Editors’ Note

Carol Smith was appointed to her current post in May 2011. Prior to her arrival at BAZAAR, she was Chief Brand Officer of the ELLE Group at Hachette Filipacchi Media. A founding publisher of Parenting, acquired by Time Inc., Smith was appointed president and CEO in 1993. While at Time Inc., Smith was also the founding publisher of Vibe, and served on the launch team for Martha Stewart Living. Earlier in her career, Smith was publisher of American Heritage, and co-founder of American Photographer. She helped launch e-commerce Web sites beautyjungle.com and estyle.com. She is a graduate of George Washington University.

Company Brief

Available in 43 countries around the globe, Harper’s BAZAAR (www.harpersbazaar.com) is a visual muse and a source of ownable style – turning the unexpected into the coveted. Since its inception in 1867 as America’s first fashion magazine, BAZAAR has showcased such extraordinary talents as Richard Avedon and Andy Warhol, and the tradition continues today with world-class photographers and creative collaborations with artists and auteurs from Takashi Murakami to Martin Scorsese.

What was your vision for the magazine when you came in?

I knew Harper’s BAZAAR was a magazine for serious fashion, and it had a nice feel of timelessness to it, but I truly fell in love with BAZAAR when I started reading its history.

I felt it was important to cherish the magazine’s past while reinventing it for the future. We had to push ourselves to the top of the fashion magazine pyramid, and BAZAAR needed to be more luxurious, while also being effortlessly chic and modern. So we changed the product – the look and the feel –to create a new reader experience. But we also drew on the traditions of our past to make the magazine fresher without losing that timeless appeal.

Has the profile of the reader changed?

Not dramatically. We raised the price on newsstands because we know the discerning woman we want, who is affluent and sophisticated, is not driven off by price increases.

What is the vision behind ShopBAZAAR?

It was born out of a need for me to stop tearing pages out of magazines and putting them in my bag only to lose them or get to the store right after the item sold out. I felt there had to be a way to connect a fashion magazine like BAZAAR to a shopping experience. It hasn’t been easy to launch a new e-commerce product and organically integrate it into the magazine. But I’m happy to say it’s working, and it has significantly changed the conversation about BAZAAR.

How do you remain relevant in print with the drive towards digital?

I feel so lucky to be in the fashion category, because a printed fashion magazine will always be relevant, and will always be a starting point. There is a pleasure and immediacy in holding a magazine and looking at a magnificent photo portfolio that nothing in the electronic media can quite equal.

That said, women can experience BAZAAR on Bazaar.com and at our pop-up shops, as well as by sitting in their living rooms reading our magazine.

I feel very strongly that BAZAAR is a whole ecosystem, and the separate parts have to nourish each other. I believe the system is working well right now. BAZAAR has never been better or bolder, and our advertisers respond to that.

We’ve figured out our vision and our mission, and now we’re focused on the future.•