Nicholas Coleridge, Vice President, Condé Nast International

One of the great things of working in India is that the competition here is good. In my opinion, some of the magazines that are being published now would not be there in two years’ time. I love competition – ‘Condé Nast Traveller’ would be helped by the fact that ‘Lonely Planet’ travel magazine is coming out from the BBC. ‘Lonely Planet’ is a backpacker’s magazine, so it is not the same readership as ‘Condé Nast Traveller’. But all those 18-20 year-old backpackers who swear by ‘Lonely Planet’, once they don’t need to walk around permanently with the backpack and are able to afford hotel rooms with locks, then they can start reading Traveller.

Nicholas Coleridge, Vice President, Conde Nast International, started as a trainee newspaper reporter in Falmouth, Cornwall, on the Falmouth Packet, where he contributed a dozen articles to Harpers & Queen from age 17-22.

He was the Associate Editor of Tatler from 1979-82 (pre-Condé Nast ownership) during Tina Brown’s Editorship. He was then a columnist for the Evening Standard from 1982-86, during which he won the British Press Awards’ Young Journalist of the Year in 1984.

This stint was followed by Editor of Harpers & Queen (1986-89); Editorial Director, Condé Nast (1989-91); Managing Director, Condé Nast UK (1991 to present); Vice-President, Condé Nast International (1999 to present); and he has also been handling the special responsibility for Condé Nast India since 2005.

Coleridge has also been closely associated with the fashion world. He was Chairman of the British Fashion Council from 1999-04, overseeing the London Fashion Week. He was also Chairman of Fashion Rocks 2003, the rock and fashion event at the Royal Albert Hall, which raised £1.3 million for the Prince’s Trust.

Coleridge has also authored 10 books, including six bestsellers – ‘The Fashion Conspiracy’ (1984), ‘Paper Tigers’ (1991), ‘With Friends Like These’ (1997), ‘Streetsmart’ (1994), ‘Godchildren’ (2002) and ‘A Much Married Man’ (2006).

In conversation with Noor Fathima Warsia, Coleridge speaks at length about Condé Nast’s plans in India and the launch of ‘Condé Nast Traveller’ later this year, besides the competition and overcoming the slowdown.



Q. ... Especially in the US and the UK?

The UK was definitely affected by the economic downturn, but not as badly affected as certain other countries like Spain and Russia. It was challenging everywhere, even India was touched – we live in a global economy now. But, we are finding a recovery story already. In the beginning of 2010, our advance bookings are done up to April; not back-up to level of 2008, but it is recovery.

Q. So, the competition is not so much of a worry?

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One of the great things of working in India is that the competition here is good. In my opinion, some of the magazines that are being published now would not be there in two years’ time. Some will fall away, some will grow. I love competition – ‘Condé Nast Traveller’ would be helped by the fact that ‘Lonely Planet’ travel magazine is coming out from the BBC. ‘Lonely Planet’ is a backpacker’s magazine, so it is not the same readership as ‘Condé Nast Traveller’. But all those 18-20 year-old backpackers who swear by ‘Lonely Planet’, once they don’t need to walk around permanently with the backpack and are able to afford hotel rooms with locks, then they can start reading Traveller.

Q. To get into the international plans of Condé Nast – the year 2008 saw slowdown or recession, and 2009 ended on a road to recovery… Was the story true for Condé Nast International as well?

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No, the other way round. The year 2008 was an amazingly strong year. Our glossy magazines were not hit at all. 2009 was a more challenging year – we still launched six new magazines in the year though. We launched ‘Wired’ in Britain and Italy, ‘Vogue’ comes in Turkey next week, so ‘Indian Vogue’ is no longer the baby of the family, it is now one up. As a company, I think I am right in saying we are publishing 125 magazines and 91 websites.

Q. You are vocal about your passion for India as a market. Has the Condé Nast experience in India been up to your expectations?

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Our experience in India has been ahead of our expectations, we made a five-year plan when we came here, and we very quickly found that we were ahead of our plans about a year ahead. When the economic crisis came, it definitely touched us for about four-five issues, and then it picked up again. We are seeing strong growth on both ‘GQ’ and ‘Vogue’. It was when the laws changed here that allowed us to have a wholly-owned company, when we decided to come to India. We prefer to work without partners where we can, because it gives you more flexibility, rather than having to second-guess a partner all the time. We knew we needed to be in India because India is becoming a very important market, though quite a small market compared with other countries, but we are here for the long-term.

