The Face and Just 17 may close

oh, x-post - you just answered that with your post above!

I felt this way when the Penny post and King & Country folded.[/marcello]

Back when I read it cover to cover on the day it came out each month, articles by Gavin Hills and Andrew Mueller changed the way I thought about a lot of things and there were some good book recommendations too. I was the first person I knew who read Trainspotting, which was important to me at the time, though rather less so now.

The Face Of A Someone Who Is Just Seventeen
(Imagine how horrible the cover of that magazine would be).

(Gavin Hills, sob. He was lovely). Also Madchen are you sure you don't mean Andrew Smith? I can't imagine Mueller changing anyone's life

'All those 90s style mags like Dazed and Sleaze and Wallpaper*, they seem pretty finished. They won't really survive the transition to this decade, just like Blitz didn't survive the transition to the 90s. Vice is, like it or not, setting the tone.'

That may be the most optimistic reading. The depressing reading is that Zoo Weekly is setting the tone.

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2004/01/05/Weekly3.jpg

Suzy, how does the Edgy Style Mag keep going? What are its sales figs compared to the Face's?

Havent bought The Face in Many years. (I have editions 1 to 10 in a box in the attic)... Should have a look at this months.

Taking sides: Just 17 or FeMail... ARGHHHHHHH.

Anyway, it's J-17 these days. To be honest I think it's a fair point that these may be due for the axe. I never read the Face so I care less about that then I do for J-17. I'm quite sad that CosmoGirl UK has a different attitude to CosmoGirl US, which ISTR a couple of years ago was actually quite (gasp!) empowering (dare I say that word), in that along with the 'here are the latest new look fashions' it had fun and well written stuff about education and careers and creative pursuits! The UK one, on a recent reading was a load of auld toss.

Zoo, innit?

Somehow my own Edgy Style Mag manages to be both a) reinventive and b) out of this sort of melee, I'm sure because the founder still holds the vast majority of shares in the company and has turned down a fair few offers over time. I'm not sure what the sales figs are as it stays out of the ABCs but my guess is 50-70k British readers depending on who is on the cover, same amount abroad. They are working a niche and that is its size; it's the fashion/art/'creative' industry bible in a way that the others aren't, and the most international by far of all of these magazines. Salaries and fees to work there have never been high; photographers work for cost as a showcase for their work, but you're at least paid on time.

There have been rumours for the past four months that at the very least the Face's editor was for the chop. The approach that style magazines have to take, where they get in early with things and write positively but intelligently, is harder to accomplish now; access to your story is at once near but kept at arm's length.

The Face? Good riddance, mutter mutter etc.

Now I am imagining 80s Smash Hits being staffed by an army of Tom Ewings and it's a bit disturbing.

"Stories in Zoo must be sexy, funny, or about football," says (editor) Merrill. "Ideally, a story will be all three at the same time, and if it's none of those things it's ditched."

The UK mags I buy, and that focus on what I'd call beauty, are Wire and Frieze. Both started in the 90s (or late 80s?) but staffed by people formed by that New Romantic sensibility of 'beauty' -- Michael Bracewell in Frieze, for instance, who was a stalwart of Blitz, the archetypal 80s 'beauty style mag', and all the ex-80s NME people at Wire. These magazines are in a demographic bubble and a time warp, it seems. Then again, what if that kind of beauty interest is in Britain's future as well as its past? If only in a 'return-of-the-repressed' sort of way?

the most recent issue I bought had a photoarticle in it about Palestine... it was really strange, treating a conflict and world of human misery as an excuse for KEWL pictures.

Before its time, obviously. In 1196 a mag about armour and hair shirts would have been the thing.

Up until a few months ago, the Face offices were nearby in Exmouth Market.

But it was always nicely packaged and full of pretty pictures of anorexic smacked out models

dont you think this is a positive thing in a magazine though?

on the one hand i hope the face sticks around, on the other, i do like the idea of things having specified shelf lives, and then going at the right time. i dont know whether this is the right time though (not soon enough? too soon?)

The US has its share of start-ups and fly-by-nights. I just wrote a thing about oral sex for a new 'hipster porn' mag based in New York called SG: The Magazine. (SG stands for Suicide Girls.)

