Magazine brand licensing, historically, faced a significant barrier in that the categories that made the most sense for brand extension were the same ones in which the magazines’ advertisers operated. Since those advertisers provided much of the revenue keeping the publications in business, competing face-to-face with them was usually out of the question.
How times have changed. The latest indication is fashion magazines’ increasing entry into licensing. No category of magazine publishing has been more reliant on advertising, with apparel, accessories, footwear, and beauty companies accounting for a significant portion of each edition’s page count and advertisers often exerting influence on editorial content as well. This has made many fashion periodicals reluctant to do much brand extension, although some titles, such as Cosmopolitan, have been exceptions.
Some of the fashion magazines that have been dipping their toes into licensing of late include People StyleWatch, which recently introduced a collection of 25 footwear and seven handbag SKUs with the subscription shopping service JustFab; Marie Claire, which launched a beauty-focused retail operation in the U.K. with the Ocado Group’s Speciality Stores division; and InStyle, which has done multiple footwear collaborations with The Jones Group’s Nine West label.
Brand-extension licensing has been exploding in other categories of magazine publishing as well, of course. A few examples, among many, include home décor titles (Domino recently appointed Parham Santana as its licensing agent); business periodicals (Forbes has a line of airport newsstands with Paradies); automotive publications (Car & Driver just signed Summit CE Group for dashboard cameras); and cooking magazines (Saveur and CE America launched an array of housewares and appliances).
In fact, fashion, while growing, remains one of the least active sectors of the magazine industry when it comes to outbound licensing, with relatively few titles entering the market and most tending toward limited collaborations rather than long-term branded goods. But with continued economic and business challenges facing magazine publishers of all kinds, it is likely that we will see more fashion magazine-branded goods and services going forward.
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