#WeAreCondeNast: Dominique Dirand – Consumer Revenue Director

Dominique Dirand, Condé Nast France’s Consumer Revenue Director, shares what she’d do with an extra 8 hours in a day, her career highlight and her productivity hack.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you find your way to Condé Nast?

I grew up in a very small village in the east of France and then I entered a business school. After graduation, I lived in Asia for 2 years, first in Malaysia as a French and Economics teacher and then in Singapore and Australia as an Export Manager.

After spending almost more than 20 years in the news/magazines sector as a Circulation and Marketing Director, I joined Condé Nast France in March 2020, only a few days before the COVID lockdown. A very atypical beginning! I always liked working in an international context, which is why I was really interested in joining a company like Condé Nast with a multicultural approach and global projects.

How do you describe your job to friends and family?

Well, as in France, people usually don’t know Condé Nast but they do know their French brands. I start by saying that I work for Vogue, Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest and GQ, specifying that my job consists of maximizing and optimizing the consumer revenue of these brands, on newsstands or subscription marketing channels. My job is ensuring that the print copies will arrive correctly to the readers, whether they are newsstands buyers or subscribers, and I plan all the marketing operations to drive the number of buyers and the revenue.

In addition, I often present my job as an attractive project source, like, for example, the launch of Vogue Collection, which is a great and exciting Consumer Revenue diversification.

What does Women’s International Day/History Month mean to you?

As long as women will be under-considered in the world having an International Women’s Day will be a useful way to raise the level of awareness of women’s status. Globally, fighting for women’s rights is a fight for human rights in general.

Even though it can be taken for granted in our westernised countries, being a woman in some parts of the world is not an enviable status. The fact that in some countries there are still birth selection shows we are far from gender equity. And even if gender equity is one of the fundamental principles of the European Union, there are still struggles ahead of us, for the place of the woman in the society, and in the work.

What’s your go-to productivity trick?

I try not to be influenced by false problems!

What project or initiative are you most proud to have worked on so far?

I think it was in my previous media company, when myself and a journalist launched a new range of thematic special editions with print magazines and videos support, on how to make learning grammar, spelling, sciences and maths fun. This new approach of learning became very popular.

What do you consider to be your career highlight?

Well, the transformation of subscriptions, from traditional print subscriptions model, to digital enriched experience, with subscribers-only content is one of my favourite projects, as it’s the way we adapt our offers, contents and proposals to the new reading usages. The transformation to digital, when you, like me, had the chance to have known the great period of successful print magazines, is an incredible opportunity.

If you didn't have to sleep, how would you spend the extra eight hours each day?

Whoa, 8 more hours in a day, what a gift!

I would learn another foreign language, maybe Portuguese, or Italian

I would practice my tap dance (I started learning tap dance this year, but never have enough time to review how to play good rhythm music with my feet…)

I would read all the books that are waiting for me on my bookshelves

I would knit sweaters for my friends and family.

I would rediscover my beautiful city, Paris, as if I was a tourist.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

As many young little girls, I wanted to be a school teacher or a hairdresser!

If you could time travel, which period of time would you go back to visit?

Very difficult to be limited to one period! I’m very curious in the “Live my life,” so it’s even more thrilling if it’s in history!

Maybe the great navigation time, it was so incredible and exciting to discover new lands, new civilizations, new cultures and realize that the world and the humanity brings new horizons and human treasures.

And maybe also the XVIIIth century, as a courtesan, to experience once the wearing of an extraordinary but heavy dress, and come back in 2022 to appreciate the ultimate comfort of a pair of jeans!

More closer to now, I loved “Midnight in Paris,” Woody Allen’s movie. What a unique atmosphere to immerse oneself in the Paris of the 1920’s, with the intellectual and artistic bubbling.

What's your favorite food?

Sweet glutinous rice with mango. I was eating it almost every day when I was living in Malaysia. In fact, I don’t do it at home, but I always find some good Asian restaurants in the area that offer this delicious dessert.