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Sorbet, Roast Pork, and Risk

New 'Vanity Fair' Looks for Glamour in Germany

By Jochen-Martin Gutsch

On Thursday, the first edition of Vanity Fair will hit German newsstands. The magazine has been years in the making, but there is no guarantee it will succeed. After all, what can a glamour magazine cover in non-glamourous Germany?

Ulf Poschardt, editor-in-chief, considers for a moment how best to comment without giving away too much. What, his interviewer wants to know, can readers expect from the first issue of the new German Vanity Fair?

Eventually Poschardt says: "A menu lives from diversity. Right now I have the feeling that we've done a great job on the sorbets. There won't be any better sorbet. But I'm also pleased that we have a few things like sauerbraten, roast pork and rotisserie chicken. Now we just have to create a few appetizers."

The menu, in the form of a brand-new glossy magazine, hits the newsstands on Wednesday. And it sounds like a rather full plate. Especially for a weekly.

The publication has certainly found the right address for its headquarters: downtown Berlin on the city's stately boulevard Unter den Linden. On the ground floor is a Ferrari showroom -- three floors up are the editorial offices encased completely in white: a white floor, white walls, white Apple iMac computers, white shelves. And in the back, in Poschardt's office, there's even a white thermos on a white table with a white wastebasket underneath. It's as if Poschardt is the first editor-in-chief to work from inside a giant snow globe.

But he seems okay with that: "It's the right setting. Especially when you have younger people working for you. The rooms and the location say a lot. They are, of course, a statement." But stating what exactly? "That we are who we are," says Poschardt.

Exists as a statement

Poschardt is 39 years old. He was editor-in-chief of the weekend magazine of the quality German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, but he had to leave after he published -- as did others -- made-up interviews by a journalist named Tom Kummer. He was then the creative director at Welt am Sonntag and was responsible for freshening up the Sunday paper's coverage aesthetically, ideologically and content-wise. On his white shelves are eight still shrink-wrapped copies of his book "Loneliness," in which he explains why being alone isn't as bad as it's made out to be. That's to say, the book is much like Poschardt himself. It exists as a statement.

He's been developing the German edition of Vanity Fair since the summer of 2005. Now, a week before the launch there are only two ways forward. His magazine can either fail to meet the high expectations or it can be a great success. But a German edition of Vanity Fair can't simply be okay. Nobody would buy it. The German magazine market is full of simply okay titles.

It's hard to say which way Poschardt's project is currently leaning. Rainer Schmidt, the deputy editor-in-chief, only started in December. Uwe Killing, head of the "People" section, joined in January. And only weeks ago three members of the editorial staff, including the culture editor, left the publication.

This morning at the 10 a.m. editorial meeting, Poschardt bids farewell to someone from the photo department who is going to the German art and lifestyle magazine Monopol. He's standing in front of 40 staff members, all of whom are both young and good looking. It's possibly the best looking editorial staff ever assembled. But it could also be a class at a journalism school or the tired workforce of a snazzy new Web start-up.

Poschardt says everything is going according to plan. That even though the word for "man" in German has two N's, Superman should be spelled with only one. That the editorial staff masseuse is totally booked out. And those who need vitamins to combat the stress should just buy them and expense them to the company. "Let me know," says Poschardt. Then he goes back inside his snow globe and closes the door.

The Vanity Fair formula in Germany?

At the moment the editorial department is too small for a weekly magazine that wants to go straight to the top. Poschardt wants to increase his current staff from around 75 to 80. But that's still not much compared to the competition. And it's not likely big enough for a dream.

Because that's exactly what the German version of this magazine has always been -- a dream for journalists and publishers. For decades they've tried to come up with a way to transplant the Vanity Fair formula to Germany -- a country considerably different from America. A country that is smaller, narrower and quieter. In the end it always seemed as if it just wouldn't be possible. Perhaps there was a bit of awe holding things back too. Vanity Fair has long been an American cultural icon, even if its roots were founded in 1860 in England.

In 1913, the US publisher Condé Nast acquired the rights to the title and made a magazine that was perfect for the age. The 1920s in New York, a city that was just as ambitious and extravagant as Vanity Fair wanted to be. Magazine and city grew together and grew bigger. And both flopped together too. In the midst of the Great Depression in 1936, Vanity Fair disappeared.

Half a century later in 1983, the magazine was reborn. The new publication's credo was simple: Cover everything. Celebrity talk, high society, Hollywood, political reporting, commentaries, essays, photography was all mixed up next to each other in the same glossy pages. These days the US edition of Vanity Fair has a circulation of 1.2 million and a readership of around 6 million. The magazine is a huge moneymaker, bursting with massive advertisements for luxury products. That's the brand and its cachet.

It's also the Holy Grail for many publishers: a magazine that fills small gaps between Gucci, Prada and Chanel with a bit of editorial content. An entire genre of glossy coffee table mags has been spawned by that dream.

Somewhat trashy

The German Vanity Fair is sure to be measured against the original, but that would be unfair. The US edition is a monthly. "It's two different journalistic categories," says Poschardt. "One is a sports car, the other is an SUV. Only the spirit is the same." Fine, but what exactly is that spirit?

"The spirit is made up of countless things like any spirit is," says Poschardt before making an example. In the TV series "Sex and the City" the character Samantha at one point says: "I always want to look like the best version of me." "And Vanity Fair presents everyone as the best version of themselves."

That's the spirit.

But beyond that, he's looking to forge a path for the German Vanity Fair somewhere between the US and Italian editions. The version of the magazine in Italy is somewhat trashy. The articles even have estimated reading time notices underneath them. And what the US edition does simply isn't possible even if the German version harvests articles and photo spreads from America. So what exactly will German readers end up with?