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Precision and pizazz. Those were the qualities that Nicholas Coleridge attributed to Stephen Quinn when he appointed the publisher of Vogue to the newly created position of Condé Nast’s senior publishing director last October.

Eyebrows were raised by Quinn’s elevation although, at the time, he masterfully succeeded in playing the new role down.

For an organisation that shuns fashionably tautological job descriptions and which Quinn himself describes as “lean”, it was an eye-catching move which raised a number of questions. Had Quinn actively sought the extra responsibility? Had it fallen into his lap?

Furthermore, how would Condé Nast’s other publishers, a notoriously territorial bunch, react? Most importantly, was the role, as Quinn put it, simply giving the company “an extra pair of eyes” or was there more of a corporate impetus behind it? Was Quinn Condé Nast’s secret weapon in the fight against the likes of Toumazis, Crace and Edwards?

More of that later. Let’s deal with the precision side first.

Quinn, 57, is famously meticulous in manner, dress and approach, so much so that his nickname at Condé Nast is the “headmaster”.

He can produce figures about Vogue’s advertising revenues – a breathtaking £2.7 million for its millennium issue – and page yields at the drop of a hat. When discussing trading with many of the world’s most glamorous brands, authoritative words such as “honourable”, “clear” and “consistent” pepper his conversation.

Trust is a major element in what he does. “Clients trust me and know that I am not a fly-by-night person. I find it almost impossible not to tell the truth,” he says. “It is something to do with my Catholic upbringing. I want to go to heaven.”

AB performer

So what about the pizazz? Quinn is no slouch in this area as one would expect from Alexandra Shulman’s commercial foil. He has a “passion for buying expensive clothes” and does not believe in buying suits via a mouse. He is a natural showman as anyone who saw him eulogise about the media habits of ABs at last year’s VIPer conference can attest.

He has much to eulogise about. Vogue, Condé Nast’s flagship magazine, continues to deliver “a 24-carat gold performance”, he says. Bookings are “at capacity” despite the launch of, at the last count, five titles aimed at women this year.

According to Quinn, Vogue’s millennium issue “simply blew its rivals away” while its most recent brand extension, a 68-page magazine called Real Dressing aimed at professional women in their thirties, has helped boost sales and has been well received editorially. Then there is the small matter of the relaunch of Vogue.com, whose diaphanous advertising campaign has caught the attention of many a random eye over the last few weeks.

Sales are a subject on which Quinn speaks with particular intensity. One could be mistaken for thinking Vogue’s advertising volume – it has carried 853 pages so far this year – and desirability of its readership would make the title’s month-by-month sales performance less of a priority in this most fiercely competitive market sector.

Not so. Few would guess that Vogue is Condé Nast’s largest-selling magazine, the only one among the more populist likes of GQ and Vanity Fair which consistently sells around or above 200,000 copies.

The 200,000 figure is something of a talisman for Quinn and his immediate bosses, managing director Coleridge and chairman Jonathan Newhouse. It keeps the title within pouting distance of Emap’s Elle, its most direct rival.

“The 200,000 figure is not a Jesuitical point,” Quinn stresses. “If sales were 195,000, you would not be saying that the publisher should resign. However, given that it is an upscale magazine, it gives Vogue, if you like, a commercial clout.”

Quinn admits that Real Dressing was, in part, a circulation-defending exercise and that a similar project, for which a sponsor is being sought, is planned for the dark and drab month of November when the catwalks lie empty. “Unless we come up with ideas like that, the 200,000 could slip,” he stresses.

He crossed the Rubicon in 1988, leaving the National Magazine Company to launch a men’s style magazine that was to become GQ. The odd Michael Heseltine cover apart, he has done nothing but prosper and is as now closely associated with Vogue as Coleridge is with Condé Nast.

Nigel Conway, client services director at MediaVest, knows Quinn well having fought many ratecard battles with him. “He is responsible for a very large chunk of the company’s ad revenue and consequently has a very demanding job,” Conway says of him.

“He is a good troubleshooter and forces people there to think more about the business,” he adds. “Condé Nast is one of those companies where it is very easy to sit back and expect business to roll in. What he is forcing people there to do is to get the icing on the cake.”

In a rather delicious twist, Quinn started his career in 1968 as sales executive on a magazine called Nova. Thirty years on, Quinn and IPC’s Nova have come face-to-face once again.

He describes the publishing team behind Nova as “first class” and believes the relaunched magazine deserves respect. However, he is sceptical about IPC’s rationale for bringing it back. “The magazine only had a six or seven year life span, which is why I find it extraordinary they are bringing it back.”

Upscale clout

Quinn is not willing to surrender the high ground to anyone, let alone a new magazine. “What separates Vogue from our rivals is the consistency of quality advertising in relation to the volume of pages the magazine carries,” he says.” Most of the style press will have all their upscale clients within the first 25 pages but then the quality will decline. This magazine’s advertising is consistently upscale”.

“Vogue is not about class, it is about style,” he continues. “Our objective is to be the best fashion magazine published in the country.”

Now, back to that senior publishing role, or roving ambassador or figurehead. It only gets five minutes of our talk but that should not lessen its significance. The luxury goods market is contracting like every other and other media are nipping at the heels of the glossies which need to keep their wits about them like never before. In that sense, Quinn would seem to have been designated Condé Nast’s light-house keeper or as one observer notes “keeper of the figures”.

“Nicholas recognises he cannot do everything and he has devolved a moderate amount of power,” is what Quinn is prepared to say of the role. “But it has to be understood that I have nobody working for me. Other publishers have positions like commercial directors and market planners. We don’t have any of that.”

On a personal level, Quinn is said to be extremely happy with his present partner, Spectator publisher Kimberly Fortier. He has three children from a previous marriage, all of whom work in creative industries.

According to colleagues, Quinn is so attached to Vogue that he takes little interest in most other media. “Vogue is still a very powerful magazine,” says Quinn himself. “It still will be when I am long gone.”