KEEPING AN EYE ON THE BRAND: HOW

MONOCLE MAINTAINS A MINIMAL BUT

EFFECTIVE WEB PRESNECE FIVE YEARS ON

by
Hannah Jenkins
B.A (English & Communications), Trinity Western University, 2010

Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Publishing

in the
Publishing Program
Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology

© Hannah Jenkins 2014

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Summer 2014
Approval

Name: Hannah Jenkins

Degree: Master of Publishing
Title: Keeping an Eye on the Brand: How Monocle Maintains
a Minimal but Effective Web Presence Five Years On
Supervisory Committee:

Roberto Dosil
Senior Supervisor
Senior Lecturer

John Maxwell
Supervisor
Assistant Professor

David Michon
Industry Supervisor
Managing Editor, Monocle

Date Approved: April 30, 2014

ii
Partial Copyright Licence  

iii
Abstract

This report analyzes trends in online publishing and how they have affected high-end
print magazines, focusing on the redesign of the Monocle magazine website.
Established in 2007, the magazine is known for its unique mixture of current affairs and
international design stories, with a particular focus on Japan and Scandinavia. In 2012
the magazine began a re-launch of its Website. The report examines Monocle’s Web
model for its success in building an online presence for the Website capable of achieving
the following important functions: Acting as an extension of the print publication with
short articles and multimedia, offering increased reader interaction with writers and other
users, and strengthening the brand through the expanded content and functionality.

Keywords: Monocle Magazine; Magazine Publishing; Social Media; Magazine

Branding; Tyler Brule; Online Publishing; Wallpaper Magazine; Magazine
Trends

iv
Acknowledgements

Thank you to my supervisory committee Roberto Dosil, John Maxwell, and David
Michon: your thoughtful guidance took this paper from an idea to 51 pages I am proud
of. A big thank you to Monocle magazine and all those who took the time to provide me
with valuable information about the company. In particular, I’d like to thank Andrew Tuck,
who gave me the access necessary to write this paper and was a pleasure to learn from
for two years. To Harris & Hoole, the north London coffee shop – this paper would be
nothing without your iced lattes. And finally, a big thank you to my parents, who made it
possible for me to get this degree and to pursue the career I’m passionate about all the
way to England.

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Table of Contents

Approval.............................................................................................................................ii  
Partial Copyright Licence .................................................................................................. iii  
Abstract.............................................................................................................................iv  
Acknowledgements............................................................................................................v  
Table of Contents..............................................................................................................vi  

Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1  

Chapter 1.   The Context and Vision of Monocle ........................................................ 2  

1.1.   Brand Identity: The Magazine .................................................................................. 3  
1.2.   Brand Identity: The Website..................................................................................... 6  
1.3.   Brand Identity: Retail................................................................................................ 8  

Chapter 2.   Print Advertising Model .......................................................................... 10  

Chapter 3.   Best Practices of Luxury Magazine Websites ...................................... 14  

3.1.   Best Practice: Extension of print publication .......................................................... 15  
3.2.   Best Practice: Digital Advertising Platform............................................................. 18  
3.3.   Best Practice: Social Media ................................................................................... 22  

Chapter 4.   The Digital Redesign ............................................................................... 27  

4.1.   Redesign: Concept................................................................................................. 28  
4.2.   Redesign: Print into Digital..................................................................................... 29  
4.3.   Redesign: Iterative Approach................................................................................. 31  
4.4.   Redesign: Responsive Design ............................................................................... 32  
4.5.   Redesign: Critical Response.................................................................................. 34  

Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 36  

References .................................................................................................................. 38  
Appendix A.   Monocle.com 2008 screnshot and 2013 screenshot ............................... 43  
Appendix B.   Monocle Media Kit 2013 .......................................................................... 45  
 

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Introduction

Founded in 2007, Monocle magazine is known for its beautiful aesthetic, its
unique subscription model and for its opinionated founder and editor-in-chief, Tyler
Brûlé. In five years it has grown to a circulation of 73,000 copies worldwide with 16,500
subscribers, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.1 The circulation area is divided
between: Europe (55%), North, Central and South America (25%), Asia/Middle-
East/Oceania/Africa (20%) (Monocle Media Kit 2013). Brûlé is celebrated in the
magazine industry for founding the highly successful Wallpaper* magazine in 1995,
when he was just twenty-eight years old. Wallpaper* is now owned by TimeWarner and
serves as perhaps the most apt comparative title to Monocle. To put Monocle’s success
in context, Wallpaper* has 17, 300 worldwide subscribers, according to the Audit Bureau
of Circulation. While this is a thousand more subscribers than Monocle, Wallpaper*’s
subscription costs only £64/annum, while Monocle subscribers pay significantly more at
£90/annum. Overall, Monocle is earning £377, 800 more from its subscriptions. This is a
significant amount from a title that is twelve years younger than Wallpaper* and not as
well known.

Like Wallpaper*, Monocle stands out for its physicality. It has no iPad edition and,
until recently, very little content on its website for free (subscribers have always had full
access to Monocle magazine’s archive online). This report explores how a magazine
brand like Monocle can be successful in the digital realm by building on its print identity.
The report also discusses how Monocle’s digital strategy and online practices compare
to those of its competitors. Finally, it reviews in detail Monocle.com’s 2012 redesign and
discusses if it is, in fact, possible to be a premier print magazine that also has a vibrant
online presence.

1
The Audit Bureau of Circulation is cited in the references but it requires a password to access.
Password available upon request.

1
Chapter 1. The Context and Vision of Monocle

Before discussing Monocle’s digital strategy it is imperative to understand its

context and vision. 2007 was not a good year to start a magazine. The Economist’s
September 2007 the article titled “Out of Vogue” noted: “In America and Europe
magazine publishers have a common lament: total circulation is either flat or declining
slightly as people devote more time to the internet, and an ever greater share of
advertising spending is going online.” According to magazine database Mediafinder, 591
magazines ceased publication in North America in 2007, the highest number of the
decade. Around this time there was a particular niche that publishers were trying, and
failing, to break into: a luxury business magazine for men. Condé Nast tried twice, first
with Men’s Vogue, launched in 2005 and again with Portfolio, launched in 2007. Both
publications strove to weave business coverage with lifestyle content, hoping to gain
advertisers from each genre, and both were price at $4.95 USD (£2.95 GBP) per issue.
They were essentially they same magazine, except that Portfolio used slightly heavier
paper stock in contrast with Men Vogue’s glossy format. Despite Condé Nast’s best
efforts, both Men’s Vogue and Portfolio folded in 2009 (Ives, Ad Age).

So when Tyler Brûlé launched Monocle on February 15, 2007 as an independent

luxury title aimed at international businessmen with an interest in design and fashion, the
media industry was understandably skeptical. In Businessweek columnist Jon Fine
called it “an ill-conceived vanity play with no chance for traction beyond the few fortunate
who live like Brûlé,” and in The Guardian James Silver argued that it wouldn’t be able to
compete with Newsweek and The Economist. These critics grossly underestimated
Brûlé’s vision for Monocle, which stretched beyond the magazine itself and
encompassed a new, more lucrative, advertising model, a multi-platform brand including
print, online and retail, and, most importantly, a loyal brand community. Brand
community is defined by Muniz and O’Guinn as a “specialized, non-geographically
bound community, based on a structural set of social relations among admirers of a

2
brand” (412). They go on to argue that “developing a strong brand community could be a
critical step in truly actualizing the concept of relationship marketing. A strong brand
community can lead to a socially embedded and entrenched loyalty, brand commitment
[...] even hyperloyalty” (427). It is in the name of brand community that Monocle is able
to run a highly successful inverse subscription model in which they charge their
customers more money to subscribe than to buy each issue individually – a practice that
is virtually unheard of in the magazine world. They charge £6 per issue, £80 per ten-
issue subscription and £90 per twelve-issue special subscription (Monocle Media Kit
2013). As discussed earlier, while Monocle has fewer subscribers than other, more
commercial, titles like Wallpaper*, its subscription model is more financially successful.
Early on Brûlé identified that brand loyalists are willing to pay extra to officially become a
part of the community and he set out to create a product worthy of their loyalty.

1.1. Brand Identity: The Magazine

The initial product was, of course, Monocle magazine. The stores in London,
New York, Tokyo and L.A. were opened in that order a year apart over the next four
years and the radio station, Monocle 24, was launched in October 2011. Before Brûlé
commissioned a single article he started building a buzz around the brand - the first
articles about Monocle appeared eight months before the launch, in June 2006.2 The
reason he was able to start publicizing so early on was because his concept was so
strong. This falls in line with what Bill Schley and Carl Nichols write in their book Why
Johnny Can’t Brand: Rediscovering the Lost Art of the Big Idea; they write: “branding is
about finding a specific IDEA that you stand for, finding a way to own that idea in a
credible way, and ultimately building total trust that you will always deliver. It’s about
your walk – well before your talk. You make physical, material adjustments to your
product, service, and market conduct as necessary to align with that idea. Then you tell
the world” (13).

