Another Flair Magazine Redo Published

Ivy Baer Sherman saw Flair magazine for the first time in 2003 at an exhibit at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery. Six years later, she has started Vintage magazine, a reprisal of the iconic 1950s magazine. Vintage is published twice a year and has the artsy fold-outs and special inserts that made Flair such a fun read.

According to Folio magazine, the magazine’s revenue source is still unclear.

One huge difference between Vintage and its 1950’s inspiration? Vintage is on Facebook and Twitter. Had she had the chance, you can be sure Fleur Cowles—who died earlier this year—would have been a huge online presence.

Flair was published by Des Moines-based Cowles Publishing and lasted exactly a year, 1950. Fleur wa

s married to Gardner (Mike) Cowles, who bankrolled the project, reputedly losing $2.5 million on it. Let’s wish Ms. Sherman better luck.

Flaunt magazine, another Flair look-alike, has embossed, die-cut covers ad lots of production tricks; it has lasted more than 100 issues. The E.T. Center for Magazine Studies at Drake University has a full run of Flair, plus Fleur Cowles’ book, The Best of Flair and a good selection of Flaunt magazines. Or check my book, The Magazine from Cover to Cover, for a history of Flair.

Metropolitan Home to Close

Metropolitan Home magazine, which started life as Better Homes and Gardens Apartment Ideas magazine, is the latest casualty of the recession. It will cease publication with its December issue, according to a Hachette Filipacchi announcement this morning. Met Home has been published under that title for 26 years. Ad pages for the third quarter were down 35.7 percent from the same period of 2008. The company plans to focus its energies on ELLE Decor.

On another blog, I share an article I published in 1995 about the magazine's history. Read it here.

Drake magazine wins another Pacemaker

From a Drake University news release.

The Associated Collegiate Press has awarded Drake University's student-produced Drake Magazine the ACP Pacemaker Award for Magazine Excellence.

In addition, Drake graduate Brittainey Sieren placed third in the magazine spread design category, and current student Danny Akright received honorable mention in the feature photography category.

Winners were announced at the 88th ACP and Annual College Media Association's National Convention in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, Oct. 31.

"The Pacemaker Award is the most prestigious award in student publishing," said Lori Blachford, the Peggy Fisher and Larry Stelter chair of magazine journalism at Drake. "We are competing against schools all across the nation, so to receive recognition as outstanding magazine of the year from that organization is a real honor."

"This is a national award that puts the Drake student magazine at the top of the pack for student publications," said Kathleen Richardson, director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. "Almost all of the other finalists were from bigger schools."

The staff of San Francisco's Wired magazine judged the publications in the magazine excellence category on:

• Art, photography, and graphics
  
• Content
  
• Layout and design
  
• Overall concept or theme
  
• Quality of writing and editing

"The students who work on Drake Magazine gain real-life experience in magazine production," Blachford said. "They start each semester with a collection of blank pages and make all the decisions required to arrive at the end of the semester with a magazine that represents their best work."

Tara Richards, a senior magazine major from Indianola, Iowa, served as the publication's 2008-09 editor in chief.

"I loved working for Drake Magazine," Richards said. "The whole staff was extremely dedicated to the project and we gave our all to make sure the publication was the best it could be."

When asked about her future career, Richards said, "I would love to work as an editor for a magazine or Web site. The experiences I've had at Drake have been invaluable in preparing me for the real world of journalism."

Congratulations to Last Year's Drake Magazine Staff!