Roc Nation to Launch Multimedia Brand

July 22, 2021

Roc Nation is gearing up to unveil a multimedia platform complete with a print magazine.

Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter’s entertainment company has teamed up with Modern Luxury Media, the publisher of Ocean Drive, Gotham and more, to launch Edition by Modern Luxury this winter, a luxe multimedia platform designed to amplify and elevate voices from diverse communities that are shaping popular culture.

Raquel Cadourcy, chief marketing officer of Modern Luxury, said: “Historically, luxury titles have lacked diversity as a whole. It’s a really unfortunate truth and it’s a big opportunity and also our privilege to help defy the status quo and really ensure that we’re providing our platform for diverse communities to connect and also redefine luxury in a way.”

The platform will consist of a mix of print, digital, social and experiential activations, while insider content and deeper audio and video storytelling will be unlocked through hidden tokens embedded throughout the issues. The print aspect will be released six times a year and will be available via subscriptions and newsstands across the U.S.

While a number of legacy media titles reduced frequency and even ceased print operations during the pandemic, others are seeing it as a good time to launch into the market. Drew Barrymore, for example, recently teamed up with Bauer Media Group to launch Drew, a quarterly lifestyle magazine that focuses on many of the actress and talk show host’s passions, including beauty, travel and food.

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“From a Modern Luxury perspective, we have 85-plus titles, it’s the core of what we do, we strongly believe that print is not dead. In fact, during COVID-19 we saw increased engagement through our print properties, certainly coupled with more time spent on digital platforms as a whole as people were staying at home more,” continued Cadourcy, adding that there has been some early positive responses from advertisers.

Edition will be helmed by recently appointed editor in chief Isoul H. Harris, working closely with Roc Nation executive of strategy and communications Jana Fleishman, as well as the Modern Luxury team, who will be handling operations. Harris was previously editor in chief of Uptown.

“With Edition, we have a unique opportunity to define what luxury means now, and also challenge how the world perceives and understands culture. I am beyond excited to help shape a visionary platform that understands the aspirational significance of exploring creativity in the luxury space,” he said.

As for how involved Jay-Z will be with the platform, Fleishman told WWD that “that is going to be on the day-to-day. I talk to him as often as possible.”