2
Campaign magazine ran an article on Monocle in July 2006, see:
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/606577/

3
 Brûlé’s “big idea” was to create a lifestyle magazine that mirrored the lives of the
team who created it. This is exactly what designer Marty Neumeier describes in his
much-celebrated book The Brand Gap. Neumeir writes: “A living brand is a collaborative
performance, and every person in the company is an actor. When a rep lands a
customer, when an admin takes a phone call, when a CFO issues a profit warning, when
a product manager gives a demo, when an accountant pays an invoice - each of these
events adds depth and detail to the script, just as surely as a new campaign or website
does. People "read the script in their experience with the company and its
communications, then retail their version of it to others. When people's experiences
match their expectations, their loyalty increases” (136).

Monocle has mastered this idea of being a “living brand”. Everything from the
paper stock used to send letters to the business cards with the gold-embossed Monocle
“M” to the wine glasses are hand picked by Brûlé. The office itself is famously chic, and
staff isn’t allowed to put their coats on the backs of their chairs or keep water bottles on
their desks (Swedish-designed carafes are provided instead) to keep it looking clean.
Brand expression extends to all reaches of staff behavior; staff are strongly discouraged
from using Twitter and it is recommended that they keep their online presence minimal,
so the public doesn’t associate staff members personal lives with the brand. Brand
guidelines also extend to the style of clothes staff wears, right down to not wearing the
colour purple because of Brûlé’s dislike for it (as chronicled in both columnist Andrew
Goldman’s New York Times article ‘The Case against Purple’ and John Hudson’s
Atlantic article: ‘Hey, Washington: Tyler Brûlé Hates Your Purple Tie’). Of course,
Monocle only hires people who are already “on brand”. The interviewing process is as
much about what books an applicant has read and art exhibitions they’ve seen and
brands they are wearing as it is about their competency.

In a profile piece of Monocle that New York Magazine published in December

2010 Amy Larocca describes how strong the company culture is: “ . . . and the Monocle
staff live that way, too. One spring day in London, three of Brûlé’s deputies are at lunch
at Dean Street Townhouse, the trendiest restaurant in the city right now, sipping glasses
of white wine and comparing their Brazilian tans—they’ve all just gotten back.” It’s

4
scenes like these that make the reader believe that Monocle is more than an aspirational
magazine or even a brand. It is a way of life.

At the core of the Monocle brand is Monocle magazine, with the tagline: "A
briefing on global affairs, business, culture and design”. This statement is fundamental to
the Monocle brand and encompasses a whole new genre of magazine, and with it a new
audience. It is not strictly lifestyle and it is not strictly news, it’s a bit of both, carefully
curated through the narrow lens of Tyler Brûlé and his editorial team. It’s mix of content
is so unique that vendors often don’t know what section to stock in (Brûlé would prefer
that it go with the business titles, but it often gets shelved with design titles).

When looking at the newsstand Monocle stands out because of its sheer
physicality. Take the January 2011 issue, for example: at 242 pages, plus a manga
supplement, city guide, substantial amounts of text and a very low advertising ratio
(about 15%) Monocle stands out on a newsstand (Adams, Businessweek). In a 2006
interview Brûlé did with Mark Johnson of Campaign magazine he explains that part of
his vision for Monocle is drawing inspiration from Asia, which he says holds clues to the
future of publishing: “If you look at Asia, and in particular markets such as South Korea
and Japan, they are thirty-six to forty-eight months ahead of us in the digital revolution
but they’ve taken the decision to celebrate being in publishing by producing confident,
robust, tactile products. The quality of print on the newsstand in both markets is so high.”

Brûlé modeled the design of Monocle after the Asian “mook” publishing trend,
where a combination of “magazine” and “book” describes the production values and
depth and quality of relationship Asian magazines share with their readers (Johnson).
According to the Campaign article, Brûlé believes that “mook” model might be able to
save Western publishing because the advertising buy-in is so much higher; he notes,
“When [advertisers] see Monocle they say it feels like a giant book.” The “mook” model
has a sense of permanence to it that regular magazines do not have. For example, as
soon as a new issue of Monocle goes on sale the previous issues double in price
(Johnson). This is because Monocle was created to have a collectable quality about it. In
an interview with The Australian newspaper Brûlé says: “Immediacy demands that

5
readers consume [other magazines] in one sitting, whereas our view is that this should
sit on your bedside table or coffee table and hopefully you can revisit it again and again.”

In addition to the heft of the magazine, Monocle’s aesthetic is characterized by

Swiss - influenced graphic design and a variety of illustrations styles. In an interview with
Grain Edit,, Ken Leung, Monocle’s first Art Director, described the design as “an
unquestionable nod to Swiss graphic design. The Muller-Brockmann 3-style grids provide
a strong foundation to begin building and designing a page in the most legible and
concise way possible. Using such a strict grid also enforces restraint, which, in my
opinion is where the most interesting design comes from.” Leung went on to comment
on the illustrations in the magazine: “I choose illustrators that display a sense of
craftsmanship and detail in their work. They should have confident styles that aren’t
based on trends or an over-reliance of technology.” The strong aesthetic that Leung
helped Brûlé to create is of utmost importance to the brand because, according to
Neumeir, “the hallmarks of a charismatic brand are a clear competitive stance, a sense
of rectitude, and a dedication to aesthetics. Why aesthetics? Because it's the language
of feeling, and, in a society that's information-rich and time-poor, people value feeling
more than information” (19). Monocle magazine evokes a feeling of quality and
exclusiveness, achieved by a combination of distinctive design and a price tag to match.

1.2. Brand Identity: The Website

So how does a brand that is so dedicated to their physical product approach the
digital realm? According to Monocle’s 2013 media kit, they take a unique approach to
the web with a focus on video, round-the-clock radio on Monocle 24 and an expansive
retail store. Rather than rehashing the print edition online, their web strategy is to
provide an in-depth complement to the magazine. It was conceived as a multi-platform
brand from the start, with the website rolled out at the same time as the first magazine.

3
Josef Muller-Brockmann was a Swiss graphic designer and teacher who advocates for the use
of the grid for page structure. He is the author of Grid Systems in Graphic Design and Design
Problems, among others.

6
 Unfortunately, no statistics are available from Monocle’s first three years online,
but there is data on Monocle.com’s web traffic three months before and immediately
after the website re-launch. According to internal statistics provided by Sally Moussawi,
a digital assistant at Monocle, in June 2012 Monocle received 2, 607, 058 page views
and in December 2012 (the month after the re-launch) they received 6, 094, 581 page
views.4 While no other magazine would release their web stats for comparison, some
insight can be gleaned from the American web-tracking service, Alexa.com. According to
Alexa, Wallpaper* is the 45, 954 most popular site in America while Monocle is
significantly more popular as the 29, 289 most popular site.5

It helps that Monocle was conceived as a multi-platform brand from the start.
Before the magazine was even launched Brûlé knew that he wanted to launch the mag
and website simultaneously, followed a few months later by the first retail store in
London. On his personal website, Monocle’s first Web Director, Dan Hill, describes the
initial vision for Monocle’s digital strategy: “We wanted to make Monocle a journalism
brand that you had a weekly relationship with via the internet, as well as the monthly
relationship via the magazine. Ultimately, this should be daily, if aspirations come to
fruition. This weekly relationship would be through a form of broadcast media, using the
internet’s ability for distributing video - something enabled only in the last couple of
years, effectively - and thus conveying the sense of a Monocle broadcast news element,
complementing the ‘book’. The challenge was to create a working environment that
would produce it, and then an online environment that could distribute it” (Hill). This
format was met with mainly positive reviews, and moderate to low page views. Mark
Nagurski of the online magazine Really Practical wrote that the site is not merely a
“digital recreation of the print title;” rather, “the Monocle website operates to complement
and extend the print version of Monocle. This is perhaps what makes the Monocle
website such a successful contributor to the Monocle brand since it makes the website
“a destination in itself.” The observation that Monocle’s initial website extended,
complemented and supplemented the magazine was a win for Monocle’ digital team as
that was exactly their objective. Adrian Shaughnessy of Eye Magazine goes a step

4
For a more detailed analysis please see Appendix A
5
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/monocle.com

7
further by stating that the website trumps the magazine: “If the aim of 21st-century
publishing is summed up in the dreary phrase ‘cross platform,’ then Monocle hits the
target. But the magazine is eclipsed by the website, which is a triumph of confident and
unclichéd design. It boasts broadcast quality video and audio, and functions as a
genuine expansion of the magazine and not the usual online dumping ground.”

While many of these initial reviews were positive, the site also garnered criticism.
On his blog, Speedbird, popular author and urbanist Adam Greenfield critiqued that
there wasn’t enough content on the site to justify users paying for it, and that the site
should be more social (there was no place for comments or for linking to articles on the
initial site). Both these issues were addressed in the re-design, which is discussed in
further detail in chapter four.

