The Week of February 25th in Review

Posted on March 3, 2013 Written by Leave a Comment

By Paul Pannone

For the second week in a row Barry Rosenbloom’s statement of paying a lot more for similar space in New York City made top newZ.  Rosenbloom’s family owns Bridal Guide  but little is known about the man, except by those who say they’ve had a difficult time dealing with him through the years. Since the statement Rosenbloom and team Bridal Guide have grown silent, no longer answering our questions about the move or plans at the magazine.

Black Tie Follow Friday returned after several years to entertain and give online onlookers a dose of Rock & Roll, fantasy fun and an early morning  lift to get them started for towards the weekend. Those who participated said they had fun sharing new fashion styles and laughs. Those who missed the fun this week say they’ll be catching up next Friday and in the weeks ahead.

 

 

eWedNewz

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Filed Under: bridal, Bridal Dresses, Bridal Guide Magazine, Ongoing Story Coverage, Ongoing Story Investigation, Publications, The Internet, The Week in Review, wedding industry Tagged: , , , ,

Bridal Guide Boss Claims paying “A Lot More” for “Similar” Space a few blocks away

Posted on February 24, 2013 Written by 2 Comments

 

By Paul Pannone

A developing eWedNewz story stemming from a simple story release could cause some seismic changes at Bridal Guide as eWedNewz uncovers new information that could force other advertisers to re-think their association with the magazine. eWedNewz fans out our investigation into the matter.

 

In a Twitter exchange Bridal Guide travel expert, Jeff Hendlin alluded to the fictitiousness of eWedNewz reporting. Yet Hendlin posted this picture of the office he is leaving behind for the “much better” space a few blocks away. Hendlin captioned the image with, “gonna miss my office”.

 A reply to the story from Bridal Guide that protested too much said:

“Bridal Guide celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year. While some major bridal titles have been shuttered and others have been forced to make drastic staff reductions and changes, Bridal Guide has never dramatically reduced staffing and has no plans to reduce staff in the future. Most of our top management, editorial, and sales staff have been highly successful in their roles for decades and have been promoted from within the company. We’re proud to boast of the most knowledgeable and expert staff of any national bridal publication.

Contrary to your assertion, Bridal Guide isn’t shrinking. In fact, our focus is expanding and our bank of expert consultants in all wedding-related categories grows each year. Visitors to our new office will observe that it is an upgrade from the space that we’ve occupied on 7th Avenue for nearly eight years. The office configuration is less than traditional — with significant open space to facilitate greater communication between staff. The new office is intended to reflect Bridal Guide’s evolution to much more than a print product. As many of our advertisers already know, Bridal Guide embraces changes that include amazing advancements in our web site  traffic, our social media following, and digital publishing. In a very real sense, we’ve expanded our capabilities to establish Bridal Guide as much more than a magazine. We’ve evolved to become a communication resource that offers an efficient combination of media to produce positive results for our advertisers and an inviting environment for our audience.

Print always will be a core component in Bridal Guide’s marketing platform. We continue to stand head and shoulders above our primary competitor in this arena. As documented by the most recent ABC statements, Bridal Guide’s newsstand sales remain healthy while newsstand sales at Brides have plummeted to an all-time low of 38,000 copies per issue — lower than that every other nationally distributed bridal publication. As documented by the most recent MRI Syndicated  Research report, Bridal Guide reaches significantly more engaged readers than Brides, as well. I’m happy to provide ABC Fast Facts and MRI data to verify the veracity of these claims to you or to anyone who would like to review them. Our role in the print category continues to expand.

Tremendous changes are happening in the bridal industry — changes that are impacting the way in which we all do business. In spite of  these changes — or perhaps as a result of them — Bridal Guide offers tremendous opportunities to bridal market vendors. We attribute this to the fact that our staff includes some of the most seasoned professionals in the world. Again, neither our staff size nor our aspirations are shrinking. You were misinformed. We’re doing a lot  better than “holding our own.” Given our history, we expect another 25 years of growth and success, according to Bridal Guide.

