Hachette Filipacchi Launches Shock Magazine

Posted on May 31, 2006

Hachette Filipacchi has published a new magazine called Shock Magazine that promises shocking photographs in each issue. A WSJ Online article explains what shocking photos the launch issue contains: "The debut issue of Shock features photos of a rotting human head, deformed victims of Chernobyl, a woman who set herself on fire and an article on "KKK Kids," children growing up in white-supremacist households." Media Life Magazine provides a more in-depth look at the new Hachette title.

In the niche-driven magazine business, it's rare when a new title seeks to cross categories and demographics. Also a challenge. Shock Magazine does that.
Shock also aims to be the first truly multimedia magazine, spanning print and the internet, with a web site but also a digital edition and mobile content.
Shock, which debuts next Tuesday, May 30, from Hachette Filipacchi, is an unusual magazine in other ways. While written for Americans, it's European in its look and feel, as a spinoff of a French title of the same name. It's a picture magazine, arriving decades after the picture magazine era. In this age of free information, Shock looks to generate much of its revenue from subscribers, not advertising.
Shock promises what its name suggests: pictures that arrest the imagination, a gritty, graphic look at international news, celebrity worship, pop culture and amateur photography.

Hachette's Shock has already shocked one photographer, named Michael Yon. Yon says he did not give Hachette permission to use the photograph that appears on the magazine's cover.

Update 6-17-06: More about Michael Yon's battle with HFM and Shock magazine can be found here.