1.3. Brand Identity: Retail

In addition to the magazine and the website, Monocle was launched with a third
branding platform: retail. It started out with one store in London that opened at the same
time as the magazine was launched, and has now expanded to Tokyo, Hong Kong, New
York, Los Angeles and Toronto. The stores market co-branded merchandise, created in
conjunction with high-end designers and boutique brands. Products range from bags by
Japanese brand Porter to Castaner Espadrilles to a custom bicycle by London-based
manufacturer Death Spray.6

This strategy of co-branding merchandise is describe by Rao and Ruekert as “...a

synergetic alliance in which the sum is greater than the parts” (87). Brûlé recognized co-
branding as an opportunity to boost the Monocle brand by associating it with other high-
quality brands. As Begemann writes: “A partner is not selected for particular attributes
which are incorporated into the product, but rather because positive brand associations
from the partner brand elevate the co-branded product’s image, but particularly because
positive spillover effects on one’s own brand are expected” (36). Each co-branded piece
that Monocle stocks in its shop is both a source of revenue and brand extension, and it

6
See: http://Monocle.com/shop/

8
assumes that the Monocle brand has a certain level of cachet and that brands from all
over the world want the Monocle ‘M’ emblazoned on their products. Keller notes that,
when done right, “the inherent combination of at least two brands on one product
naturally offers a unique set of functional and emotional benefits which reverts to more
than one brand identity and might therefore attract consumers” (360). This model has
clearly been working for Monocle; in 2010 it opened a Hong Kong bureau funded purely
by the proceeds of the Monocle stores in Los Angeles and London (Brook).

9
Chapter 2. Print Advertising Model

Monocle’s main source of profit comes from advertising, both in print and online
(see chapter 3.2 for analysis of online advertising). Monocle is particularly attractive to
advertisers because of its clearly defined readership, and as Johnson and Prijatel noted,
“Advertisers are thus attracted to magazine publishing in particular because of the
relative specificity of their audiences; magazines are typically consumed by clearly
defined readers” (28), which creates a competitive edge for advertisers wanting to
communicate with certain audiences. Brûlé positioned Monocle among a lucrative set of
titles, including publications like GQ and Vogue, as well as more niche publications like
Wallpaper*. These titles have relatively high cover prices, but Monocle’s is by far the
highest: GQ and Vogue are both £3.99 GBP ($6.50 CDN), Wallpaper* is £4.99 GBP
($8 CDN) and Monocle is £6 GBP ($10 CDN).7 McKay writes: “readers that are targeted
by this sector are categorized as ABC1 audiences. They are described as sitting at the
highest levels of social and economic status and possess significant purchasing power”
(194). According to Monocle’s 2013 media kit: “The Monocle readership is urban-
dwelling, MBA-educated, CEO/MD/entrepreneur working in finance, government, design
and the hospitality industry. Readers have an average income of £207 thousand GBP
($340 thousand CDN) and travel on ten business trips a year plus five holidays. They
are savvy, design-conscious consumers and investors in property, art, cars, timepieces,
fashion and interiors” (7).

Given their good positioning in the market, Monocle has taken a unique, brand-
partnership approach to advertising. Instead of having a clear line between ads and
editorial, Monocle frequently creates “sponsored content” which represents the
successful synthesis of advertising and content. Piers Fawkes, a marketing analyst who
did a study of Monocle’s advertising methods in 2009 writes that this approach, “Wins for

7
Statistics from the Audit Bureau of Circulation: http://www.abc.org.uk/Products-Services/

10
the reader, publisher, and advertiser.” A particularly good example of this symbiosis is
Absolut Vodka, who have had an eight-page travel guide in the June 2009 issue of the
magazine; to reciprocate the magazine also advertises a travel pocket book, which is
available at international duty free stores with the purchase of Absolut vodka. This
makes Monocle’s brand of “sponsored content” neither blatant advertising or product
placement. Rather, it is content marketing that allows the magazine to accrue revenue
from sponsors while providing readers with information and offers that are more likely to
appeal to them. Strong brands such as these want to know first and foremost that they
are reaching an audience with a significant disposable income; being willing to spend £6
GBP ($10 CDN) on a magazine, as Monocle readers do, is a good indicator of wealth.
Thus, advertisers are willing to spend significant amounts on Monocle because they
know the high-value that the consumer places on Monocle itself. Brûlé elaborates: “Our
pages are very expensive . . . Of course there are a lot of people who we don’t see in the
magazine who would be wonderful as brand partners. But if you can’t pay then you can’t
be in the magazine . . .the right companies see what we’re doing, and they see there is
an absolute value to what appears on the page” (Pawle).

Monocle features a relatively low volume of ads—a typical issue is 15%

advertising compared to Vogue who has as high as 72% advertising (Cosby). However,
because of their “brand partnership” strategy they are able to charge significantly more
than other publications targeting a similar reader demographic and luxury advertisers.
While Monocle will not release the specifics of what they charge advertisers, it is evident
by their high profit margin. This unique approach to advertising has proved to be
successful; in a time when most high-end magazines were losing advertisers, Monocle
was actually gaining advertisers. For example in 2009, two years after Monocle’s debut,
many luxury magazines were looking thin. Simon Kurs of The Guardian reported that the
April 2009 issue of i-D had 20% fewer ads than its April 2008 issue, while British
Vogue’s 308 pages was 80 pages fewer than the equivalent issue in 2007. According to
the World Advertising Research Centre, in 2008, the UK magazine market ad-spend was
down 10% from the same time period in the previous year. (Kurs) Harper’s Bazaar, for
example, saw its total number of ad pages in January to March of 2009 fall by nearly
20% compared with 2008, according to Nielson Research. British Vogue was in a similar
situation (down 16%), while Elle was only slightly better off, with 6% fewer ad pages than

11
during the same period in 2008. Kurs calls the shortage of advertising “a critical issue”.
Meanwhile, while so many luxury magazines were losing advertisers, The New York
Times reported that Monocle’s advertising was up significantly in 2009 (Carr). Brûlé
partially attributes Monocle’s success to being willing to go and meet advertisers in
person: “So many media outlets have pulled back on travel in editorial and advertising . .
.You have to be out there. Even in this day and age you are not going to finish a deal in
Seoul without having a couple glasses of wine and singing some karaoke with the clients
(Carr)”. It is this brand-partnership attitude that sets Monocle’s advertorials apart.

However, the close relationship between the magazine and their advertising
clients has also made Monocle the topic of scrutiny. While many publishers will refer to
advertisers as business partners, Brûlé goes a step further by calling them “patrons of
Monocle’s approach” (Carr). The concept of brands actually visually partnering with
magazines, as appears in Monocle with the M x Brand logo stamped on every
advertisement, is unheard of in North American advertising. In the United States,
magazines abide by the rules of the American Society of Magazine Editors, which call
for clear bright lines between advertising and editorial. Brûlé disagrees with having such
strict rules around advertorials. In 2009 he commented to the New York Times: “We are
a global magazine and I think that approach is beginning to go sour in the fridge.” One of
many examples of Monocle’s approach appears in the September 2010 issue: there is a
large insert on Singapore, with a survey paid for by its government and several large
companies there, but the articles are generated by the magazine staff. Brûlé defends his
decision to mix content and advertising: “Rather than some boozy lunch with editors and
sponsored parties, we cut right to the chase. We have editorial integrity, we don’t accept
freebies and we make the final decision about what is worthy . . . as publisher and editor,
I’m part of the religious and secular worlds, and I make the decision. No offense, but I
think the whole church-and-state thing is a very tired, U.S. concept” (Carr).

Monocle has intentionally blended ads and editorial. Advertisements that appear
in the magazine, including the government of Taiwan, Rosetta Stone and Absolut vodka,
mimic the look and ethos of Monocle. Advertisers, of course, love the exposure it gives
them. Todd Wood, vice president for industrial design at Research in Motion, the maker
of the BlackBerry, which has sponsored Monocle Weekly, a podcast of the magazine,

12
stated that he likes Monocle’s approach precisely because of the lack of conventional
boundaries. Wood notes: “[Brûlé] and Monocle are at the leading edge of innovation in
terms of their industry . . . their approach to information and intelligence is a very good fit
for us” (Carr). As traditional sources of advertising dwindle and clients become
accustomed to a multi platform world where their messages are just one more kind of
content, Brûlé’s innovation is so far paying off. This may also be a reflection of the
acceptance on the part of the reader of the blurring of lines. It also confirms, the strength
of brands and branding and how much they are incorporated into today’s lifestyle of
consumers. That is why brands are discussed today as experiences, and as such they
are part of everyday life and the relationship of the consumer with any given successful
brand becomes hard to separate from all other daily experiences. They become a
natural presence. A validation of individual choices and lifestyle. A demonstration of
belonging to a group or “tribe”. The next section will discuss Monocle’s innovative
approach to digital media.

