The news that the Kardashians are starting their own family magazine is no surprise, in fact, it makes perfect sense. The digital magazine will be promoted through social media, and will essentially harness the power of their Twitter profiles. With Kim having over 12 million fans, and even the less known Kendall Jenner having over 2 million, that is a lot of fans which can translate into a lot of traffic for their magazine.
But this raises questions about the future of media, and makes me wonder if we will see the same types of changes that we saw in the fashion product world. In the past, celebrities used to model and wear designer clothing, then they started making their own, under their own labels. Same thing happened with fragrances and other product categories, but until now, they have relied on media to promote them. Aside from having their own blogs, most celebrities need exposure in mainstream blogs and magazines to grow or maintain their public profiles.
But if a celebrity were to create their own magazine, then they wouldn’t be at the mercy of the major publications. Don’t like what a magazine said about you? Then say it yourself, through your own magazines. Want to dispel rumours about your divorce, or promote your own clothing line? Who needs a trashy magazine to do that, a celebrity could just do and say what they wanted in their own magazine.
With retailers starting their own magazines (Net A Porter is a good example), the natural progression is surely for celebrities to do the same. This will spell big trouble for the magazines that rely on celebrity covers to sell issues, I am guessing that the Kardashians will say no to cover shoots and interviews in regular press, as the will want to be exclusive to their own magazine.
It is about time the fashion media suffers the same problems as the fashion designers do: being replaced by tacky, un-talented celebrities is not fun.
I won’t even bother commenting on how I think this will be an incredibly sad magazine, and that I can’t believe that anyone would want to read this type of crap. If Crocs can make 1 billion dollars in a year, then we already know that there are incredibly tacky people out there with no taste and money to spend. So there are surely a bunch who will read the Kardashian family magazine, too.
Kardashian Fashion
Kardashian Fashion
Kardashian Fashion