In January Bridal Guide called out its competitors with similar information claiming to be sustaining it’s newsstand sale success. But in a developing story, eWedNewz finds dramatic information into the leadership of the company that could quickly shift support away from the magazine.

Over the weekend an exchange with Barry Rosenbloom, owner of the magazine, purports paying “a lot more” for “similar” space when faced with the eWedNewz question of whether the new offices are bigger than the ones departed on 7th avenue. Given the nature of Rosenbloom’s track record, it’s amazing– even laughable– that he would spend a nickel more for anything.

 

eWedNewz plans to dig in deeper and take Rosie up on his offer to come and view the new space, once they’re settled in.

 

 

eWedNewz

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Filed Under: Advertising and Marketing, bridal, Bridal Guide Magazine, Bridal Magazines, BRIDES Magazine, eWedNewz, eWedNewz Exclusive, General News, Ongoing Story Coverage, Ongoing Story Investigation, Poll, Publications, The Internet, Uncategorized, wedding industry, Wedding Water Cooler, wedding websites Tagged: , , , , ,

The Week of February 18th in Review | Breaking Bridal Guide story

Posted on February 24, 2013 Written by Leave a Comment

By Paul Pannone

An ongoing investigation into the flaws and cracks widening in the wedding business exposes the sensitivity and threshold of pain on several fronts, including the wedding magazine business. Top newZ comparing current wedding business standards of operation was nearly overtaken by a developing story involving a move by Bridal Guide magazine that sent the owner into a tirade. More on the story  as it develops.

Among the many thieves in the upper level of the business, soft-spoken, hard-working members, including Wendy Hartigan, take the approach that have not allowed her play in the popular circles of the business. Yet Hartigan and others like her who put the emphasis of marriage in the proper context are expected to overtake the unsustainable and deteriorating path of wedding industry charlatans who make it all about themselves at the expense of the wedding couple.

 

eWedNewz

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Filed Under: Anti Fairy Dust, Breaking Newz, bridal, Bridal Guide Magazine, Bridal Magazines, eWedNewz, Ongoing Story Coverage, Ongoing Story Investigation, Paul Pannone, The Week in Review, Uncategorized, wedding industry Tagged: , , , , ,

Bridal Guide Shrinks to Match the Market

Posted on February 22, 2013 Written by 2 Comments

By Paul Pannone

Bridal Guide magazine is shrinking their operation, leaving their 7th avenue home of over ten years for a smaller, more modest spot  uptown. The move comes at a time when the bridal magazine– and all print media– face the relentless onslaught and losses of digital.

According to sources at the magazine business has not been awful and has actually sustained in the past several years when compared to their competition.  But luck can only run so far against the lightning fast and more cost-effective digital forms of advertising, as a new generation of brides will no longer be aware of a time without the internet.

 

Bridal Guide says they’re fine at the moment– but like all print, for how long?

67% of an ongoing poll says print will continue to decline. What do you say?

eWedNewz

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2013

Filed Under: Advertising and Marketing, Anti Fairy Dust, Bridal Magazines, eWedNewz, General News, Ongoing Story Coverage, Ongoing Story Investigation, The Internet, Uncategorized, wedding industry Tagged: , , , ,

BRIDES Newsstand Sales Continue to Slide

Posted on February 11, 2013 Written by 1 Comment

By Paul Pannone

BRIDES magazine newsstand sales continue to decline, according to Alliance for Audited Media. Sources familiar with the story claim the only true read to the health of any magazine is their newsstand sales figures.

 

 Newsstand sales figures are what’s most important to sources watching the story.

 

In an unprecedented move the competition, Bridal Guide Magazine,  called out Conde’ Nast property, BRIDES, last month citing what they called flawed information and questionable demographic facts about the magazine’s reach. Further allegations are still being investigated, including how  subscriptions rise at exactly the same rate as newsstand sales drop  at BRIDES.

39% of ongoing poll results so-far say BRIDES has fallen too far to survive.  27% feels BRIDES is sinking quickly, like all printed products. 21% says BRIDES is adjusting to the market and will survive. 10% says BRIDES is as healthy and relevant than ever.

What do you say?