Q. How much did the slowdown impact Condé Nast India?

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Around four to five issues had a slight decrease in advertising, but that was about it. We didn’t make any cutbacks in India. In fact, and this is the single statistic that makes me most excited, ‘Vogue’ is now carrying 76 per cent of all the luxury advertising in the glossy magazine market. That is an amazing achievement by Alex and Arjun Mehra – it is a reflection of that fact that the market respects ‘Vogue’ and we are not a complacent company. By giving people a guaranteed circulation that they can believe in, and promoting our magazines with big billboards and fashion nights and lots of shopping evenings, we are trying to support our advertisers, and also Indian fashion. We are not a vehicle to promote western clothes coming to India. ‘Vogue’ is a magazine that supports the fashion industry. You can see this by looking at ‘Vogue’ – Priya (Tanna, Editor, Vogue) is very cunning and skilful as an Editor in how half the magazine showcases the top Indian designers and the rest half giving a pick of the western fashion. One of the reasons why ‘Vogue’ outsells its competitors is because people appreciate us.

Q. So what is 2010 going to be about?

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We are expecting this year to see strong recovery, though not to the extraordinary boom of 2008 – it would be too optimistic to expect that. For us, 2010 would be a year of growth, given the launch of ‘Condé Nast Traveller’. We are seeing a strong subscription growth for both ‘Vogue’ and ‘GQ’. And we are very happy to carry on with that.

Q. Which is the Condé Nast approach, if I understand right?

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Yes, the Newhouse family, who owns Condé Nast, always thinks long-term. It is a private company, so we don’t have quarterly earnings to worry about. We would be utterly surprised if it is not a very, very important market for us in the next 15 years. And this was a reason why we made a very big investment in ‘Vogue’. Firstly, in the fact that it is very well printed, editorial budget is much higher than the competitors, and thirdly, we are the only glossy that has its print order independently audited. And we have an open invitation to all our advertisers that they can come in at five minutes’ notice for any issue they like, and stand by the printing press and see how many copies we are printing. There they would be proved that what we are saying about our print run is true. There has been a long history, I am sorry to say, of gross exaggeration of magazine circulation and people frequently claimed the circulation to be three or four times higher than the print run. And if they are reading this, they know who they are – we know who they are. The fact is, we have come in here; we have been given the privilege of having a wholly-owned company, and we are playing by the rules.

I will tell you another reason why we are very happy to be here. The standard of journalism in India has been high and, therefore, when we started ‘GQ’ and ‘Vogue’, we were able to hire very good people. The team that we have is very good – they are very accurate and intelligent writers, and that is one of the joys of operating in India. It has been much more challenging in countries like China, where there hasn’t been such a long tradition of writing.

There are a few places in the world where you wake up and have a huge selection of newspapers to choose from, so that quality about India has played in our hands and that is why we are going to launch a third magazine in three years. Our plan is to launch a magazine every other year, so we are ahead of our plan. The reason for that is that Alex (Kuruvilla) has been a very lucky find and the company is very well run, and it has got very good, professional people.

Q. Why ‘Condé Nast Traveller’?

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By popular request. It is a very odd thing, whenever we have gone to a party here or met anyone professionally or socially, we are always asked when we are going to launch ‘Condé Nast Traveller’. It is a magazine that punches above its weight. It is not a huge magazine at all; it is a very glamorous niche magazine that knows its audience. So, by the time the 200th person asked us when we are going to launch ‘Condé Nast Traveller’, we just gave in – give the people what they want. It also makes a nice third point of the triangle – it sits neatly with ‘GQ’ and ‘Vogue’. It covers much the same beat from a different point of view.

Q. Did 2009 mean implementing pay-cuts for you too?

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It varied from country to country, and we are talking about 25 different countries. But at Condé Nast International, we did not have to make any enormous redundancy programmes or anything like that. Though every publishing company has been very cost conscious in 2009...