Vanity Fair: Once a Week

With its reputation for combining in-depth celebrity interviews and lifestyle stories with serious current events coverage, Vanity Fair has achieved the status of a pop culture icon in the United States. Now its publisher, Conde Nast, thinks the time is ripe for a German version of the magazine.

The inaugural issue appeared on newsstands Wednesday, and at 330 pages, it contains as much high-octane glamour as its monthly US counterpart. But many are wondering if Germany -- a country better known for Birkenstocks than Blahniks -- has what it takes to sustain a chic, weekly magazine.

"The greatest value of the German Vanity Fair lies in the fact that it was done at all," said Thomas Lückerath, editor in chief of DWDL.de, an Internet news magazine that covers the German media industry.

"We can thank Conde Nast for making such a big investment in the German print market," he added. "But we won't know whether or not it was a good idea until we can see how it works out."

A monthly magazine in the United States, Vanity Fair has published successfully as a weekly in Italy since 2003, but many in Germany are still wondering how long the magazine's Berlin editors will be able to keep up the weekly pace.

High expectations, disappointing start

"The weekly rhythm is the biggest challenge," Lückerath said. "The editors cannot put out a 330-page magazine every week."

According to Lückerath, Vanity Fair in the US "is a shorthand for a certain level of journalism." In the past, the magazine made headlines with groundbreaking moves like publishing the identity of Watergate informant Deep Throat, exposing the tobacco industry, and putting a very nude, very pregnant Demi Moore on its cover.

So it was disappointing to some that Germany's first issue featured beloved national beefcake actor Til Schweiger on its cover.

"We had hoped for something more spectacular, considering all the lead time they had," Lückerath said. "There was no headline-making scoop."

True to form

Yet the Schweiger story did manage to cause a slight flurry by unearthing information on his past drug experience and getting him to talk about his past in porno flicks -- even if it was as a voiceover actor.

Meanwhile, true to the magazine's form, readers hungry for brain food could turn to commentator Michael Friedman's reportage from inside the far-right NPD party. Other articles spanned the culture-fashion-politics gamut, focusing on German swimmer Britta Steffen, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, painter Georg Baselitz, and US Senator Barack Obama.

The price of the new magazine also made a stir. The hefty introductory issue sold for just 1 euro ($1.30) -- making it, at the very least, a cheap doorstop. The publishers said they will charge more in the future and expect to average 120,000 copies.

Advertising interest

Publishing costs to date are likely to have been offset by the overwhelming advertising response. The magazine's first dozen or so pages are all filled with luxury brand ads from the likes of Dior, Gucci, and Prada. It's a level of interest Lückerath said he this is unlikely to continue.

"These brands typically advertise in monthlies, not weeklies," he said. "I doubt even the Vanity Fair name would change their minds."

Yet despite the questions about its viability as a weekly, the consensus is that the new magazine is entering a fairly optimistic magazine market. Circulation numbers are holding steady, according to the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ), who also forecast a 2 percent rise this year in advertising volume. Nielsen Media research said there was a 5 percent increase in overall media advertising investments last year, the VDZ said.

Upbeat outlook

But aside from its high profile pedigree and a generally friendly marketplace, Vanity Fair's approach to Germany may be its biggest advantage.

In interviews, Editor in Chief Ulf Poschardt has stressed his intention to keep the magazine's content upbeat and focused on the positive, landing his blend of fashion and news in the niche between hard-hitting investigative reports and celebrity-centric glitz.

In his initial editorial, Poschardt wrote about the new, buoyant mood of national pride that has swept Germany since last summer's soccer World Cup and created a "new Germany." It's the elite of the open and optimistic Germany he said he wants to reach by putting out a magazine that focuses on success stories. Whether Germans are ready for them remains to be seen.