Why W Magazine Matters (Again): A Conversation with Sara Moonves

• Moonves grew up in Los Angeles, voraciously consuming arts and culture from a young age.
• While still in high school, Sara interned at Vogue and later assisted legends like Sally Singer and Phyllis Posnick before becoming a fashion editor herself.
• Upon inheriting a nearly defunct W Magazine as its new Editor-in-Chief, Sara had to convince reluctant advertisers that the brand was still a worthy investment.
• In March 2024, W debuted its first digital cover featuring Beyoncé, timed to the release of her album Renaissance. The most awarded artist in Grammys history generated over 3.5 billion press impressions and 348 million social impressions, sparking overwhelming demand for a print edition.
• While other print publications scaled back their number of print editions due to industry-wide reductions in readership and ad spend, W's print issues were so successful that the brand added another to its lineup in 2024.
• Overall, W Magazine saw double-digit revenue growth year-over-year in the first half of 2024, encompassing all three platforms: print, digital, and experiential.
• By bringing cultural icons like Steven Spielberg into the fashion fold for the first time, W’s brand world and content offerings are often more varied than many of its contemporaries.
• Sara became the first female Editor-in-Chief in the brand's 53-year history.
• Published by Rizzoli in 2022, W Magazine: 50 Years/50 Stories was the first of what Sara envisions as many brand extensions that leverage the magazine's storied history.
• For Sara, being contemporary means pushing boundaries, tuning out the noise, and always moving forward rather than backward.

‍Notable Quotes: ‍

• "I was always a very ambitious child. I loved culture from a very young age—I loved fashion, film, television, and going to museums." - Sara Moonves 
• "I sort of used magazines as my bible for what to do, what to see, and who to pay attention to. I discovered designers I loved, and I knew from a young age that I wanted to be not only in fashion but also in the magazine world." - Sara Moonves
• "If everyone quits, this is what I'm going to do. This is how I'll run the website, and this is how I'll figure it out—even if it's just me sitting on the floor of the office. I wasn't nervous about the work because I had spent so much time thinking about what I would do if I ever got to lead a magazine." - Sara Moonves 
• "I always want to push boundaries. I always want to create provocative imagery. I always want people to feel like they’re getting something from W that they’re not getting anywhere else." - Sara Moonves
• "I think it's about mixing those two things: a huge commercial, box-office actress combined with an amazing artist who has never done a magazine cover." - Sara Moonves
• "We're lean, we're small, and we work really closely with our partners. We're able to communicate in a way that maybe other, bigger publications can't." - Sara Moonves
• "Beyoncé fans were saying, 'We need a copy, we need print, we need this.' And, you know, we did. We went to Iconic and to Air Mail newsstands, and we watched people come and get it, which was so amazing." - Sara Moonves 
• "When we did our director's cover with Steven Spielberg, we were showing him clothes, and he had never shot fashion or runway clothes before. He had never worked with them. He was so excited." - Sara Moonves 
• "When you're on the cover of a magazine, it's a group of people with authority in the space saying, 'We think you're amazing. We think you deserve to be celebrated.'" - Sara Moonves 
• "There are different pillars of what we do at W, and a big one is discovery. I love getting to introduce someone to the world, whether it's a story on the site or a page in the magazine. It's amazing to say, 'Meet this person, go see this museum show, go listen to this album. We think it's important in the world right now.'" - Sara Moonves