FOLIO: Section Blogs by Audience Development

The Weird Pricing Plan at Barnes & Noble’s Magazine Store

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:47:28 -0400

Barnes & Noble announced this week that it will begin selling magazine subscriptions online at steep discounts to more than 1,000 print and digital titles. Print subscription prices range from as low as $5.99 (Batanga) to $299 (Adweek). Digital subscriptions range from $1.56 (24-K) to $1,372 (Jane's Defense Weekly). Digital single issues range from $0.99 to $99.

The retailer scoffed at the idea that it would be competing with discount subscription sellers. (I don’t buy it. Nor does John Harrington, the New Single Copy editor, who said "it's not much different from a number of online subscription sources.”) But this is nothing new.

What is new, from what I can tell, is that, in some cases, the site is charging more for digital subscriptions than it is for print. For instance, a year's subscription to Men's Health is priced at $24.95, 44 percent off its $45.00 cover price; a digital subscription to Men's Health sells for $24.97.

Even weirder: some of the digital single copies BN.com is selling are priced close to their original cover prices. Granted, back issues of print magazines are usually inflated, so it might appear to be a good deal for someone trying to extract some old feature not online anywhere. But I sure as hell wouldn’t pay retail cover price for a digital copy of something I could find in print elsewhere, even if it took a little eBay digging.

Barnes & Noble says digital magazine publisher Zinio and M2, its print fulfillment partner, are responsible for the prices. “They’re actually the seller of record. And they’re selling the magazines through our site to our customers. So they’re setting the prices.”

So, Zinio, what gives?

UPDATE: See Zinio's response below.

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Space: The Final Frontier … for Magazine Circulation?

Jason Fell — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:47:30 -0400

Ready the warp drive, Scotty, here comes a publicity stunt of inter-galactic proportions.

According to a post I came across on MarketingWeek.com, U.K.-based Future Publishing is planning to send every issue of its sci-fi mag SFX where apparently no other magazine has gone before: space.

SFX is teaming up with a firm called SentForever, which converts messages into radio waves and sends them to a British satellite station. Using a massive satellite transmission dish, the message is blasted into the far reaches of the galaxy.

A mere five hours after transmission, according to the magazine, the SFX radio waves will race past Pluto and leave the solar system, bound for, well, who knows who—or what—to pick them up.

Talk about extending your magazine's reach! Although, I'm not sure SFX will reach its ‘target' audience.
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Will TV Up the Audience Measurement Ante for Magazines?

Joanna Pettas — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:35:12 -0500

Magazine publishers have been struggling with the need for more accurate audience metrics for years. John Griffin, newly appointed MPA chairman, is continuing his predecessor Jack Kliger's push for new metrics. He thinks magazines need to get closer to what television is able to do, though "we'll never be able to produce overnights," he said at a recent MPA event.
Kliger repeated these sentiments at DMA Circ Day this week:

"It is time for a business model that puts things in their proper order. A model that makes it possible for advertisers to buy based on who reads our magazines, not the number of copies we distribute. This model has worked well for the cable television business from the beginning."
But the television industry isn't so happy with their metrics either.
According to the AdAge article, CBS signed on with TiVo to use the company's second-by-second ratings while TNS Media Research and DirecTV unveiled the formation of a national audience panel whose behavior would be measured second-by-second.
Will the potentially widening gap between magazine and television audience management up the ante for publishers to start taking action?
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How SI’s Swimsuit Issue Sells

Dylan Stableford — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:48:42 -0500

It’s that time of year again—for sports fans, the dark and gloomy vortex between the Super Bowl and March Madness. For Sports Illustrated, it’s Christmas: the swimsuit issue, the magazine’s annual predictably overhyped—and just as predictably, controversial—run through the media machinery.

In terms of advertising, marketing and newsstand sales, the swimsuit issue is the Super Bowl for Sports Illustrated. This year’s issue, with Marisa Miller on the cover, hit store shelves today, and—eschewing some level of corporate synergy—will get its official debut tonight on the David Letterman show. Why not, say, CNN’s American Morning? “It was logistical,” an SI spokesperson says, noting that SI’s ad party is taking place tonight in New York City, and that the guest list is over 1,000 strong.

Here’s a quick look at how SI’s Swimsuit Issue has fared on newsstands over the last five years:

YEAR DATE SINGLE COPY SALES 12-MONTH AVG. AD PAGES COVER MODEL

2007 Feb. 16 1,060,000 87,043* 109.95 Beyoncé

2006 Feb. 17 1,152,275 86,173 111.00 "All-Star" Cover

2005 Feb. 18 1,083,827 85,548 106.87 Carolyn Murphy

2004 Feb. 13 1,563,694 100,941 112.50 Veronica Varekova

2003 Feb. 25 1,216,495 100,626 113.00 Petra Nemcova

* First half average.

