The magazine’s patented celebrity-on-celebrity dialogues compounded the formula, like mixing colors on a palette. Instead of a journalist to interview Jack Nicholson, get Julian Schnabel. (For the results, see the April, 2003, issue.)

The strategy of flipping an established brand into a digital-content machine has been carried off a few times already. In 2016, Rimowa, the stalwart German luggage manufacturer known for its striated metal carry-ons, sold a majority stake to L.V.M.H., the conglomerate of high-fashion luxury brands. Rimowa had a cachet among a small group of... See more