Monocle expands to Hong Kong, shuns social media

Tyler Brûlé is funding the expansion of Monocle magazine to Hong Kong through branded merchandising. The global affairs, culture and design glossy magazine has sold some 8,000 Monocle branded bags in the past three years at its retail shops in London and LA, the proceeds of which are going to support the move.

Despite many predictions of the magazine's demise, Brûlé says to the Guardian that the company is making profit ahead of schedule. While many publications are floundering, Monocle is staying in the black by charging US$112 for ten issues a year sent to its 15,000 global subscribers. Its retail stores stock $1,425 branded BlackBerries as well as $30 CDs, and Monocle staff moonlight as J. Crew models.

Although Brûlé is on the board of directors for social networking service Dopplr, he only has this to say about jumping on the social media marketing bandwagon:

"Media owners don't want to be seen as old farts and feel they need to be Twittering under the table. If you want journalism across six different platforms then something's got to give and there's a lot of mediocrity across six platforms."