• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, November 3, 2006

The founder of Wallpaper, Tyler Brule, is returning to the magazine business with a new title, Monocle, focusing on geopolitics, business, culture and design. The magazine, set to debut in February, will be published 10 times a year. Brule hopes the magazine will entice readers of more staid publications with slick visual content and a slightly futuristic sensibility. Given this hip aura, the choice of title is a bit curious, summoning images of riding crops and spiked Prussian helmets. But the technical definition of "monocle" as a simple lens works quite nicely: "a device used to converge or diverge transmitted light and to form images."

Brule says the new title will be a thick, weighty glossy title emulating big German monthlies, like Stern and Der Spiegel. Der Spiegel combines in-depth reporting on international affairs with lighter fare, such as sensational crime stories, sports features often focusing on the fanatical world of European soccer, and a respectable number of celebrity features, like a 2005 interview with Tom Cruise about Scientology. Like Der Spiegel, Brule hopes Monocle will net luxury advertisers with the promise of a highbrow, cosmopolitan audience.

Monocle's eventual circulation should be around 200,000, all paid at $10 an issue or the equivalent amount in pounds or euros. The magazine will be based in London, but sold around the world. This is certainly an ambitious plan, but Brule proved his mettle with Wallpaper, which he founded when he was just 27 and sold within a year to Time Inc. for $1.5 million.

Absolute Returns After Hiatus

Absolute, a title targeting affluent readers with news and features about the well-heeled life in New York, is being revived by its new owners, Hour Media of Michigan, after a publishing hiatus of about six months. Although the magazine will keep its look, Hour Media has hired all new editorial and business staffs. In its earlier incarnation, Absolute was sold at the newsstand, but the new edition is being mailed for free to a list of 65,000 wealthy New Yorkers. The magazine is slated to appear 6 times in 2007.

Active Interest Buys Yachts Mag

Active Interest Media, Inc. announced this week that it is buying Yachts magazine. With the addition of the 10-year-old bimonthly publication, Active is building its fleet of consumer enthusiast titles and extending its audience reach by about 49,000. According to Yachts, typical readers own yachts over 60 feet in length, priced from $2 million to $100 million. There are also sister editions in France, Italy, Croatia, and Russia.

ImpreMedia Gets Vista

ImpreMedia LLC has acquired Vista Magazine, the nation's leading dual-language general-interest title. According to ImpreMedia, Vista's distribution numbers 1 million copies, covering 29 markets, delivered 11 times a year. The addition follows five other recent acquisitions by ImpreMedia, including Florida's La Prensa, distributed in Orlando and Tampa. Last week, ImpreMedia also launched La Vibra, an entertainment publication with total distribution of 530,000.