More Condé Nast titles are rethinking their print strategies: Vanity Fair will also shift to eight issues per year in the US, with four seasonal and four thematic editions. (These shifts apply to the American market; other regions have their own print schedules.) Paper quality and cover stock will increase, and global editorial director Mark Guiducci says that the actual number of pages per year won’t decrease, “meaning that each issue will look, feel and literally be more significant. Our eight issues will deliver more impact — not only for our subscribers, but also for our advertisers who are reaching a deeply dedicated audience and staying with them longer.”
Across the industry, publications are reconfirming their commitment to print, or launching the media for the first time. Digital-natives like The Cut have introduced print versions, while Nylon brought print back in 2024 after going digital-only in 2017. The majority of Cultured Magazine’s revenue comes from print. For WSJ Magazine editor-in-chief Sarah Ball, print revenues are up and the brand hasn’t cut back on issues. “Print is Mark Twain. Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated. As a digital native, I’ve been being promised a total digital revolution for my entire near-20-year career, and at this point I’m about to give up,” she says. “The current resilience you see in print is not consistent everywhere, but it’s true for us.”
For luxury advertisers, more hefty, but less frequent, magazine issues are an alluring offer. Luxury brands have a penchant for print media for its tactile flourish, even as formats like TikTok and programmatic advertising have begun to dominate budgets. “Luxury brands have always had a strong affinity with print as it offers exactly what this category values most: craft, permanence, and storytelling,” says Cherry Collins, strategy partner at Havas Media UK. “In an age of fragmented feeds and programmatic targeting, the carefully edited, tactile experience of a premium print issue gives brands cultural weight and a halo of credibility.”
Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, Condé Nast’s chief revenue officer who assumed the role last August, sees print as a piece of the media company’s ecosystem — one way of many that readers and advertisers engage with Condé Nast brands. “We know that the media landscape is changing very quickly, so we’re evolving with customer appetites and needs,” she says.
