The first September issue to land on my doorstep was Glamour Magazine, and as I ripped it open to consume the latest trends, the number of features on bloggers struck me as odd. By the end of the issue, I counted 13 references including a two page spread on Bryanboy’s dating advice and a page on Man Repeller’s wedding. The reason why more bloggers are showing up in glossies might shock you.
When I started blogging in 2010, the fashion industry was beginning to ask if bloggers were poised to replace glossies as the new tastemakers. In 2011 as more publications became aware of bloggers, a handful of bloggers became the darlings of print. This year has taken a different and more desperate tone for the magazine industry. They seem to be coming around to admitting they are losing ground to bloggers.
My older sister, who is one of the best dressed people I know, recently asked me, “Do you think people even read magazines anymore?” This is a question that must strike terror in the hearts of magazine editors everywhere. And it’s not because bloggers are better writers or have better photographs, but because blogs and social media has changed the way we shop, what we buy and how we see the world. And that may be one reason why magazines are grasping onto bloggers while pleading, “We get it, really!”
The question asked in 2010 has long since been answered: Bloggers and social media is changing the way we consume in ways the magazine and advertising industry could never have imagined two years ago. The Harvard Business School just a few days ago proclaimed, “Marketing is Dead.” No one is paying attention to traditional marketing. They’re not reading the adds. They’re not looking at the tiny fine print credits of a photo shoot and tracking down that exact jacket.
Magazines are aware that bloggers creating their own content, swatching their own products and making their own videos are the next wave of marketing. And they want you to know that they know, while at the same time not telling you too much. Ever notice how the full website address is almost never included in features on bloggers? Magazine editors want you to know bloggers are out there, but not tell you exactly where to find them because they know all too well how much bloggers have really stolen their audience.
Great post! I personally moved away from mags to blogs because of the frequency and immediacy of blogs – you get a little something new every day and if something catches your eye, you can buy it immediately. I also like that bloggers feature approachable, wearable fashion or trends – Im not talking about the cheap chic stuff, but it’s also not the $20k Gucci gown or something equally unattainable.
Thanks Aileen!
There’s a precious few things I can actually afford that show up in a magazine, whereas on blogs not a day goes buy where I don’t want to buy something that I see. It’s a totally different mentality! I also like the voices behind blogs. It’s more personal.
Ok, I’m glad to know that I’m not crazy. I’ve been wondering why so many bloggers were being featured all of a sudden. At first it was just in a specialty advert for a brand but now they have full on spreads, articles, and more. As a blogger, I think that it’s cool that we’re getting more exposure but on the flip side, we’re being overexposed at an alarming rate. Makes me wonder if that’s an underlying reason that mags are on board all of sudden. Think about it: over-saturate w/bloggers (thus reaping the benefits from the collab/article, etc.) til people get sick of them and there’s a backlash, and then turnaround and proclaim themselves as the true authorities on fashion again. I read an interview with Leandra and she stated that she knew that this was her most popular time and that she was going to capitalize on it to the fullest (paraphrasing but you get my drift).
I know it sounds a little conspiracy theory-ish (I’m low on sugar and caffeine right now lol) but I really think something is up.
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It’s been slow, but it seems like BAM all of a sudden bloggers are all over magazines. I noticed those same ads that are made to look like real articles–there was one with a failed smart phone that featured a blogger.
Leandra has an interesting mentality from what I can see from the interview’s she’s done. I don’t know if she’s going about it the right way, but it’s not my place to tell people how to run their businesses. I guess the mentality has is certainly ONE of many.
For most of us, blogging is a fun activity. If brands want to work with us, great, but we should sell out! Magazines are probably going to use bloggers up and spit them out. Wait and see!
Yea I’m just waiting for it to happen as well. Hopefully those that are able to use it as a springboard secure enough projects that they’re able to sustain after the boom is over.
And honestly, i can’t really tell what she is doing with her brand. it doesn’t seem to make any sense. Outside of the collection that she did with Dannijo (which was smart and interesting giving her affinity for “arm parties”) there doesn’t seem to be a strategy. Like it’s just do whatever whenever (but maybe that is the strategy?)
