Women’s magazines have been accused of dumbing down the quality of their editorial content and the images they use.
The criticisms were made this week by Bronwyn Cosgrave, who has just quit as features editor of Vogue to become editor of Harvey Nichols’ award-winning glossy, HN Magazine.
“I worked on Vogue for four years and when I look around women’s publications in England there has been a real dumbing down,” she said. “I would leave Vogue out of that because I think it has stayed consistently high quality, but when I look around and think what magazine would I like to edit, I can’t really find one.
“I just don’t think they are of the standard they should be at in terms of images – the quality of images that are being printed and in terms of the copy,” she told Press Gazette.
Cosgrave claimed the media landscape was changing and that standards in contract publishing had been raised significantly. “Look at HN Magazine. It’s a beautiful magazine, the dedication to detail is fastidious, the calibre of photographers we can attract is top,” she added.
Prior to Vogue, Cosgrave was editor-at-large of Frank magazine and beauty editor at Cosmopolitan. She has also contributed to The Sunday Times, the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail.
By Ruth Addicott
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