 

 

 

 

eWedNewz

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Filed Under: Advertising and Marketing, bridal, Bridal Guide Magazine, Bridal Magazines, BRIDES Magazine, eWedNewz, Ongoing Story Coverage, Ongoing Story Investigation, Paul Pannone, Poll, Uncategorized, wedding industry Tagged: , , , , ,

Jim Duhe Goes Public Against Conde’ Nast’s BRIDES Magazine on Facebook

Posted on January 16, 2013 Written by Leave a Comment

 

By Paul Pannone

The battle of the bridal books that made top Newz last week has suddenly turned lopsided. Since the Executive Director of Communication, Michelle Panzer and Lori Silver, Associate Publisher of BRIDES magazine, tag-teamed  Jim Duhe of Bridal Guide in a series of exchanges, the Conde’ Nast portion of the battle has fallen silent, while an unlikely Codger,Duhe, goes digital.

 

Big smiles from both Lori Silver representing BRIDES magazine and Jim Duhe, spokesperson for Bridal Guide. It’s Silver’s turn to respond, as Duhe campaigns on Facebook.

 

Duhe called out BRIDES on eWedNewz saying:

Dear Ms.Panzer –

“I’m calling you out. You are either dishonest or inexcusably uninformed. No effort was made to “cherry pick” data. Engaged readers are the lifeblood of bridal magazines. Engaged women purchase bridal gowns. Women who are not engaged don’t buy bridal gowns. It’s that simple. To divert attention away from this very basic fact is dishonest. To claim that a bridal magazine’s engaged audience is less important than its total audience is delusional.

No one at Bridal Guide is rattled by the constant changes or the revolving door of publishers and editors at Brides. To replace a respected and knowledgeable Editor-in-Chief with a person who has no bridal experience — to replace the replacement within a year — doesn’t document stability at Brides. It strengthens Bridal Guide’s position as a bridal industry authority.

Bi-polar changes in the Brides publication cycle — switching from bi-monthly to monthly and then back to bi-monthly publication within a couple of years — demonstrates as basic lack of understanding of the needs of the engaged women and the needs advertisers that sell bridal gowns.

Bridal Guides management and publication have been stable for many years. The Bridal Guide editorial staff has decades of bridal specific experience. The Bridal Guide editorial product always has been and will be targeted to our core audience: engaged women. Perhaps that explains why Bridal Guide’s pass along readership has been superior to Brides for the past twenty-five years.

There is no way for you or the Brides sales team to explain the dramatic difference between the Bridal Guide and Brides engaged audience without being dishonest on some level. It would be fascinating to read your public explanation of this phenomenon. Why is Bridal Guide’s honesty considered a breach of ethics?”

The he said, she said continued as Lori silver picked up the battle from Panzer. In direct response to Duhe, Silver cited her own set of  numbers saying:

 ”And now I am calling you out Jim… unless men are now buying and/or wearing wedding dresses your argument doesn’t hold water. BRIDES reaches MORE engaged WOMEN.

BRIDES engaged women:
913,000

Bridal Guide engaged women:
905,000

Source: GFK MRI
Fall 2012

If this isn’t clear, allow me to fascinate you and explain this phenomenon – the numbers pulled by Bridal Guide include men.

Lori Silver

Associate Publisher, BRIDES

According to Duhe a private message sent to Silver to discuss inclusion of men in her statement was left unanswered. Duhe told eWedNewz he doesn’t think there will be any more responses from either Panzer or Silver, claiming victory on all counts.

Additional allegations from the coverage by anonymous sources say the quality of paper used by BRIDES since announcing enhancements to the magazine nearly a year ago is not up to standards put forth by the magazine to its advertisers. No response was given to our communication with Silver and Panzer questioning the allegations about the paper. An automated reply says Panzer is on vacation.

In unprecedented fashion in the bridal business, eWedNewz learned Duhe took to Facebook writing the following statement to his friends on his wall:

 To My Friends In The Bridal Business . . .

