorrow Grazia will be available in China, thanks to cooperation, also on the advertising side, between Mondadori and SEEC Media Group Limited, the group listed on the Hong Kong stock market with which Mondadori had reached an agreement in 2007 for the creation of a 50-50 joint-venture for advertising sales in the magazine sector.

The new magazine, which will be the country’s first glossy fortnightly, will feature original material in Chinese and have a dedicated editorial staff. “We are living in fast times”, underlined the magazine’s editor, Sun Zhe. “Life-changing news stories can gallop past us, delicious gossip flutters and dies in an instant, even hemlines and heels can change overnight”.

The first issue of Grazia will have XX pages, of which XX are advertising: he advertisers featured in the first issue of Grazia magazine include some of the leading brands from the worlds of fashion and beauty, from Tod’s to Trussardi and Guerlain, and from Chanel to Louis Vuitton and Lancôme.

“For Mondadori, Grazia in China marks an important development of the company in the Chinese magazine advertising market,” claimed Roberto Briglia, the general manager of the Mondadori Group’s Magazine Division. “China is one of the most dynamic foreign markets in the world in which fashion, and Made in Italy brands in particular, continue to be widely appreciated,” Briglia continued.

“In this context, a highly innovative magazine with high quality editorial content such as Grazia provides a guarantee for advertisers who want, also in China, to reach a target that is particularly enthusiastic about the world of celebrity, of style, fashion, shopping and luxury, with a vehicle that has a strong appeal,” concluded Briglia.

“The launch of Grazia is a strategic move of SEEC Media, in terms of its continuing efforts on diversification of its own products portfolio”, claimed Mr. Wang Boming, chairman of SEEC Media Group. “We will keep on bringing our foreign partners’ experiences and industry knowledge into China’s emerging and promising market”, concluded Wang Boming.

“A new target is emerging in China”, continued said Sun Zhe magazine’s editor in chief. “She needs to know about the latest trends and news, also regarding celebrities, but she wants it easy, bite-sized pieces – and she doesn’t want to wait a whole month”.

“So here Grazia, China’s first fortnightly glossy news and style magazine that brings her the sophistication of a monthly and the speed of a weekly”, he concluded.

Grazia will be distributed mainly in China’s major cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.

The launch of the first issue will be supported by an intense outdoor advertising campaign, at railway stations and at newsstands, with maxi-posters and a range of promotional events also planned.