CUSHY TITLE: The Wall Street Journal isn’t the only broadsheet getting into the magazine game. The New York Observer is poised to toss a new fashion title atop the mounting pile. Jared Kushner, who bought the Observer from Arthur Carter in July 2006, is entering the fashion publishing stakes with Observer Style, a semiannual magazine due to make its debut Nov. 16 and focused on the local fashion scene. “Past magazines have been crappy advertorials, saddle stitched together,” Jenna Hollander-Essig, fashion director of the Observer and its new fashion vehicle, said of the weekly newspaper’s previous forays in the magazine format. “This is our first editorially driven magazine.”
Observer Style is anticipating an 80-page November edition, with ads occupying 15 full pages, an initial rate base of 58,000 readers and primary editorial competition coming from New York magazine. The title will be inserted into all subscriber and newsstand copies of The Observer twice yearly. It also will be carried by boutique hotels in Manhattan, such as the W hotels, The Mercer and 60 Thompson. An online version will go live in November.
— Valerie Seckler






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