InStyle Magazine was SUCH the publishing phenomenon of the 1990′s – it had more ads than Vogue, more readers than Vogue, and it brought celebrity style to the masses. Once InStyle made celebrities into the new models, mags like Vogue, Elle and W started putting celebrities on all of their covers. InStyle was the fattest cat of any glossy fashion magazine, and it launched all kinds of supplements – like InStyle Weddings, which published four times a year, and had celebrities on its covers, as well.
Now Time Warner, parent company of InStyle, had actually pulled the plug on InStyle Weddings. The four time a year mag simply suffered from not being able to get enough advertising – and while this is indicative of the entire magazine industry, it’s also indicative of the shrinking bridal market. Are women not getting married as much? We doubt that’s true – they’re just not spending as much money on it, preferring to perhaps buy a house. Vera Wang has dropped the price of wedding gowns by forty percent recently, if that tells you anything. InStyle Weddings had a circulation of two and a half million – which is huge. And there aren’t that many bridal magazines left in the category: Conde Nast folded Modern Bride and Elegant Bride into one publication, Brides, and that has a circulation of just over a million.
InStyle will continue to publish InStyle Hair and InStyle Interiors once a year. What next – and how are the mens’ magazines all still in business?
