Kazuhiro Saito × Osamu Enari "The Art of Serendipity Editing" (Part 1)

Design Talk Session #89 (held October 12, 2012) featured Kazuhiro Saito, a long-time editor now working freelance, with Osamu Enari of Drill Inc. as the interviewer. The talk session was titled "Serendipity Editing Techniques."

(Planning & Production: Dentsu Inc. Human Resources Bureau, Aki Kanahara     Article Editing: Sugatsuke Office 　 Composition Support: Eiji Kobayashi)

 

　

 

"I've lived my life by chance"

Serendipity is often described as "the ability to seize luck through flashes of insight triggered by chance encounters." According to Mr. Enari, who organized the talk, the advertising industry in recent years has increasingly adopted a "method-neutral (media-neutral)" approach. Rather than rigidly defining the final form from the outset for commercials or campaigns, it involves embracing chance and adapting flexibly to shape the final outcome. Thus, the theme of this talk is to draw out the essence of serendipity by examining the career of Mr. Saito, who has been involved in the growth and launch of numerous magazines including 'BRUTUS', 'Casa BRUTUS', 'VOGUE JAPAN', and 'GQ'. His insight, "I've lived my life by chance," serves as the starting point.

 

Born in 1955, Saito grew up in a family of farmers in Yamagata City, a tradition passed down for generations. Told since childhood that he would inherit the farm, he disliked the idea so much that he studied intensely to escape home, eventually entering the University of Tokyo. After graduating, he briefly worked at Seibu Department Store. However, finding his salary "half of what he earned part-time as a student," he decided to seek a better-paying job in publishing. He applied to numerous companies and joined Heibonsha. He was assigned to the magazine Taiyo, edited by Mr. Mitsusaburo Arashiyama, though he initially had no interest in its subject matter. Taiyo's editorial style involved one editor handling an entire special feature issue. For his bonsai feature, he published groundbreaking photographs featuring shadows cast on the bonsai—a technique unheard of in the industry at the time.

What readers seek is not "facts," but "truth."

He quit after three years to become freelance, then co-founded a company with two friends. Soon after, he joined Heibon Publishing (now Magazine House). Assigned to Heibon Punch, he recalls, "In the 80s, it was locked in a circulation battle with Weekly Playboy. The New Year's combined issue the year after I joined sold 1.3 million copies." Working on everything from crime reports to nude photography and culture, he learned that "readers don't want facts, they want (story-driven) truth." He states, "That was the first time I began thinking about creating magazines 'together with the readers.'"

Later, when transferred to 'POPEYE', he was ordered to switch it from biweekly to weekly publication. He personally commissioned Annie Leibovitz for every cover shoot and handled the layout design. However, after about a year, he was told the magazine was "already running a 1 billion yen deficit," and in his thirties, he became a window-side worker. During this challenging period, while working on a mook book where he handled everything from advertising to sales alone, he "learned the entire magazine business for the first time." This experience became the foundation for his subsequent leap forward.

"Unless we make it successful as an advertising medium, it will be discontinued."

In 1996, Saito was unexpectedly appointed editor-in-chief of BRUTUS, which was "running an annual deficit of 500 million yen." Drawing on his experience with mooks, he recognized that simply enriching editorial content wasn't enough: "Unless we succeed as a business and as an advertising medium, we'll be shut down." He first cut personnel costs to increase advertising revenue. Then, his first feature—on the painter Vermeer, virtually unknown in Japan at the time—became a huge hit. Furthermore, anticipating that after the branding of designer brands in the 80s and restaurants/chefs in the 90s, the next trend would be the branding of housing (designer apartments were already beginning to appear), he launched the hit feature "Apartment Buildings Designed by Famous Architects," which later became a series. He consistently produced outstanding concepts. "(Typical) men's magazines won't sell unless they show nudity. I decided on five themes: fashion, design/architecture, travel, food, and cars. Taking inspiration from women's magazines like FIGARO, I aimed to create a men's magazine that women would also buy." The strategy hit the mark, with female readers surging and circulation steadily increasing.

(Continued in the second half )
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