For a generation of global citizens working across borders and living in a variety of cities, Monocle magazine has functioned as a divining rod, offering advice on everything from the best cafés in Tokyo to the world’s most liveable cities, all guided by the keen eye of its founder, Winnipeg-born journalist Tyler Brûlé.
With a work-from-anywhere lifestyle continuing to shift the way we live, Brûlé is doubling-down on his media company’s efforts to connect with its audience through live events such its Quality of Life Conference, opening new bureaus in Bangkok and Lisbon and launching a kiosk at Zurich’s Jelmoli department store.
As the magazine celebrates its 15th anniversary, The Globe and Mail spoke with Brûlé about his vision for his brand, the future of travel and why he remains committed to print.
What was going on back in 2005 that led to your idea to launch Monocle?
There was a collision of many things happening – the rise of low-cost air carriers, that notion of being able to live across multiple cities, the dawn of the improved high-speed network. You had this sense of mobility, which was facilitating a very different way of living. I felt that was something we were very keen to capture. How do we talk to this international audience who might be living and working across a variety of borders? But no one saw the financial crisis that arrived in 2008. There was a curious moment amidst all of that when, like the period we’re in now in many ways, people really were rethinking their careers and asking, “Is this the life I really want?” We saw the rise of the independent entrepreneur, and that was probably the rallying point and when the magazine really started to come together and really find this international audience.
How important has collaborating with other brands been to growing awareness of what Monocle does?
We’re really lucky to have this series of interesting, really solid partners around the world who we’ve been working with for a very long time. It’s amazing. Someone like Chanel who, when you actually get behind our company and their company – rather different in scale obviously – but they have a belief in owning the supply chain and a massive, a massive commitment to craft, and making sure that there is a legacy.
Why are you so committed to producing a print product?
We’re still 1,000-per-cent committed to print from a business point of view. Thinking back to the core product, we wanted something that felt bookish. Even then, I didn’t understand why people were putting out magazines that weren’t celebrating the print experience. It needs to be something to hold onto, it shouldn’t be flimsy, and it should endure and live along coffee-table books rather than just living with weeklies and the newspaper. And we should only do one edition for the whole world because we believed it didn’t matter whether you lived in Guelph or Guadalajara – you wanted the same experience.
What about the digital space?
We just had our 15th anniversary but, a few months ago, Monocle 24 had its 10th anniversary as a fully fledged, round-the-clock radio station. And that has been and continues to be our biggest digital play and an area that we want to further expand. Of course, there’s many shows that we prerecord, but I would say most of our big, highest-rated programs are our daily shows, which are live shows.
Now that we know what it’s like for opportunities to travel to be restricted, how will you cover exploring the world moving forward?
There will be a window that we’re looking at right now to really remind people of what they’ve missed. It doesn’t matter if it’s Toronto or it’s Seoul – things have been opening and moving on. The borders might have been closed but things have been happening, and we still want to be able to chronicle all of that. I’ll let you in on a little secret. We want to do a book that’s almost a step on from our travel guides. Portugal will be the first country we’ll do. Say you want to go live in Porto or Lisbon. What are the best schools? What are the opportunities to do something in the market? What are the banks to work with? What are the neighbourhoods? Who are the architects? Who are the builders? What are the restaurants? It’s literally the total lifestyle relocation package. There might be 10 countries that we can do well and where we can feel reasonably connected. That’s the next thing we see ourselves doing for our audience. And in between that, we’re trying to bring people back together again. I always say our social-media strategy is good canapés and a glass of wine.
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