13
Chapter 3. Best Practices of Luxury Magazine
Websites

Monocle.com went live in February 2007, a full decade after the first luxury
magazine websites (Vogue.com launched in 1996 and GQ.com launched in 1997).
Because of this time lapse, Monocle was able to learn from the experiences of others. Of
course, Vogue.com and GQ.com have both evolved with technology. In the beginning,
the sites were very text heavy and all the content was copied directly from the
magazines. This can be seen by looking at the website ‘Wayback Machine,’ which has
catalogued every version of every website since the early 1990’s (see Vogue.com in
1997).8 As technology has improved, magazines realized that it was in their best interest
to put unique content on their website, so that people had a reason to visit the site
independent from the magazine and in return advertisers would pay to be on the
website. In the early to mid 2000’s magazines focused on making their website a
destination. In 2007, the year both Monocle and the iPhone were launched, the potential
for advertising dollars grew significantly as people began consuming content on their
smart phones.

According to a report by Amy Mitchell and Tom Rosenstiel at The Pew Research
Centre’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), Americans are now fully into the
digital era. As of 2012 more than 75 % of U.S. adults owned a laptop or desktop
computer and 44% now own a smartphone. About 51% of smartphone owners use that
device to get news, as do 56% of tablet owners. And nearly a quarter of the population,
23%, now gets news on multiple digital devices. Tablet ownership is now at 18%, up
from just 11% in the summer of 2011.

8
See original Vogue site on the Wayback Machine:
http://web.archive.org/web/19980705013122/http://www6.phys.com/d_magazines/03Vogue/conte
nts/contents.htm

14
 While niche, monthly magazines like Monocle, Vogue, GQ, and Wallpaper* are
not strictly news publications, they do cover current events, whether it be in politics,
fashion or design. Success in online publishing requires these publications to go well
beyond re-hashing the pages of their latest issue. In this section, the report will discuss
the online functions that have become the standard for publications such as Monocle
and look at the methods of publishing that Monocle and its competitors have
implemented in order to build their online brand. This section examines how Monocle
has responded to online publishing trends and which features it has chosen to
incorporate into its editorial content and design. The discussion will include an
examination of the tools used to build an online presence and identity, branding
techniques, and social networking features. The analysis of how Monocle, Vogue, GQ,
and Wallpaper*, have approached these issues will reveal the best practices for a luxury
magazine online Edition.

The essential functions of luxury magazines’ websites are:

1. To act as an extension of the print publication by providing

consistently up to date information that is tailored to their reader’s
niche interests through short articles and multimedia components.
2. To strengthen the brand through this expanded content and
functionality that will reach a broader audience and create additional
advertising opportunities and;
3. To offer increased reader interaction with writers and other users
through features such as blogs and options to comment directly on
stories; to offer opportunities for social networking.

3.1. Best Practice: Extension of print publication

The first function of a luxury magazine’s online platform is to act as an extension

of the print publication. Multimedia has proved to be one of the best ways to do this as it
avoids giving away the editorial content of the physical magazine and it adds a dynamic
element to the site. Short videos have become an essential part of Monocle, Vogue, GQ,
and Wallpaper*’s websites, and with good reason. According to a 2007 study by the
National Endowment for the Arts “on average, Americans aged 15 to 24 spend almost
two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on
reading” (Kabani & White, 162). It’s clearly a great way for magazines to capture their

15
audience, and it’s also a great way to capture their advertisers. Kabani and White go on
to quote the market research firm eMarketing, stating that spending on online video
advertising will grow to $4.6 billion CDN (£2.8 billion GBP in 2013, representing a more
than sevenfold increase from the $587 million CDN (£3.6 million GBP) spent on online
video in 2008 (161).

Each publication has taken a unique approach to how they display and profit
from video content. Vogue and GQ are both owned by Condé Nast, and so their
approach is similar. Both websites have a dedicated “video” section that includes one-off
videos as well as series. For example some of Vogue’s series are : “Vogue Weddings”,
“Monday Makeovers” and “From the Vogue Closet”. All of their videos are hosted
through their own site (not an outside host like Youtube or Vimeo) and have a one-
minute advertisement at the beginning that is compulsory viewing. While Vogue.com
doesn’t show how many times the video has been viewed, it does show the number of
shares it has received on Facebook, which is typically fifty to one hundred. GQ’s
numbers are similar for their series, which include: The Women of GQ, and GQ Covers.
Condé Nast has gone one step further with GQ and in March 2013 invested in a
YouTube channel with an original mini-series titled “The Ten”, sponsored by Proctor &
Gamble, Microsoft, and more (Mau). Vogue and Vanity Fair, another Condé Nast
publication, are set to follow suit later in 2013 (Mau). Condé Nast is taking online video
so seriously that it has hired Dawn Ostroff, formerly of The CW and Lifetime, as
president of its new entertainment division. Ostroff says that the new digital network is
“creating more ways for our unparalleled audience of influencers and trendsetters to
experience their favorite content” (Mau).

Wallpaper*, which is owned by Time Warner Inc. also have a dedicated video
section on their site, but have not yet gone as far as Condé Nast by creating a YouTube
channel. The videos are categorized by subject and range from art and architecture to
travel and design. Examples are: “City shorts”, a six minute tour of a unique city like
Helsinki, Rotterdam, Berlin or Seoul and a fifteen minute video of Ermenegildo Zenga’s
spring/summer 2014 fashion show in Milan. Their videos get anywhere from fifty to four
hundred shares on Facebook. While they don’t have compulsory ads at the beginning of
their videos they do have sponsored videos, or videos made “in association with”.

16
 Monocle’s online video strategy was different from the start; it never included for
example citizen journalism, or a YouTube channel. As Monocle’s first Web Director Dan
Hill put it:

“We'd seen many other broadcast news outlets appear to be getting ever more
parochial, and produce editorial with lower quality (closing bureaux, only covering stories
directly relevant to their region, cost cutting generally in production values - the apparent
step forward of journalists filing video reports via their mobile phone is often merely a
cost-cutting exercise, and a step backwards in reporting quality). Equally, the rise of the
internet as a medium for video is characterized by YouTube, which although a brilliant
platform play in many ways, doesn't do the kind of journalism we were interested in, or
offer original high quality programme making. So we wanted to raise the bar in online
video: to shoot things in high quality - we have our own Panasonic AG-HVX200 HD
cameras and Mac Pro-based Final Cut Pro editing stations - and edit and encode
professionally, embedding on the page in 16:9 ratio, to subtly give a sense of high
quality broadcast”.

The result for Monocle has been excellent. Their video views far exceed that of
their competitors, with between five thousand to ten thousand views per video9 and 450
000 film downloads each month (Monocle, Digital Opportunities). They have also found
unique ways of collaborating with advertisers by creating bespoke video content. For
example, in June 2013 Monocle partnered with Samsung to promote their new
smartphone Instead of making a video about the phone, Monocle used the phone’s
slogan “Bringing people together” and tied it into a short documentary on the best chef in
Italy by relating how food brings people together. A compulsory-viewing ad for Samsung
preceded the video and embedded a Monocle-written advertorial for the phone beneath
the video. Monocle also relies heavily on video to promote their magazine. At least two
videos per issue are produced; one “Issue Promo” and one video based on a story in the
magazine. Often, these videos will just be a series of still photos set with music and
narrated by one of Monocle’s staff. Monocle is the only magazine out of itself, Vogue,

9
Monocle’s internal web statistics provided by Sally + http://hypebeast.com/2013/4/Monocle-
takes-a-look-inside-the-tokyu-hands-superstore?_locale=en

17
GQ, and Wallpaper* that are creating still-shot videos and, given the low-production cost
and popularity of the videos, it seems to be a valuable format to garner advertising
dollars.

Another platform that magazines have been adopting as an extension of their

print publications is audio—specifically, podcasts. The low cost of producing podcasts,
compared to video, makes sense for magazines strapped for cash that want to add
another interactive element to their site. Thousands of magazines and newspapers air
weekly podcasts, including The Guardian, The Economist, The Globe Mail, as well as
the four magazines previously discussed in this section: Monocle, Wallpaper*, Vogue
and GQ. Because Vogue and GQ are Condé Nast publications, their podcast formats
are similar. Both do themed music podcasts, as well as sporadic podcasts from various
fashion events. Wallpaper* does fewer podcasts, but does occasionally air an interview
with a designer or architect. Monocle has taken podcasting more seriously, creating a
24-hour radio station around the medium. (The station’s operation is discussed in more
detail in chapter four) The original podcast, The Monocle Weekly, was launched with the
magazine in 2007. Dan Hill describes its early success on his website: “Best of all, we hit
number 1 in the iTunes News & Politics chart just before Christmas 2007. It’s hardly the
most rigorously calculated chart in existence, but still an achievement, I think, to have
the likes of the rather more well-funded and well-established Economist, Guardian, BBC,
Reuters and Sky trailing in your wake through December, even temporarily (with the first
four there having an average age of over one hundred years or so, and our brand barely
ten months old at that point)”. It seems that listeners are eager for podcasts that offer
fresh perspectives, even from one of the older media formats. As American radio
personality Adam Carolla told Forbes: “The podcast is as old as two people talking on
street corners” (Wolf). The medium’s sense of old-fashioned personableness is in line
with Monocle’s brand values and is one of the reasons Monocle has embraced it.