(hahahaha suicidegirls.com, Nick)

damn, x-post

What's happened to The Face?

it hit the wall about 18 months back and never really recovered,
despite an upturn a while back when they briefly had a glossy cover.
they soon went back to non-glossy and it went weird again!

putting 'the barometer' (the much ripped-off cool/not cool list they used to almost hide at the side of a page) at the front, and over about 20 pages was the death knell. ilx could have told them exactly where they were going wrong!

incidentally, SLEAZE
(issue one featuring a cover picture of victoria beckham on fire)
is selling big time. i walked into manchester picadilly branch of wh
smiths to see it at the front of the news-stand with 'this week's
number 1 seller' next to it, which was a surprise.
it's a re-vamped version of 'sleaze nation' isn't it?

Suzy already knows that I find this quite the most ridiculous statement ever.

'OK... so what is SG The Magazine? It's a youth culture magazine with casual
nudity that we wish to position on the newsstand along side Tokion, Dazed and
Confused, Flaunt, etc... It will have a stong music affiliation, and rebelious
spirit. The "SG" part stems from suicidegirls.com, from which we liscense the
name. However, we are building off the notority of their website and wish to
continue that "hipster porn" spirit, yet we are in no way translating what they
have done to magazine print form. They have made a beachhead, in creating a
recognizable name for "hipster porn" in the media and we will build off that
with our own identity as "SG," which NEVER will be known as "Suicide Girls The
Magazine." Only SG The Magazine.'

First sentence is interesting, what do you mean?

Second sentence is just inaccurate I think, the only time I read what you'd describe as lad mags is while waiting to get my haircut, I find esquire is ok, at least they've had Morley doing stuff and once you stay away from the rich businessman parts it's not too bad. But even the really lad mag ones, they don't seem to be about football at all! I don't think that's fair to football.

Tragically, the only magazine I actively look forward to these days is the LRB. (David Thomson on Joan Didion in the new issue! 5,000 words!)

I only really read the Guardian of the UK papers and it's better there I guess but I'm not sure male lifestyle journalism fully exists sometimes.

Anyway this is totally off topic, sorry.

The kind of guy that's up on all his -isms but neither knows nor cares about whether he's being sexist.

Oddly enough I received extremely depressing confirmation of this recently via one of my fave ever writers, who told me some horrible stories of what early nineties MM was like...

I think it should merge with Look-In.

I'm thinking mostly about the boner convention precipitated by the Darling Buds and the Primitives- TWO bands with BLONDE singers at the SAME TIME!!!! So I'm not surprised to hear that at all

Dear friends and readers

THE FACE is under threat of closure. Profits have been down, and our
parent company Emap is currently reviewing the future of the
magazine.

THE FACE has always stood for discovering and promoting the best in
creative talent within British and international pop culture. You
can help ensure it can continue to do so.

We would like you to write a letter of support, addressed to the
editor, Neil Stevenson (email it to: save@theface.co.uk). We will
pass your letter on to the Emap executives.

A two-line letter is enough, but if you're feeling creative, please
email a small digital photo of yourself holding a copy of the
magazine. If you would rather we didn't republish your letter,
please say so.

We need our letters by the end of Tuesday 16th.

Thank you,

THE FACE team (save@theface.co.uk)

could be-selective memory on my part, maybe. Oh, and impending Alzheimer's

Where is Beatles Band?

Here's an update:

Emap is keeping staff at its iconic style magazine The Face in the dark over its decision to close or sell the print title.

The publisher is conducting a review of its magazines and has identified The Face and teen magazine Just 17 as magazines that are unsustainable in their present form.

Emap is expected to consider a variety of options for the titles, including converting them into websites and a decision over their fate is expected in the next couple of weeks.

However, the option of continuing to publish The Face as a monthly glossy magazine has already been ruled out. It is understood that the only circumstances in which this could happen is if the title is sold on.

Senior management at Emap visited The Face team early this morning to discuss its future, but left staff with the impression that the magazine could still have a future as a monthly.

Once source said: "No we haven't been told. It wouldn't be the first time a big company hasn't told people what's going on."

Editor of The Face, Neil Stevenson, said: "I want to concentrate on publishing a great magazine. I haven't been told that is what they are planning."

The Face, which was acquired by Emap in 1999, employs an editorial team of 20 and recruited Neil Stevenson, creator of the Popbitch gossip website, to breathe new life into the title.

But The Face has seen its position as the bible of cool eroded in recent years by smaller, independently owned titles such as Dazed & Confused.

