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- [00:00]
A
Tumi is for the ones who know what the journey to becoming an icon takes. The ones who live in the details. The obsessed. Those who don't just meet the standard but define it. The ones who never draw inside the lines and never stop drawing new ones. Tumi shares your drive. It's in everything they make. The pursuit of excellence never stops. And neither does Tumi. Before they called the Selena and navigation backpacks icons, Tumi put them to the test. Tumbled 125 times, fabric stretched from every angle, handles yanked, limits pushed. Crafted with precision. Built to move, tested to endure. Tumi is icons tested. Shop the icons in store and@tumi.com you.
- [00:49]
B
Know those little habits that quietly upgrade your whole day for me, it starts the moment I wake up with a giant glass of water. The breakfast of champions. Before coffee, before making my kids lunch, I grab a bottle of Fiji Water to get hydrated. Because hydration is my number one priority in life. Seriously, Fiji Water isn't just refreshing, it's Earth's finest water. It comes from the islands of Fiji, filtered through ancient volcanic rock and naturally preserved from external elements. It's bottled at the source and untouched by man until you unscrew the cap. Here's what makes it different. Fiji Water has a perfectly balanced 7.7 ph and has more than double the electrolytes as the other two top premium bottled water brands, giving its signature soft, smooth taste. Unlike the other two top premium bottled water brands, Fiji Water's electrolytes are 100% naturally occurring. Fiji Water is also leading the way in sustainability. Since 2022, their 330 and 500 milliliter bottles have been made using 100% recycled plastic. Fiji Water is the number one premium imported bottled water brand in the US and it's easy to see why Fiji Water is Earth's finest water. Hello and welcome to Fashion People. I'm Laurence Sherman, writer of Pucks Fashion and Beauty Memo, Line Sheet and today with me on the show are ID Magazines Karlie Kloss and Tom Beatridge to talk the past, present and future of the title. Before we get going, I wanted to remind you that if you like this podcast, you'll definitely love Puck, where I send an email called Line Sheet. If you're a fashion person, you get that reference. It's an original look at what's really going on inside the fashion and beauty industries. Line Sheet is scoopy, analytical and above all, fun. Along with me, a subscription to Puck gains you access to an unmatched roster of experts reporting on powerful people and companies in entertainment, media, sports, politics, finance, the art world and much more. If you're interested listeners of Fashion People get a discount. Just go to Puck News Fashion people to join Puck or start a free trial. Happy Friday everyone. Hope you're having a great week. I am sitting out the London shows to hang with my kid. So send me tips, send me fun stuff. I'll be in Milan starting next Tuesday and then I'm in Paris for the long haul trying to figure out if I might, I might leave a day or two early, but we'll see. It's. It's hard, it's hard to miss out when you have a fear of missing out. This week in my she, we've got scoops about lvmh, the future of Saks, the departure of Oscar de la Renta, creative directors Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia. Rachel Strugatz also has all the sales figures from Rhodes first weeks at Sephora. They are wild. Hailey Bieber is really something. And Sarah Shapiro went out to Menlo park on Wednesday for the Meta Glasses presentation and she has a column about that. So lots of really good stuff. Everything you want to know about what's happening in fashion and beauty. I'm going to stop talking right now so we can get going with Carly and Tom. Carly Kloss, Tom Bettridge, welcome to Fashion People.
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C
Thanks for having us, Lauren.
- [04:28]
B
What did you all have for breakfast this morning?
- [04:31]
C
Okay, so I sat with my kids and ate cheesy scrambled eggs and.
- [04:39]
D
And.
- [04:40]
C
I think a banana muffin.
- [04:42]
D
I also just ate what my kids ate for breakfast. Some cut up pieces of fruit and saltine crackers.
- [04:51]
C
You sound like the pregnant woman between the two of us to have some saltine crackers.
- [04:56]
D
It's a lifestyle.
- [04:58]
C
Yeah.
- [04:59]
B
That is the saltine cracker crackers. That's a first time appearance on Fashion People. I'm very impressed. Okay, so you all are on today to talk about ID Magazine. Tom, you joined. How long has it been now? Like eight months or a year?
