Fabrice Frere:
Beating Out the Big Dogs
Frere produces the bi-monthly magazine with a creative staff of just five people, a clutch of Power Mac G5s and an Xserve server “where the ‘Vogues,’ the Condé Nast magazines have staffs of 50,” he says. “I may not have budgets,” he adds, “but thanks to the Mac, we can produce the magazine, build a website and publish movies and videos for the site.
“The way we do it economically is, first, we have very talented people who can multitask and, second, we have Apple technology.
“One of our designers,” Frere explains, “works in Philadelphia and doesn’t have to leave her life. She just logs into our Apple Xserve and picks up a rough layout where we compile photos and text with some notes about the direction we want. A day or two later, it’s back on our server, all clean and beautiful.”
Shoestring Budgets
Despite the high quality and freshness of “CITY,” Frere produces it on a shoestring budget. “When I was at ‘GQ’ — where I was production editor for about five years before I started my own business — Tina Brown launched a magazine called “Talk.” Miramax financed it, so it had a lot of money behind it.
“A good friend who worked for ‘Talk’ called and we were comparing the costs of a shoot, printing, and prepress — which is where a lot of the money goes. The ratio was about one to 10. Where we spent $1, ‘Talk’ spent $10.”
Bringing proofing in house proved especially economical. “Proofing used to cost me about $80,000 a year,” Frere says. “I spent about $10,000 to bring proofing inside and amortized it on one issue. Now I’m just paying for paper and ink.”
Soon, Frere won’t even have to pay for paper and ink, because he’s moving to digital proofing (see sidebar).
“Saving so much money actually allowed me to create a position for somebody. Here’s an example of technology making all the difference. That’s why we gravitate toward Apple technology. It makes the process so much easier than it usually is.”
iSight for Communication
Frere depends on good communication to maintain a smooth workflow. “More often than not,” he says, “when you have a catastrophe, people aren’t communicating. We also produce another magazine called ‘Desert Living’ with a staff in Arizona.
“When you call Arizona from New York 10 times every day, it starts adding up. Just the fact that I can click on a little buddy icon, talk to an entire staff 3,000 miles away — and get my answer right away — is fantastic.”
“We keep in touch now through iSight video conferences. When you have people on screen, it makes them accountable and brings the familiarity back into the relationship.
“Also, our phone bill has completely dropped. When you call Arizona from New York 10 times every day, it starts adding up. Just the fact that I can click on a little buddy icon, talk to an entire staff 3,000 miles away — and get my answer right away — is fantastic.”
Magazine for the Web
Frere also uses iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and Garage Band to produce videos for the “CITY” website.
“We process content and distill information,” Frere explains, “and all of these technologies allow us to propagate it. The print version of “CITY” isn’t going to die. The magazine is still a beautiful thing. But the paper product isn’t the only vehicle where we can have impact.
“That’s why we’re constantly looking at other avenues, whether it’s the web, videos or events that give people a behind the scenes look at our lifestyles.”
