That was a decade ago. Now Brûlé is out to do it again when next month he launches Monocle, a title with the aim of enticing the world’s well-educated and well-heeled to dip into its pages for coverage of global affairs, business, culture and design.

The question is, can Brûlé once again find success?

At least some media folks think so. “I think he can, actually. He has a very good sense of this really top-end audience,” says Vanessa Clifford, managing partner at MindShare in London. “He is part of it. He has an innate understanding of this audience, more so than a lot of publishers.”

Marty Walker thinks so too. “You have to give the guy credit,” says Walker of Walker Communications, a U.S. magazine publishing consultancy. While Walker has yet to see Monocle, he points to Wallpaper*, now owned by Time Inc., as evidence. 

“If you were to say some other normal human being were to launch it, I would say ho-hum, it’s just some other magazine for rich people. But until you see what he is doing with this magazine, you have to sort of give him the benefit of the doubt,” he says.

With weeks to go before the launch, Brûlé is being pretty hush-hush about Monocle. What is known is this: It will target an affluent, educated audience and publish 10 issues a year with an initial print run of 150,000 and will be distributed in Europe, North American and the Asia-Pacific region. Media buyers believe that the largest chunk of the print run will be for distribution in Britain, with the U.S. not far behind.

The aim is to target a group of international readers who want a global perspective on news and politics. Winkontent, one of Brûlé's companies, is believed to have raised some $10 million from private investors to fund the magazine.

While Monocle will be a unisex title, it will skew toward men, says Benjamin Moulder, account director, Gucci Group and YSL Beaute, UK, at the Media Planning Group in London. He says some of the Gucci brands will be advertising in the magazine during the first year.

With its mix of business and lifestyle, media folks in London see Monocle as a bold departure, bringing something a bit different to the market. “There are some independent publishers, like Tyler, that are willing to create a magazine that is unlike anything else--and let the mountain come to Mohammed. He did this with Wallpaper too,” says Moulder.  
 
Clifford agrees: “This audience has a lot of money. They read travel magazines, the Economist, in-flight magazines, and they read Wallpaper as well. But there is nothing that targets them in a packaged-up way like this.”

But because Monocle won’t be another me-too magazine, it will also face unique challenges, notes Clifford. Since nothing like it exists, it means informing your audience about the magazine in ways that create a need for it, so they know they want it. That’s a lot harder than selling them on a new twist on something they’ve already bought into as necessary in their lives.

But going for Brûlé are these affluent times. Among media buyers, there’s the feeling that the timing for Monocle may be just right. In Britain, a key market, planners say there is a gap men’s market for upscale titles with stable circulations and good frequency. 

The U.S. looks no less ripe. Says Walker: “Conspicuous consumption is once again in.”