And that the press operations will double

Editor of "Vogue", "gq" or "Vanity Fair", the Condé Nast group is one of the key global publishers of magazines. The CEO of its French subsidiary, Xavier Romatet, details his strategy in France.

2010 has been a year very hard for the written press. How have it you lived in Condé Nast France

Better than 2009, who had been a year yet harder. Last year, our turnover increased by 13 to nearly 80 million: our advertising revenues grew 14 and from the release of 8. Better, operating income was multiplied by 2.5. For the record, in 2009, our turnover had fallen by 14. Advertising had plunged 18. But we were remained profitable through the savings measures taken when needed, and reducing our workforce by 7, with 15 departures on a total of 200 people in France. Today, we are in much better position even if we have not yet found the advertising levels from before the crisis.

How do you explain this good resistance while other families of press continued to suffer

Condé Nast is fortunate to be positioned in a high range magazine segment. "Vogue", "Glamorous", "gq", "AD"..., all of our titles have trademarks strong and clearly identified by luxury, beauty, or high range watchmaking advertisers who have begun to invest in France, even if the growth is in Asia. Because in the fashion and luxury sectors, it is still Paris that gives the "the". And Condé Nast benefits from its strong international presence: it is the group that has the most titles declined at the international, while Lagardere, for example, cannot really rely on "it".

Lagardère, precisely, just enter into exclusive negotiations with Hearst for the sale of international editions of "She" and its other magazines. Was Condé Nast candidate

We watched the record but Condé Nast has a policy to develop by launches and creations by acquisitions. In addition, the mentioned price seemed high enough. In the United States, the synergies between "She" and "Vogue" or "vanity fair" were difficult to find and a takeover would have been difficult to manage. The success of a magazine, the creation of a global brand is Alchemy fragile, very difficult to find which is based on a good positioning, group culture and especially men, strong personalities such as Anna Wintour in "Vogue" or Chris Anderson in "Wired"! In the end, integration, it is risky and we didn't take this risk. We hold global media brands is a real asset to major advertisers of luxury in a context of globalization. From this point of view, the strategy of Lagardère seems surprising.

How do you work with your U.S. shareholder

I have a direct relationship with him. We are a family and non-rated group. In Condé Nast, there is a spirit, a culture and a positioning of strong titles appropriate for themselves. My job is first and foremost to develop the brands of the group. We are working with the best creative talent to beautiful magazines, with a start-up approach. When I see Jonathan Newhouse, the pattern of Condé Nast International, we spend 90 of the time to talk about people and magazines, not to the financial reporting. Here, the truth is in the product.

How you approach the large digital transfer of the press What is your strategy on the iPad

Internet is not in the heart of our strategy. Our main assets are the marks, and we must multiply the experiences of marks. Including digital media. For me, the iPad is a natural extension of our magazines, unlike Internet. We issue "Vogue", "Glamour", "GQ" as beautiful PDF, because the Apple Tablet is an excellent light for quality magazines, she paid tribute to the beauty of the images. We are also working on specific iPad applications, with 15 to 20 of dedicated content: we have in October for "Vogue", we revert to the issue of March, or "ad" in April. But there is still economic model on the shelves. The number of paying readers is still insufficient, including the United States. The iPad is generates each month 28,000 to 32,000 sales for "Wired", 13,000 to 15,000 for "gq", about 10,000 for "vanity fair" and $ 4,000 for "Glamour". In France, we sold a little more than 5,000 copies of "Vogue" in October on the iPad: this is insufficient to return on the investment. We believe in the Tablet, but profitability can now come to the pub: the market is in its infancy, we invite our advertisers to do experiments.

What other digital media

We're investing. We have two applications for "smartphones" ("Vogue" and "gq") and will launch six others. Some will be free, others pay. For example, the (free) "GQ", which gives a dress Board per day, has been downloaded 70,000 times since its launch three weeks ago, with an average time of 6 minutes per consultation. But advertisers are still hesitant on this support. We have also invested in social networks, asking everyone to contribute. I find that 50 of the employees of "Vogue" today feed our twitter VogueParisLive wire. Because of this, we are second in France, all combined activities, with more than 500,000 "followers" (subscribers). Our Facebook page has even a very successful. Social networks now generate 14 of the traffic to our websites, which allows us to reduce our dependence on Google - and invoice related to referencing, which decreased by a third party. We will continue, it is fundamental to the creation of traffic and it is also a wonderful communication tool. That said, I still think that there is no economic model for the magazine on the Internet press. We are going there with caution and good sense peasants. However, I fundamentally believe in our ability to monetize our brands.

Where are you on this point, and what are your goals

We will continue and extend our initiatives, such as the exhibition on interior decoration with "AD", the "Vogue Fashion Night", etc. This type of operation would represent 5 of our turnover in 2011, 10 in 2012 and 15 in 2013.

How do you see 2011

I turn to the year with great caution. After the strong growth of our advertising revenues in 2010, I do not expect a new two-digit growth this year. We rely instead on 3. But we hope that our digital media revenue will increase by 45. And that the press operations will double.

Then, "wired" or "Vanity Fair" What can you tell us about your upcoming launch in France

The two are in cartons. We are pushing one of the two, but I will not tell you which. We will however launch when we will be ready, in any case not before 2012. Nothing do press us.