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CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT: In Style pulled off a feat that few magazines could complete in the last six months of 2008 — the Time Inc. fashion magazine increased its single-copy sales by 6 percent, to 740,384 during the period, at a time when single-copy sales across the 535 audited titles by the Audit Bureau of Circulations dropped by 11 percent. A redesign and a new editor were just a few of the changes that helped to reenergize the brand, but its December holiday issue gave a boost to its newsstand sales. The issue sold 763,726 copies, or 25 percent more than the 2007 issue and 14 percent more than December 2006. “It’s always been about delivering the entertaining blend of inspiration and actionable,” said managing editor Ariel Foxman, who was tapped in September to succeed Charla Lawhon in the position. (Lawhon was elevated to editor of the In Style Group.)
As an example of the “actionable” part of the title’s mix, In Style has struck an exclusive partnership with the Gilt Groupe, the members-only online shopping outlet that offers sales on designer merchandise. The partnership will allow In Style readers to view sales on selected Gilt items in a dedicated section on instyle.com up to seven days in advance of their scheduled sale date. The deal is the first magazine partnership for Gilt, and marries the Web site’s 700,000 members with instyle.com’s nearly one million unique visitors a month, according to internal estimates. “There are an awful lot more people out there who, if they knew about Gilt, would want to be shopping our sale,” said Susan Lyne, Gilt’s chief executive officer. In return, In Style will have a permanent editorial presence on gilt.com, and offer additional discounts and savings to Gilt members. Gilt has plans to extend the partnership to other Time Inc. brands people.com and Celebrity Baby Blog. — Stephanie D. Smith
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