Vogue magazine is arguably the best known fashion magazine in the world.

　　
　　Vogue magazine is arguably the best known fashion magazine in the world. Madonna paid homage to it in her 1990 song ‘Vogue’. It has even been parodied in the book and film The Devil Wears Prada, and most recently in the television series Ugly Betty. However, as magazine circulation figures have suffered as a result of the new media boom, the magazine has looked increasingly to its website to sustain and increase readership.
The main Vogue websites are the American and British ones, although most of the international editions of the magazine also have their own unique Vogue website. Looking at the British website (www.vogue.com) it is easy to see why Vogue is staying ahead of the competition, as there are many good uses of new media forms on the website. The design of the website is classic and appears to use the same style guide as the magazine. The content includes a brilliant search engine, which allows the user to look through all of the past covers, models, designers and catwalks. The news section is kept very up to date, which is particularly important as fashion is constantly changing. The website contains pretty standard content that you would expect such as news and features, but also has its own Vogue TV which shows regularly updated video’s about the latest fashion news and catwalk shows.
I think that use of the Vogue TV is particularly relevant as not only does the print publication have to deal with the threat of rival magazines but also from television channels such as Fashion TV. Therefore by creating their own TV channel/ video clips, they are keeping the users interest in their website and magazine and pretending them from looking else where for that kind of media content. It’s a clever way of combing the different mediums to keep the audiences attention. The video’s can also be downloaded on to your iPod / MP3 player as pod casts. The only problem with Vogue TV is that it has a design flaw in that you can’t switch it off from the home page or turn the volume down, and so if you don’t want to watch the same video over and over again while browsing the home page, there isn’t much you can do.
Other uses of new media features on the website include competitions, blogs, a forum, and an online clothes shop. The blogs by the fashion experts are regularly updated but don’t allow for comments, which is something that would probably allow greater interactivity if that option was available. However, site users' do get to interact with the content of the website through a blog, and there is an option to subscribe to a daily newsletter which keeps users update with the Vogue even if they don’t regularly check the site. The clothes shop adds another element where the website can make more money by linking trends featured in the magazine and online to clothes that they sell to encourage sales and further profits. You can also buy copies of the print magazine and subscriptions to it online which links the site back the original publication. Overall I think the UK version of online Vogue is up to date with the developments in new media, however, there could be more interactivity with the user, giving them more freedom to comment perhaps on stories and the videos.
In comparison to the US Vogue website, the British site makes greater use of new media to promote the magazine as well as the brand itself. The US Vogue site has recently been merged with the W magazine to form style.com, almost as a separate entity to the print publications rather than a complimentary site to the magazine. The Vogue section of style.com makes better use of forums than its British counterpart, as it is more interactive, separated into sections where as the British forum is more of a comment box. The US Vogue website also features model diaries and a model search, however, I think the content on the British Vogue site is more detailed, up to date and in keeping with the magazine content.