Striking a New Match

For 23 years Paris Match has been selling photojournalism `a la LIFE. Each week in its pages, pictures on breaking news stories compete for space with lavish color spreads of Cote d'Azur celebrities and views of exotic locales. Since 1958, though, when its average sale peaked at 1,520,000 copies, the magazine has lost readers at a clip of 60,000 or 70,000 per year. Sales in 1971 dipped to 811,000 per week, and 1972 returns showed a further decrease. Rumors naturally followed that Match would be snuffed out. Last month Founder and Publisher Jean Prouvost, still active at 87, took steps to lure readers back.

Prouvost had earlier decided to shave an inch from the magazine's vertical size to create a less bulky format. Then he ruled that a complete typographical overhaul should accompany that change. Among those he called on for advice was Commercial Artist Milton Glaser, 43, design director of New York magazine. Glaser went to Paris in late November and quickly whipped off some 30 sample designs for the "new" Paris Match cover. Impressed, Prouvost then asked Glaser to redesign the entire magazine. The only hitch was that he refused to wait the two or three months that Glaser guessed the job would take: "He wanted a complete new design by tomorrow," Glaser remembers, "and he really did want it tomorrow."

From 5 p.m. one Friday until 7:30 the next evening--with only brief respites for oysters and naps--Cilaser and the Paris Match art staff remade the magazine. Glaser ended the magazine's frequent practice of superimposing captions and photo inserts on page-size pictures and established a firm separation between text and illustrations. He installed a new type face and a uniform layout for feature stories. In two new special-interest sections on Parisian entertainment and city life, Glaser borrowed some graphic tricks from his own work at New York: colored pages or borders, boxed stories and charts, regular use of cartoon illustrations, an eye-catching mixture of white space and type. After this 26-hour ordeal, Prouvost immediately approved the design and Glaser's exhausted co-workers toasted him with champagne. "It was," says Glaser, "a real ego trip."

But the changes at Paris Match are more than skin deep. Since the first "new" issue hit the stands on Dec. 9 (and attracted an additional 200,000 buyers), the magazine has devoted more space to news and timely features; although the ratio of pictures to text is still fifty-fifty, the photographs seem chosen to complement rather than dominate accompanying stories. "We deal with hotter subjects now," says Photography Editor Jean Rigade. "B52 raids rather than National Geographic-type picture stories about the great rivers of the world. The beauty of the photos is less important than their content."

With increased newsstand sales (which account for 88% of Paris Match's circulation) at 100 more per copy, Prouvost's experiment shows early signs of succeeding. Speculation that his death will be followed by the death of Paris Match must contend with the vigor of both parties. Prouvost still watches the magazine go to press in the wee hours each Friday morning, and even during its weak 1972 showing Paris Match turned an estimated $2,000,000 profit. Says Prouvost: "There isn't any reason to kill a magazine that makes that much money, is there?"

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