POLL says Conde’s BRIDES is Broken; Fulenwider Goes Back To Hearst

By Paul Pannone

It’s just shy of the one-year anniversary when Conde’ Nast booted Mille Martini Bratten and replaced her with Anne Fulenwider trying to stem losses at  the newsstand and boost sagging advertising revenue. But after attempts to jump-start Brides Fulenwider jumps ship and returns to her post at Marie Claire, a Hearst publication, where she had previously been the executive editor, from 2009 to 2011.

It’s back to familiar surroundings for Anne Fulenwider, as she jumps ship at Conde’s BRIDES.

Members of the Wedding Water Cooler discussed the event;

Editors often get blamed for readership losses.  Conde probably looked to Anne to reverse their losses.  Unfortunately, she didn’t have a magic wand.  The magazine is broken in ways that she couldn’t possibly fix — even if she had an in-depth knowledge of the category.

I think that Anne came to Brides with the belief that she could change tradition only to discover that real brides don’t want to change tradition.  In real life, many consumers like the idea of a formal wedding with all the trimmings.  They like traditional honeymoons.  The “average” consumer is highly predictable.  She won’t wear a $10,000 gown.  She won’t have a $14,000 honeymoon.

Senior members of the wedding industry and competing publications originally criticized Fulenwider’s lack of knowledge in the wedding category when she first replaced Bratten a year ago but jumped all over her in recent statements she made.

46% of an ongoing poll says BRIDES has fallen to an irrecoverable level and won’t make it, as attempts to stem the decline at newsstands simply haven’t worked.  27% say the magazine is just another victim of the general plight of all printed formats. 16% feel BRIDES is making the necessary adjustments and will survive. 7% say that BRIDES magazine is as healthy and relevant as ever.

What do you say?

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