Is Vogue Club A Waste of Money?

I want you to read this rant, but the short answer is 'yes.'

Vogue Club is Conde Nast’s latest effort to build community amidst the dwindling future of print publications. But that’s hard to do when all you’re doing is trying to make money off your community. Eek…sorry, but someone had to say it. I was a member for a total of 3 months? That’s lesser time than I’ve given to most (terrible) exes.

It’s $30/month or $250/year if you get the annual membership. In a nutshell, there’s a couple of benefits they’re selling via this ‘exclusive’ membership

Discounts: 10-20% off on brands that are exorbitantly expensive, so…that’s a bust. 50% off on Condé Nast College Courses (I really hope no child is convincing their parents to pay for that nonsense). Annual members (who pay $$$) get free membership to beauty pie, which is probably the only perk worth a second look.

Events: Everything sells out in under 12 minutes. The programming is stale. And they do praise you for dressing like you’re the one putting on a show. Since before they launched, they’ve had a Members’ Social tab that has been ‘coming this fall’ for years. Access to the big flagship events is unaffordable, with limited access.
To be fair, I’ve only attended one VC event…primarily because they had a total of 3 events scheduled over a span of 3 months. And wow, was it underwhelming. The event I made it to was a fireside chat with Jenna Lyons of LoveSeen. As much as they wanted the conversation to be about her eyelash business, it was jarringly obvious that she was there because of her celebrity status.

She actually shared with the group that the business plan came up when she was on another show and the producers got the team to put together a plan for her—that was her big founder story.

Like I said, UNDERWHELMING.

Member Spotlights: Great way to massage everyone’s egos. The questionnaire is dumb, and frivolous. It’s giving….unserious and unimpressive. I have nothing else to say about this.

Community Chat: The discord chat is full of ‘what are you wearing,’ ‘how to style,’ ‘in my bag,’ and other meaningless crap. There’s no discussion about the evolution of luxury fashion, the legacy of cult-favorite brands, the delicacy of craft technique, or anything that could educate fashion enthusiasts about the craft or the business of Fashion. I get that girls just wanna have fun, but girls also want to learn and have intelligent conversations.

Communication: There’s no community manager, for a community platform. Could it get any worse?

For those of us who actually studied this world before prancing into the Condé Nast office, this whole platform is seriously offensive. And yes, I did fill out a very elaborate exit feedback form. No, they haven’t elevated anything in the last three months that I ended my membership. How do I know this? Because despite ending my membership, I still have access to the idiotic discord chat.

If you do want to join a community of industry professionals, please pick one that offers benefits that align with what’s most important to you, not one that has a big name on it. Last year, I wrote a piece about some of my favorite digital and IRL communities, if you want to give that a read before you lock your $$ in.

Rant over.