Contemporary editorial directors are no longer able to focus solely on content and have taken on the responsibility of soliciting advertisements for magazines. Therefore, Margaret Zhang, who lacks connections and industry experience in the Chinese market, may find it difficult to bring significant economic benefits to the magazine. Compared to 1.18 million Instagram followers, Margaret Zhang has only 40000 followers on Weibo.
However, this may also be an excessive expectation from the outside world. From the situation of the past two years, it can be seen that the reform of Kangtai Nash did not hit the key point of the business model, but still remained stagnant. In addition to restructuring the organizational structure, the progress of the group in responding to the decline in paper advertising revenue and updating its business model is almost zero. The only thing Kangtai Na Shi did was to reduce costs. Perhaps the group headquarters did not have high expectations for the commercial value of Margaret Zhang, nor have they yet figured out a clear business strategy.
On the other hand, what fashion magazines need to break is their reliance on advertising in the past. When a magazine becomes a blogger brokerage company, the change in corporate roles may naturally leverage changes in business models.
Overall, choosing Margaret Zhang is a decision made by Continex to seek innovation within the framework.
In response to the sharp decline in advertising revenue during the epidemic, Continex has reduced the salaries of all employees earning over $100000 by 10% to 20% since May 1st last year, and the salary reduction strategy has been ongoing for five months. At the same time, the group has also taken measures to lay off employees and reduce recruitment. Many editors have lost their jobs during the epidemic, and more freelancers who have worked with magazines for a long time are also struggling to make ends meet, causing heated discussions on Twitter.
For Kangtai Nash, the employment cost of Margaret Zhang is much lower than that of senior media professionals with high annual salaries. The chain effect of hiring new employees in such a top role is a major reshuffle of senior high paying employees within the group, which can be seen as a disguised form of layoffs. According to the WeChat official account LADYMAX, the office space of Conde Nast China in Beijing China Trade Center has also been reduced by nearly half, confirming the overall strategy of the Group to cut costs.
Many industry insiders have expressed doubts about Margaret Zhang’s future earning ability. They believe that Margaret Zhang will undoubtedly bring refreshing and youthful content to the Chinese version of VOGUE, but the business model of fashion magazines is now at stake.