- [05:18]
D
Like around 10 months?
- [05:20]
B
I would say 10 months. And Carly, you bought ID magazine as part of your budding media empire about almost a year ago or two. Was it two years ago now?
- [05:35]
C
I think it was actually two years ago that we started the conversations because, and actually because you're just always on it, Lauren. You don't sleep. I think you were the first person to report that I was even considering it. And that was two years ago.
- [05:51]
B
Yeah. Wow. Time flies. So I want to talk about the new issue. I want to talk about how the two of you got together and what you've been developing since Tom joined eight months ago. But Carly, maybe let's start with why did you want to buy a magazine? You have this, this Holdco or parent company called Bedford Media. You are making other acquisitions or, or looking at different things. What inspired you to buy ID in particular and, and what did you want to do with it? Sure.
- [06:28]
C
So I, you know, I was fortunate to be involved with Sarah Moonvest in 2020 when she was buying and, and we, we brought together a group to help buy W magazine out of bankruptcy. And that was such an incredible sort of first foray into seeing sort of the back end of how these businesses operate. And actually an entirely different vantage point on publishing and on fashion media than I have ever had. And I've grown up in this business since I'm 15 years old. It was my first Vogue shoot, my first ID shoot, you know, so I've been in this industry for more than half my life, but I had never been on the business side of it and the publishing side of it. And Sarah has been a longtime friend. I mean, we really started our careers at the same time, which is why, you know, that's how I got involved initially and learned so much through that experience. And so when ID was sort of going through bankruptcy or in the process with Vice and that was sort of becoming very public about what was going on, it just really was most of all important to me that it survived and that it continued to live on. Because ID has such an extraordinary, not only just role in fashion history that it's played, but it's been such a just important launching pad for creative talent from its inception. And there's so much, I mean, in my own career included Edward Inning full. You know, one of the first shoots I ever did was with Edward and id. You know, there's, there's so many people who can attribute, you know, their careers and those sort of first starting opportunities to id. And so the role that it's played in our industry is so important. And also I think it's an incredible brand. It's an incredible, you know, it's something that is both 45 years old and also as relevant today as it was half a century ago. And I think that's for me the opportunity to help preserve and protect a brand like that, but actually rebuild it in a really sort of forward thinking way. And especially sort of coming out of bankruptcy, there was so much that was basically broken that had to be rebuilt anyway, that it was sort of like, all right, let's think first principles about like, if you're building a publishing, you know, back, back of house engine from the ground up today around a legacy brand, what's the best way to do that? How can you do that in a really thoughtful, lean, digitally savvy way and build for the business where it is today and certainly, you know, the opportunities moving forward. And so that was really kind of why ID was so exciting to me, because it's just I didn't want to see it go away. And I also thought there was so much untapped potential to actually build it into something so much bigger.
- [09:29]
B
What surprised you the most about the way a magazine or a publishing entity, because it's hard to call these things just magazines anymore, about the way they worked. Given that you're an investor in a lot of companies, you've started your own businesses, you're around a lot of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs building things from the ground up. As someone who had worked in magazines for a long time, but on in front of the camera, what surprised you about how they operate and how are you all doing things differently here? Maybe that'll bring us to how you ended up with Tom for sure.
- [10:05]
C
Well, we are so lucky to have Tom leading the team and really the vision for me, I'm super entrepreneurial. I am a model by my day job. But actually when I started in the industry, that meant one thing. This was, you know, almost 20 years ago. It was pretty crazy. The world was a different place, media was a different place. The role of someone like a model was very much, you know, one dimensional. But over the course of my career and really in the beginning sort of stages of it, there were many more entrepreneurial opportunities that I as a model could actually build off of my career as, you know, building, you know, one having not just being seen, but being heard because of social media and being able to build entrepreneurial enterprises or my nonprofit off of my platform. And so I saw, I mean, I think the ways, and I think that's what's so exciting about the ways that you can sort of leverage a brand and we're talking about a media property. But, but really taking this sort of the values and the ethos of it and, and how to bring that to life in the, in an incredibly sort of dynamic, multifaceted capacity across community. Because that's really what it is, right? It's like you're reaching your audience, your community and the ways that you can engage with them are of course, print, which actually ironically is more in demand than ever. So, you know, print, but Then also, you know, we have an article in that Nikolaya from our editors royal team, you know, wrote today, and she actually like polled our audience as a part of the conversation. I mean, there's so many ways, you know, you can really actually take that brand and that sort of DNA of it and, and. And build a whole world around it. And that's really why we were so excited to bring Tom on board, because he's a world builder and, you know, his experience through so many facets of his career really, you know, made him perfect for this job.
