Profile: Lagardere Active CEO Victor Viscot breathes life into Asia's publishing industry

Brittany-born Victor Visot, regional CEO for Lagardère Active - the publishing house behind success-story magazines Elle and Marie Claire - hasn’t had as long a career in publishing as you might expect. In fact, a large chunk of his working life was spent in the branding and product departments of a bathroom company.

“My secret is that when I was a student I founded a magazine. And a seed was planted,” Visot says in a creamy French accent that makes you feel as if he’s about to embark on a bedtime story. “Business life is purely coincidence and so is meeting people and the ability to adapt to new situations. Nearly 25 years after my first job, I was given the chance to come to this place. My real management story in publishing didn’t start until 1992.”

Visot’s current remit covers press magazines and their digital portals at Lagardère Active. This spans titles such as Elle, Marie Claire, Elle Decoration, Women’s Day, Psychologies, Femina, a new weekly fashion title, and Mr Modern, an upscale men’s title.

In this role he oversees Southeast Asia, Greater China and “officially” Australia. “I had to close this operation very soon after I joined because our partnership in Australia didn’t work, “ he says. “We have joint venture partnerships and license agreements in other countries. I don’t cover Japan or Korea.”

Visot explains that today Lagardère Active’s main focus is Greater China, despite the complications the market also presents because of its tight publishing regulations. “The area is diverse and exciting. My success in business belongs honestly more to the market than it does to myself,” he says. “When I arrived in Asia, I had 50 staff in China, less than 10 years later we have 500. As a manager of all these operations, the key point is to recruit, train and retain the talent. My personal satisfaction and interest is here.”

In terms of the available talent pool in publishing in the market, Visot says there are no rules. “It depends on individuals and their capacity to integrate, and the company to integrate. We’ve had good and bad experiences here.”

No country is comparable to China in terms of opportunity and success, Visot says, but the company has also had strong operations in Thailand since 1994.

It’s not all rosy though. Recently the market in Thailand has run into trouble. Visot explains how competition in the already crowded women’s magazine market became even more intense at the end of last year with the launch of weekly fashion and lifestyle title Grazia. The magazine went head-to-head with other licensed magazines including Lagardère’s Elle, as well as Cosmopolitan, Madame Figaro, Cleo, In Style, not to mention a plethora of local titles. And unfortunately in terms of yield, Thailand sits in bottom place after Malaysia. “Rates are very low,” says Visot. “It’s very difficult to change this price structure.”

However, experience is on Lagardère’s side. Even with so many women’s titles in the Kingdom, industry experts say advertisers still tend to go for established brands like Elle rather than a new launch.

Magazine readership may also be waning in Indonesia, but that hasn’t deterred Lagardère Active from launching its second title there last month, Elle Decoration. Rising interest in fashion, beauty and lifestyle tends to go hand-in-hand with economic growth, explains Visot.

“Our partner will also launch Marie Claire in the next few weeks. The Indonesian economy has not been affected as much as other countries by the financial crisis,” he says. “It’s a vibrant county. Just like other countries, females are the engines that sustain and develop lifestyle and new trends. All the luxury brands went to Indonesia two or three years ago. When this happens you know media will be there very soon after. Estee Lauder had no business in China but still advertisers in Elle. The luxury market feels there is a direct correlation between brands and media.”

But Lagardère isn’t the only magazine publisher eyeing growth in Indonesia. SPH Magazines launched its interior decoration monthly, Home & Décor, in April, the first overseas outing for the magazine, presenting additional competition for Elle Decoration.

SPH already publishes six localised titles in Indonesia, with different publishers: Female, Female Brides, Her World, Her World Brides, HWM and The Peak.

As with all publishers, a concern is online revenue through paid-for content. But Visot thinks Lagardère is in the right place to succeed. “There are a lot of opportunities in Asia because Asians are more adaptable. Print brands still have a future, and portals are keen to pay for magazine content. We are moving in the right direction - we are in a cultural revolution of sorts for print.”

Similar to other publishing houses, Lagardère Active has suffered from the financial crisis. Advertisers have become more selective and reallocated the advertising dollars. “It made every publisher look at its roots,” Visot says. “It made them look forward, not back. It made us consider the value of our titles. We took this opportunity to stop some titles. Many magazines died over the years, but many magazines were also created. Magazines are the mirror of society in terms of development, culture and lifestyle. Sometimes the magazine is not the mirror of society.”

Visot points out that there are not many magazines that have been going throughout the ages that can adapt by themselves to mirror society.

“Our business is to create brands and sometimes also to kill them. You kill a brand because you have other ideas,” he says. “It’s not negative - it’s to refocus your brand strategy. For that, the crisis has been quite useful.”

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This article was originally published in the 20 May 2010 issue of Media.