There's always a demand for luxury

it paid for the newspaper last year, is the latest title looking to lure
new affluent readers and advertisers. It plans to move into the luxury
market with the September launch of a glossy quarterly magazine, called
WSJ.

Rupert Murdoch is following in the footsteps of other news publications,
such as The Economist, which last year launched Intelligent Life, and
the International Herald Tribune, which has also launched new weekly
style magazine T.

Others that have looked to cash in on luxury territory include the
Telegraph Media Group with ST Fashion and Time, which has been running
Time Style & Design for more than five years.

With publishers' core print newspaper editions generally suffering from
declining circulations, the opportunity to offset this and lure
big-spending advertisers by extending their brands into new luxury
magazine formats is an enticing one.

Possible recession

Yet with an economic downturn, and possibly a recession, looming, is
this really the best time to launch luxury magazines that rely on
big-spending consumers?

Clare Rush, head of press at Mediaedge:cia, says: "Traditionally, old
money has been more recession-proof. But this is not necessarily the
case now if there are job losses in the City."

The Times' Gill Morgan, executive editor of Luxx, also voices concern,
but believes the luxury market is relatively recession-proof. She says:
"Obviously, everyone is worrying about the economy at the moment, but
that's a short-term approach. There may be some fluctuations in the
market and in spending power, but the luxury market is here to
stay."

The Wall Street Journal, which has run advertising for luxury brands
such as Hermes and Tiffany across its newspaper, claims that advertisers
always want to see their brands advertised on glossy pages instead of
newspapers.

Mike Miller, deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, says
demand is there from luxury advertisers for a glossy magazine. "There
will be global brands, such as jewellery, fashion and watches in the
magazine," he explains.

But others are not convinced that there is a vast untapped pool of
advertiser demand for so many luxury magazines published by
newspapers.

Mediaedge:cia's Rush believes the new luxury magazines are a welcome
addition for advertisers, but argues that it is newspaper sales houses
seeking out new commercial opportunities, and not advertisers, which are
driving the recent flurry of launches. Advertisers, though, appear to be
buying into the new titles with luxury brands such as Prada and Armani
show-casing their products among the pages of Time Style & Design.

Adrian Pike, press associate director at MediaCom, says these luxury
titles offer advertisers access to "quality channels" on which brands
are prepared to shell out. He cites Jaguar, which tends to use
newspapers "occasionally", but prefers to go with something
glossier.

Although WSJ will be launching across an increasingly congested market,
Miller is not unduly worried about competing magazines. He argues that
WSJ's planned irreverent editorial approach will offer something new to
the market.

Expanding coverage

He says: "The whole history of The Wall Street Journal has been a
process of broadening what we cover, and finance blurs into what goes on
in the rest of world.

"The difference between work and play is obliterated. This is an area of
journalism we should be serving our readers with."

He also rebuffs claims that WSJ is late coming to the luxury titles
market, arguing that it has planned the launch for some time, adding
that "the first to market is not always the best".

While media buyers may have the new titles on their media schedules,
some are concerned that the titles will not appeal to enough
readers.

Hannah Murphy, press development director at Vizeum, says there is
limited research available on who is reading luxury titles: "The Times'
Luxx magazine is hitting a large number of people, but I question how
many people are picking up the paper for it."

Yet, despite concerns over advertiser and reader demand for luxury
titles, newspaper publishers' recent and planned activity suggests the
luxury magazines sector will continue to grow for some time to come.

NEWSPAPERS' LUXURY MAGAZINES

WSJ: The glossy magazine will cover cars, fashion and travel. The
quarterly publication claims it will prove an authority on "how to live
life to the fullest"

Luxx: The quarterly publication has lured in advertising from brands
such as Jimmy Choo, Raymond Weil and Dom Perignon. It claims to cover
every aspect of the luxury sector, from homes to holidays

Intelligent Life: The title claims to be more than "just a catalogue of
the things for readers to buy" and says it is written for affluent
executives

T: Covers fashion, travel, design and holidays, claiming to guide its
readers through what is "new and worthwhile" in style.