- [12:13]
B
So you. We. We realized it's been two years, which is. So now that makes sense because I was like, wait, it couldn't have just been a year, but I was sort of tracking online sheet every step of the way at your process. And, you know, there was an editor in chief there. You know, there was an editor in chief there.
- [12:31]
C
You don't miss a beat, Lauren.
- [12:32]
B
No. Alistair McKim, who's amazing when, when you started, he ended up leaving. You took a long time to find the right person. Every time I heard you were talking to someone, I'm calling your poor publicist. Ask me about it.
- [12:46]
C
I appreciate it, how much you care. Thank you.
- [12:48]
B
Yeah, I do care a lot. But it took a minute for you to find Tom. And so, Tom, you. First of all, I thought you were my age, but you're actually 10 years younger than me. Not to out you, but you have done so much, which is interesting because Carly, you are also someone who has done so much and you started your career at 15, so it feels like you are sort. But you both are ahead of the game in many ways. But Tom, tell. Tell us a little bit about your career prior to ID and why, when you met Carly. I'm curious how you all got together, but why this was an exciting opportunity to you.
- [13:36]
D
Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, maybe actually starting from the end of the story, I think that, you know, when I first spoke to Carly about id, you know, with. With this kind of job, like, you know, being aligned with the founders or the owners is like such a crucial part of everything, because I feel like you need to work from a shared vision, you know, in the business side of the creative side, need to kind of operate in lockstep. And I think that first combo is almost like finishing each other's sentences about what the vision for a brand ID could be. And I think that at the core of that, it's kind of like thinking about publishing outside the box of making articles and having people see them and then monetizing the eyeballs that see them, you know what I mean? I think that's the model that it operated under for so long, but that kind of doesn't work anymore. And so something that's been a central theme in my career kind of by accident in a lot of ways, is thinking about how publishers can kind of be brands and can operate like brands. And so, for example, a really formative experience was like my first job at 03.2c. The year I started there, we started creating this merchandise line that was, by the time I left, was in 100 stores. We were consulting brands like ESSENCE on how to start their own editorial platform. And so like, you know, in a way like that kind of like ignited a spark where I was kind of like, you know, oh, maybe the way publishing moves forward isn't by just doing more publishing, it's by like using that sort of like, mechanism that makes publishing relevant and like bringing it to new places. And so I think, like, when Carly and I first started talking about id, we were very much on the same page that it was about kind of going beyond what's been done before.
- [15:40]
B
Yeah, what was it like, Tom? A lot of your experiences at newer brands. I know you were the editor of High Snobiety, which had been around for a while, but still a new brand. 032C. Not totally new, but kind of an upstart type thing. Whereas ID, a 45 year old brand that has had a lot of different lives already. How did you two work together to sort of find the essence of what ID was about and bring that, distribute that in a modern way? I think that the first cover, being an Unknown, was. Was an interesting example of that and would love to talk about what you all have done with this issue, but how do you kind of get that ESSENCE and that brand part right for these new modes of distribution that exist today?