3.2. Best Practice: Digital Advertising Platform

Another important function of luxury magazines’ online media presence is the

opportunity it allows for online advertising; both because of the revenue it brings in and
because of the potential to strengthen the magazine brand by associating with other

18
brands online. According to research firm eMarketer, online advertising is now more
lucrative than print, with revenue from online ads surpassing that of combined
newspaper and magazine ads for the first time ever in 2012 (Hof). The reasons
eMarketer cites are not surprising: people are spending more time online, there is a
perception that online ads are more measurable, and there’s a growing demand by
advertisers for ad campaigns that integrate multiple channels, including online. The
numbers speak for themselves: eMarketer estimates US digital newspaper ad revenues
grew 8.3% to 3.3 billion USD in 2011. Print advertising revenues at newspapers fell
9.3% to 20.7 billion USD in 2011. At magazines, US print ad revenues are expected to
rise 0.5% to 15.34 billion USD in 2012, up from 15.3 billion USD last year. US digital
advertising spending at magazines grew 18.8% to $2.7 billion in 2011 (Hof).

Vogue, GQ, Wallpaper* and Monocle have each taken a unique approach to
online advertising that is in line with their brand. One of the ways that GQ, Vogue and
Wallpaper* make money online is by hosting “pay-per-click” advertising. This is the
conventional banner advertising that many websites host. Monocle’s former web
developer and designer David Longworth explained that brands work with a stock
advertising agency who will connect them up with a website that fits their demographic;
the brands and the website hosts (in this case, the magazines) don’t talk directly to each
other. Some of the brands that have been matched to Vogue, GQ, and Wallpaper*
through stock advertising agencies are: Land Rover, Tiffany & Co, and HTC. This is
effective in that luxury products get matched with luxury magazines.

Another way Vogue, GQ and Wallpaper* are monetizing their online edition is
through participation in social media. For example, In the winter of 2013 Vogue used
Twitter, Facebook and Polyvore (a fashion site) to find both those passionate about the
topic of fashion and those who exude high levels of influence in the area Vogue’s
concept was to take passionate and influential social personas, and have them test out
their advertiser products, and be the first to blog about these new products and line
releases. The network of bloggers ranges from highly influential Parisian fashion blogger
Garance Dore to fashion students at Central Saint Martins in London. By doing this,
Vogue extending its offering to their advertiser base, as it gives advertisers an avenue of
brand and product syndication for which they were not set up in the past. As Susan

19
Plagemann, Publisher of Vogue, put it “There are a lot of people who are self-appointed
experts. The biggest difference is, we’re developing a program of ambassadors who
spread the word digitally across a very big network about the access that’s been given
because of Vogue” (Crandon).

While pay-per-click advertising and social media may be effective for Vogue, GQ
and Wallpaper*, Monocle has taken a different online advertising approach to its
competitors. Like its print advertising strategy (discussed in chapter two), Monocle’s
online advertising is all bespoke. They use no social media or stock advertising
agencies. Instead, they pursue the same kind of brand collaborations that they do in the
print edition of the magazine. On the original website, this kind of advertising was
minimal as they didn’t have the capacity to host rich media, such as embedded video,
and they couldn’t track how many views the adverts were getting. Enabling rich media
was a key driver for the 2012 redesign, as having embedded video and ad tracking
greatly increases both the price that Monocle can sell ad space for and the experience
that a user coming to Monocle.com will have with the “co-branded” advertorial.

Monocle’s method of “co-branding” is also referred to as native advertising. Todd

Wasserman, the business editor of Mashable, defines native advertising as “a web
advertising method in which the advertiser attempts to gain attention by providing
valuable content in the context of the user's experience. Native ad formats match both
the form and the function of the user experience in which it is placed. One form of native
advertising, publisher-produced brand content, is similar in concept to a traditional
advertorial, which is a paid placement attempting to look like an article. A native ad tends
to be more obviously an ad than most advertorials while still providing interesting or
useful information. The advertiser's intent is to make the paid advertising feel less
intrusive and thus increase the likelihood users will click on it” (Thorton). For example,
Monocle’s website in July 2013 featured a photo of a New York-based entrepreneur
named Adam Tarlow, along with a short bio. The content took up nearly all of Monocle’s
homepage, and while it may have looked like an in depth profile, the likes of which
Monocle frequently runs, it wasn’t. Rather, the homepage experience was just one
component of a sophisticated campaign paid for by Samsung, and an example of
Monocle’s all-in – and lucrative – approach to native advertising (Kantrowitz).

20
 Despite their seemingly textbook “native” approach, Brûlé is adamant that
Monocle does not, in fact, use this method. He told the digital marketing magazine
Digiday: “ “We absolutely never, ever use the term native advertising,” calling the
expression a “bizarre, North American piece of marketingism.” But whether you like the
term or not, Monocle is, in the words of Skift CEO Rafat Ali, teaching a “masterclass” in it
(Kantrowitz). Like with the print advertorials, the digital advertorials are produced in
collaboration between the advertisers and Monocle’s design team. As discussed in the
section on Monocle’s print advertising (chapter two), this blurring of the “church-and-
state” divide between editorial and sales is very intentional. Editors accompany ad
directors on sales calls. Brûlé went on to tell Digiday: “I’m of the opinion that all good
journalists are good salespeople too.” While the ad team discusses pricing and tries to
close the business, editors give Monocle’s potential clients insight into the publication’s
editorial calendar and explain the reasoning behind certain editorial decisions. Once the
client buys in, Monocle’s team then works with the client on the concept, produces
illustrations, and executes the final ads with the client’s input. The result is an
advertisement that meshes with the magazine’s look and feel and aspires to be
appealing to readers. All the ads are labeled vaguely – with the brand’s name followed
by “X Monocle” – but leave it to the readers to figure out what that means. According to
Brûlé, the collaboration allows Monocle to make bold moves, like giving over its
homepage to Samsung for a time: “Ultimately Samsung had to sign off on it, but we’re
the ones who delivered the final film to them . . . This is something which has been
produced by us, it’s our photo director, it’s our broadcast director who has overseen this.
We know that visually it’s not going to look out of sync totally when you click through to
it” (Kantrowitz).

While Monocle itself seems to have escaped criticism for having its ads resemble
editorial, the practice itself has come under fire in some quarters. Andrew Sullivan, a
particular harsh critic put it this way when critiquing BuzzFeed’s ads: “If journalism is not
understood to be separate from advertising, then it has lost something incredibly
important in a democratic society” (Warzel). Despite this negative outlook, the financial
incentive of online native advertising is huge. The Samsung campaign brought in roughly
one million dollars to Monocle.com and online native ads can, depending on the month,

21
account for up to one quarter of Monocle’s total revenue. According to Brûlé, “This is the
direction that the web and digital need to go in if it’s going to sustain itself” (Warzel).

3.3. Best Practice: Social Media

The second function of luxury magazines’ online presence is to offer readers

increased interaction with writers and other users through features such as blogs and
public comment sections, and to offer opportunities for social networking. Over the past
ten years the rise of Facebook and Twitter have pushed media brands to interact directly
with their consumers online. There are many benefits for magazines using social media,
one of the most obvious being increased brand awareness. Erik Qualman in his book
Socialnomics writes:

“Ask any Fortune 500 executive, small business owner, or sole proprietor what
their most effective form of marketing is and I guarantee their answer, without hesitation,
is Word of Mouth. Word of Mouth is not a new concept but what happens when this is
taken to another level? What happens when Word of Mouth goes to World of Mouth? . . .
while traditional word of mouth can be slow to spread the opposite is true for Facebook
status updates. These updates are pushed via news feeds to all friends in the network.
Or, to an even greater extent, a platform like Twitter gives you access to 85 million users
who have the ability to read your tweets. This scales much better than an individual
telling a few friends a week about the new product or service she enjoys” (1-2).

