Has Vogue lost its gravitas? Major magazine ranking excludes fashion bible in favor of titles like EatingWell and Women’s Health

Vogue is often considered the most powerful magazine in fashion, but not according a ranking issued this week by Ad Age which lists the ten most powerful magazine brands in 2013.



The ‘2013 Magazine A-List’ instead includes magazines like InStyle, Vice, Men’s Fitness, and EatingWell instead. Competitor ELLE magazine clocks in at number five, while W weighs in at nine.



Could this mean that the fashion bible is losing its gravitas?



Left out: Vogue magazine was not included in Ad Age's top ten magazine brands of 2013 The A-list ranking may be intended for advertisers’ use, but approval from that sector often indicates a magazine’s financial health and sustainable future.

According to Ad Age, the decision to exclude Vogue was not a conscious one.



Nat Ives, an editor responsible for helping oversee the list told MailOnline: ‘There are hundreds of magazines in the industry and there are ten slots—rare do we openly say that one had a terrible year and that we should consciously keep it off the list.’

When devising the a-list ranking, Ad Age is more interested in recognizing a magazine with exemplary work, rather than one that consistently performs at a stagnant level-- regardless of however fleeting its permanent success may be.

Ives in fact noted that ‘it’s safe to say that Vogue is the most powerful brand in the fashion category.’



Lifestyle winners: Bon Appétit magazine took the list's top spot, while underdog EatingWell came in eighth place

Lauren Sherman, editor-at-large for Fashionista.com noted that that there weren’t many women’s magazines on the Ad Age list (four out of ten), and that while Vogue ‘is the crown jewel of Condé Nast, it’s also an obvious choice.’



She said that even though Ad Age’s highest ranked performer, Bon Appétit, may not ‘have the reach or influence of Vogue,’ it should be recognized for looking ‘like what a magazine of the future may look like.’ Its curated advertorials ‘feel really authentic.’



Vogue, by comparison, ‘is still very traditional when it comes to different projects,’ Sherman added.

While Anna Wintour’s influence is massive, Vogue’s franchises and integrated marketing campaigns do not contend with the more innovative projects devised by those included on Ad Age’s list.



Sherman noted that in this category ‘Bon Appétit is doing the smartest stuff.’



Daily Mail fashion columnist Liz Jones was more forthright about Vogue’s reluctance to take on more innovative concepts.



‘The magazine refuses to move on, to modernize and to surprise,’ she said. ‘Like British Vogue, the fashion is superb. Ad revenues are stable. But there are no new ideas.’



While the list is full of magazines outside of Vogue’s category, it does include one of its main competitors.



On the edge: Both Vice magazine (3) and New York (7) have been lauded for their groundbreaking, edgier content

Elle magazine clocks in at number five, an accolade Ives says was earned with the title’s ‘biggest September issue yet, which was the biggest issue of any Hearst title and their development of software for Google Glass.’ He also noted that the ‘Women at Length’ social media campaign orchestrated by editor Robbie Myers over the summer was grounds for acclaim.



As far as Elle’s acceleration over Vogue, Sherman says that ‘Elle’s marquee franchise programs [like Women in Hollywood] are a little more broad-reaching,’ compared with Vogue’s big projects like the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund—an annual completion for emerging fashion designers.

‘This is supposed to be from the perspective of advertisers,’ Sherman said of the Ad Age list. ‘And more women are interested in a Women in Hollywood list then they are in a list of up-and-coming fashion designers.’



Overall however, the ranking includes magazines that are ‘really good at creating a sense of [niche lifestyle],’ Sherman said.



Vice (3) has its hipsters, W (9) has its cool kids, Bon Appetit its foodies, and New York magazine (7) its city dwellers who want to be in-the-know. In a way, each magazine acts as a little club for different aspirational sects in society.



Fashion sector: While Vogue was not on the list, competitor Elle ranked at fifth place while W came in ninth

It works in the titles’ favor since today it has become ‘harder and harder to get people’s attention and the way they have been able to do that is by creating this sense of aspiration and lifestyle,’ Sherman says.



And that is where Vogue is left out. The fashion title’ is more of a voyeuristic magazine,’ Sherman said.



Jones added that the magazine is often written ‘by post, rich women who witter on about their empty, pointless lives.’



It’s one of the reasons why Sherman feels, ‘You are reading Vogue to look into these rarified lives, whereas something like W is more about being a cool kid rather than looking at the cool kids’