- [16:39]
D
It's a good question. I mean, in a way, I think working with a kind of legacy brand and media, like you have the kind of throw yourself into the archive and really kind of like, you know, not try to recreate it one to one, but almost like decide on the themes within that archive that you want to make kind of like, you know, that you think are kind of relevant for the future, you know. And so I think that when we were going through kind of like the back issues of ID and kind of like, you know, sequencing the DNA of it, I think something that we were really drawn to, which you mentioned, was this idea that ID very much, whether it was Madonna or Rachel Weiss or whoever was very much about giving people their first cover or platforming unknown people. And so our first issue very much focused on that by discovering our own unknown cover star, but then also featuring two other cover stars in Naomi Campbell and FKA Twigs, who also had originally appeared on the COVID of ID as unknowns. And so I think in a way you can kind of find those things and sort of latch onto them. I think another theme in the ID legacy that I find very interesting and relevant today is that it was very much a DIY project in the sense that it was totally bootstrapped by the Joneses. It was executed in this kind of punk way that's very aesthetically diy. But I think in a way, to me, that really resonates with our climate and our culture because, like, nowadays it's like almost all media is diy, you know, so it's like, you know, whether like you have a substack or a podcast or, you know, you're just like a great mood board account on Instagram, like in a way like that logic of ID very much resonates with that mode of production. So I think that's like, you know, so we just kind of go through and just find those threads and sort of pull at them and see where they go.
- [18:45]
C
And just to add to that, I think that sort of democratization of voices and of access, which has been enabled by technology over the past, you know, 10, 15 years, has obviously transformed and threatened the business model around media, which is part of this existential crisis of, you know, what we're seeing. The whole industry have to re. Reconfigure itself to be able to right size. But for us, you know, we're kind of coming at it on the opposite end. We're coming. This was a bankrupt small business that we believe so deeply and deserves to live on. And there is such a unbelievable richness to the archives and to the. To the values and to the DNA of what the Joneses really started and established that I think it's very hard to build that from the ground up today. You can build the back end of sort of how to serve it, how to distribute our content. And, you know, so this is sort of this interesting moment and the opportunity that. That we were. That we're so excited about with ID and really at Bedford is how do we really focus on that and, you know, allow Tom and team to manifest that into the editorial, print and digital and just sort of like even experiential, like what that actually looks like. Feels like that is their world. I think that the sort of strategy and business side of it, though is like now is actually when everyone's running out of the burning building is where the crazy people running in. But I think that that's where the opportunity is.
- [20:22]
A
Tumi is for the ones who know what the journey to becoming an icon takes. The ones who live in the details, the upset obsessed, those who don't just meet the standard, but define it. The ones who never draw inside the lines and never stop drawing new ones. Tumi shares your drive. It's in everything they make. The pursuit of excellence never stops. And neither does Tumi. Before they called the Selena and navigation backpacks icons, Tumi put them to the test. Tumbled 125 times, fabric stretched from every angle, handles yanked, limits pushed, crafted with precision. Built to move, tested to endure. Tumi is icons tested. Shop the icons in store and@tumi.com hi, I'm Nancy Cartwright.
- [21:12]
E
You may know me better. As the voice of Bart Simpson on Simpsons Declassified, we're diving into the mysteries that keep the Simpsons forever young. Have you ever wondered how the Simpsons regularly predicts future events? Who better to ask than the show's creators, performers and writers, the celebrity guests? Be sure to follow and listen to Simpsons declassified wherever you get your podcasts.
- [21:42]
B
What has the feedback been from advertisers? And a lot of that, I'm sure, has to do with your pitch to advertisers. But my sense talking to people in the market and talking to advertisers is they don't have as much money to spend, but they have money to spend and they actually probably have a little more freedom about how they can spend it. What have you all experienced when you're recruiting them to be in your pages and on your platforms?
- [22:12]
D
I think, you know, I think the advertisers have, have gotten really, most of them have gotten really savvy about the kind of world we're living in. And I think there's an understanding that, you know, by working with a publisher or with a platform, you're really accessing an audience that maybe you don't speak to as directly on your own, you know, and so I think what, what's been really great to see with, you know, not just like, you know, people buying cages in the magazine, but like branded content is like, you know, we've had a really, we've had a lot of trust and buy in to kind of create stories that, you know, speak to the brand and their message but are very much like, geared towards our audience and like exist within our style. And I think that's just like smart business on their part, you know, because I think if we made something that was too brand coded, it wouldn't have the same engagement or effect as something that's like through our lens.
