Interview: Peter Howarth, publisher (Evening Standard)
By David Rowan
IT USED to be enough for Premiership footballers to spend their nights at Chinawhite, bank their endorsement fees, and kick the occasional ball about. As from this Friday, they will also have their own glossy magazine to play with. The Newspaper Magazine might sound like something aimed at broadsheet circulation managers, but it is in fact the first fashion magazine aimed specifically at top-rank footballers. And unlike Vogue or Arena Homme Plus, they also get to star in it.
There cannot be many magazines that would hire Blackburn's Andy Cole as star interviewer, send Jason Euell of Charlton to testdrive the new Bentley Continental, and invite Wes Brown (Manchester United) to share his "top essential tunes". Then there are the fashion models: Sol Campbell on the cover, his Arsenal teammate Ashley Cole posing inside in Paul Smith, and Bobby Zamora and Simon Davies of Spurs draped in Prada and Dior Homme. Together with other star players, such as Jermaine Jenas, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Glen Johnson, they are all offering their services for nothing. Is this simply a way of diverting attention from the unfavourable headlines some have faced in recent months?
Nonsense, says Peter Howarth, the former Esquire editor overseeing the twice-yearly venture. Footballers are style gurus.
"Admittedly there has been a lot of stuff in the papers lately, all unsubstantiated," he says. "They can be incredibly powerful role models - but with it comes the dark side, the temptation." The magazine, he says, is "a necessary consequence of their superstar status". "The trend towards footballers as fashion icons has been growing ever since Bobby Moore modelled for Vogue in the Sixties.
Take Calvin Klein - he used to use pop star Marky Mark in his adverts; then he moved to Kate Moss, a model. And now? It's Freddie Ljungberg of Arsenal." The magazine is owned by Jason Ambrose, a former stockbroker who specialises in footballers' personal finance. He conceived the venture once he discovered how anxious his clients were about life after football. They had learned from David Beckham how managing their images could boost their incomes. So they would give their time if they felt a magazine would portray their stylish side.
Once word spread around the locker-rooms, the project took off.
"It's the Caroline McAteer effect," says Howarth, referring to Beckham's publicist. "They are acutely aware that they need to diversify before it's too late. They're looking at Vinnie Jones as a Hollywood actor, or Thierry Henry as the face of the Renault Clio. They're streetsmart and are planning ahead." McAteer agrees that demand is rising for footballers in advertisements. "Brands want to be associated with talent and not simply looks," she says. "I can see why people would buy this magazine."
With a print run of just 20,000 - of which 6,000 are being mailed to players on a database supplied by Ambrose - it is unclear how, even at £5, the magazine will break even. Howarth explains that this is not an issue. His company, Show Media, is paid simply to produce it, and Ambrose sees value in raising his profile among potential clients. Besides, the first issue has advertisers such as Burberry and Tag Heuer, with the rate card asking £10,000 for a colour page.
BUT isn't this simply contract publishing, with the magazine appearing whether or not it finds an audience? Howarth prefers the term "fusion publishing". In its first year, his company has produced magazines for clients ranging from FCUK to Moët & Chandon. "Because you're not relying on newsstand sales, you have greater editorial freedom to pursue high journalistic values," he says.
Howarth confronted the realities of commercial journalism at Esquire, when he took the radical decision to banish "semi-naked babes" from covers in favour of male role models. The January 2000 cover featured a Wonderbra model; February had Johnny Depp. Circulation dropped by 30 per cent, and although Howarth says the strategy boosted advertising revenue and established Esquire as distinct from other men's magazines, rivals suggest that he left a year ago before he was pushed.
Was Howarth depressed by some of the bitchy coverage? He still recalls James Brown's "evil quote" about him being a "submarine editor - driving sales down", and Raymond Snoddy's mocking remark that he was leaving "to spend more time with his family" (he has children aged two, five and eight with his wife, Tracey Brett, former managing editor of GQ).
"I chose to leave. If Esquire wanted me out why would they have given me a contract as editorial consultant? I've launched seven magazines in a year, I'm an ownerproprietor now and I'm making more money than ever." He was simply facing a "midlife crisis": "I was 38, and after six years was the longest-serving editor since men's magazines started. But what do you do next?" It is a question also on the minds of contributors to The Newspaper Magazine. Still, a second career in modelling may not be guaranteed.
As Sir Paul Smith, who dressed the 1998 England World Cup team, tells the magazine: "Big bums and thighs don't always work in fashion clothes."
