How Vogue Singapore insidiously entered and left our fashion media scene
For an offshoot of the world’s unofficial fashion bible, Vogue Singapore was virtually unknown to readers and fashion enthusiasts alike.
The shutdown of print titles should come as no surprise. Just last month, Mediacorp announced that Elle Singapore will be discontinuing its print edition, with the October 2018 issue being its last.
The demise of mainstream glossies is often attributed to a pick-and-mix of dismal print sales, insufficient advertising capital and most recently, the influx of online media. To investors and advertisers, it looks like it makes fiscal sense — between a few thousand sold copies and a few hundred thousand views online, the advantages of the latter seem to outweigh the former.
But long before digital content usurped the fashion media landscape, one magazine saw its end within less than three years in circulation. This was none other than Vogue Singapore.
On paper, Vogue Singapore folded because advertisers were withdrawing and print sales were dropping. But the fall of Vogue Singapore was due to more than just poor print sales. It was symptomatic of what Singaporean readers expected from their fashion content.