- [23:12]
C
And just to add to that, you know, I think advertisers want, you know, not just to buy an ad page, but actually ironically, are still very interested in buying a print ad page in a really premium print product. But so that actually, I have to admit I was blown away by, over the past two issues, just to give you some perspective, the relaunch issue that we unveiled in March was the highest grossing revenue issue ever in IDs history. And then actually, not to spoil the news, but we actually tripled that for our September issue. So, you know, that's. And we're talking about a print product here. And you know, that to me has, is, is such an interesting sort of sign of advertisers still very much care about that curation and that distribution. But, but, but it's actually, you know, part of what we've been thinking about in building this business is how do we actually better partner and align incentives and like, how do we better service our partners not just in sort of selling ad pages or like fake eyeball numbers, but really meaningful ways. And that's part of why I think experiential has been such a growing part of all media businesses. Because that's how, you know, advertisers can actually have much deeper engagement with the people they're trying to reach. And so we really think about that, you know, because our community is very engaged. Our community is very, actually kind of runs the gamut of both deeply sort of Gen Z youth culture. And also, I mean, we're talking 45 years of iconic brand that has represented a lot to a lot of people over many generations. So we have a really interesting, engaged community that we're really thinking about. How do we best service them? How do we think about our audience, our brand partners, and the talent that we're working with?
- [25:15]
B
How did you two end up organizing the magazine in terms of where the business is based? Because ID was a UK publication, We're a global world. But one thing, and not to undermine, that's congratulations on the ad revenue. That's awesome. One thing is that advertisers have more money in the us the budgets are bigger. You just, you tend to have a bigger publication if you base a lot of this. If you're selling through the U.S. if you're based in the U.S. how much of like the sales team and all of that and the editorial team ended up being based in the US Because a lot of the incremental annoying reporting I was doing was like these five people have been moved or there's been this tiny reorganization or whatever. Sorry, not sorry, you know, but you.
- [26:11]
C
Got to do your job. We appreciate that.
- [26:13]
B
I got to do my job. But the point being like how did it all end up netting out? Are most, is most the company based in the US now or is it sort of half and half? How did you end up managing it?
- [26:25]
C
Well, I'll just say, I mean the team is global. You know, we have an incredible chief business officer, Mikhail, who is based in London. The, you know, his sales team is based in London. A meaningful, you know, part of different teams on the editorial side and different sides of the commercial business are in the uk And I have to say, you know, yes, there are, I would say maybe bigger budgets, especially a non endemic in the U.S. but we're talking about the fashion industry, which is majority of houses are still very much, you know, European. And you know, I think it's an interesting, it's been really, I mean an incredible testament to Mikhail and Tom that they've been able to rebuild this, the commercial viability of this business which has been, you know, I think for us, we, we that, that, that is, that matters because that's a sign that we are, this isn't a vanity project. Like we actually are like proving that you can do incredible work while also building like a viable business. But that's really a testament to the team that's been around the table over the past year.
- [27:37]
D
Yeah. And you know, London is very much the spiritual home of id. You know, like, you really can't separate it from that kind of like place culturally especially because like, you know, I think for so many, you know, of my peers from England, like it's kind of like that magazine that you experience as a teenager and will forever associate with fashion. And so I think even though the world is very much global and the way the Internet works is very much global and we kind of as a team, we kind of work on the cloud. It kind of doesn't really matter where everyone is. I think having that kind of home in London is definitely a very big part of our brand DNA and the lens through which we operate.
- [28:31]
C
But it's a global business and it's a global world. I mean I think that's part of, you know, we, the Internet. Right. Like, and we have, you know, it's actually been amazing. You know, part of the DNA that we talk about, like straight ups, you know, Terry and Trisha Jones, like, you know, some of the first, like images in that first issue were like straight ups that like, we get, you know, photographer submissions from all around the world. We are working with talent all around the world. So, you know, our team is, like Tom said, operating in the cloud. You know, they're collaborating across no matter where geographically people sit.
- [29:09]
B
But and Tom, I suspect that you've really worked for people all over the world at this point. Right. So you are used to that sort of interaction with Europe and in Canada and all of that. And I guess that's how we all work now. Where it is not. You're based in one place, but that's not really where your life is.
