Tattler of Taste

Vladimir Nabokov made the list; Norman Mailer did not. Betty Ford is among the elect, but Jerry is missing. The New York Times qualifies, but not the Washington Post.

The quality that elevates those chosen institutions above their peers is, quite simply, Quality--as denned in a recent issue of W, the biweekly tattler of taste and chic presided ever by John Burr Fairchild. Since it was launched three years ago last week by the graciously gossipy publisher of Women's Wear Daily and seven other trade publications, W has toiled relentlessly to depict, extol and embody that elusive trait. This year alone, W has identified everything from Quality People (Queen Elizabeth, Elliot Richardson, Julia Child, the Due de Brissac, Sir Cecil Beaton and 33 others) to Quality Bread (Poilane and Panetier, two Paris boulangeries). Quips a Fairchild Publications art director: "Pretty soon we'll have to change the name from W to Q."

W editors characteristically omit the criteria for judging Quality. But then, there are no W editors as such. The newspaper is put out by the same editors and staff as WWD, and virtually every word and photo that appears in W is lifted from or destined for the daily. Thus the pages of W are filled with the same movie previews, fashion spreads, profiles, food and home-decorating articles, and Beautiful People (BP, of course) as its diurnal sister--if somewhat fewer of them--and all written in similarly breathless prose (Jacqueline Onassis is "mystique mingled with mystery--maybe even sorcery"). About the only thing that W does not pick up from WWD is the daily's daily hamper of garment-industry news, though W does cover the nontrade side of fashion like a Big Chemise. W's fast close (stories written as late as Wednesday are in readers' hands on Friday) allows it to show spring and fall fashions up to three months ahead of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. This week, for instance, W is out with a cover story on next fall's ready-to-wear collections from Paris. Though the contents of WWD and W are similar, the look and feel of the two differ markedly: WWD is a newsprint tabloid while W is a full-size newspaper printed on heavier stock with more lavish color illustrations. A Quality Publication, as W might put it.

Country Club. Fairchild has turned recycling into a profitable art. After losing $1.1 million in the first two years, Fairchild expects Wio earn some $300,-000 in 1975. Advertising revenues are up 49% this year, and circulation has jetted from a starting 50,000 to about 170,-000. W has a readership that Fairchild might characterize as Quality People: the typical W subscriber is a 47-year-old married woman who squeaks by on $32,000 a year, lives in a $50,000 suburban house and belongs to a country club. Less than 10% of W readers also subscribe to Women's Wear Daily, whose constituents are mostly male and in the fashion industry.

W may well be edited for a chosen few readers. "There are five or ten people in the world who John considers have perfect taste," says Fairchild Editor Michael Coady. "You'll probably find them in W." Indeed, W watchers note that some names and faces appear with uncommon frequency: "Babe" Paley (wife of CBS Chairman William), the Philippe Rothschilds, the Kissingers, Yves Saint Laurent and Jackie O., who has decorated W's cover six times.

Any haut snobisme is denied by Fairchild, 48, a boyish-looking father of four, enthusiastic skier and sometime socializer with many of the BP in W's pages. "There is no such thing as good or bad taste, except in the eyes of a snob," he says. "The real thing is quality. For instance, the Swiss Federal Railroad has quality because it's clean and it works. Quality People are people who do things, not people who lead idle lives. Sure, we do write about a dream world sometimes. But there are real things in the world that are beautiful and civilized, and people want to know what those are." Quality Things, of course.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.