Lou Doillon by Terry Richardson for Interview August 08 via hintmag.com

Fabien Baron: Today one jumps between the worlds of art, fashion and entertainment all the time. Designers hire artists to work on their products, while artists want fashion people to be interested in their work, and they both care about fame the way Hollywood cares about fame. Where before these fields were very elitist, today they spread out everywhere. They're interacting more than ever, overlapping and becoming almost one. Interview will represent that. We can make a special fashion issue and be believable, or make a special art issue and be believable, or do entertainment.

Lee Carter: It seems like that's what Andy would've wanted.

Fabien Baron: And it's what he did very well. He was able to mix glamorous and trendy on the same page, to show the worlds together as one. We can be the ambassadors of this vision.

Lee Carter :A big swirl.

The above is an excerpt from a fantastic interview with Fabien Baron over at hintmag.com that sets a gold standard in how to handle media about media. One of the frequent criticisms I hear voiced by my friends in the industry is that most corporate magazines remain archaic in a changing media landscape due to the insularity and the inbreeding that results from always staying on formula. Ultimately it seems editors are making magazines for advertisers not the public. Yes, it is a business and without advertising, there is no publishing industry. Those issues and more are beautifully addressed by Baron in the interview. As in:

Do you think there's been an overall decline in quality?

Yes, absolutely.

In fashion?

Yes, with everything. There's definitely a lack of quality going on, a lack of craftsmanship, a lack of intellect. There's also a search for ideas. Things don't look as good as they should. What happened was you had these big luxury brands that advertised themselves really well and opened mega-stores. They've put out a lot of smaller products of a lower grade and communicated those products at a lower common denominator. Then you have mass-market companies like H&M, Gap and Banana Republic that are trying to go up. So today, if you look at the advertising for the two sides, if you remove the logos, what you're looking at is very similar. This overlap has created a blend. High and low are not so different anymore. We have to deal with it.

What will happen with big labels?

They'll be fine. There'll always be a need for people with a lot of money to dress in a certain sophisticated way. They'll always want a sweater that won't stretch after six wears or fall apart if you wash it once.

Embedded in the piece is a sketch of Baron's outlay for Interview (as well as Art In America and Antiques). If you have been disappointed in the slow rev-up for Interview magazine, feel assured in the knowledge that the last three issues have been pretty much "demoes" for the true launch, the September issue, when the volume gets pushed up to full amp.
But I certainly shouldn't blow the whole piece by quoting all of it here. Definetly check out hintmag.com and read it for yourself.