- [29:34]
D
Yeah, it's also, you know, I think it's for example, at high civil, it's like our team was split across Berlin and New York. And I think it creates a really great dialectic for like an editorial team especially because, like, you know, it's very easy to like create this kind of filter bubble around the city you're in and like, you know, kind of what's going on there. And so I think having that kind of tension where it's kind of like, oh, everyone in Europe or England is thinking about this. Everyone in the States is thinking about this. Like, our contributors in East Asia are thinking about this. Like, you know, having that kind of like chorus of opinions kind of pushing and pulling on each other, I think creates a really rich teen culture. So I think, like, I don't know, I would almost feel like if I was making a magazine that was everyone was in one city, I almost feel like we'd be missing something.
- [30:32]
B
Yeah.
- [30:32]
C
And. And just to add to that, Terry Jones always would say, like, it's, it's the minestrone. Right. It's like all the chopped up vegetables that make like the soup. And so I think like that it's a. We live in an incredibly, you know, like, global and diverse world. And I think that that's been a huge focus. You know, it's been amazing to see Tom and his team really sort of think about that across, across generations, across geography, across like these, these cultural conversations and what that really means.
- [31:03]
B
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
- [31:08]
F
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- [31:41]
G
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- [32:00]
D
Goodbye, Truckee.
- [32:01]
G
Of course, we kept the favorite.
- [32:05]
D
Hello, other Truckee.
- [32:06]
G
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- [32:14]
B
So I do want to talk a little bit about the white labeling agency stuff. Stuff at one point, but let's. I would love to get into this issue. So this is the second issue you all have done. It's called Gen Beta. Can you talk a bit about this, this issue in this cover concept and how it relates back to the first issue? Because I see the through line, but you. You tell me.
- [32:43]
D
Well, you know, something that really appealed to me, looking in the archive like kind of the first decade of id, was how a lot of covers had Kate Moss or someone super famous on it. A lot of covers had unknowns, but then there was also ones that were almost more of a concept or more of a kind of visual statement. And so when we started making the magazine, we stumbled across this factoid that 2025 is the first year of people being born who are now Gen Beta. And we kind of took that.
- [33:23]
B
What a terrible generation name. I hope it changes.
- [33:27]
D
I know. I mean, that was kind of part of the joke for us because we were like, okay, what if actually being beta is a good thing in the sense that these kids have a chance to kind of like, set the record straight on where the world is going. And so, in a way, it was kind of like a thought experiment in sort of like, what kind of radical optimism looks like. We brought together, like a bunch of luminaries from a bunch of different fields, and we basically asked them, like, what advice would you give to a baby born in 2025? And so that was kind of like that story with our cover with a baby on. It became kind of like the central sort of like, conceptual pillar of the magazine in a way, especially, like, in a year where it feels like, there's so many things to be pessimistic about. I think thinking about the future in the long term is, like, a worthwhile endeavor.
- [34:24]
B
Yeah. And it's. It. It can be for Carly's baby. It can go in. In your baby's first book.
- [34:32]
C
Wow. Totally. But there's. There's three of us actually on the team who are all having beta babies. So I'm like, I hope for their sake. We need a better future.
- [34:44]
B
I hope for all of ourselves, for everybody. So one thing I noticed that you all have done well is kind of weave in. I don't know if they're exclusives, but big gets with different people. I loved, obviously, Stef Yaakka's Sofia Coppola homage that she did recently, and this Jonathan Anderson interview you all have, I don't know if it was the first one he's done or obviously one of the first. I'm also curious about that, like, the access element of it. You all have good access because you have good connections and people trust you and are inspired by you and all that. But in this new age, how important is that sort of access? And once you get it, what are you doing with it? What do you think you're doing differently when you get these bigger interviews than other outlets are doing?
