On
Thursday we were able to visit White Sposa at their offices. Simona Polli, the
editor, gave us a tour around the office and then gave us details about how the
magazine is produced.
White
Sposa is an Italian wedding magazine that releases a new issue during 3 months
of the year. Each issue has a new creative theme inside.
The
theme can be anything that they want, and usually has nothing to do with
brides. It can be a region, flower, and color. One issue the theme was rose.
They were able to feature a scent inside of a rose on one of the pages.
In
Italy this magazine is very popular among the bridal market. They print 60,000
copies and distribute them through Italian newsstands, international bookshops
and subscriptions.
Currently
the Italian wedding market has been decreasing since 2010. In Italy, a woman is
now 35 years old when she gets married. This is because it is very expensive to
have a wedding. Since the age has changed, the dream wedding has changed. A 35
year old doesn’t want a princess gown and 300 people to see her marry the man
she loves. She wants a simple dress and 60 close friends and family to be there
for her.
In
2009, they created a contract with Japan. This then created the Japan version
of White Sposa. At first they would take editorials from the Italy magazine and
use it in the Japan version. Quickly they realized they had a different market
and to reach them they needed to use a different technique. They were allowed
to change the cover of the magazine. This was a big deal because the cover of
the Italy version says nothing on it, but in Japan they needed to have text on
the cover. If they added text to the cover this would add a larger market and
they would sell more. They were approved to do this.
Their
distribution is very different from other magazines. At first they wouldn’t
sell their magazine. At different trunk shows they would hand the magazine to
people who walked by. They did this because they needed to make themselves
known in this market.
After
5 years they decided it would be a good idea to sell the magazine while at the
trunk shows. They didn’t want people to think that the magazine was worth no
money, so they started selling it at 1 euro. Eventually they started selling
the September issue and May issue at the same time for 2 euro.
Whitemagazine.it is the official
website for the magazine. Currently it has 90,000 pages visited and 12,000
visits per month. To keep brides involved in the website they have other bridal
sections. Some sections that they talk about are wedding planning ideas,
experts’ free advice (if you are a registered member), and design ideas.
Simona
explained to us the roles that are involved in creating a magazine. There are
10 roles that need to be taken care of while publishing a magazine. These roles
are Publisher, Editor (Simona), Art director, Graphic, Editorial Staff,
Journalists, Fashion Editor (Christina), Print Production, Accounts office, and
Sales managers. Every job within the magazine is very important.
 |
| Editorial featured in White Sposa |
During
the visit Simona mention that there are only 3 people who produce this
magazine. After seeing the magazine it is amazing that 3 people can do this
amount of work.
I
really enjoyed learning about the bridal magazine market. I have always had an
interest in weddings and magazines so it was interesting to learn about the two
together. I never realized that so much work goes into a wedding magazine, especially
this one. I was so impressed that only three people can create an amazing
magazine. What they do is simply spectacular.
This
visit benefited me in my future career because I didn’t realize what it was
like to work on a magazine that doesn’t produce a lot of volume. I wanted to
work in a fashion magazine and being able to see what it takes to create each
issue opened my eyes. I think that being able to see this side of the industry
really helped me deicide what I want my future career to be.