If you missed the battle between Conde Nast/Brides and me in the eWedNewZ story, you missed an epic battle of biblical proportions. It’s a classic David vs Goliath confrontation. The folks at Conde Nast — the internationally renowned publishers of Vogue — probably are dumbfounded that Jimmy Duhe from LaPlace, LA had the audacity to not only challenge their ethics and authority but to win. Clearly, the God of Israelites is on my side.

There’s a lot that I wanted to say to Brides that wasn’t covered in the eWedNewZ story. For example, I’m curious about how Brides manages to sustain a consistent Total Circulation in spite of the fact that newsstand sales have plummeted to nearly 40% below Bridal Guide’s newsstand sales. It’s my opinion that their subscriptions couldn’t climb at the same rate as their newsstand failure without either divine intervention or very creative human manipulation. Since God is on my side, the latter seems far more plausible than the former.

The new MRI data proves that Brides subscriptions aren’t reaching the target audience of engaged readers. Can anyone tell me who in their right mind buys a bridal magazine without any intention of getting married. I can’t. Only Conde Nast can and I seriously doubt that the answer will be integrious.

Have I gone off the deep end? I’m sure that you guys have an opinion. I’d love to hear it — even (or especially) if it supports Brides. Sometimes I feel like a voice crying out in the wilderness.

 

eWedNewz watches the replies on Duhe’s Facebook accounts. We welcome any and all thoughts on this story.

eWedNewz

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Filed Under: Advertising and Marketing, Anti Fairy Dust, Bridal Guide Magazine, Bridal Magazines, BRIDES Magazine, Data, eWedNewz, eWedNewz Exclusive, General News, Ongoing Story Coverage, Ongoing Story Investigation, Paul Pannone, Publications, Uncategorized Tagged: , , , ,

Bridal Book Battle Heats Up

Posted on January 14, 2013 Written by 6 Comments

 

By Paul Pannone

A response to allegations made by Bridal Guide Magazine escalated the war of words between Bridal Guide and BRIDES magazines. Michelle Panzer, Senior Director of Communications at BRIDES addressed Bridal Guide allegations and announced the BRIDES audience is bigger than Bridal Guide’s.

An infuriated Jim Duhe, VP at Bridal Guide, was not smiling at the response given by his competition.

 

In the complete statement Panzer told eWedNewz:

“To claim that Brides sales reps have been dishonest is untrue, unethical and a clear sign that our competition is rattled. Bridal Guide cherry picked information that doesn’t tell the whole story. Advertisers buy based on total audience, not one segment of that audience.

Brides vs Bridal Guide (based on GFK MRI Double-base 2012 total audience)

Total Audience – Brides is Bigger

Brides – 5,137,000

Bridal Guide – 4,291,000

Medium Household Income Is Brides Is More Affluent
Brides – $59,795

Bridal Guide – $56,850

The total circulation for Brides is nearly twice that of Bridal Guide. ALL of our readers matter to us, as they do to our advertisers, and our sales reps welcome the calls and the questions.  Our lines are open.”

 

The reply set off another response by Duhe, infuriated by some of the points of the reply.

 

Dear Ms.Panzer –
I’m calling you out. You are either dishonest or inexcusably uninformed.

No effort was made to “cherry pick” data. Engaged readers are the lifeblood of bridal magazines. Engaged women purchase bridal gowns. Women who are not engaged don’t buy bridal gowns. It’s that simple. To divert attention away from this very basic fact is dishonest. To claim that a bridal magazine’s engaged audience is less important than its total audience is delusional.

No one at Bridal Guide is rattled by the constant changes or the revolving door of publishers and editors at Brides. To replace a respected and knowledgeable Editor-in-Chief with a person who has no bridal experience — to replace the replacement within a year — doesn’t document stability at Brides. It strengthens Bridal Guide’s position as a bridal industry authority.

Bi-polar changes in the Brides publication cycle — switching from bi-monthly
to monthly and then back to bi-monthly publication within a couple of years — demonstrates as basic lack of understanding of the needs of the engaged women and the needs advertisers that sell bridal gowns.

Bridal Guides management and publication have been stable for many years. The
Bridal Guide editorial staff has decades of bridal specific experience. The Bridal Guide editorial product always has been and will be targeted to our core audience: engaged women. Perhaps that explains why Bridal Guide’s pass along readership has been superior to Brides for the past twenty-five years.

