Lucire launches redesigned issue, with complementing web video and mobile editions

Lucire, the global fashion magazine headquartered in New Zealand, has launched a redesigned print magazine—signalling some of the changes behind the scenes that include a mobile edition, web video, and a free, downloadable PDF.

The Lucire cellphone service, available at <http://lucire.com/insider>, will be online later this week. And its new, exclusive Lucire TV web videos, produced by Springtv of Wellington, are just the tip of the iceberg, according to founder and publisher Jack Yan.

The redesign sees the famous red box, part of the Lucire brand since its founding in 1997, disappear from the print magazine’s masthead, though it remains elsewhere.

Says Mr Yan, ‘We needed greater visibility on newsstands, and the new masthead is a logical evolution of our traditional one. But really it is to signal the arrival of Lucire TV and our new mobile edition—musts as we head toward a new decade.’

The mobile service, developed with GetMobile in the US, is primarily targeted at Lucire’s traditional American readers, who still form a sizeable proportion of its online readership.

Alongside the new web videos and the mobile service is the Lucire supplement, a downloadable PDF available free from the magazine’s original website at lucire.com. The supplement contains some original content not shared with the print magazine.

Mr Yan says that the release across so many media of new Lucire editions points to how the magazine, unique in having started on the web before extending into print, successfully reaches audiences on the web, in print, and on mobile devices.

‘Our strategy has always been to use every medium possible, and this will become more apparent to the industry as things develop,’ he says.

The latest Lucire print edition follows a month after the release of the second issue of the Phuket, Thailand-based Twinpalms Lucire.

Inside the print magazine and supplement
Inside, an all-new design gives Lucire a more upmarket feeling, and it remains a very good read. The New Zealand print magazine has an interview with Kirrily Johnston, the famous Australian designer who showed at Air New Zealand Fashion Week, plus an exclusive shoot with Bai Ling. It also has a major photo editorial celebrating the 20th anniversary of Wellington hair salon Buoy Hairdressing, supported by Sebastian and Wella. New Zealand photographer Kelly Thompson shot the cover, her second for the magazine.
The supplement has a selection of articles from the current issue and exclusive pieces, including specials on Moda Lisboa and Cro-à-Porter, fashion shows in Europe. Nathan Gray reports from Beijing during the Olympics in the same issue.

Waiting for the technology
Mr Yan says that Lucire had tried to start web video ventures as early as 2000, when Monica Parente produced a series of programmes for New York Fashion Week under the Lucire Live banner. An edition for PDAs, called Lucire Express, emerged in 2001. But the technology left something to be desired, according to Mr Yan.
‘We had to wait till 2006 before we began seeing web video become a mainstream item, and mobile web browsing has only become more commonplace this year,’ he says.
While Monica Parente and, later, Jason Moon and Edward Uken, had produced Lucire segments for TV and web video usage, the first one seen by a sizeable population was editor-at-large Summer Rayne Oakes filming a ‘Behind the Label’ editorial in 2006, uploaded to YouTube. Since then, Lucire has featured some videos at its website, but Springtv’s duo filmed at Starfish’s store reopening in August mark a new beginning for the brand.
Jolene Parker also filmed for Lucire TV at Air New Zealand Fashion Week.
Lucire Express, meanwhile, was a PDA-targeted edition developed for a service called Plucker, which featured very basic articles, suited to smaller screens in the age of dial-up. It allowed users to download Lucire news on to PDAs, but it never caught on.
GetMobile, part of Quattro Wireless, began development on the new Lucire edition for mobiles, based around the Lucire ‘Insider’ blog, earlier this year. It expects to be ready later this week.