New Luxury Title to Debut in 2009

It may be well into 2009 before the economy recovers enough for consumer magazine ad pages to turn around, but a Singapore publisher is betting the market for luxury magazines is stable enough to launch one.

CR Media plans to launch Prestige New York, a U.S. version of its Prestige Singapore flagship, in February. Its editorial will include the mix of city society leaders, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, politicians and innovators common in most luxury magazines, but with an international twist, the company says. Rhonda Palmer, Prestige New York’s editor, wants the magazine to “feel like the interesting and entertaining person you’d want to be seated next to at a dinner party.”

The monthly magazine will target “high net worth individuals” with controlled circulation of 50,000 and distribution in ultra-affluent households, primarily in New York.

Jane Leong, CR Media’s founding director, says “the ultra-affluent are still spending—reaching them is the marketing challenge.”

Finding advertisers in the volatile U.S. economy may prove to be an even bigger challenge. Through the first nine months of the year, ad pages for the Robb Report and Departures magazines were down 5 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. (Executive Travel SkyGuide, the only other explicit luxury magazine tracked by PIB, saw a 13.4 percent jump during the same period.)

And Niche Media, publisher of a large swath of regional luxury titles, was forced to restructure in part because of the down economy.

CR Media launched Prestige Singapore in 2000, followed by launches in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Hong Kong.

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