Why Vogue not in Arabic ? !

Even if the market in Arabic is mouth watering, Condé Nast has chosen Turkey to launch Vogue instead of the United Arab Emirates. The reasons sound reasonable  

Oka i’m not complaining about it but when i heard about the lunch of Turkish Vogue for the first time, i’d thought: Why on earth Condé Nast chose Turkey instead of an Arabic country such as the United Arab Emirates or Lebanon. Since the increasing Arab effect on western fashion retailing is so serious.

It’s so clear that Arabs are more enthusiastic about the luxury consumption than the Turkish. They have been barely affected by the recession and they already have strong influence on western fashion retailing.

The Arab market is so important that Louis Vuitton has launched its first global store in Dubai Mall. Tom Ford and Jil Sander designed special items for the Gulf countries.

Besides the market expands: It’s lately mentioned that Sheikh Hassan Bin Ali al-Nuaimi from the United Arab Emirates is likely to take over the French fashion house, Christian Lacroix.

Thinking all of these above and very naively seeing only the one side of the business, i made a quick search on google and realized that this discussion has already been out of fashion.

After reading Condé Nast International Chairman Jonathan Newhouse’s press release, below, on 'why Vogue cannot be published in Arabic', one of the most important side of business i forgot hit my face: The values!

      
Here are the reasons why not in Arabic:

“Within the Arab world, or to be more accurate, the Muslim world, there is an element which accepts Western values. There is also a powerful fundamentalist, religious element which rejects Western values,

This element rejects freedom of expression, equality for women and expression of sexuality, to name three values associated with our publication.

And this militant element is capable of aggressive opposition, even violence, to attain its goals. At its most extreme, this militant element is capable of murder.

In Indonesia recently, the editor of the local edition of Playboy was put on trial even though the local edition did not print nude photos.

Our company has no wish to impose its values on a society which does not fully share them. And we do not wish to provoke a strongly negative, even violent reaction. It isn't even worth it for a few million in licensing fees.

The Middle East has plenty of people who would love to read Vogue. But unfortunately they live in the same general region as some of the most militant and violent elements.

The UAE borders Saudi Arabia, home [country] of Bin Laden and most of the September 11 terrorists. And militant elements take offense at any Arabic-language magazine.

This isn't Israel/Palestine, Iraq or Iran. It isn't a thorny problem which has to be solved. It is a problem I don't have to have. So I will simply avoid it by never entering the market. And I will sleep better at night.”

                                                         Jonathan Newhouse

the press release has taken from: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/conde_nasty_IasvwQTyblLkQMoraHzx3H#

Vogue in Turkish! Why and How?

The eventual concern is that whether Turkish Vogue will be able to keep customers attracted and have a unique place among the rivals or not

İstanbul oriented turkish media and fashion business are excited about the launch of Vogue in Turkish. The release date is not clear yet but probably in March, 2010, we will see Vogue on the shelves in Turkish.

Why?

The partnership Doğuş Group and Condé Nast made is a brave venture. Since print media is in decline globally, and magazines have never been favoured and sales have never boomed in Turkey. And even though fashion marketing gained some power in recent years, it’s stil at a crawling pace.

Jonathan Newhouse, Chairman of Condé Nast International, says “We are so glad to enter into very dynamic turkish market which has over 70 million people…”

Yes, the total population is over 70 million, but the sales figures regarding magazines are not as exciting. In October, 2009 the number of total circulation, including 87 magazines, was 733,383. The circulation of Elle, the main competitor of Vogue, was 26,753 and the figures of another competitor, Harper’s Bazaar was 6,075.

Do these figures make Condé Nast and Doğuş Group happy? Has Turkish Vogue being planned to be another Elle, Harper’s Bazaar or Marrie Claire? If not; i assume either group have an expansion plan in the market to enhance the figures or have put trust in advertisers.

In recent years İstanbul has welcomed a lot of western fashion brands. Within ten years the brands from the mass market merchandisers Zara, Gap, and Mango, to luxury fashion houses such as Burberry or Marc Jacobs have opened stores. And the fashion retail industry is still growing rapidly.

As expected the main advertisers of the magazine will be the western oriented fashion retailers similar to the advertisements in the western versions of Elle or Harper’s Bazaar. What I’m afraid of is that the power these advertisers may put on editorials, reducing the magazine to another carbon copy of American or British Vogue.

At this point the originality in editorials is vital!

Beacuse, apart from eager fashion students and media workers, who will buy Turkish Vogue? The customers of those newly opened western luxury fashion houses located at İstinye Park Shopping Mall or Nişantaşı would be expected as the main target.

But this main target has no problem reading in English or travelling around the world and buying a copy of American Vogue which represents western brands more glamorously. Why should they buy Vogue in Turkish, when it is a third-world copy of the original one?

The magazine is expected and supposed to have more charecteristics than being translated into turkish.

I can’t wait to see how will they achive this distinction!

The declared fashion director of the magazine is Mary Fellowes, former junior fashion editor of British Vogue and one of the creators of the Intelligent Life of the Economist; the art directors of the magazine are Andrew and Iain Foxall who have a visual design agency in İstanbul named Foxall Associates. And these counterparts have Seda Domaniç as an Editor-in Chief to inform them of what the turkish market needs!

[Seda Domaniç has no previous fashion experience but she has a distinctive CV! She has a degree at International Relationships from Georgetown University, fluency in English, French and Italian along with Turkish, experience in media business, and prior to manning the helm of Vogue, she was the director of business development and foreign relations at the Doğuş Group. She was also the conductor between Condé Nast and Doğuş Group about Vogue.]

So, what does Seda Domaniç have to offer to wealthy turkish customers who are very suspicious about emerging local brands and have a strong tendency to buy well-known western brands.

How will the magazine keep the customers attracted?

Will she give a place on the cover to turkish soap opera celebs who are favoured by the mass but kinda scourned by the elites, to increase the circulation.

Or will the magazine be thick with advertisements and restiricted to only socielites?

And how will this foreign team communicate with local designers, photographers and editors?

As the rumors spread, two fashion photographers, Koray Birand and Nihat Odabaşı, refused to send their portfolios when asked, declaring they are already well-known.

Arrival of Vogue means the improvement in turkish magazine business!

Everyone in İstanbul agrees that Vogue will change the way the turkish magazine business works. The competitors of Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, have mostly been produced by small teams and mostly reproduced from their original American or French versions. They say Vogue has higher standards and ambitions.

Vogue tried to enter turkish market in 1994 but the attempt was unsuccessful because it couldnt find a proper partner which was able to satisfy the various demands such as office space or the number of people who should work for the magazine . Right now it seems the conditions have been provided by Doğuş Publishing, also represents National Geographic in Turkey.

If we contemplate about how retail industry emerges and gains power in İstanbul we may say that Turkish Vogue is promising. Previous experiences show that in any country it’s involved Vogue evolves as the local fashion industry expands.

After all –and maybe too early- question is : Will Turkish Vogue be able to have a crown like some of its siblings do? American one is commercial, French one is chic, Italian one is arty and Russian one is supposedly the next one which will get a crown!

We have to wait to see.