But honestly, like many of the other big time bloggers, I don’t get the mass appeal. She IS funny as heck, and I’ve seen a few interviews/articles that she’s done were I liked her look but overall the blog doesn’t speak to me personally. I know everything isn’t for everyone (ugh, we live in an age where that caveat always has to be added less someone think you’re hating/judging/bad mouthing) but I’m just saying, I’m always curious to know what the draw is for some of the “top tier-ers: what makes one blog grow and be loved by the masses while another one that has that “formula for success” barely makes a dent in the blogging world (even when it’s done for fun). What is their tipping point, you know?
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I think a lot of big time bloggers would be smart to try to parlay their blogging success into a career or at least add titles to “Blogger.” If their blog ever ends, they don’t want to be stuck with a resume gap–that would be my biggest concern.
I think you’re right about Man Repeller–but hopefully SHE knows what she’s doing. I know she has a book coming out, and the book actually seems better than just a Lauren Conrad Style knock off (if you know what I’m talking about!)
I think a lot of big bloggers have a lot of readers coming who aren’t bloggers. They also have connections already. In the interview with Man Repeller, I read she had friends at Refinery 29 who mentioned her blog 6 months after it started. If we all has friends in high places, maybe we’d blow up too.
Either way, I try not to think about it too much!
I just came across your site for the first time today. Enjoying the conversation and spirit around here. I just got the same issue of Glamour and noticed the exact same thing – bloggers are taking over the world. In a way it’s nice, but I also liked the separation of the two before, I liked having the magazine as a platform and blogs as another. The blend of the two isolates bloggers who are not included in that scene.
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I agree with you! it’s interesting to see more magazines discussing bloggers, but it makes me skeptical as to why they are doing it.
I’m glad you stopped by
!
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I did not know that glossies neglect to include the blogger’s address.
Clarke’s Law of Revolutionary New Ideas is like the glossies’ attitude toward bloggers. He says there are 3 stages: (1) ‘It’s crazy — don’t waste my time.’ (2) ‘It’s possible, but it’s not worth doing.’ (3) ‘I always said it was a good idea.’
The big glossies used to treat bloggers like a joke, now they’re incorporating them because they can’t survive without them! I also believe their strategy is to keep bloggers “down there” instead of treating them as the equals they are.
I love the new look of your blog!
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A lot, though not all, don’t include it. For example, The Man Repeller may have a sentence like this written, “Leandra Medine of The Man Repeller started her blog a year and a half ago,” but no where will it flat out say: Visit Leandra’s site at manrepeller.com. At least that’s what I’ve noticed in Glamour.
I’m with you–I think magazines laughed at bloggers and now that they see newspapers folding and magazines getting shut down, they are on the constant search for the NEXT THING!
Thank you about the layout–I’m still playing around with it, but we’ll see how it ends up!
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You raised some very good points! Yes, I have noticed how magazines are turning to bloggers more and more and it is because we have a deeper connection with our audience that they simply can’t get. They can’t tap into what our readers want on a personal level. With social media it’s more about developing meaningful connections than just selling you something – you fall in love with the person first and then you will buy whatever they buy. A magazine run by a corporation just cannot do that.
I just hope that we as bloggers don’t get caught up in the industry standards that we fight very hard to change.
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>>I just hope that we as bloggers don’t get caught up in the industry standards that we fight very hard to change.<<
The most interesting part is that bloggers are setting the standards and they don’t even realize it. Maybe not with high fashion publications like Vogue, but if you open up any issue of Lucky or Glamour, you see BLOGGER all over it. I think bloggers have to come around to the idea that it is not us who has to change, but them.
So many brands are struggling to create connections with their readers outside of the pages of their magazines. Will the do it? Only time will tell.
Excellent point. Its not just the fashion industry thats seeing an influx of bloggers, I have seen it happen in a few different niches as well.
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I definitely agree! Bloggers and social media is popping up everywhere.