Qualman argues that social media allows magazines to connect with their
audience globally, in real time. He goes further in emphasizing the benefits of
communicating digitally by stating: “Since your opinion is in digital format it’s less likely to
be misunderstood or diluted over time . . . with word of mouth the message loses
meaning and context. However, when that message is passed digitally, as is the case
with social media, it is less likely to lose its original intent” (3). In his book, ‘Twitterville:
how businesses thrive in the new global neighborhoods’, Shel Israel notes that it is
because of the convenience, speed and reach that Twitter is the most rapidly adopted
communication tool in history, going from zero to ten million users in just over two years
(7). Israel continues: “On Twitter, word can spread faster than wildfire. Companies no

22
longer have the option of ignoring the conversation” (7). According to Twitter, the
number of users grew 32% last year to around 24 million active users in the U.S. (500
million total accounts worldwide) (Mitchell & Rosenstiel). Facebook is an equal
juggernaut. The Pew Research Centre’s Project for Excellence in Journalism’s report
states: “Some 133 million Americans, or 54% of the online U.S. population, are now
active users on Facebook (out of 850 million monthly active users globally). They also
spend an average of seven hours there a month, fourteen times the amount of time
people spend on average on the most popular news sites” (Olmstead, Mitchell &
Rosenstiel). Today most magazines use Facebook and Twitter as the main means of
communication with their readers, whereas in the past they would have communicated
primarily via the post. Vogue, Wallpaper* and GQ have all taken up the call to be on
Facebook and Twitter seriously. Vogue leads the group with over 4 million likes on
Facebook and 2.5 million followers on Twitter, GQ is next with 540 thousand Facebook
likes and over 400 thousand Twitter followers and Wallpaper* has over 200 thousand
likes on Facebook and 850 thousand followers on Twitter. They use this media to build
deeper relationships with the readers audience and to draw them to their website, which
increases traffic and as a result their online advertising revenue. Monocle has taken a
completely different approach, choosing not to have any official social media accounts at
all. Speaking to columnist Gideon Spanier at the London Evening Standard newspaper,
Brûlé described social media as “mostly just “a lot of chatter” and continued by saying “I
think many media brands will find or are finding it’s a brilliant way of also diluting your
brand”.

He’s not alone in his stance. In the book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence
People in the Digital Age’, Silicon Valley guru Guy Kawasaki is quoted as saying: "Digital
communications have made it possible to reach more people in faster and cheaper
ways. You could make the case that technology has made it possible to blow one's
reputation faster and easier than ever" (Carnegie 1). For a magazine like Monocle, that
is synonymous with the brand of Tyler Brûlé, having multiple employees and even
outsiders commenting on the brand online could hurt the brand, instead of helping it. As
John O’Reilly points out in EYE magazine: “What makes Monocle matter, like
Wallpaper* before it, is that it is the product of one man’s imagination, and its eccentricity
gives it a shot at success” (Shaughnessy). Brûlé is also the head of Winkreative, a

23
creative agency housed in the same office as Monocle. He told Spanier that while at the
helm of Winkreative he’s seen some clients who have spent decades building “a sense
of mystique” and are now being “too accessible”. Brûlé himself isn’t on Facebook or
Twitter. “I don’t have to be. I’ve got a magazine,” he says, noting it is easy to contact him
and other staff as all their email addresses are in Monocle”.

By publicly positioning Monocle as a magazine that is not on social media, he

has further defined the brand and strengthened it. There is no shortage of evidence
illustrating Brûlé’s decision not to put Monocle on social media; in an interview with
Bloomberg TV he even went so far as to answer the question “What do you want to be
remembered for?” With: “Not Tweeting.”10 And the decision to be off social media isn’t
just limited to Brûlé or to the magazine in a formal capacity; it extends to all staff. This is
in line with the brand constraints Neumeir describes in The Brand Gap: “Every person in
the company should be issued a personal shockproof brandometer - a durable set of
ideas about what the brand is and what makes it tick. Because no decision, big or small
should be made without asking the million-dollar question: ‘Will it help or hurt the brand?’
The secret of a living brand is that it lives throughout the company, not just in the
marketing department” (138). For Monocle, social media has been deemed an activity
that will hurt the brand: “I want my reporters to focus on the job they are doing, not
focusing on Twitter or what their peers are doing on social media.” Brûlé said to the
Jakarta Post, “When you have a network anchor asking viewers to follow them back, it’s
about following them, not the station” (Emond). With Monocle, everything comes back to
the brand, and therefore to Brûlé himself. Without social media, how does the brand
interact with its readers? As Carnegy writes, “There is branding–the introduction of you
to others. And then there is relationship building–the interaction between you and others
. . . You cannot sustain success on branding alone. In the end, business is still about
one person relating to another” (64-5).

As Brûlé says in his promotion for Monocle 24 radio, “Monocle’s idea of social
media is a good conversation over a glass of chilled white”.11 Every year Monocle hosts

10
See interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upZXIvIuDJo
11
Monocle’s M24 advertisements on monocle.com/24

24
a number of exclusive subscriber events around the globe where Brûlé personally talks
to the individuals who have bought into his brand and are paying a premium price to
subscribe. A Monocle subscription of ten issues costs £90 GBP ($150 CDN), compared
to £19.50 GBP ($30 CDN) for Vogue and GQ and £64 GBP ($52 CDN) for Wallpaper*.
The exclusive subscriber events—Brûlé’s brand of social media—are one of the biggest
draws to paying more for a subscription.

While the shunning of Facebook and Twitter has mainly generated a positive
response for Monocle there have also been negative effects. Because Monocle is not on
social media in an official capacity, tribute and parody accounts have appeared on
Twitter, Facebook and in blog format. There are two tribute Twitters: @monoclebrief and
@travelfan, with over five thousand followers each. Monocle Brief is dedicated to
Monocle 24 radio and only posts links to M24 shows; Travel Fan “is an account for the
fans of travel and all things Monocle. We are separate from Monocle magazine” - they
post about anything and everything that Monocle is doing. There is also a parody
Twitter, called @ohmonocle, which makes fun of the magazine by tweeting direct quotes
from it that sound overly pretentious. All of these accounts use slightly altered versions
of the Monocle logo, so if you are not looking closely it would be very possible to think
that it was, in fact, an official Monocle Twitter page. Often people do mistake these
Twitter’s as official Monocle accounts and try to contact them via Twitter and are
disappointed when no one responds. In this way, Monocle not having its own Twitter
account weakens the brand as their social media presence still exists but is managed by
other people. The same goes for Facebook; the Monocle Facebook page has over 65
thousand likes and is not run by Monocle staff. This means that fans who like the page
because they think that it is Monocle run will be sorely disappointed by the lack of
updates, as well as spam that gets posted on the page and not removed.

With the growing popularity of social media, and the interest in having Monocle
on Facebook and Twitter (as proven by the number of people subscribing to their fan
pages), why doesn’t Monocle adapt? Because their lack of presence online has become
one of their key branding platforms. In one of the most influential books on modern
branding, ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding’ by Al and Laura Ries, they describe the
importance of brands sticking to their values: “Markets may change, but brands

25
shouldn’t. Ever. They may be bent slightly or given a new slant, but their essential
characteristics (once those characteristics are firmly planted in the mind) should never
be changed. If the market swings another way, you have a choice. Follow the fad and
destroy the brand. Or hang in there and hope the merry-go-round comes your way
again” (153). Brûlé basically paraphrased this quote in the Jakarta Post interview. When
asked why there are strict rules around employees using social media he answered: “I
think that if you have built up your brand over a century, or even over decades, you
cannot put everything out there. There still has to be some mystery behind it, the thrill of
the chase, instead of being on and open all the time” (Emond). While Vogue, GQ, and
Wallpaper* believe that being in constant conversation with their readers online will
strengthen their brand, Monocle believes that limiting the conversation will strengthen
their brand. The Ries’s go on to write: “Run up a red flag whenever you hear the words:
‘Why should we limit ourselves?’ You should limit your brand. That’s the essence of
branding. Your brand has to stand for something both simple and narrow in the mind.
This limitation is the essential part of the branding process” (157).

This comparison of Monocle’s best practice online compared to Vogue, GQ and

Wallpaper* shows that while these magazines are all doing some things the same (such
as heavily using video and finding ways to be innovative with online advertising) they are
also using vastly different strategies. While Monocle is the only magazine of this
grouping that is not on any social media, the different brands are using social media in
various ways (Vogue uses it to promote advertisers while Wallpaper* uses it more to
connect to the design community). As these practices continue to evolve; it will be
interesting to see which strategy proves to be the biggest success long-term.

26
Chapter 4. The Digital Redesign

Following on the discussion of best practices online this section examines

Monocle’s digital redesign and discusses why and how six years after the launch
Monocle.com was overhauled. When Monocle launched the original site in 2006, a few
months before the launch of the magazine, it received mixed reviews. London based
designer Adrian Shaughnessy was very positive: “If the aim of 21st-century publishing is
summed up in the dreary phrase ‘cross platform’, then Monocle hits the target. But the
magazine is eclipsed by the website, which is a triumph of confident and unclichéd
design. It boasts broadcast quality video and audio, and functions as a genuine
expansion of the magazine and not the usual online dumping ground”. But technology
design guru Brendan Dawes wasn’t as impressed, saying, “This site relies too heavily on
the design of the print magazine – it looks like a straight export from Quark”
(Shaughnessy).

