A career on the cutting edge - Annie Flanders

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 1, 1994 by Erika Isler

Soon, the title had gained a staunchly loyal following. "Even then, in my mind, I knew there was a real market for a magazine like that," Flanders recalls. "I knew it had the potential to be a very successful magazine."

By 1988, those "100 other people" had grown into an audience of 80,000, and Details caught the eye of S.I. Newhouse, who made an offer. As part of the deal, the magazine was put under the umbrella of Advance Publications because Flanders felt more comfortable with its decentralized structure, compared to the highly corporate Conde Nast. Under the direction of publisher Jonathan Newhouse, first cousin of Si Newhouse, Details continued to build on its following with advertisers and readers. "That first year with Jonathan as our publisher was the best year of my whole life," Flanders reflects. "He had an open mind and he listened. It was a wonderful collaboration."

Flanders viewed Jonathan Newhouse as an ally in voicing her views about the magazine's direction. (Newhouse's successor as publisher, Mitchell Fox, recalls that Flanders "would fight like hell to protect her creative people.") Shortly after buying Details, Si Newhouse let it be known that he wanted to see more national advertising in the publication. But the way Flanders saw it, Details was created as a training ground "for people who couldn't afford to advertise in the big magazines." To make her point, she created a chart that showed the growth experienced by the small New York companies that advertised in the hook. Jonathan Newhouse then took the chart to Si Newhouse, and for a while things continued pretty much as they were.

Still, Flanders was fighting a losing battle. By 1990--a year after Jonathan Newhouse had left for Conde Nast in Europe--Si Newhouse had come to a decision about Details. The markets were changing: Avant-garde was out, men's interest was in. On February 21, 1990, Flanders was summoned to Newhouse's office on Madison Ave. Details was to be re-created as a men's title, he told her, and the magazine would be moved trader the Conde Nast umbrella. "I begged him," Flanders says of her attempt to buy Details back from Newhouse. "He said that it had too good of a name, a great ad base, and that it was far too valuable to sell." After the meeting, Flanders and most of the original staff were dismissed. "I was so stunned," she recalls. "I was like a zombie."

Life after Details

Today, of course, it seems hard to argue with Newhouse's formula. Details is one of the hottest titles in the industry, with one of the fastest-growing circulations (now at 465,205), even if it is viewed by some original readers as just another mass-market magazine with less of an edge than before. "Details is not anything of the magazine I started," Flanders says matter-of-factly. But then again, she adds, how many people can say they launched a magazine that attracted the interest of a company like Conde Nast?

Besides, for Flanders, Details was the eighties and New York. Having maintained a relatively low profile in the nineties, she has carved out a new niche in Los Angeles, where she is trying to focus more attention on the wide array of talent--in both fashion and publishing--based on the West Coast. L.A. and its inherently funky tastes excite her creativity. Clearly, her creative enthusiasm regarding magazines and the world of fashion has not faded.