Kushaliyeva Tamiris, 209 group
Interview writers on their publishing experiences
We invited a famous Kazakh person to an interview not only on Facebook, but also far beyond.
A fan of direct broadcasts on social networks Beybit Alibekov has a phone with a good camera just needed. The editor-in-chief L'Officiel Hommes shared his impressions of the new LG G6 smartphone, and also told about the evolution of his publishing business. Like the G series, every time it came to a high-quality level of production, and the publishing house under the leadership of Beybit acquired the status of one of the largest (most important - fast-growing) media holdings in Central Asia.
A fan of direct broadcasts on social networks Beybit Alibekov has a phone with a good camera just needed. The editor-in-chief L'Officiel Hommes shared his impressions of the new LG G6 smartphone, and also told about the evolution of his publishing business. Like the G series, every time it came to a high-quality level of production, and the publishing house under the leadership of Beybit acquired the status of one of the largest (most important - fast-growing) media holdings in Central Asia.
Beybit, at one time you created a unique glossy magazine # 1MAG. Tell me more about your first publishing experience.
-My first publishing experience happened to me as a child. Then I liked to watch the news and do homemade newspaper from paper. I was always attracted to magazines, it seemed to me extremely interesting, although I did not yet know that this is not such a profitable business (laughs). In the fifth grade, I began to run the "Carousel" program on channel 31, and then I was carried away by organizational activity. Being still a teenager, I held the first festival of hip-hop culture in Almaty. After graduation for three years, I worked as a radio presenter. Later I entered the law faculty at the university, at first I was fascinated by various debates and political orientation, in 2001 I turned my gaze into the sphere of events. With friends, we opened our company, which became the launching pad of my creative path. In 2009, I told my friend Volodya Tsoi: "Let's think up a magazine?". Even then there was First Media, I wanted to create a magazine whose name would reflect the brand of the whole company. Therefore, # 1MAG appeared. The first mistake was the choice of the name: the writing was through the grating, it was sometimes called One Mag, Number One Mag, "One Magician", I Mag - it's terrible for the brand. My second mistake was the opinion that you need to create creative, unusual covers. Only after a while I realized that it's better to put people on the cover. For me and the whole team, the release of gloss was the first experience, before we ever did it. In spite of everything, we managed to make an excellent Kazakh product, which was very popular. It's always difficult without experience. Perhaps readers were surprised by our unconventional approach, so surprised that we were given an interview by iconic persons. In one issue it was possible to meet several well-known persons, ministers: beginning with Mikhail Zadornov, ending with Grigory Marchenko. They were people who did not give interviews to everyone, but they always met us halfway. At some point I wanted to stop releasing this magazine, we had many different shocks. It's good that Dann Karagusov and Bahram Avulov took it into their own hands, who worked hard on him. Of course, we did not bypass Cosmopolitan Kazakhstan or Harper's Bazaar Kazakhstan, but according to TNS statistics, we firmly stood in third place. We were the only male and capital magazine of Kazakhstan production. Until now, all the association is with # 1MAG, despite the fact that we launched L'Officiel, L'Officiel Hommes, Club Magazine, I'm still signed by some in the phone book, like Beybit # 1MAG. Now I'm very glad that the magazine exists so far, and indeed, that printed publications are popular, because the Internet objectively took away a certain part of the audience from us. Although, of course, the Kazakh market can not be called saturated, like the European one, for example. There are countless magazines: both specialized, and narrowly focused, and giants of publishing. Now we are in the forefront with a couple more publications, but this can not be called a success, because the market has narrowed, many magazines have closed, which caused some difficulties.
-My first publishing experience happened to me as a child. Then I liked to watch the news and do homemade newspaper from paper. I was always attracted to magazines, it seemed to me extremely interesting, although I did not yet know that this is not such a profitable business (laughs). In the fifth grade, I began to run the "Carousel" program on channel 31, and then I was carried away by organizational activity. Being still a teenager, I held the first festival of hip-hop culture in Almaty. After graduation for three years, I worked as a radio presenter. Later I entered the law faculty at the university, at first I was fascinated by various debates and political orientation, in 2001 I turned my gaze into the sphere of events. With friends, we opened our company, which became the launching pad of my creative path. In 2009, I told my friend Volodya Tsoi: "Let's think up a magazine?". Even then there was First Media, I wanted to create a magazine whose name would reflect the brand of the whole company. Therefore, # 1MAG appeared. The first mistake was the choice of the name: the writing was through the grating, it was sometimes called One Mag, Number One Mag, "One Magician", I Mag - it's terrible for the brand. My second mistake was the opinion that you need to create creative, unusual covers. Only after a while I realized that it's better to put people on the cover. For me and the whole team, the release of gloss was the first experience, before we ever did it. In spite of everything, we managed to make an excellent Kazakh product, which was very popular. It's always difficult without experience. Perhaps readers were surprised by our unconventional approach, so surprised that we were given an interview by iconic persons. In one issue it was possible to meet several well-known persons, ministers: beginning with Mikhail Zadornov, ending with Grigory Marchenko. They were people who did not give interviews to everyone, but they always met us halfway. At some point I wanted to stop releasing this magazine, we had many different shocks. It's good that Dann Karagusov and Bahram Avulov took it into their own hands, who worked hard on him. Of course, we did not bypass Cosmopolitan Kazakhstan or Harper's Bazaar Kazakhstan, but according to TNS statistics, we firmly stood in third place. We were the only male and capital magazine of Kazakhstan production. Until now, all the association is with # 1MAG, despite the fact that we launched L'Officiel, L'Officiel Hommes, Club Magazine, I'm still signed by some in the phone book, like Beybit # 1MAG. Now I'm very glad that the magazine exists so far, and indeed, that printed publications are popular, because the Internet objectively took away a certain part of the audience from us. Although, of course, the Kazakh market can not be called saturated, like the European one, for example. There are countless magazines: both specialized, and narrowly focused, and giants of publishing. Now we are in the forefront with a couple more publications, but this can not be called a success, because the market has narrowed, many magazines have closed, which caused some difficulties.
