JKR

Launched in 2007, Monocle is a magazine and website founded by Tyler Brûlé (late of equally hip Wallpaper* magazine). If you are cosmopolitan, well groomed and work in “the creative industries”, you already know all about it. It has its fans and critics amongst this contingent, but that’s a debate for the bars of Hoxton and Kastanienallee. What’s really interesting is how Monocle has become a real brand, with its perfume (created in partnership with Comme Des Garcons) being a case in point:

They also have a retail presence…

And the beautifully designed website is unusual in that it contains an archive that is only available to paid subscribers…

…And I think this is key to what’s really interesting about the Monocle brand. Whereas lifestyle magazines have typically been passive observers of the trends around them, Monocle has put itself in the driving seat. It’s done this by trading on its expertise. The vehicle for this expertise is the magazine, but the content is perhaps an end to a greater means, as an aspirational brand in its own right.

With the demise of conventional print publications widely predicted as imminent, this offers a vision of what the future may hold for magazines generally. The ones with a distinctive enough brand (both visually and in content) might see the publications becoming loss leaders which prop up the more lucrative products which are built on the magazines’ shoulders.