[benjash]

Its really not, designers in publishing companies do not have final say. The publishers do.

These are established companies with existing management structures. The owners / management controlling the brands will have briefed in a designer to implement all of these elements.

There priority will be leverage the audience of esquire, to allow them maximise the sales they can do via media buyers.

Audience development for sites like these, is often only minimally effected by design. Especially considering these are established brands. They already get the numbers, they dont need to earn them.

Web designers are just the people paid to put the designs together options together for management to choose from.