Despite the differing opinions from design professionals the original site
functioned well for Monocle’s purposes, which primarily conceived as a platform for
multimedia such as video and audio. The reason why the site focused on multimedia
features instead of the journalism featured in the magazine is simple; according to Brûlé
“It didn't make sense to us to give away our journalism for free. But we did have to think:
'How do we add value online?' We started with video then it became radio but it couldn't
replicate what we were doing in print" (Nicoll). This is tied to Monocle’s research which
established that the online audience is largely overlapped the print audience: “Our
audience online is very similar to the print edition, though we know our reach is bigger in
some markets. People are passionate about radio and there are waiting lists for our
special product collaborations. Our audience visits because ours is a more personal
approach to the web: rather than shouting and trying to drive traffic with gimmicks we
prefer to host our visitors in a more intimate environment. That means radio, longer-form
films and a premium retail environment” (Monocle, Media Kit).

27
 It also meant a closed site with no links to social media. As discussed in chapter
one, part of Monocle’s brand strategy is founded on keeping the brand mysterious. In
compliance with the brand the original website had no links to Facebook or Twitter and
no place for comments or way to share videos and articles on social media. Putting it
bluntly, Brûlé told The Australian newspaper in 2009: “with Monocle we don’t host a
discussion. There is no place to post comments on our website. We’re not forcing our
writers to update blogs every five minutes . . . If you want to engage with us tune into our
Sunday morning radio programs” (Pawle).

4.1. Redesign: Concept

While the original site was cutting edge when it was launched in 2007, five years
later it was apparent that it was in need of a conceptual update. The online retail portion
of the site wasn’t working very well, and there were complaints that articles couldn’t be
shared from the website (allowing articles to be shared would not diminish the mystery of
the brand but would, rather, give Monocle a wider exposure). In Designing Brand Identity
Gavin Cooper is quoted saying, “a website is a living, breathing brand tool that needs to
be cared for over time (Wheeler 166)”. With Monocle experiencing so much other growth
in their five years as a company the website had been neglected. However, the launch of
Monocle’s web-based radio station, M24, in October 2011, forced the company to re-
evaluate their digital strategy. For starters, the launch of M24 meant the launch of
Monocle’s first ever app for smart phones. The Monocle 24 app was released on
November 1, 2011 and granted users access to all the shows on M24, as well as
Monocle’s city guides and their daily column, nicknamed the “Monocolumn”. It did
exceptionally well in the first month, with over five thousand downloads at £6 GBP ($10
CDN). No other comparable magazine or radio app even charges at all - Vogue,
Wallpaper*, GQ, and The Economist all give their apps away for free. The same thing
goes for apps that are purely radio - BBC in Britain and National Public Radio (NPR) in
the US both give their apps away for free. With the success of the app it was evident that
the website could benefit from an overhaul, using the latest technology. Especially
considering that when the original site was designed the first iPhone hadn’t even been
launched yet (it was released a few months later, in June 2007). Monocle’s digital team

28
was keen to integrate the latest technology into the new site to help it get back on par
with the magazine.

In the early 2000’s, when the pages on the World Wide Web were multiplying at
an extraordinary rate, front end good design was not the primary focus, back end labour
intensive programming was driving website development. As a result, many ugly
websites were made and a lot of skilled designers shunned the medium. As Neumeir
points out “technophobia, the fear of new technology, keeps a lot of skilled designers out
of web design. They’re mostly afraid the technical demands of the medium will engulf
their projects, leaving little time to work on the aesthetics. The result is that most web
design, thus deprived of disciplined designers, still falls below the aesthetic level
considered standard for catalogs, annual reports, and books” (98). Design has always
been crucial to Monocle, so when they launched their site in 2007 they actually did the
opposite of what Neumeir describes; they put the emphasis on design and sacrificed
some technological functionality. A good example of this is the online shopping section
of the site where shoppers can buy everything from magazine subscriptions to clothing.
While it was consistent with the sophisticated design approach embraced in print the
functionality of it was poor. Sara Geoffrey, the subscriptions and e-commerce assistant
in 2011, explained that the problems lay in the structure: “it wasn’t always clear where
you should look for things and you had to go through about five drop down menus before
you could find the item you were looking for. It was also almost impossible for
subscribers to change their addresses.” It was problems like these that Monocle’s digital
team wanted to address in the redesign.

4.2. Redesign: Print into Digital

Monocle wanted to go beyond making it functional and attractive, they also

wanted the site to tell a story. In Professional Web Design Cindy Chastain writes: “If we
can learn to approach design more like writers approach stories, we will not only build
richer experiences but start to develop a craft in our work that knows how and when
certain narrative techniques can be used to engage the minds, emotions and
imaginations of users. Knowing the craft of narrative helps us build better stories, which
helps us turn a set of lifeless features and functions into a whole experience that

29
engages the minds and emotions of customers” (80 -81). Monocle’s narrative is largely
told through specific elements of their design that appear in the magazine. Thanks to the
progress that has been made in web design, it was possible to tell that story on the web
and still have a functional, state of the art site. Monocle’s designer and web developer at
the time of the redesign, David Longworth, said: “If you look at the web now you’ll see
that graphic design principles like typography and grids are a lot more prominent. Online
design has matured. So we’re in a good place where we could bring in all the elements
of the brand. The core of Monocle’s brand design is simple: Plantin Helvetica, letters
and numbers and circles, a yellow salmon palette and grids.” To keep Monocle’s print
identity on the web, they incorporated these simple elements into all the various digital
branding they created for the re-design, whether is was for the homepage or for an email
blast. As Nico Bauman asserts in What is Web Design: “The development of corporate
identity for application to the Web needs to be sensitive to the medium, as it would in
development for application in print, on clothing, in retail environments or on vehicles.
The Web is a malleable medium with multiple dimensions such as time. User interaction
is fundamental to it, and users’ experience of it extends from an email they receive to a
document they may download or a Web page they may print” (62).

One of the key things they wanted to do differently with the new site versus the
old one was to design explicitly for web, not design something that looked like it was for
print (as Brendan Dawes critique implied when he said of the original site that it looked
like “an Indesign file slapped on the web”) (Shaughnessey). Also in What is Web Design
Macdonald is clear that functionality actually should trump design, he says: “The rise of
branding has tended to be in inverse proportion to real innovation in product
development. However, the Web is one of the remaining areas in which innovation is still
considered to be a more important driver of customer adoption than brand and
marketing, and branding should not lead product development. Rather, it should be a
part of users’ quality of experience of the product” (62). To ensure that Monocle’s brand
identity stayed intact throughout the redesign the same design team worked on the
print magazine and the website, the same creative principles were applied to both.
Longworth said “doing it this way ensured single-mindedness. Monocle doesn’t do
design by committee, in order to keep things from getting watered-down.” To get up to
par with functionality the team made use of the latest technology to enable embeddable

30
fonts, including the creation of custom fonts for the iconography. Longworth said that
Richard Spencer Powell, Monocle’s Creative Director, was a strong advocate of
designing for the medium, not just sticking print online. Above all the team was clear that
they wanted the experience of the new site to be a positive one; they didn’t want people
becoming frustrated because they had to go through five click-through windows to get to
the product they wanted. In Professional Web Design Volume 1 Smash Media write:

“Brand message is no longer the thing that sells. Experience sells. If the
intangible pleasure, emotion or meaning we seek can be made tangible through the use
of story and narrative techniques, we will build more compelling product experiences.
And if the experience is more compelling, businesses will profit from droves of loyal,
experience-discerning customers. Without this understanding, choices about what
features should be included and how they should behave seem both uninspired and
disconnected. Sure, we have business goals, user needs, design principles and best
practices to draw on, but these things won’t get a team to a place where it is
collaborating in the same conceptual space, let alone designing for emotion and
meaning” (82).

4.3. Redesign: Iterative Approach

In order to test if Monocle.com was achieving the desired experience from its
users, the design team based the creative process on an iterative approach. Smash
Media describes the iterative approach:

“One key aspect of a good design process is regular evaluation. Evaluation

techniques are varied but their overall characteristic is to place the product in a real
scenario of use and see how it performs. This exercise may be conducted by someone
with design expertise, or knowledge of the domain in which the product will be used, who
can give an objective assessment of the success of the solution judged against the brief
and the other criteria we have outlined. It may also be conducted by members of the
design team acting out the use of the design solution while objectively assessing it. Or it
can be carried out by asking typical audience members to use it to attempt certain

31
intended tasks. The learning from these exercises becomes part of the next phase, or
iteration, of the design process” (44).