The style market has become increasingly difficult to judge, with the rise of celebrity-driven titles such as Heat and Closer, both of which are also owned by Emap. Last summer Ministry of Sound and Conde Nast cancelled the launch of a joint venture title called Trash, which had promised to kill "manufactured hype".

Launched in 1980, The Face was seen as the epitome of cool and anti-establishment journalism as it charted the rise and fall of youth culture from Acid House to Britpop.

Its first art director, Neville Brody, became a cult figure in the design world and has subsequently gone on to work on other projects, including helping design Guardian Unlimited.

The magazine's circulation has continued to fall in recent years, to its current level of 40,000 a month. However, its sales in the UK and Ireland are far lower, at 24,500, contrasting sharply with Heat's massive average circulation of 566,000 a week.

A spokeswoman for Emap confirmed a review of the future of The Face and J17 was underway, but refused to comment on the details.

Just 17 - Actually 13
The Face - Aren't We Pretty (Clever)

A shame, but far from a surprise. So what's the deal? Did The Face shut because it went off the boil? Or is there simply no space for a magazine like it in the British marketplace now? And who will be next? IMO, it was dead the second it started taking its stories from press releases and its remit from focus groups, instead of hunting out the good writers and keeping an ear to the underground and the provinces. But you try telling that to the publishers.

Alternatively, I also know (not well, but he basically radiates uncliness) an ex-Smash Hits journalist with almost as much money to burn, he's got art that costs more than that.

Who else could buy The Face? Nick Logan could buy it back, maybe? Media megalith to sell moral owner of title rights to same for like 1p?

Spencer, if you think Emap have any shame whatsoever, *bzzzzz* thank you for playing. Anna and I have a few scary campfire stories between us.

(well said Barima)

My collection of Face back issues is a source of quiet pride for me (even though it's mostly late 90s, it's still great for re-reading).

Kate Moss and Jefferson Hack?

So, one more edition to go and then it's 'if'?

Ha! Yeah, best if you like being given a load of bollocks about 'nurturing young talent' only to find that they will suck you and your friends dry and then find a creative way of easing you out of the company.

- Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
- Try different keywords.
- Try more general keywords.
- Try fewer keywords

can that possibly be true, suzy??

also does sleaze really only sell 2k? that sounds v low.

Ricardo - you'd assume, but then again the Independent on Sunday only sells about 5000 copies in Scotland and you can get that in most newsagents. I guess there a lot of returns.

-I would think her employers ahve better things to do than read a board? Has she slagged them right off proper like on here?

Did you see that thing about the Wall Street Journal's court case with al-Fayed, where it emerged that it only had three web subscribers in the whole of the UK?

I'm not sure there's much danger of that. The names of the magazines must be on thousands of web pages, and a google search of S-- C-- by herself doesn't even find the two instances of it on ILX. A far better reason is that it's rude.

xpost - see here for reasons to be careful about slagging off even web-ignorant employers: Putting your blog details on a job application, C or D?

The Business (prev. Sunday Business)'s sale north of the border is even more ridiculous - 689 copies a week.

Toby - yes, I enjoyed the new magazine and wondered if it meant that Talk of the Town had disappeared.

ESM is not for divulging, this is not negotiable. But it sells a damn sight better than the Face has done recently, at least 40,000. The fragmentation of the mag market means that *no* title sells as much as five years ago, even.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,1187059,00.html

The real 'fuck that' should be for the Independent and its 'Independent Portfolio'.

Anyway, the frontrunner to buy is Hachette Filipacci, who own Elle and Red.

What a brillliant name. Is that a person?

SAVING FACE: A future is forming for The Face, Emap’s fashion and pop culture title that closed last month after 24 years on the newsstand. An Emap spokeswoman said the deadline for sealed bids closed last week and the publisher has moved on to in-depth discussions with potential bidders, including venture capital groups and small, independent publishers. Industry sources said a group of London City financial types with bonus money to burn are among the contenders, and the offer price is in the neighborhood of $6.3 million, or 3.5 million pounds. Other contenders are believed to include Peter Howarth, managing director of the publishing company Show Media, and Ashley Heath, editorial director of Arena Homme Plus, another Emap title. Both declined to comment. The Emap spokeswoman would not discuss the names of the bidders, nor would she confirm the sales figure. “We’re looking for a speedy solution to the situation,” she added. “The Easter holidays set us back a bit, but we hope to make a decision by next month.” As reported in March, Emap suspended publication of The Face after the May issue. — Samantha Conti