Marie Claire (stylized in all lowercase; French:[maʁiklɛːʁ]) is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages.
The feature editions focus on women around the world and global issues. Marie Claire magazine also covers health, beauty, fashion, politics, finance, and career topics.
Marie Claire was founded by Jean Prouvost (1885–1978)[3] and Marcelle Auclair (1899–1983).[4] Its first issue appeared in 1937.[5] In 1976, Prouvost retired and his daughter Évelyne took over the magazine and added L'Oréal Group to the company.[6]
Brand owner Groupe Marie Claire also owned La Revue du vin de France, a wine magazine after the company acquired it in 2004.[7]
Lagardère sold its 42% stake in Groupe Marie Claire back to Prouvost family in 2018.[8][9]
The U.S. edition of the magazine was started by the Hearst Corporation, based in New York City, in 1994. Hearst has branch offices in France, Italy (where the company also published Marie Claire Italia), and several locations in the United States including Detroit, the West Coast, New England, the Midwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast. The Esquire Network reality television series Running In Heels follows three interns working in the NYC office of the magazine.
In October 2010, blog writer Maura Kelly posted an article on the magazine's website titled "Should Fatties Get A Room?" in which she expressed her disgust at the portrayal of overweight characters on TV, specifically on the sitcom "Mike and Molly." The post included the statements "I’d be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other … because I’d be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything" and "I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room." She also advised that "I think obesity is something that most people have a ton of control over. It’s something they can change, if only they put their minds to it." The post received a huge amount of backlash from readers, with thousands of comments posted in response on the magazine's website. Several news outlets reported on the posting, including CBS, The Today Show, Forbes, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal.
In response to the widespread criticism, Kelly published another blog post in which she said she "regret(ted) that [her comments] upset people so much." She offered the excuse that she had once been anorexic, so her "extreme reaction" to fat people "might have grown out of my own body issues."
Marie Claire's editor in chief at the time, Joanna Coles, responded to criticism with "Maura Kelly is a very provocative blogger. She was an anorexic herself and this is a subject she feels very strongly about." As of 2024, the original post and its follow up are no longer available in Kelly's post archive on marieclaire.com.
The editor-in-chief from 2012 to 2020 was Anne Fulenwider. On 9 December 2019, Hearst Magazines announced that Fulenwider would be leaving her post at the end of the year.[38]Aya Kanai, then chief fashion director of Hearst, was named the new editor of the women's magazine and started in January 2020. Sally Holmes[39] took the helm in September from Aya Kanai, who surprised Hearst execs when she jumped ship to Pinterest after just nine months as editor in chief.
During the pandemic, Hearst quietly reduced the title's print frequency from 11 issues to seven in 2020 and instead launched its first digital issue with cover face Janet Mock. It also made Marie Claire's 2020 Power Trip virtual. Power Trip[39] is an annual 36-hour, invite-only, all-expenses-paid networking conference for successful women across all industries that Fulenwider launched in 2016 as a way to make the magazine stand out in the event space.[38] In May 2021, Future US acquired the American edition of Marie Claire from Hearst and has published it since June 2021. In September 2021, it was announced that the Summer 2021 issue of Marie Claire would be its last monthly print edition, and remaining subscribers would receive issues of Harper's Bazaar.[40] That same year, Power Trip was once again an in-person experiential event.[41] In June 2022, Future relaunched Marie Claire in print[42] with its Beauty Changemakers Issue.
Through its digital edition, Marie Claire reported a reach of up to 15 million visitors per month.[43]
Marie Claire launched a UK print edition in 1988,[32] with a website launched in 2006 featuring segments on daily news, catwalk shows, photographs and reports, fashion and beauty, buys of the day, daily horoscopes, and competitions.
Its cover price was increased in February 2018 from £3.99 to £4.20, but this did not compensate for a decline in sales and advertising revenue, with print display advertising down 25% in 2018 and 30% in 2019.[32] In September 2019, the magazine's then owner, TI Media, announced that the final print edition would be published in November and the brand would become digital only, under license with Groupe Marie Claire. The UK website currently has two million monthly users.[32]
Combined print and digital circulation from July to December 2018 was 120,133 per issue – almost a third of which were free copies, and 4,729 of which were for the digital edition. This was down on the same period in 2017, when the average circulation was 157,412, with 4,012 digital edition readers.[32]
Marie Claire UK is published by Future Publishing, which acquired TI Media in 2020 and also owned Marie Claire US since 2021.
MarieClaire.com.au launched in 2016 after the digital rights were returned to Pacific Magazines from Yahoo and provides daily fashion, beauty, and lifestyle news. In March 2019, Marie Claire partnered with Salesforce.com to survey Australian women to analyse how attitudes have changed in the workplace.[45]
The Japanese-language edition of Marie Claire, first published in 1982,[46] was the first international edition published in a non-French speaking territory, as well as the first non-European edition, although it ceased publication after the 9 September issue went on sale in July 2009, due partly to the economic downturn.[47]
Following a relaunch, since 2012, Marie Claire has been published in Japan under the name Marie Claire Style. This new format is offered as a free supplement in the Yomiuri Shimbun and distributed in wealthier suburbs of Japan. The magazine has now been made available at subway kiosks for a ¥200 cover price.[48]
The first South Korean edition of Marie Claire was published in March 1993 by MCK Publishing. Since 2012, the Marie Claire Film Festival has been held in South Korea.
An international edition of Marie Claire has operated in Argentina under the Argentine publishing house Perfil since March 2019.[49]
Other international, Latin editions of the magazine were published in Mexico by Grupo Televisa and also in Colombia but ceased publication by 2019 and 2020,[50][51] but returned to Mexico in 2021 and Colombia in 2024.
^Mariko Morimoto; Susan Chang (2009). "Western and Asian Models in Japanese Fashion Magazine Ads: The Relationship With Brand Origins and International Versus Domestic Magazines". Journal of International Consumer Marketing. 21 (3): 173–187. doi:10.1080/08961530802202701. S2CID167309890.