There’s a reason why Vogue is one of the largest and most influential magazines in the world.
Not to rekindle the old “print magazine vs. digital magazine” debate (again), but unlike most fashion magazines, Vogue maintains the strength of their brand by making their magazine available digitally. They have a strong digital presence while maintaining their print version.
Although they are well known for their fashion and beauty content, Vogue has also gone ahead and explored political and social issues in their publications and editorials. Who can say why they explored these topics? But I believe that is one of the reasons why they are still relevant today. Vogue doesn’t limit itself to just one thing. They evolve along with modern society.
Vogue’s digital magazines are available on various platforms, such as the Apple App Store, Nook, and Kindle Fire. Although it’s a shame that their app is only available in the US region and is not available on the Google Play Store, especially considering that their readers are scattered all over the world.
History
The first issue of the magazine, a social weekly created for wealthy New Yorkers, was published in 1892. The names of most of the 250 shareholders were published in the “Socialite Almanac”; among them were Cornelius Vanderbilt (the first dollar multimillionaire), Stuyvesant Fish (CEO of the Illinois Central Railroad), Duke Percy Morgan and others. The new magazine was founded by Arthur Tournure, a young member of high society from a wealthy family who already had journalistic experience, and Harry McVicar, whose great-grandfather Stephen Whitney was a major wholesaler. Turenneur took over as publisher, and McVicar, who had studied art in Europe, became Vogue’s art director. Initially, the weekly consisted of 16 in-quarto pages, but it was well printed and beautifully designed. The cover was adorned with one of the exquisite pictures that became popular thanks to Life magazine, which placed humorous dialogues underneath. The price of one copy – ten cents – allowed a person with an average income to buy the magazine and find out what was happening in society.
The weekly was positioned as a noteworthy, real magazine that told about society, fashion and lifestyle. The first issue featured a story written by Thomas Jenwyer, but fiction did not find its permanent place in the publication. The magazine was well illustrated, and there were also sketches of costumes, although, as one reviewer noted, the images of clothes worn by energetic people were not so fashionable in the conventional sense. Generally speaking, from the first issue it became clear that this was not just another women’s fashion magazine, but a restrained and respectable publication about fashionable New York. Despite its restraint, Vogue was a first-class magazine, and its respectability set it apart from such sensational publications for the socialite society as Town Topics. Vogue marked the emergence of a new type of publication. The magazine featured articles about theaters, concerts, art exhibitions, and some new books. The visual program of the magazine was based on fashion photography.
Condé Montrose Nast, who bought the magazine in 1909 and founded his own publishing house, Condé Nast Publications, with this acquisition, breathed new life into the magazine. After that, the magazine was transformed: it completely refocused on fashion, abandoning its literary pages, dramatically increased its volume, and the cover became color once and for all. Edna Chase was appointed editor-in-chief, and although she had no journalistic training[citation needed 3008 days], she had been working for the publication since its opening. She held the post of editor-in-chief from 1914 to 1951 and left at her own request at the age of 74.