Eye | New Look for Glenda Bailey's Harper's | Bloomberg Pursuits Luxury Magazine

Harper’s Bazaar US editor Glenda Bailey has revealed her hew look for the March edition on newsstands Feb. 14. The leggy blonde wearing a sexy, skin-baring black stealth dress from comparatively new designer Anthony Vaccarello is Gwyneth Paltrow. Yes, it is daring to not show the model’s face.

WWD sums up the new Harper’s Bazaar this way: “it’s like the party guest who you recognize when she enters the room, but you know she’s had work done — a lot of work.

The magazine is larger by one inch, the paper quality is noticeably thicker and there is new cover typography. Inside the issue, the pages look less cluttered and thrown together, with more white space, while sections are more tightly edited. So far, there’s less celebrity and the related popcorn stories that can come with that. But in some ways, it still feels like the old Harper’s Bazaar. The black logo is the same. The emphasis is still on high fashion.

The new design is backed by new publisher Carol Smith, who joined the publication last May. Ad pages are up 15% for the relaunch with no projections after that. The magazine remains the fourth fashion title in America after Vogue, InStyle and Elle.

More on the new Harper’s via WWD: Derek Blasberg’s “Best-Dressed List,” an online feature, has become a monthly magazine column. The beauty section has been expanded, from four pages to 10 in every issue. Bailey has introduced a monthly travel section, “The Escape.” She plans to report on more news every month, to include the latest on art, film, books and trends. And she has kept the monthly feature “Fabulous at Every Age.” Bailey has even expanded upon it, in the beauty section.

As for brain food, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann wrote a piece about Sarah Palin for the relaunch, pegged to the HBO movie of “Game Change,” based on their book. Lisa DePaulo covered Stephanie Mack, the daughter-in-law of Bernie Madoff, while Vicky Ward wrote about Bernard-Henri Lévy.

Bloomberg’s Luxury Lifestyle Magazine

Subscribers with a $20,000 annual user fee to Bloomberg Terminal are getting a beautiful new magazine gratis, reports WWD. Bloomberg Pursuits is a spin-off of Bloomberg Markets, the monthly business magazine also part of Bloomberg Terminal. Dual circulation of the two titles is 375,000 with non-Terminal copies going to subscribers and newsstand buyers.

“You can’t get our audience anywhere else,” said David Bowling, advertising director at Bloomberg Pursuits, noting distribution is highly international, with about 60 percent of the audience outside the U.S., in financial centers such as the U.K., Japan, Hong Kong and Germany. The average household income of Bloomberg Pursuits readers is $452,000, and 90 percent are male.

Bloomberg Pursuits will distinguish itself against WSJ., Departures, ForbesLife, Robb Report and the Financial Times’ How to Spend It with a focus on the real lives of readers. WWD continues:

Stories in the first issue include profiles of a Bloomberg subscriber who travels to Antarctica on an icebreaker to witness a solar eclipse, another subscriber who builds his own racing yacht and a third who collects Ferraris, only to deconstruct and improve them.

“Our readers don’t just own and appreciate luxury. They have a command and mastery of their toys,” pointed out Vince Bielski, editor of Bloomberg Pursuits.

Bloomberg Terminal clients will also serve as models. Bloomberg Television will be airing a one-hour prime-time special introducing Bloomberg Pursuits in February.