There is no way for you or the Brides sales team to explain the dramatic difference between the Bridal Guide and Brides engaged audience without being dishonest on some level. It would be fascinating to read your public explanation of this
phenomenon. Why is Bridal Guide’s honesty considered a breach of ethics?

Jim Duhe
Vice President
Associate Publisher

 

Panzer is aware of Duhe’s response but did not comment further at the time of this story’s release.

 

eWedNewz

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Filed Under: Anti Fairy Dust, Bridal Guide Magazine, Bridal Magazines, BRIDES Magazine, eWedNewz, eWedNewz Exclusive, General News, Ongoing Story Coverage, Ongoing Story Investigation, Uncategorized, wedding industry Tagged: , , ,

eWedNewz Exclusive: Bridal Guide Calls Out BRIDES Magazine; BRIDES Responds

Posted on January 11, 2013 Written by 7 Comments

By Paul Pannone

In an eWedNewz Exclusive we’ve obtained information that was to be distributed to wedding industry advertisers citing information from magazine measurement sources that watch over distribution and newsstand sales. The information complied by Bridal Guide Magazine claims  superiority in some areas, backed by the data they reference.

 

Did you know? A recent issue of Bridal Guide featured David Tutera as the first male on the cover. Tutera sported what appears to be a tuxedo; something Bridal Guide passionately supports. Yet eWedNewz learned Tutera refused to wear a tie– either bow or long-tie. The result is the creative (but disappointing) picture blocking the area where appropriate neck-wear should have appeared.

In this exclusive eWedNewz story you’re now reading Bridal Guide leverages what they feel are important facts to show the world why they think they’re a better value than their competitor, BRIDES.

The “tie-in” raises questions on both sides. Bridal Guide often slams BRIDES for not showing tuxedos in their ads. Yet they were not able to get Tutera to wear a simple bow tie, proving you can’t always get what you want. But in the end, are advertisers getting what they pay for?

 

According to Bridal Guide:

GfK MRI reports that Bridal Guide reaches far more engaged women than Brides—nearly 80,000 more engaged women— even though Brides ‘total circulation’ is nearly (twice) that of Bridal Guide.

-Bridal Guide Engaged Audience: 1,127,000
- Brides Engaged Audience: 1,048,000

MRI also documents that the Median Household Income (HHI) of Bridal Guide’s engaged audience is significantly higher than that of Brides—more than $8,500 higher.

- Bridal Guide’s Median HHI: $57,821

- Brides Median HHI: $49,149

Gfk MRI is the leading producer of media and consumer research in the United States. Its reports are unbiased and straightforward. This means that your Brides sales rep has been dishonest with you. Ask her these three questions:

1. Why does Bridal Guide reach so many more engaged women than Brides in spite of a lower total circulation?

2. Why is the Median HHI for engaged women so much higher for Bridal Guide than for Brides?

3. Since Brides reaches fewer engaged women than Bridal Guide, shouldn’t the Brides rates be lower than Bridal Guide rates? It’s up to you. You can believe the hype that Brides is pushing or you can rely on the facts. Either way, you owe it to yourself to ask your Brides sales rep for answers.

Source: ABC June 2012; GfK MRI Fall 2012, Engaged GfK MRI reports that Bridal Guide reaches far more engaged women than Brides—nearly 80,000 more engaged women— even though Brides ‘total circulation’ is nearly 2x that of Bridal Guide.

• Bridal Guide Engaged Audience: 1,127,000

• Brides Engaged Audience: 1,048,000

The information is released at the heel of several moves and a successful campaign by BRIDES to entice lost advertisers who departed when the magazine went monthly several years ago.  The move was disastrous and cost BRIDES advertising support who shifted over to Bridal Guide. In their current issue, BRIDES fought back with major incentives to return and filled pages with paid advertisement rather than editorial and more creative ads. In addition BRIDES enhanced paper quality giving their book a better feel than its competitor and added the first woman of color to Editor In Chief position.

In an unprecedented move BRIDES responded to the eWedNewz story giving the following statement:

 ”To claim that Brides sales reps have been dishonest is untrue, unethical and a clear sign that our competition is rattled. Bridal Guide cherry picked information that doesn’t tell the whole story. Advertisers buy based on total audience, not one segment of that audience.

Brides vs Bridal Guide (based on GFK MRI Double-base 2012 total audience)

Total Audience – Brides is Bigger

Brides – 5,137,000

Bridal Guide – 4,291,000 

Medium Household Income Is Brides Is More Affluent
Brides – $59,795

Bridal Guide – $56,850

The total circulation for Brides is nearly twice that of Bridal Guide. ALL of our readers matter to us, as they do to our advertisers, and our sales reps welcome the calls and the questions.  Our lines are open,” according to Senior Communications Director Michelle Panzer.

According to sources familiar with both sides these are new times where one competitor would openly disparage another. According to the same sources it’s highly out of character for any Conde’ Nast property to acknowledge such information, much less respond to it as they did.  Technically this is the first time there’s been a response to print. However, Michelle Panzer did respond to eWedNewz when we ran a story about their digital division, www.brides.com, in August of 2011.

43% of an ongoing eWedNewz poll says print is dying and will never recover. A similar number says print is fine and will continue as is. Where do you stand?

eWedNewz

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Filed Under: Advertising and Marketing, Anti Fairy Dust, Breaking Newz, bridal, Bridal Dresses, Bridal Guide Magazine, Bridal Magazines, BRIDES Magazine, Current Events, eWedNewz, eWedNewz Exclusive, General News, Ongoing Story Coverage, Ongoing Story Investigation, Paul Pannone, Publications, Uncategorized, wedding industry Tagged: , , , ,

Print Magazines Working Harder Than Ever; Finally some embrace the Internet

Posted on October 1, 2012 Written by 3 Comments

By Paul Pannone

The decline of printed magazines over the past decade forced companies like Conde’ Nast to reconsider their strategy and pompous attitude, as the internet continues to chip away at sales and revenue. Conde’ and others including Hearst kept their print and internet divisions separate. Only recently have the divisions started to really communicate and leverage one another’s reach to give added value to advertisers.

 

Linda Korman has patiently waited and managed to get print and internet to work closer together for her prom advertisers.

 

For years successful print companies treated their internet divisions like an orphan child and resisted change. But since the steady decline of printed formats and increased use of the internet print organizations were forced to recognize digital; because that’s what consumers want– and ultimately where the advertisers will follow. Hearst began their shift in 2006.

According to Hearst.com;

Launched in March 2006, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, is dedicated to creating and implementing the digital strategy for Hearst’s magazine brands and other sites, which serve the company’s consumer audience. The unit oversees more than 28 websites and 14 mobile sites for brands such as Cosmopolitan, ELLE, ELLE DECOR, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, Popular Mechanics, Road & Track and Seventeen, as well as digital-only sites such as Delish.com, a food site in partnership with MSN, and RealBeauty.com. Hearst Magazines has published more than 150 applications and digital editions for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as the Android platform.

At the Chicago Bridal Market in September Hearst’s Prom Magazines, Seventeen and Teen Prom, sponsored a morning presentation giving specific insight into their reach and reader buying habits. Hearst provided interesting facts and findings that we tweeted to our readers and followers that yelled for more.

According to Hearst data provided at the presentation that we regurgitated;

“74% of dress sales are in stores.”

The data suggest that 26% isn’t; leading to a war between manufacturers and pirates online. Another example of how the internet pits traditional against progressive– print versus digital.

 

Jim Duhe of Bridal Guide says there must be a peaceful balance and coexistence where print and digital provides value for advertisers.

 

“I can remember when only a small fraction of dress sales and advertising was online and was meaningless to anyone. Well that’s no longer true. There must be a balance and partnership between advertisers and where they decide to advertise.,” says Jim Duhe of Bridal Guide.

Duhe, a 40 year veteran, was among the first to embrace the internet and try to figure out how a great web presence could enhance magazine sales.

