In 2018, nostalgia alone cannot sustain a media business
Medill alumni in media innovation: One of a series
Irene Edwards didn’t attend her college graduation. While her schoolmates lined up to receive their Medill School/Northwestern University diplomas, Edwards began her role as an editorial assistant at Condé Nast Traveler.
“Back when being an assistant really meant being an assistant in writer’s magazines,” quips Edwards. She references The Devil Wears Prada with a trace of sarcasm.
“I fetched dry cleaning, I got coffee, I answered the phones, but then I also got to write little sidebars.” She once spent a whole week completing a single writer’s expense report. The writer had traveled for three months to complete the story, leaving behind a trail of 10 different currencies.
Of course, this was before the Internet.
As Sunset’s editor in chief, Edwards is navigating the 120-year-old magazine through its latest digital transition. “It’s been a journey,” she says, her tanned cheeks stretching as she exercises her laugh lines.
No sarcasm this time. Her laugh implies equal parts exhaustion and excitement.
In Fall 2017, major tectonic shifts in media called Sunset’s future into question. Iowa-based Meredith Corporation purchased Time Inc. in late November, though Time had plans to sell Sunset before the deal closed. By early December 2017, Time had announced its sale of Sunset to Los Angeles-based private equity firm, Regent LP. When asked by the New York Times about his decision to purchase Sunset, buyer Michael Reinstein said, “a lot of other magazines don’t have the emotional feel you get with Sunset.”
Divorcing Time had its benefits, including freedom from bureaucracy and the opportunity to innovate. It also came with layoffs — a third of the editorial staff — and new challenges. “Basically it’s startup mode again,” explains Edwards.
Edwards is uniquely positioned for this role. Even if it isn’t what she expected when she was named editor in chief in September 2015.
Born in the Philippines, Edwards moved with her family to New York at a young age. Following a school visit to Vanity Fair (under Tina Brown’s leadership), 13-year-old Edwards determined she would be a magazine editor one day. Describing the glamorous, thriving magazine industry she remembers from her adolescence, Edwards recalls a culture at the intersection of luxury and intrigue.
As a young journalist in the field, Edwards’ tale was shaped by the World Wide Web. She has deep roots in both print and digital-first media, including stints at Time Inc.’s Travel + Leisure and San Francisco-based magazine startup 7x7. Tasked with attracting a younger, more upscale audience, Edwards first joined Sunset in 2004 as executive editor. The 110-year-old magazine had a circulation of 1.25 million at the time.
By the time Edwards returned to Sunset in 2015, the publishing industry was in crisis. “The revenue decline — we saw it coming,” Edwards admits. “It just happened so much faster than anyone thought.”
The same year Edwards assumed the role of editor in chief, Sunset traded its iconic space in Menlo Park for Oakland’s Jack London Square. The new office overlooks the waterfront pub where Jack London reportedly wrote as a child. Call of The Wild is one of hundreds of books found in the headquarter’s expansive wooden bookshelf, which also includes archived issues (including one from 1914 featuring Jack London).
The Sunset brand is built on nostalgia. Sunset was established in 1898, just two years shy of half a century from the Golden State’s founding. Initially created to combat negative stereotypes about California, the magazine is rooted in its reverence for the Western United States. Sunset’s early descriptions of mural-like landscapes and its focus on art and aesthetic informed the magazine’s evolution into the lifestyle brand it is today.
Edwards is acutely aware that nostalgia for the past doesn’t change the present. She is focused instead on opportunity: tapping into the nostalgia factor while harnessing new technologies. “Can I be in your hands as a magazine and in your phone as a video and on your Saturday calendar as an event to go to?” Edwards asks, mulling over the prospect.
“There are opportunities in this landscape that we didn’t have even in the world of town cars and expense reports,” she says. Imagining the number of ways the Sunset brand can touch its loyal readers while simultaneously attracting new audiences is the type of challenge Edwards embraces.“Where there’s financial success, there’s no appetite for risk,” she adds.
Edwards’ optimism sets her apart from other leaders in the field. So, does her belief in radical transparency. According to Edwards, she learned to value transparency working for startups. This skill has come into play in the past year. Sharing hard news has become an important part of her role as editor in chief.
Since her early days interning at Newsweek, Edwards has witnessed the changing role of editor in chief. “It wasn’t necessarily required to have to manage through layoffs, takeovers, shifts, major media companies combining,” says Edwards of a bygone era.
According to Edwards, running a magazine or media brand today requires business savvy. Editorial strategy and innovation now go hand-in-hand. In addition to skilled writers and editors, Edwards seeks new hires with technology and business literacy. “The ability to think of content in a business mindset is key for everyone, not just editors in chief,” she says. Journalists must be cognizant of the business side, too.
As traditional profit models continue to decline, alternative models are emerging in the publishing space. There’s been a flurry of partnerships, with legacy magazines tapping virtual reality companies and syncing with social networking sites, as brands compete to harness cutting-edge technologies. There’s also a renewed interest in subscription models, and organizations experimenting with membership models that challenge the once impermeable wall between the people absorbing the content and its creators.
Edwards is no stranger to the tech world. While working as executive editor for online lifestyle magazine Lonny, she collaborated with Silicon Valley engineers and product developers to build a mobile-optimized platform.
Edwards credits her startup experience with training her to be scrappy and have an adaptable attitude. She’s applying these lessons to Sunset’s future.
“Now, why not change. We have nothing to lose,” says Edwards. “That is the mindset of every new hire I want to bring in: complete openness and an excitement for opportunity that’s not clearly defined.”
Corinne Osnos worked part-time at Sunset during her fall 2017 practicum in Medill School’s Media Innovation & Entrepreneurship Specialization.
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