(Evening Standard, November 12 2003)
IT USED to be enough for Premiership footballers to spend their nights at Chinawhite, bank their endorsement fees, and kick the occasional ball about. As from this Friday, they will also have their own glossy magazine to play with. The Newspaper Magazine might sound like something aimed at broadsheet circulation managers, but it is in fact the first fashion magazine aimed specifically at top-rank footballers. And unlike Vogue or Arena Homme Plus, they also get to star in it.
There cannot be many magazines that would hire Blackburn's Andy Cole as star interviewer, send Jason Euell of Charlton to testdrive the new Bentley Continental, and invite Wes Brown (Manchester United) to share his "top essential tunes". Then there are the fashion models: Sol Campbell on the cover, his Arsenal teammate Ashley Cole posing inside in Paul Smith, and Bobby Zamora and Simon Davies of Spurs draped in Prada and Dior Homme. Together with other star players, such as Jermaine Jenas, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Glen Johnson, they are all offering their services for nothing. Is this simply a way of diverting attention from the unfavourable headlines some have faced in recent months?
Nonsense, says Peter Howarth, the former Esquire editor overseeing the twice-yearly venture. Footballers are style gurus.
"Admittedly there has been a lot of stuff in the papers lately, all unsubstantiated," he says. "They can be incredibly powerful role models - but with it comes the dark side, the temptation." The magazine, he says, is "a necessary consequence of their superstar status". "The trend towards footballers as fashion icons has been growing ever since Bobby Moore modelled for Vogue in the Sixties.
Take Calvin Klein - he used to use pop star Marky Mark in his adverts; then he moved to Kate Moss, a model. And now? It's Freddie Ljungberg of Arsenal." The magazine is owned by Jason Ambrose, a former stockbroker who specialises in footballers' personal finance. He conceived the venture once he discovered how anxious his clients were about life after football. They had learned from David Beckham how managing their images could boost their incomes. So they would give their time if they felt a magazine would portray their stylish side.
Once word spread around the locker-rooms, the project took off.
"It's the Caroline McAteer effect," says Howarth, referring to Beckham's publicist. "They are acutely aware that they need to diversify before it's too late. They're looking at Vinnie Jones as a Hollywood actor, or Thierry Henry as the face of the Renault Clio. They're streetsmart and are planning ahead." McAteer agrees that demand is rising for footballers in advertisements. "Brands want to be associated with talent and not simply looks," she says. "I can see why people would buy this magazine."
With a print run of just 20,000 - of which 6,000 are being mailed to players on a database supplied by Ambrose - it is unclear how, even at £5, the magazine will break even. Howarth explains that this is not an issue. His company, Show Media, is paid simply to produce it, and Ambrose sees value in raising his profile among potential clients. Besides, the first issue has advertisers such as Burberry and Tag Heuer, with the rate card asking £10,000 for a colour page.
BUT isn't this simply contract publishing, with the magazine appearing whether or not it finds an audience? Howarth prefers the term "fusion publishing". In its first year, his company has produced magazines for clients ranging from FCUK to Moët & Chandon. "Because you're not relying on newsstand sales, you have greater editorial freedom to pursue high journalistic values," he says.
Howarth confronted the realities of commercial journalism at Esquire, when he took the radical decision to banish "semi-naked babes" from covers in favour of male role models. The January 2000 cover featured a Wonderbra model; February had Johnny Depp. Circulation dropped by 30 per cent, and although Howarth says the strategy boosted advertising revenue and established Esquire as distinct from other men's magazines, rivals suggest that he left a year ago before he was pushed.
Was Howarth depressed by some of the bitchy coverage? He still recalls James Brown's "evil quote" about him being a "submarine editor - driving sales down", and Raymond Snoddy's mocking remark that he was leaving "to spend more time with his family" (he has children aged two, five and eight with his wife, Tracey Brett, former managing editor of GQ).
"I chose to leave. If Esquire wanted me out why would they have given me a contract as editorial consultant? I've launched seven magazines in a year, I'm an ownerproprietor now and I'm making more money than ever." He was simply facing a "midlife crisis": "I was 38, and after six years was the longest-serving editor since men's magazines started. But what do you do next?" It is a question also on the minds of contributors to The Newspaper Magazine. Still, a second career in modelling may not be guaranteed.
As Sir Paul Smith, who dressed the 1998 England World Cup team, tells the magazine: "Big bums and thighs don't always work in fashion clothes."
(Evening Standard, November 12 2003)
posted by David Rowan at Wednesday, November 12, 2003
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