A Vanity Fair for France Puts Timing in Question

PARIS — For several years, media executives in Paris have been buzzing about the expected introduction of a French version of Vanity Fair magazine.

Now that the publisher of Vanity Fair, Condé Nast, has announced plans to start the French edition, however, they are asking why the company decided to disclose its intentions now, many months before the magazine is set to arrive and amid a stubborn economic crisis.

“There’s a crisis, of course,” said Xavier Romatet, president of Condé Nast France, who said only that the French Vanity Fair would appear “before the summer.”

“We have to innovate, we have to do something new, something French,” he said. “The French magazine market is not driven by the economy as much as by the offer that is available.”

Condé Nast started a British version of Vanity Fair in 1991, an Italian edition in 2003 and a Spanish one in 2008. The Italian magazine, published weekly, was a quick success, and its circulation has grown to about 280,000. In Britain, where Vanity Fair is published monthly, circulation stands at about 107,000; in Spain, where the magazine also appears monthly, the total is 41,000. That compares with about 1.2 million monthly in the United States.

Why did Condé Nast wait so long to introduce Vanity Fair to France, which might seem like a natural market for a title that draws much of its advertising from luxury goods firms, many of them French?

Not all of Vanity Fair’s European editions have thrived. A German Vanity Fair, begun in 2007, was shut down two years later. Some analysts said at the time that German readers, used to getting their celebrity news from Bild, a mass-circulation newspaper, were not prepared for a high-end glossy like Vanity Fair, where celebrity tittle-tattle shares space with investigative articles.

Condé Nast has done well with some recent introductions in France, however; a local version of the men’s magazine GQ, started in 2008, has become the leader in its category, which has been generally in decline.

Thierry Dussard, a professor in the executive master of journalism program at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris, or Sciences Po, said one reason for the delayed introduction of Vanity Fair might have been the challenge of reporting aggressively on public figures in France. Until recently, he said, powerful business magnates often pulled advertising from publications that ran investigative articles on them or on politicians or celebrities to whom they were linked.

That began to change over the past five years, Mr. Dussard said, when the news media pursued stories about private life of Nicolas Sarkozy, president during most of the period, and about the financial dealings of business figures with connections to him, with heretofore unseen zest — and without being punished by advertisers. The continuing scrutiny by the news media of the private life of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former chief of the International Monetary Fund, who has been questioned by the police in connection with an investigation into an alleged prostitution ring, has provided further evidence of a change in the attitude toward public figures’ private lives.

“Everyone has been waiting for a French Vanity Fair for a long time, and now the market is ready,” Mr. Dussard said.

Nonetheless, it is unusual for a magazine to be introduced many months before it appears, without a fixed date for the first edition. It is especially unusual for that to happen in the midst of an economic crisis, with a soft advertising market.

One French journalist with close ties to the magazine business said the early announcement might have been aimed at stealing the limelight from Carine Roitfeld, former editor of another Condé Nast publication, the French edition of Vogue, who left that magazine two years ago.

After Ms. Roitfeld left Vogue in 2010 — for reasons that were never explained — there was speculation in France that she might return to Condé Nast as editor of a French edition of Vanity Fair. But that did not happen. Instead, this month, Ms. Roitfeld introduced her own magazine, CR Fashion Book, which is aimed at a cosmopolitan audience, with articles in several languages. Vogue, she told The Guardian, was “like a golden cage.”

While fashion is only one part of Vanity Fair’s eclectic editorial mix — alongside politics, business, celebrities and other things — many luxury advertisers buy space in fashion magazines, as well as in Vanity Fair.

“The French Vanity Fair is not a response to Carine Roitfeld, but her magazine was surely a trigger for the decision to announce it now,” the French journalist said.

Mr. Romatet dismissed the idea that there was a link between the announcement and the arrival of CR Fashion Book, saying that any animosity toward Ms. Roitfeld belonged “to the past.”

“Brands are stronger than people,” he said. “Carine has her new life, Vogue has its new life and that’s it.”

While advertising for luxury goods has held up better than some other areas of the market during the financial crisis, the British fashion house Burberry recently sent alarms through the industry — and through the media owners that rely on luxury ads — when it warned of a slowdown in sales.

While newspapers struggle in France, magazines remain popular, and there is a proliferation of titles covering news and fashion. There is no direct competitor to Vanity Fair, which will be published monthly in France, though one French institution, the weekly Paris Match, covers a similarly broad range of topics, including news and celebrities. Paris Match, which is owned by Lagardère, has a circulation of 620,000.

Overall French magazine ad spending rose 0.9 percent from January through July, compared with that of a year earlier, according to Aegis Media, which buys advertising space for marketers. That is a stronger performance than that of newspaper advertising, which fell 4.3 percent.

Analysts said that by adding a French presence, Vanity Fair might increase its international appeal to luxury advertisers at a time when more of them are managing global campaigns.

“It’s not a great time to launch a magazine, but will it be better in two years?” said Sophie Renaud, head of the press department at Aegis in Paris. “Who knows? There’s always the question of whether the market can absorb a new title. At first glance, you’d have to say yes, because Vanity Fair occupies a niche that doesn’t really exist now.”

The French Vanity Fair plans to start with a high-profile staff, headed by Michel Denisot, host of a popular French television talk show, “Le Grand Journal.” Mr. Denisot is a well-connected figure, with the ability to attract A-list guests to his daily show. For the time being, at least, he will divide his time between “Le Grand Journal” and Vanity Fair.

“He is one of the most experienced journalists in France and understands well the mix of news, information and glamour that Vanity Fair represents,” Mr. Romatet said. “I think he will bring us the experience of TV, not the usual background of someone coming from the magazine industry. I want to change, I want to do something new, something fresh.”