Advertisers and decision makers in Chicago told eWedNewz they take a good website as a given and now look to a greater social media presence from their advertisers, as consumers shift once again into their own interests and networking communities.

According to Duhe it’s extremely important to have an expert at the other end of a Tweet, post, blog, etc., if the company is going to seem real in product  knowledge and professionalism.

Do you think we’ve seen the bottoming out in the print decline?

 

eWedNewz continues our coverage into the decline of print and how the Internet becomes an even greater resource for consumers.

eWedNewz

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Filed Under: Advertising and Marketing, facts and figures, General News, Ongoing Story Coverage, Ongoing Story Investigation, Poll, Publications, Research, Social Media, The Internet, wedding industry, wedding websites Tagged: , , , , , ,

The problems and Approach at Brides Magazine Confuse Wedding Industry Veterans

Posted on July 12, 2012 Written by Leave a Comment

By Paul Pannone

A growing percentage of eWedNewz readers following the Brides Magazine story say the publication is just another victim of  the challenges facing all print formats. But according to ex-employees and those familiar with “how it works” at Brides– and all other Conde’ Nast properties– approaches that were always odd seem to be worsening.

According to sources familiar with the story certain portions of the problems at Brides and how they’re bring approached seem odd and inconsistent.  Advertisers that warned the publication they were on the wrong path say they’re miffed by the latest moves by the publication. But the strongest statement comes from an ex-employee that now works for the competition, Jim Duhe, VP at Bridal Guide.

 

So far steps taken by Anne Fulenwider to connect with today’s brides have not brought about drastic changes.

 

“I felt as if I had been punked after reading a recent WWD feature about Brides Magazine’s new editorial direction.  It was a relief to read the EwedNewz story because it confirmed the obvious:  the new editorial team at Brides doesn’t understand its readers or its advertisers.  It’s as if Anne Fulenwider didn’t bother to read the magazine or review readership data prior to making proclamations about the need for change.  Apparently, it escaped Fulenwider’s attention that her predecessor, Millie Bratten, included beauty, style, and news features in every issue for decades.  These are not innovations.  If it’s Fulenwider’s intention to appeal to  mainstream” brides, she might want to rethink her decision to spotlight gowns that retail above $8,000 on the cover.

It’s noble for Fulenwider to embrace the needs of “non-fashionable social workers” with her redesign.  However, there seems to be a gap between her intentions and the product that she produces.   The one-size-fits-all approach of the upcoming September issue sounds like a winner.  “This is our fashion Issue,” she said.  “We’re not making a big deal about it because we’re a bridal magazine but we’re doing a fashion issue.  We’re doing really fashionable wedding dresses and we’re doing non-bridal fashion.  We’re not doing a ton but we’ll sneak some in there.”  Gosh.  The non-fashionable among us can breathe a sigh of relief.  However, one-size-fits-all means that it fits no one correctly.

While Fulenwider’s Vanity Fair and Marie Claire experience is noteworthy, it didn’t — it couldn’t — prepare her for the very specific needs of a special interest readership.  Fulenwider is a journalist — not a fashion expert or a bridal authority.  Unlike Vanity
Fair and Marie Claire, bridal magazines are newsstand driven.  Subscriptions are meaningless.  Engaged women are buyers — not shoppers.  They have a wedding date deadline by which all of their buying needs must be met.  They have no use for a bridal publication after the honeymoon is over.  In spite of the news releases regarding change, there is no visible difference between the current (August) issue cover and Brides covers produced in the past.  The content is different only in that it is less focused upon the actual needs of Brides readership,” according to Duhe.

This is not the first time Duhe has been vocal about the competition and swears it’s not taking advantage of a moment to gloat.

“I really feel that the consumer is not being serviced by any goods or service provider when they don’t offer up consistent and meaningful information,” he told eWedNewz.

 

What do you say?

 

eWedNewz

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2012

Filed Under: Advertising and Marketing, Anti Fairy Dust, bridal, Bridal Dresses, Bridal Magazines, Bridal Shops, eWedNewz, General News, Ongoing Story Coverage, Wedding Dresses, wedding industry Tagged: , , , ,
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