- [35:43]
D
It's interesting because I think there was a time before I was even in this industry where the only way you could hear from a famous person was to read what they said in a magazine. But now, you know, if you really like someone, you could see something they're posting on their Instagram every day, you know, and so I think, in a way, what we try to do with those types of stories is kind of like, you know, zero in on kind of, like, what we're bringing to the table as far as, like, you know, hypothesizing about, like, you know, where that person might be in their career. Like, what does this moment mean? Like, you know, because I think, in a way, part of the reason why people want to be in magazines, even though they have their own platforms, is that it enters them into a historical record and kind of frames time in this very specific way. So, for example, with Jonathan Anderson, him and Steph have been in dialogue both in interviews and offline for years. And so I think, in a way, we really wanted to be like, okay, we all know the news, but what does this mean? And what does your vision for a kind of futuristic luxury house look like? And so I think, in a way, it's about kind of bringing that extra thing to it that gets people on board but also makes it worthwhile.
- [37:13]
B
Yeah. What do you think Carly, as someone who you are often the subject as well. So you have all the angles. You're now the publisher and, and, and also you were one of the first kind of personalities to have your own YouTube channel. I remember that like you, you're, you've been doing that direct to consumer interaction for a long time.
- [37:38]
C
Yeah, I think it's interesting because I guess like a value that I certainly care about is that you know, talent, creators, creatives can come to ID and you know, it's a safe space. There's this saying of like fans, not critics. Like ID has always been a fan, not a critic. And I think that that idea of like so often, you know, people are going into an interview feeling like there's like a gotcha question waiting for them and you know, for us, like we really want ID to and idea always has been this sort of celebratory space of creators and creatives and art and the sort of intersection of fashion and music and culture and that those conversations are as relevant as ever and across every medium. And so I think, and for me, you know, like I said like my career started in a very one dimensional way. I was a picture and you know, I was seen and not heard. I was in. And by the way I have so much nostalgia and love for print media because it was, it was the, it launched my, my career. But also besides even that, I think that there's like there's something so special about really quality print that is. And I think we see this, right, this sort of collectible behavior and I, and we see that that's happening with our, with our issues. But I think that the, the opportunity of like how can we be, you know, we talk about ideas of brand but like this platform to storytell and to, for people to come collaborate with us. And you know, Steph is an incre. I mean there's so many talented people on this team, Steph and Nikolaya, who are talent themselves, you know. And I think that's this sort of change that has happened. You know, my career like you said, like I went from being a Vogue girl to then like also having my own social media and YouTube and like my own point of distribution. But like I think that's part of that, that's part of it is like it's a multifaceted conversation. It's not just like this, this gatekeeping or top down. And I think so much of fashion media has been slow to sort of evolve that power dynamic. And I think that's part of what's so exciting about what Tom and Steph and the team are doing is that it's really this holistic engagement with the community in the audience. Not just eyeballs that we're selling things to or selling against, but like, actually we really care about our community and we really want to provide value to them. And that's why I say, like, we think about our, our audience in our community, our brand partners, because we really want to provide value to them too, and our talent. Like, we want to provide a space that they can come to and are excited to come to id. And that's what we've, I mean, that's why, you know, and again, that comes down to Tom and the editorial teams, you know, continuing to do that, like with this, this new issue and our cover stars.
- [40:42]
B
Yeah, it's interesting. There's something about anyone can be famous now, or anyone has a channel and has a platform, but there's something about putting an editorial lens on that idea that is still exciting to people. There's been a lot of conversation recently about people saying we need gatekeepers. I miss the gatekeepers and I don't, I think people don't necessarily miss the gatekeepers, but they miss someone telling them what, like giving them advice on what to do. And if you can sort of put Sofia Coppola and an 18 year old girl in the same conversation somehow that is interesting to people.
- [41:27]
D
Yeah, I mean, we think about this a lot and the word we like to use rather than like gatekeeper or authority, is like this idea of like ID as an institution. You know, in the sense that like when you go online there's like AI slopped. There's like, you know, people with really polarizing opinions. There's like fake news, but like, in a way, like, you know, a platform with the kind of history that ID has, it can kind of, you know, be that marker to be like, hey, like, you know, we've been around for this long and this is what matters to us, you know, and then that can kind of like introduce you to someone new who maybe you haven't heard of, but now you're thinking of them in a different way, or someone who you know really well as a celebrity, but like in a new kind of light. So I think like we, we think about that in terms of like, like how do we make like a publisher that's almost kind of like a cultural institution. The way that like, I think being in a museum show is like a big deal for like an artist, you know, and kind of defines like a stage in their career.
