Speeches at the most recent FIPP World Magazine conference might have had determinedly buoyant tone, but it's a tough and cruel time for magazines right now as they face changing market conditions and difficult decisions.

New digital products aren't safe from publishers' strategic culls; at least one of those promoted in the online sessions Journalism.co.uk attended at the event, John Menzies' digital magazines service Magazines On Demand has since closed.

Circulation figures in the UK and the US are bleak and advertising revenues are sliding away, so what's the future for new products without the brand strength of established titles?

Wound - launched in print 18 months ago and digitally in July, with offices in London, Tokyo and Shanghai - is fortunate not to have the baggage of its traditional counterparts and is happy to get things a little wrong at times, its editor-in-chief and publisher Francis Malone tells Journalism.co.uk.

Starting out now allows him to break free of 'dark ages' habits developed by other magazine publishers, he argues.

The quarterly magazine, which currently has a print run of 62,500, is experimental, but niche, he says. But this is niche covering 'anyone who walks into Tate Modern, or Selfridges' and men and women, from 18-80, with a particular interest in art, style and design, he adds.

While Malone acknowledges the market already hosts a number of style titles, he believes there is a gap for their global product, focused on art, fashion, architecture and music.

Malone cites a conversation he had with a senior publisher in the magazine industry; he was told 'we need to to lead the consumer'.

"I disagree; I think we need to deliver something to the reader, to their current lifestyle," he explains.

Online payment model
But the main novelty of Wound's approach, given that the product is a child of 2008, is its ambitious online payment structure.

Nothing is free to view, save the promotional magazine covers and the blog posts on the website. Content is available on the iPhone, or online or in print, but all must be paid for. Wound Quarterly costs £7; Wound Digital is £5; iWound on iPhone can be bought for around £3.

Magazine production costs money he says, defending the £7 charge: "It's amazing the extent to which people will consider that the price of three cappuccinos is expensive."

Time will tell whether this strategy succeeds, but Malone believes his team is producing content people will pay for: "What we're seeking to deliver to the marketplace is a collectable item; a timeless object. That's our objective."

Making digital central
Digital is equally important, he says, claiming that Wound Media's 24-strong personnel working on programming for its digital media products is the biggest such team in the whole of London'.

"We've moved from being a magazine company to a content producer and a content distributor. That's a fundamental redefinition of our business," he says.

"Provide it [the title] on digital for a laptop audience - that's how people are actually consuming things."

In fact, Wound billed itself as the 'the world's first subscription-based arts and fashion magazine to provide bespoke content for print, digital and iPhone' when it launched its digital offering in July.

Video and audio are both incorporated into the 400-page iPhone product and the 300-page digital magazine.

"It is new territory; we've found it a big learning experience; a big challenge. Put the user in the centre, and put around it a creative team, a media team and a technology team," explains Malone.

Inevitable technical hitches with such a transition have been part of the learning process: replicating a version of the print magazine page for an iPhone screen did not work, he says.

"The experience was not that good - every single screen has [now] been created for a three inch screen. We had to completely change the product."

Customised advertising
Though Malone repeatedly emphasises the value of paid subscriptions during the interview, he seems equally excited about advertising possibilities.

Big brands such as Hugo Boss, Dior and Diesel are taking advantage of Wound's packages, he says. Creating innovative tailored advertising opportunities is key, he says. 

But will it work? Well, Malone must hope so. For a team that's developing a new product in a climate that just saw an established brand like the US Reader's Digest US file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, there will be challenges ahead - namely persuading the Selfridges and Tate Modern goers to buy something to read while they're sipping their cappuccinos.