After six years as editor of Life & Leisure Luxury magazine, Katarina Kroslakova has another notch to add to her belt – luxury correspondent at Australian Financial Review. Kroslakova will write across The AFR Magazine, Luxury magazine, Life & Leisure, AFR Weekend, and afr.com, as well as continuing to edit the quarterly Luxury magazine. She recently spoke to BD about the latest notch on her belt:
What will your new role as luxury correspondent entail?
I was hoping for lots of Champagne parties and air kissing, but alas, no cigar just yet... Essentially I will look at the top percentile of consumer, the top end of the lifestyle sector and drill down as much as possible to present some fascinating stories about who's spending how much, on what, and why. And how they made their money. And how companies are trying to get them to spend even more money. I'll cover everything from wine to fashion, from arts to motoring. The plan is to cover these online, in print, in weekly blogs, in video pieces and in glossy magazine features. In between getting my toenails painted.
What are you most excited about?
Taking a good thorough look into the sparkly world of the rich and infamous! I love the fact that money can't buy you good taste, it makes my job all the more interesting. Also, looking at the different interpretations of luxury. While the core of what I'll cover will be about the business side of things, I love finding out about what the concept of luxury means to different people, whether it's time, privacy, family, love, freedom. The Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet once told me his greatest luxury was beautiful soap. I love that.
What kind of content can readers expect from the upgraded AFR?
Locally-produced content is something that's slowly disappearing from media these days, as budgets dry up and syndication takes over, so for the AFR to commit to a brand new role such as mine is a big deal. Australians are such voracious consumers of luxury – just look at a brand like La Prairie for example, they are absolutely smashing targets in the local market. So we will cover consumer trends and spending habits, as well as profile pieces and exclusive interviews, industry news and basically share the stories of those who define luxury.
Kroslakova is available on kkroslakova@afr.com.au.
