Access: Meet Nick Scott, Robb Report UK
Creating a luxury magazine for the super-rich isn't just about filling pages with highly-priced yachts and watches. Increasingly, its readers are into philanthropy, self-improvement and healthy geekiness. Christian Koch talks to Nick Scott, editor-in-chief, Robb Report UK.
Photo credit: Munster Cheong
Nick Scott is editor-in-chief of Robb Report UK. Founded in the US in 1976, it started life as a newsletter selling Rolls-Royce cars but soon morphed into an upscale luxury magazine owned today by the Penske Media Corporation (owners of Rolling Stone and Variety). The UK edition – one of 18 international editions – has a similar focus to its US parent, covering cars, yachts, planes, watches, fashion, design, travel and food & drink on its website and in its biannual print editions (readership is 70,000). Scott joined as editor-in-chief in 2017 after a career working for Esquire, GQ Australia, The Rake and more…
Our readers are interested in £400,000 Richard Mille watches… but there’s a healthy geekiness behind it. They love to read about human ingenuity, artisanal values, craftsmanship. What kind of microengineering goes into that £400k watch to make it so special? What hairspring mechanism can improve its accuracy by a fraction of second a year? These details interest them, as well as how beautiful a watch is.
Covid has changed the priorities of highly successful people. Today our readers are more self-reflective about the human condition and what life means. Robb Report content has always focused just as much on experiences as material possessions, but there’s definitely a shift of emphasis. Our readers are interested in how they spend their time on however-many-years they have on the planet, rather than just their money.
Today’s millionaires are interested in conscientious – as much as conspicuous – consumption.
Conscientious is catching up with conspicuous consumption. Today’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI; those with a wealth of over $30m/£24m) are grateful about living a prosperous lifestyle. Robb Report UK will be catering for this new sensibility with our forthcoming annual ‘Giving’ issue. This comes out just before Christmas, so will act as a gift guide, but also focus on ‘giving’ in a charitable sense too, profiling trends in philanthropy and philanthropists with something different to say. Our readers want to leave a larger legacy than just giving their son/daughter a stunning Patek Philippe watch – they want to be involved with improving people’s lives, bolstering the advance of health science and so on.
Our readers are also keen on self-improvement. One example is the trend for ‘learning holidays’. I recently visited a private guitar retreat in the Caribbean where CEOs learn how to murder Hey Joe on a Gibson. We’re also off to sample an astronomy break in the Maldives next week too. Don’t hate us. It’s very hard work too…
I avoid the word ‘exclusive’ when it refers to premium luxury being restricted to a fraction of people. It’s an inherently ugly word; our readers have much more class than that.
Our readership is 20-30% female. Anybody who looks at our magazine and thinks it’s solely aimed at men is harking back to antiquated links between fast cars and testosterone. A passion for cars, planes or spirits is becoming much more gender-neutral. Having a mixed readership is a wonderful thing to embrace.
Robb Report UK is a localised edition. We syndicate a lot of globally relevant content from the US edition, but there’s more to our localisation than putting the letter ‘u’ into words like ‘color’. We really adapt the content for a local audience. It’s not a title where references to San Francisco quarterbacks will work.
PRs have sent me on some truly bizarre press trips. A vodka company once flew me to Chile to play ‘snow golf’ in the Andes. While we knocked golf balls around, shivering South American models in bikinis would dish out shots of vodka.
When I interviewed Ozzy Osbourne, I didn’t ask a single question: he just talked at me for 40 minutes. He also rebuked me because he could smell cigarettes on my breath (I was a smoker at the time). That’s right: I got a dressing-down for my youthful lifestyle habits from Ozzy Osbourne!
Celebrities open up when talking about their luxury passions. Because musicians and actors are creative, articulate people, they can speak eloquently on these subjects: Robb Report is an ideal place for George Clooney to talk about tequila, or Lenny Kravitz on his self-designed ‘Champagne table’. I’m interviewing Robert De Niro soon about his love of sake.
Journalists are craftspeople too. I honestly think that the best storytellers have a skill similar to bespoke shoemakers, Savile Row tailors and Swiss watchmakers.
Readers don’t flick the page because it says ‘Sponsored’ or ‘Partnerships’ on it anymore: they take branded content just as seriously as editorial. At Robb Report, we always entertain the idea of brand partnerships: we once published a large supplement with BMW which mirrored the regular slots/treatments of the magazine. PRs should always talk with their brands about such partnerships rather than simply thinking about placing them in the editorial pages.
My job is similar to that of a museum creator. Robb Report is an inherently celebratory publication: if we don’t love something, it’s not in the mix. We’ll point out flaws, but you won’t find an entirely negative review about a product on our pages: if something isn’t up-to-scratch, we don’t feature it.
The ‘gawp’ factor is a huge part of many Robb Report stories. We love to prompt an ‘Oh, my word, is that what I could own if I’m willing to spend money on it?’ reaction.
If PRs want to get in touch, it’s vital that your offering has an element of ‘newness’. I receive so many emails peddling stories that have been covered by other titles – sometimes two years ago!