Today your company is the largest publishing house in Kazakhstan. Why did you decide to redeem the franchise of French periodicals?
-When you talk about France, where the magazine L'Officiel was born, you realize that this is the birthplace of the suite. In Paris, there were such exquisite fashion houses as Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent, Jean Paul Gaultier and many others. The city became the capital of not only world fashion, but also all the chic. If you move away from the fashion direction, you like alcohol, then here you are Pernod Ricard, Rémy Cointreau or Moët Hennessy. The French are people who radically changed the world, changed their way of life and created huge monsters like LVMH, Kering, which set the trend for the whole planet. America, of course, is a beautiful country, but it is the birthplace of burgers and Coca-Cola. I think the French croissant with wine is definitely better. L'Officiel - the fastest growing global brand of the brand, it opens everywhere. When we launched the Kazakhstan version, the versions in Malaysia, Australia, Spain, Japan were opened in parallel, Russia was restarted and now the large L'Officiel USA Lounge is being prepared. I wanted to be closer to this growth. I also want to note that L'Officiel is the only independent brand, and I do not like rigid corporate frameworks. With the publishing house Les Editions Jalou, we have a good relationship, they always meet halfway and I like that they allow us to take into account the local color and mentality. For example, if you take the European L'Officiel Hommes, it is very different from Kazakhstan, but we are close to L'Officiel Hommes China.
-When you talk about France, where the magazine L'Officiel was born, you realize that this is the birthplace of the suite. In Paris, there were such exquisite fashion houses as Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent, Jean Paul Gaultier and many others. The city became the capital of not only world fashion, but also all the chic. If you move away from the fashion direction, you like alcohol, then here you are Pernod Ricard, Rémy Cointreau or Moët Hennessy. The French are people who radically changed the world, changed their way of life and created huge monsters like LVMH, Kering, which set the trend for the whole planet. America, of course, is a beautiful country, but it is the birthplace of burgers and Coca-Cola. I think the French croissant with wine is definitely better. L'Officiel - the fastest growing global brand of the brand, it opens everywhere. When we launched the Kazakhstan version, the versions in Malaysia, Australia, Spain, Japan were opened in parallel, Russia was restarted and now the large L'Officiel USA Lounge is being prepared. I wanted to be closer to this growth. I also want to note that L'Officiel is the only independent brand, and I do not like rigid corporate frameworks. With the publishing house Les Editions Jalou, we have a good relationship, they always meet halfway and I like that they allow us to take into account the local color and mentality. For example, if you take the European L'Officiel Hommes, it is very different from Kazakhstan, but we are close to L'Officiel Hommes China.
Recently SNC Kazakhstan joined your publishing house. What changes have occurred in the magazine with your coming as a publisher?
-We are still very delicate with SNC, as for many this magazine is a love-brand, and they are accustomed to seeing and reading it in a certain format. That is why I have not yet taken any radical measures in relation to this edition and I do not agree with the opinion that SNC will become the prototype of L'Officiel for the poor. Nothing like this: the SNC magazine will continue to be a quality, intelligent and interesting reading, which will definitely stand out in the print media market and, I hope, will preserve the status of a love brand and one of the best-selling magazines in Kazakhstan. The only thing that struck us was that the Kazakh SNC had never had a web version, with very competent and captivating content. Very soon the site will be launched.
-We are still very delicate with SNC, as for many this magazine is a love-brand, and they are accustomed to seeing and reading it in a certain format. That is why I have not yet taken any radical measures in relation to this edition and I do not agree with the opinion that SNC will become the prototype of L'Officiel for the poor. Nothing like this: the SNC magazine will continue to be a quality, intelligent and interesting reading, which will definitely stand out in the print media market and, I hope, will preserve the status of a love brand and one of the best-selling magazines in Kazakhstan. The only thing that struck us was that the Kazakh SNC had never had a web version, with very competent and captivating content. Very soon the site will be launched.
