Daily Front Row

2012 April 12

Jason Binn and Gilt Groupe's Du Jour Mag Staffs Up

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Keith Pollock, Jason Binn, and Nicole Vecchiarelli
Patrick McMullan View Gallery

(NEW YORK) Jason Binn's next big media endeavor, Du Jour, has a duo of EICs in place, plus a few other key hires. Keith Pollock and Nicole Vecchiarelli will serve as co-editors in chief of the print and online venture. Pollock was plucked from his post as editorial site director at Elle, and Vecchiarelli comes from InStyle, where she has served as senior editor of entertainment and features for two years apiece since 2008. Vecchiarelli landed at InStyle after a four-year stint as entertainment director at Details, prior to which she was at Teen Vogue from 2002 to 2006. Pollock was formerly fashion director at Men.Style.com before joining the Elle digital edit team as the site's executive editor in 2007; he left briefly to help Brant Publishing launch websites for publications including Interview and Art in America before returning to Elle in his current capacity 2010.  

Du Jour's publishing cadre now includes Alan Katz as chief revenue officer, joining Binn's latest from his position as executive VP of business development at Direct Brands, Inc., which churns out Book-of-the-Month club selections and Columbia Home Video. Katz's previous mag industry titles include a publisher stint at Interview from 2008 to 2009, preceded by time spent in the same capacity at Vanity Fair and Cargo (the latter of which Katz served as founding VP and publisher during the title's launch); prior to his Condé stints, Katz was publisher of New York from 1989 to 2003. Additionally, Cynthia Lewis is joining Du Jour as VP of sales. Lewis has been consulting via Create Lucrative Relationships Marketing and Sales, a company she founded in 2009, for clients including The Daily Front Row and Bergdorf Goodman, prior to which she served as president at Latina Media Ventures, as well as publisher titles at Hearst's Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar and Shop Etc. from 1994 to 2006. 

Binn is rolling out Du Jour along with Gilt Groupe, where he has served as chief advisor to CEO and founder Kevin Ryan since Binn transitioned in 2010 from CEO to chairman of Niche Media, which Binn founded in 1998 with the launch of Miami-focused Ocean Drive and Hamptons glossies. Binn and Gilt are joining forces with James Cohen, president and CEO of Hudson News Media, on the new venture. The mag's print version is expected to hit newsstands in September; its target audience includes three million of Gilt's top-tier members, a flush readership with an annual collective expenditure of over $600 million. The mag will reach readers who meet five of seven affluence qualifiers—an average net worth of $5 million or more; liquid assets in excess of $1 million; average home values topping $1.5 million; an  average income of more than $250,000; annual brick-and-mortar luxury purchases of over $100,000; annual online shopping that tops $10,000; plus yearly philanthropic donations over $10,000. Geographically, Du Jour will focus on plum U.S. markets (pun intended) such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, Las Vegas, and San Francisco, plus tony vacation hotspots including the Hamptons, Aspen, and Sun Valley.

Also joining the Du Jour fray: Max McDonnell, formerly CEO at online shelter mag LonnyMag.com, who will serve as associate VP of product development. As for Du Jour's technical site and mobile app aptitude, Binn has enlisted software development and design firm Code & Theory's Brandon Ralph, whose recent projects include Vogue.com and The Daily Beast. 
ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV