UK Vogue launches Miss Vogue: Why this is interesting…


The Twittersphere went mental last Friday, at UK Vogue’s announcement of the forthcoming launch of Miss Vogue (first issue to be sold with the June Vogue). I’m thrilled too. I love Vogue, I love Teen Vogue, I love teenagers, I think I’ll like Miss Vogue. But from a news point of view, this is why it’s interesting…

1) It’s youth-focussed
My background is in teen mags. I had the funnest time of my life working in the ‘young women’s market’ but towards the end, we found young people just weren’t buying our magazine. Or any teen mag. J17, Elle Girl, Sugar all tried to last in print but couldn’t. Partly because we found that teenagers just read their mum’s mags (Grazia, Heat, Vogue) or weren’t reading magazines at all, they got all their information online.

2) It’s a print mag
Magazines are dying! Oh no they’re not! Vogue launching a new print magazine is news indeed. I always maintain that young people don’t have the ‘nostalgia’ of print and instinctively gravitate to online, especially now with such incredible mobile platforms. If Vogue is launching a magazine for young people, I’m sure the package will include web and mobile apps. But I really hope they can prove that young people are interested enough in print too.

3) It’s a new launch
You’d think the fashion content market was saturated by now, especially with all the blurring going on between editorial publications and commercial publications. With ASOS, H&M and Topshop all regularly producing excellent, free magazines, what more can Miss Vogue possibly have to offer?

I guess the important thing here is Authority. I’ve just been watching this great 2000 documentary on Anna Wintour in which she maintains that Vogue stands for excellence. Vogue is known as the authority on fashion – even now.  And as the media and fashion worlds have become democratised, suddenly everyone has a voice and a point of view. While other young women’s magazines like Look and Company have embraced bloggers and readers’ input, Vogue is still very much about the editors’ view. And I think there is still a place for that. Maybe more so than ever before.

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