Closure of magazine group – end of an era, not just a family business

TALI FEINBERG

Speaking to the SA Jewish Report, the company’s chief executive, Julia Raphaely, says that the moment of making the announcement was “traumatic … we feel anguish for the staff and the huge audience we have had to cut loose. This is like the death of an era, not just a company, and many people have expressed nostalgia for the medium of print and compassion about this tough decision.”

It was her mother, Jane Raphaely, who founded the company with the launch of Cosmopolitan in 1984, followed by numerous ground-breaking titles over the next 36 years. “She did it with gumption and chutzpah, through feisty determination, and often with a baby on her hip,” wrote journalist Mandy Wiener at the launch of the elder Raphaely’s book, Unedited, in 2012.

“I remember looking at the first issue of Cosmo, with Anneline Kriel on the cover, and thinking how it set a whole new benchmark for the industry on South Africa,” remembers South African media expert and journalist, Gus Silber.

Pnina Fenster, the former editor in chief of Marie Claire and Glamour, agrees. “Cosmopolitan shattered ceilings in male-dominated media and inspired many dreams, my own included. Always my admired colleagues and sometimes my formidable competitors, the powerhouse of AMP changed women’s lives in incalculable ways.”

Cosmopolitan continued to innovate and push boundaries. In 1994, then 14-year-old Claire Mawisa became the first black model to grace the cover. “Jane Raphaely empathetically declared that a 14-year-old black girl would be the new face of beauty in South Africa, forever changing that child’s life,” she tweeted at the news of AMP’s closure.

Another defining moment was AMP being chosen by Oprah Winfrey to publish O, the Oprah Magazine, making South Africa the only country to publish her brand outside of the United States.

Jacqui Biess of Charly’s Bakery remembers, “One morning, I got a call from Jane to meet me in her car outside the bakery for a confidential meeting. She asked me if I could I provide a high tea for 120 people that same afternoon at 15:00 as Oprah was coming to their office. She had only just heard this news. We closed the bakery for the day, jumped into action, and by 15:00, we set up in their boardroom.

“When introducing Oprah, Jane said she just wanted to thank one special person, and she called me up. I was introduced to Oprah in my dirty apron! I’ll never get over Jane being so gracious and thanking me when there were so many other important people in that room.”

Nicola Miltz recalls a similar moment when she was the Johannesburg bureau chief for Femina magazine in 1999. “I remember attending a meeting where we invited Charlize Theron to guest-edit an upcoming edition. I watched awestruck as Jane allowed Charlize to take centre stage.”

In the industry, Raphaely is renowned for nurturing talent. In Unedited, she writes, “Editing is not about power. It’s about possibility. It’s the art of the possible, provided you put the right pieces in the right place at the right time. Matchmaking, giving a good idea or a good person a good shove in the right direction, shining the light of truth in some very dark places, and always trying to stay one step ahead of the expectations of your readers is heady stuff for the headstrong, and I was certainly that and proud of it.”

This is exactly how journalist Nadine Rubin Nathan came to work for AMP. “I was interviewed by Jane Raphaely when I was 22. I was told by her secretary that she wanted to meet me for breakfast at the Sandton Sun. I had sold one freelance story to Cosmopolitan, but had no idea why she wanted to meet,” she recalls.

“The breakfast was lovely, but I was too timid to ask what I was doing there. Three months later, I was offered the job of junior features writer at Cosmopolitan. I was still in the middle of my degree. Jane looked beyond a curriculum vitae to find the best people to work on her magazines. I think I was hired based on sheer passion. I learned to write and edit on the job.” She would go on to edit Elle magazine.

“It wasn’t a business, it was a relationship, and this was one of the reasons that Jane [now in her 80s] was still working,” says her daughter. “She is passionate about people, and therefore was an incredible mentor to people inside our business as well as a valuable ambassador outside of the business. She is an ‘ideas and solutions’ person, and has always loved giving people what they want before they even knew they wanted it.”

To the younger Raphaely, AMP represents a uniquely South African story. “A family-run, independent business whose actions and beliefs were always driven by the fact that our name was on the door. Integrity was critical for us, but ultimately the people who worked inside and outside the business always knew what we stood for.”

Silber agrees that this is what makes the Raphaely family’s story and publishing house so important to so many South Africans. “It was a company that always seemed to have the warmth of family at its heart. The Raphaelys built a media institution on chutzpah, drive, vision, and a keen intuition for the needs and wants of their multiple audiences,” he says. “They can look back with pride on the publishing legacy they leave behind. The shelves will feel a lot emptier without them.”