- [42:30]
B
Yeah, that's a really good way to put it. I don't want to keep you all too long because I, I want Carly to be able to get to the hospital. Just kidding. We're being overly dramatic. But one quick dorky biz question. I know you all sort of have launched like an in house agency type thing. A lot of magazines, a lot of publishers do this now. High symbiety has one the, the best known is like the, the monocle version of this with Wink Creative. But a lot of it's pretty much everyone has some version of this at this point. How are you all approaching that and like what do you think your differentiator is in terms of like advising or however you're, you're framing it?
- [43:14]
D
Yeah, I mean in a way like what we're, what we're doing as an agency is kind of like an extension of, you know, what we've already been doing with brands, you know, because I think that, you know, oftentimes like the game with publishers is to like, you know, create content that works well on the channel and then publish it there and you know, as a way of kind of like leveraging views or whatever. But I think that what really we really want to do is kind of like dig in and like, you know, work with brands to figure out how to tell new kinds of stories. And I think like with ID, it has that really rich history of like being founded by an art director, you know. And so we really kind of think of it more as like a creative studio than a kind of like in house agency at a publisher, you know. And so that's why we've been working towards like defining that more.
- [44:08]
B
Cool. Okay, so final question is, what's next? Carly, you have this. There's a parent company you also acquired. I don't want to get into the details, but some part of Life magazine which has yet to launch. So I assume that there's stuff coming there. But do you want to buy more? Do you like, what do you see as your personal self, self applied remit for this whole thing? I'm trying to think of the right word project is not the right word venture. This whole venture.
- [44:49]
C
I mean we have an incredible amount of opportunity with these two brands alone. And we're all in right now with ID and we're deep in the process with Life, so stay tuned. But I think, you know, for me it's not about quantity, it's about quality. And I Think that's, you know, the. That's. That's just the world, actually. That's the way I want to live my life. I don't need more. I. You know, and if anything, like, I think none of us need more. I think it's about, like, quality content and experiences that actually stand out and are meaningful and worth your time and your engagement. And I think for us, I'm. I'm so proud of what we've been able to turn around with this business and actually prove not only that, indeed, it does deserve to live on and be preserved and protected, but that there's so much opportunity here to build a better business. And to me, that's part of our intention here with Bedford. Maybe that's just because I grew up in this business and I have a deep amount of gratitude and reverence for it, but I believe it deserves to exist. And I would like to, you know, continue to build out and experiment with. With different revenue streams. And I find it so exciting that actually print, ironically, is so successful that it's enabling us to reinvest in experimental parts of this business, which is, you know, something I'm. I'm really proud that we've been able to get to this point. And so we have a lot of things up our sleeves over the next months ahead. You know, I'll just say we've. You know, there's a lot of. We're thinking both about the incredible. I mean, we have 45 years of archival content that we've digitized, and we're going to bring that to life in exciting ways. There's so many things that I think the influence and distribution that a media brand is like. There's so many more ways to build around that that are quality for all parties you're trying to. To service. And so with ID and with life, like, we have a lot that we're working on. So for now, that's awesome. Thank you.
- [47:00]
B
Well, I'm excited to hear more and learn more and see what you all do. Congrats, and I'm so glad that you two found each other and you've been able to do something interesting. And thanks for doing this. I appreciate it.
- [47:16]
D
Our pleasures.
- [47:17]
B
We'll talk soon, I'm sure. Thank you, guys. This was great. Fashion People is a presentation of Odyssey in partnership with Puck. This show was produced and edited by Molly Nugent. Special thanks to our executive producers, Puck co founder John Kelly, executive editor Ben Landy, and director of editorial operations, Gabby Grossman. An additional thanks to the team team at Odyssey, JD Crowley, Jenna Weiss Berman and Bob Tabador.
- [47:49]
H
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