SHOPPING OUTSIDE OF YOUR CLOSET: The holiday shopping season has begun, and according to Lucky, consumers are in a mood to shop beyond their own closets. “I don’t think there’s this feeling that you’ve got to slink home in the dark if you’ve got a shopping bag with you,” said editor in chief Kim France. To hopefully capitalize on that pent-up demand — as well as boost newsstand sales and Web site traffic, perhaps — the title is launching three initiatives. First, Lucky is in the early phase of adding e-commerce to its Web site through a partnership with Mall Networks. The magazine handpicked 40 retailers from Mall Networks’ web of 700 online and brick-and-mortar stores to curate a selection of clothes, accessories, handbags and shoes available for sale on shopping.luckymag.com. Merchandise will rotate daily and discounts and sales from each retailer will also be posted. All inventory and fulfillment is handled by the individual retailers.
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Lucky will also curate goods for the Brooklyn Flea’s pop-up store in New York’s NoLIta neighborhood. The relationship between the two came out of a July article in the magazine in which designer Rachel Comey picked the flea market as one of her go-to bargain haunts. The store will be open Wednesdays to Sundays through Dec. 16, and every day after until Christmas Eve. Finally, those shopping the pages of Lucky’s January issue will have a chance to win an item from every editorial page. Readers can win goods from a BlackBerry ($489) to an Ikea sheepskin rug ($40). — Stephanie D. Smith
FALLING GIANT: Another magazine is moving online as a survival tactic in the ever-shrinking media environment — urban lifestyle title Giant will cease print publication as of its December/January issue, but live online as Giantlife.com. The bimonthly title covered fashion, celebrities, culture and music and was bought in 2007 by Radio One, one of the country’s largest owners of urban format radio stations. Giant was seen as a competitor to Vibe, which folded in June and will be resurrected as a Web site quarterly magazine by new owners this month. Rumors about Giant’s demise bubbled up in the spring, but were shot down by the company at the time. However, neither Giant nor Vibe, like so many other magazines that have closed this year, have recently attracted enough ad revenue as marketers have trimmed newer niche titles from their marketing plans because of the recession. Giant carried less than 200 ad pages in its six issues this year; as of June, Giant’s circulation fell 13.6 percent, to 313,000, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Giantlife.com will draw from Radio One’s network of urban market Web sites, including BlackPlanet, NewsOne, TheUrbanDaily and HelloBeautiful, to help build an audience for its site. Ten staffers will be affected by the closure.
Meanwhile, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. is not renewing its two-year licensing deal to publish Ty Pennington at Home. Pennington, who is best known as the host of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” has served as editorial director of the decorating and lifestyle magazine. The last issue from Hachette currently available on newsstands. — S.D.S. and Amy Wicks
PAINTING BY NUMBERS: Sir Paul Smith has given his seal of approval to 8A, a new, biannual fashion, art, and beauty magazine that hits his stores today. Imperfect beauty is the theme of the glossy title’s first edition, which features Tanya Ling’s paintings of fall looks from Lanvin, Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel; an interview with the gallerist Maureen Paley, and contributions from designers including Matthew Williamson, Osman Yousefzada and Nash Masood. “We wanted to create a more collectible publication and bring art back into our industry,” said Ann Shore, a fashion designer who co-edits the title with Attracta Courtney, a makeup artist and beauty editor. Printed on thick stock, the title costs 30 pounds, or $49, and has been printed in a limited edition of 500. The magazine, which carries no advertising, will be available from Paul Smith stores in London, New York, Milan, Paris, Antwerp and Tokyo, and will be sold on newsstands starting Dec. 13. — Samantha Conti
I-D GOES LIVE: I-D’s next editorial shoot is set to take place in front of a live audience. For the magazine’s spring issue, which celebrates i-D’s 30th anniversary, photographer Nick Knight will shoot a series of fashion figures who have been featured in the magazine since its launch. The shoot is part of the photographer’s ongoing “SHOWstudio — Fashion Revolution” exhibition at London’s Somerset House, and will be held from today through Dec. 20, when the show closes. Subjects, including Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Alexander McQueen, will pose for Knight and visitors to the exhibition will be able to peek at them through a two-way mirror. In addition, the shoot will be streamed live on Knight’s Web site, showstudio.com. The 30th anniversary project, called “100 Portraits,” echoes images that Knight shot to celebrate i-D’s fifth anniversary in 1985, when he photographed such figures as Leigh Bowery, Michael Clark and Morrissey. — S.C.
ROSE ON BUSINESS: BusinessWeek’s rebranding will continue with a column penned by Charlie Rose, the company said Monday. Rose will continue with his PBS interview program “Charlie Rose,” which Bloomberg rebroadcasts on its television network. Rose’s first column will appear in BusinessWeek in the Dec. 21 issue. — S.D.S.