Longworth, Monocle’s designer and web developer at the time of the redesign,
said that, due to the tight deadline, they had the general look and feel of the site signed
off early on but didn’t spend much time getting 100% perfect, accurate designs. The
pages were designed 80% as static for a fixed ‘desktop’ view. For mobile they designed
the header but nothing else, figuring out how things would look as they integrated the
content. This allowed the team to fine tune pages based on actual content, not just
hypothesizing. Once the data was integrated they meticulously went over everything and
tidied it up and added polish. At this stage they launched the test site at
beta.Monocle.com and began to share the link internally so they could gather staff
feedback . The double benefit to this approach was that the staff felt involved in the
digital redesign, even if they were not directly involved in the process.

4.4. Redesign: Responsive Design

One of the reoccurring pieces of feedback that the digital team kept receiving
was that staff wanted Monocle.com to be optimized for viewing on their mobile devices.
As discussed earlier, Monocle does not, and likely never will, have an app version of the
magazine. However making the site more mobile friendly could create a middle ground
to appease those who want to read content digitally and also allow Brûlé to keep his
“cool” factor of being offline. To do this the team created a responsive design solution. In
Designing Brand Identity Wheeler describes this “a singular content management
system that responds to varying screen sizes because of its flexible grid. Instead of
designing multiple variations of applications or websites to work on specific device
formats, one website is developed to adapt to all devices” (73). With nearly a quarter of
the US population receiving their news on digital devices, it is no longer acceptable to
simply have a good website that looks nice on a desktop (Mitchell & Rosenstiel). As
Ethan Marcotte says in Responsive Web Design, “The web has moved beyond the
desktop, and it’s not turning back” (2).

32
 Anyone with a keen eye who picks up a copy of Monocle will see that their
design direction all revolves around grids; with the new website it is the same. Using
grids allows them to scale the design across all of the elements of the brand—even
beyond the website to the retail side and now the café. Using these grids allows for
design longevity; as Longworth says: “With the old website they only thought two to
three years in advance maximum. With the new site we tried to plan five to ten years out.
More importantly, to design for the devices that don’t exist yet. In 2007 there was no
iPhone, now worldwide the majority of web is mobile and there are thousands of different
devices and thousands of sizes.” This is a new aspect of design that can be difficult for
print designers to understand.

With technology evolving so rapidly, and the majority of people viewing news
online as stated earlier, the only way to ensure brand longevity is to design for mediums
that don’t yet exist. How is this possible? A group of the world’s leading designers and
web-developers have come together to ensure that the technology does not outrun the
design, as it did in the early 2000’s. When that happened, the web was full of chaotic
sites that were unstructured and aesthetically lacking. The web has a significantly more
prominent place in our world now than it did a decade ago. These designers have
founded a collective called “Future Friendly” (http://futurefriend.ly/index.html). Their
website is part manifesto, part “how-to” manual on how companies (publishing and
otherwise) should technologically prepare themselves for the advances to come.
Longworth, Monocle’s designer and web developer at the time of the redesign, said that
Future Friendly’s guidelines were taken into consideration when building the new
Monocle site. For example, one of their guidelines is: “Well-structured content is now an
essential part of art direction. Consider how it can flow into a variety of containers by
being mindful of their constraints and capabilities. Be bold and explore new possibilities
but know the future is likely to head in many directions. Highly capable smart devices,
simple constrained devices, interoperable devices and (a whole lot) more are part of our
future. Structure and store your content accordingly.” By using grids, and designing the
new website in such a way that it can translate across multiple devices (and years),
Monocle’s digital platform finally came up to par with the rest of the brand. As Monocle’s
designer and web developer David Longworth says: “Responsive web design gives one
clear voice across multiple devices. This kind of continuity is quite a Monocle trait. The

33
idea of responsive design is that you have one codebase, so it’s the same website that
adapts to different screens.” From a branding perspective it is essential. In Designing
Brand Identity Wheeler writes: “Websites lead the top of the brand necessity list - no
longer enslaved to the desktop they migrate to wherever the consumer is, on her iPad or
her Smartphone, to the mall, on a hike, or under her pillow. Websites have made every
business a global business accessible by almost anyone anywhere” (166). Now while
Monocle is “Keeping an Eye on the world” the world can also be keeping an eye on
them, no matter where they are.12”

4.5. Redesign: Critical Response

Monocle’s new website launched on December 11, 2012 to critical acclaim. The
Twittersphere responded almost instantly with high profile web designers Naz Hamid
and Greg Storey tweeting their praises. Perhaps the most significant comment came
from Ethan Marcotte, the inventor of responsive design, who tweeted to Longworth that
the site was a success.13 Wider recognition also came in the form of a Webby award,
described on their website as “the leading international award honoring excellence on
the Internet.” Monocle.com was nominated for best practice. They also received high
praise from the popular web design magazine SpeckyBoy, where the chief editor Paul
Andrew pinpointed their achievement of combining the latest technology with good
design. Writing about the new Monocle site he said: “there are thousands of content-rich
websites out there, but very few seem to focus on good design. Sure, they have put a lot
of thought into organization and structure, but for the most part they do rely on the old
tried and tested magazine-style layouts, and never really tend wander far from those
confines. Fortunately, not all are like that. Some do dare to venture out and breakout off
those shackles and design something truly unique and, and dare I say it, beautiful.”

While the technological design world was praising Monocle’s web designers,
Brûlé was not as happy. As a self-made magazine man, he understood deadlines in
terms of print; sending a magazine to press two months late is simply not an option. Web

12
Monocle’s brand slogan
13
See tweets: https://twitter.com/RWD/status/278591240751161344

34
development obviously has a different timeline, and Brûlé was not accommodating of
that. At an event in Auckland in February 2013 Brûlé said: “I have very little patience for
web developers, especially those working on Monocle’s recent website redesign” and
went on to chide them for not being able to stick to a deadline” (Ahmed). With this clear
disconnect between print and web timeline expectations, it’s not surprising that the three
main designers and web developers who headed up the website redesign resigned six
months after the project was complete. Paul Reagan, who was the Web and Broadcast
Manager, David Longworth, the primary web developer and designer, and George
Wilson, a junior web developer, all left Monocle within a month of each other. Perhaps
their leaving is a good example of the underlying tension that still exists between print
journalism and the digital realm. When a magazine is put to bed, it is a finished product.
The printed errors are unfixable and the design is unmovable. A website, on the other
hand, is always in flux; it is never completely finished.

35
 Conclusion

Despite this rift between print and web expectations, the redesign of
Monocle.com is quantifiably a success, with monthly page views up 1, 141, 747 in the
six months after the launch compared to the six months before.14 Not only is it on par
with the best practices of luxury magazines on the web, it is leading the pack (as is
evident by its webby award nomination mentioned before). Having a beautifully designed
and functional website is an achievement for any brand, but particularly for a brand that
has built their identity around a design driven print presence. Monocle has maintained its
stance on technological engagement by continuing to stay off of social media and
releasing minimal content for free on Monocle.com. They have balanced their minimal
online output by designing a new site that is both aesthetically beautiful and
technologically advanced. Above all, Monocle, under the direction of Brûlé, has never
swayed from their original branding vision: An editorial agenda focused on upbeat,
quirky stories from all corners of the globe, an emphasis on quality and craftsmanship,
and a design aesthetic with strong Swiss and Japanese design influences. This vision
permeates their five international retail stores, the ten magazine issue they print each
year, the 24 hour web radio station they broadcast from their central London
headquarters and now, from their website.

The website is arguably the most important platform for a brand as it acts as the
portal to all the other platforms; it is not the website in and of itself that’s important, but
rather the brand experiences that it gives consumers access to. As discussed in chapter
four, the 2012 Monocle.com redesign has fixed essential problems in the online retail
store and magazine subscription services. It also serves as the primary portal for
Monocle 24 radio. The various platforms of the brand are constantly supporting each
other. As the father of Modern branding, Wally Ollins, says: “The best and most

14
See Appendix A

36
successful brands are completely coherent. Every aspect of what they do and what they
are reinforces everything else” (Carliner). Those who are hyperloyal to Monocle will
notice that the grid used in the magazine is the same as the grid used online as is the
colour palette. They will recognize that Monocle’s co-branding initiatives are in line with
the company’s implicit values and they will know exactly what kind of story to expect
from Monocle whether it is in print, online or on M24 radio. The reason Monocle’s digital
strategy is working is not just because it is beautifully designed or functional, it is
because beautiful design and functionality are integral to the Monocle brand.

37
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelwolf/2013/04/04/funnymen-and-iphones-why-
the-podcast-is-finally-coming-into-its-own/ (accessed May 12, 2013).

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Appendix A. Screenshots of Monocle.com Before and
After Redesign
Figure A.1: 2008 Monocle Website

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Figure A.2: 2013 Monocle Website

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Appendix B. Monocle Media Kit 2013
Description:

The accompanying PDF shows an overview of Monocle magazine including their

readership, circulation, year ahead editorial plan, advertorial work, online presence
(including statistics), radio presence, and a list of advertisers.

Filename

monoclemediakit2013-1.pdf

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