September 28, 2015
Les Echos, Le Figaro Set New Magazines
The cover of Almaviva
Paolo Sorrentino
LONG LIVE PRINT: Two French daily newspapers are releasing new magazines this week.
Les Echos is unveiling a weekend publication, as previously reported. “All the dailies have an expanded weekend offer. Enjeux didn’t have the right frequency,” explained Francis Morel, chief executive officer of Les Echos Group, speaking to a handful of journalists last week and referring to one of the publications being replaced by Les Echos Week-end. Les Echos Group invested 4 million euros, or $4.5 million, in the new publication, which is expected to break even within its first year.
The magazine, whose layout was conceived by British design agency BAM, also replaces the weekend pages of W.E. It’s divided into four sections: business, culture, style and well-being. “Each section opens up with a feature,” Les Echos deputy editor Bénédicte Epinay told WWD.
The style section also includes a fashion series (alternating between women’s and men’s wear), a “dress code” section with style tips and a food column by Alexander Lobrano.
Hinting at the first issue’s style content, Epinay said there is a story on butlers’ academies in China, a fashion series focusing on accessories, while the dress code in the second issue will focus on neckwear for men (think ties, lavaliers and bow ties).
The first issue, which comes out Friday, has 124 pages, of which 50 are advertising. The weekend edition including the magazine is priced at 4 euros, or 4.50 euros at current exchange. Les Echos expects to see a 10 percent increase in circulation for its weekend edition following the launch.
A new version of Série Limitée, Les Echos’ monthly high-end magazine, is set for March, in time for the fashion issue. “It’s even more luxury-oriented,” revealed Epinay.
Meanwhile, Le Figaro tapped Paolo Sorrentino, the Oscar-winning director of “The Great Beauty,” to shoot the cover story of its new lifestyle magazine Almaviva. The cover, which he photographed as well, features actress Madalina Diana Ghenea, of “Youth,” and is set amidst the architecture of Rome.
Other photographers who contributed to the issue include Patrick Faigenbaum, Patrick Swirc and illustrator Jean-Philippe Delhomme, who shot a fashion series for the first time.
“It’s a chance to have this new editorial space. It complements Le Figaro’s existing offer, including Et Vous [the paper’s lifestyle daily pages, and weeklies] Scope, Figaro Littéraire and Madame,” explained Le Figaro deputy editor and Almaviva editor Anne-Sophie von Claer.
“The layout is very clean. The codes aren’t those of women’s and news magazines…. The cover resembles a film poster, rather than a magazine cover,” von Claer added.
Laurence Benaïm, fashion author and biographer, serves as Almaviva’s editorial adviser and Christian Brunnquell is artistic director.
Almaviva, named after a character in Pierre Beaumarchais’ play “The Marriage of Figaro,” is due to come out with the paper on Tuesday, Day One of Paris Fashion Week. It counts around 100 pages with advertisers including Dior and Louis Vuitton. Two other issues are slated to be released by year-end, on Oct. 27 and Nov. 24, respectively.
Late last week, Le Figaro unveiled a new iteration of its women’s weekend supplement Madame Figaro, featuring Carine Roitfeld and Lily Donaldson on the cover. That coincided with the release of a second issue of Madame Figaro French Inspiration, a free stand-alone magazine in English with a distribution of 100,000, including in high-end hotels, airlines and the Eurostar. Yorgo Tloupas is its artistic director.
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