Many publishers will refer to advertisers as business partners. Tyler Brûlé, the founder of Wallpaper* magazine and editor in chief of Monocle, calls them “patrons of Monocle’s approach”.
And he means it, too. In the US, magazines abide by the rules of the American Society of Magazine Editors, which call for clear, bright lines between advertising and editorial. But for Monocle, a globe-trotting magazine for what Brûlé calls the “Lufthansa audience”, the only bright line is the one separating lively from dull.
“We are a global magazine and I think that approach is beginning to go sour in the fridge,” Brûlé said.
In the September issue, for example, there is a large insert on Singapore, with a survey paid for by its government and several large companies there, but articles generated by the magazine staff. Brûlé dismisses talk of conflicts as a false choice. But of course, when someone runs a magazine and runs his own ad agency, you have to wonder which hat he wears when.
“Rather than some boozy lunch with editors and sponsored parties, we cut right to the chase. We have editorial integrity, we don’t accept freebies and we make the final decision about what is worthy,” he said. “But as publisher and editor, I’m part of the religious and secular worlds, and I make the decision. No offence, but I think the whole church-and-state thing is a very tired, US concept.”
But then, life is a bit of a caper if you are Brûlé. A little over a week ago, Brûlé flew from Helsinki, Finland, and we met in the lobby of the Four Seasons in New York. When he called a few nights later, he was visiting with a “leading Japanese underwear company” in Osaka, “a classic second city”. In the next few weeks, his itinerary will include Rome, Milan, Switzerland and Paris.
Those of us who are currently fighting to find a week for a rental at the shore might find it easy to hate Brûlé. At 40, he is handsome, bordering on dashing, and he knows most of the world as well as the back of his left hand, which, by the way, he has limited use of after he was shot by a sniper in Afghanistan when he was working as a correspondent there.
As a writer, he has picked up exotic datelines for The Guardian, The Sunday Times and Vanity Fair (along with The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune) and is currently a columnist for Financial Times. He famously invented Wallpaper*, a very outre design magazine that was bought by Time Inc. in 1997, and he went on to found an ad agency, Wink, that is now Winkreative.
Brûlé’s status as a tastemaker was assured when he was hired in 2001 to design the look of Swiss International Air Lines. After leaving Wallpaper* and waiting out his noncompete with Time, in 2007 he created and financed, along with some investors, Monocle, a 10 times-a-year printed infomercial based in London on living the good life, one first-class flight at a time.