How To Spend It
One of the podcast shows that I follow is called "The Stack." It focuses on the world of print media and publishing, and is produced by Monocle Radio.
A recent episode featured an interview with Jo Ellison, editor of HTSI, a lifestyle magazine distributed in the weekend edition of the Financial Times newspaper.
The initials HTSI echo the magazine's former title How To Spend It, and reflect a recent brand pivot.
Why the change?
Ellison explained that as a result of the COVID pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and cost inflation pressures on the middle class they felt the needed a fresh take. "We want everyone to feel that the magazine offers something life-affirming and diverting. And so we evolved."
That said, the FT won’t change the essence of the magazine, Ellison assured.
“How To Spend It has always been about how we spend our time, and our content embraces everything that is good in life. We make optimism, pleasure and beauty a focus in a world where such things can be hard to find.”
The focus is still on design and lifestyle. But the purpose, as Ellison says, is not about "selling furniture". Not "buy this" and "buy that" but more about things they discover that they want readers to know about.
Less prescriptive. More suggestive. Perhaps more conscientious.
Ellison compares the magazine to a moodboard. And describes it as a colorful complement the newspaper's authoritative market coverage during the week.
Ellison acknowledges the importance of having the FT's benediction, which gets her team access to interviews, feature stories and brand partners that they would not otherwise have on their own.
Upcoming issues?
The Paris Olympics. A guest edited issue. An arts issue. A brand partner issue. A wellness issue.
What is Ellison reading?
She describes herself as a "magazine magpie" and loves The New Yorker, M Le Mag, and various Conde Nast titles. No mention of Monocle?!
She is also experimenting with subscription newsletters like Airmail (Graydon Carter's intelligence feed for "worldly cosmopolitans") and The Cut.
More here:
https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-stack/587/
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/05/31/ft-s-how-spend-it-gets-rebrand-reflect-deeper-sensitivities
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At some point during the interview, as Ellison was describing the obligation of an editor to choose stories that appeal to the tastes of all readers (not just the editors themselves), she said jokingly "it can’t all be Japanese ceramics." I smiled because, in fact, Magdalena had a few of her images from an ikebana shoot run on HTSI's Instagram account not long after the rebrand. So, while it can't ALL be, SOME of it can.
