HONG KONG -- These are rough days for the media industry in Hong Kong, as in other parts of Asia. But Tatler Asia, a niche player focused on luxury lifestyle readers, is on track to at least break even for the first time in three years.
Revenues are running 50% above year-ago levels, according to Michel Lamuniere, the media group's chairman and chief executive.
He credits the growth in large part to a push beyond print magazines into digital advertising and fee- and membership-based offerings, which he believes could account for a majority of receipts this year. All seven of the company's markets are likely to be profitable, he projects.
Tatler Asia, like its original British namesake, was long focused on high society. Lamuniere has broadened its focus since taking over as chief executive in 2015, particularly since buying out stakes held by his Swiss siblings in 2019 even as Hong Kong was wracked by antigovernment protests.
"When I went back to Switzerland and talked to my family, I was very bullish about Asia," Lamuniere, 42, told Nikkei Asia in a recent interview. "That's how it triggered [the thought]: 'Why don't I do it alone?'"
Lamuniere's rethink shows right on the cover of Tatler Asia's various editions, which have featured the co-founder of online travel booking service Klook, a crusading Philippine Nobel Prize laureate, a Singaporean mixed martial arts duo and a Malaysian squash champion turned talent coach. Venture capital stars like Sequoia Capital's Neil Shen and Hillhouse Capital Group's Zhang Lei frequent the group's events.
Tatler Asia's covers reflect its widened focus, with recent issues featuring tech executives, athletes and journalists. (Courtesy Tatler Asia) "It's not just the new tycoons, it's not just people with money," Lamuniere said. "It's people at the forefront of their industry, philanthropy, art, culture. We leverage our platform [and] define our role as a business community. We look at them and ask what it is that we can provide for them."
What Tatler Asia and its 300 employees are providing now is a lot more than glossy pages of articles and ads about luxury goods and the good life.
A three-day pop-up food festival on Hong Kong's Victoria Peak in late 2020 drew 1,500 ticket buyers to sample off-the-menu dishes and cocktails from award-winning chefs and bartenders. Tatler Dining has since repeated the event in Thailand, Malaysia and mainland China.
The group operates a catamaran out of Hong Kong to host private parties for up to 50 people. Tatler Dining curated a restaurant within a downtown Hong Kong club for owners of Mercedes-Benz cars and IWC Schaffhausen watches, hosting a series of pop-ups by celebrity chefs. A Tatler annual ball in the city has drawn hundreds of guests annually, even amid the COVID pandemic.
"Our vision is really to be Asia's No. 1 luxury brand 10 years from now," Lamuniere said. "There are lots of luxury brands out there, many of them from Europe.
"We are not necessarily competing with them. In Asia, there are very few established luxury brands," he said, noting that the average income of his core audience is $355,000. "Everything we do is from the angle of, 'For Asia, by an Asian.'"
The Lamuniere family's Edipresse Group, a long-standing Swiss media company, acquired control of Tatler's Asian titles in 2005.
Patriarch Pierre Lamuniere appointed Michel, his son, to run the company 10 years later, after he had spent six years with Nestle's Nescafe unit in Hong Kong and Beijing as the first family member to work in Asia.
Chef Felix Cheung presented a tribute to local Hong Kong seafood as a pop-up offering at Tatler Dining Kitchen in 2021. (Courtesy Tatler Asia) Michel's wife, Tamara, a native of the Philippines who serves as Tatler's group marketing officer, helped launch new online community platforms Front & Female, for women, and Generation T, for young entrepreneurs.
"The company seems to be successfully broadening its base and engaging new, younger and more diverse audiences," said Carole Klein, a former senior luxury marketing communications professional in Hong Kong. "These initiatives have added greater depth and interest to both the online and print content."
During Michel's first four years at Tatler Asia, annual revenues grew 10% to 20% annually to reach $30 million in 2019. China surpassed Hong Kong to become the group's top market. But plans to set up editions in new countries were put on hold amid COVID.
"When I started, we were in seven markets," Lamuniere said. "We are still in the same markets. We are planning to go to new markets. But [there is] so much work in growing the existing markets.
"We have been growing rather steadily, [but] not by growing new markets," he said. "We are looking to go to Vietnam and South Korea, and eventually India. [But] Korea is extremely competitive. You'd need to bring something new."
Tatler Asia's various national editions, which previously operated with little coordination, now work off a synchronized central calendar of curated themes and events. The group's internet platforms are drawing about 2.5 million visitors a month, but Lamuniere predicts that can be quadrupled within four years.
Having already taken Tatler into podcasts and videos, and brought in artificial-intelligence tools to hook readers into perusing extra digital content, Lamuniere is now thinking about non-fungible tokens as a kind of currency to access fashion previews and restaurants.
"Tatler's reputation, from an outsider's view, was typically focused on high society-type stuff, but my impression of the leadership of Tatler is that they are very much looking to stay relevant and active to the next generation that is fluent in all things metaverse," said Yat Siu, chairman of blockchain applications group Animoca Brands, which recently sold Tatler Asia a plot of virtual land.
Additional reporting by Zach Coleman in Hong Kong.