SOURCE: ABC
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Vice Asks Readers to Pay for Subscription to Free Magazine

Jason Fell — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:23:53 -0500

Vice, the brutally irreverent New York-based magazine (which now boasts a slew of international editions, a critically-acclaimed online television site and a record label), has long employed free distribution at downtown boutiques to deliver its influential brand of hipster content to readers. And whatever your feelings are on Vice's acidic tone, there’s no arguing that it’s one of the prettiest, heaviest free magazines around—a fact the magazine itself touts on its covers.
Which is why it was bit of a shock to see the subscription card in a recent issue asking people to pay for subscriptions.
Why now? Vice says the magazine is so pretty, readers take stacks of free copies from these boutiques, subverting the key part of their distribution model.

Could this be first sign of trouble at Vice, a multiplatform, success story that has had as much to do with image as business acumen? Or is this a sly way to tack on revenue at a company whose founders have successfully positioned themselves as professional tastemakers, inking a development deal with MTV?
One of those founders, Gavin McInnes, left the company last month, citing “creative differences.”
His exit memo was, of course, brutally irreverent.
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Why are Advertisers Passing on Audience Metrics?

Joanna Pettas — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:09:16 -0500

Time magazine has tried and failed to get 20 to 30 percent of its clients to buy ads based on total readership rather than circulation, according to a Mediaweek story.

The article reports that Time offered advertisers the choice to buy against a guaranteed, MRI-measured total readership of 19.5 million or against a rate base of 3.25 million, 19 percent smaller than in 2006, and only “a few” opted to buy on audience.

Scenarios like this are confounding for a lot of people. “It doesn’t make sense for an advertiser to buy based on how many copies are printed but rather on how many are seen and what is the action as a result of that,” said John Griffin, president of National Geographic Society’s magazine group and newly inaugurated MPA chairman, at a recent MPA breakfast. “We should have some kind of measurement that better reflects the goals of the advertiser. Publishers are arguing that paid circ isn’t that important and advertisers are arguing that it is. It should be reversed.”

Sure, it should be. But as Griffin said at the breakfast, it is advertisers—not publishers—who will ultimately make the shift happen (or not). And, judging by this, most advertisers aren’t ready for the somewhat ambiguous world of audience metrics.

According to the Mediaweek story, some saw the offer as a way to shift conversation away from circulation—a lot of magazines have “a better audience story than a circulation story,” said Barry Lowenthal, president, The Media Kitchen. Some just didn’t see making the change as a priority, while many took issue with the nature of reader-reported MRI data.

Maybe publishers, instead of asking why advertisers are passing on this option, should ask themselves why they wouldn’t.
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At Least Magazines Don’t Have to Deal with Machine Theft

Dylan Stableford — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:34:11 -0500

Whatever your thoughts are on the state of the magazine industry—“It’s strong!” “It’s resurging!” “It’s receding!”—at least publishers, in general, don’t have to deal with this:
Thefts of newspaper machines in a pair of Colorado counties—Greeley and Weld—have reached high levels, with the 47th Tribune newspaper dispenser stolen this week.

The thieves are apparently taking the machines off of street corners, then taking them to remote areas where they use a power grinder and bolt cutters to get into the machine and take the change. They usually then dump the machine alongside a road. Most of the thefts have occurred between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.

"It doesn't seem like it would be worth the effort," said Gary Doering, single copy manager for the newspaper. "They have to cut through everything to get the coin box, and it might have only a few quarters in it."
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Blogging from Wal-Mart’s Magazine Rack

Dylan Stableford — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:22:41 -0500

After reading the news on Friday about Wal-Mart removing 1,000 magazine titles from its nationwide stable, I got to wondering. What can you buy at Wal-Mart? Since I was going to my hometown of Jackson, Alabama this past weekend, what better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than perusing the magazine selection?

Some background: Jackson is a rural town of around 6,000 located in the piney woods of southwest Alabama. The nearest city, Mobile, is an hour away. With the local economy almost wholly independent on a paper mill, the town is one plant closing away from being a statistic. There are other mills and chemical plants in the area but the nearest one is a half hour away. Hunting and fishing are the most popular pastimes here.

In my youth, I remember spending time at the magazine rack at the Delchamp’s grocery store (now closed) reading MAD magazine while Mom shopped for the week’s groceries. I was also the first in line to buy one of the three issues of Fangoria that the convenience store/gas station in the middle of town would get. Like Delchamp’s, the Junior Food Store has also gone with the wind. Yes, Fangoria and MAD were my favorite magazines as a kid and I still seemed to have turned out okay, despite what my Dad would tell his friends.

The magazine stock at the Wal-Mart (or Wal-Mart’s, as some call it) consists of two racks, three shelves each, for a total of roughly six feet. At first glance there aren’t too many surprises: Shotgun News, Bassin’, Guns & Ammo, 14 different car magazines, and two four-wheeler magazines.

As far as women’s titles go, all of the usual suspects were there—Redbook, Glamour, InStyle, Oprah, Vogue, Allure et al. However, there were no men’s magazines other than the aforementioned with the exception of three bodybuilding books: Flex, Muscle & Fitness, and Muscular Development. Men’s Fitness and Men’s Health could not be found, but neither could GQ or Details, which is no surprise. Also, there were no newsweeklies: Time, Newsweek, or US News & World Report.

Other titles on the shelves included Tiger Beat, Southern Lady, Playstation, Small Room Decorating, Country Living, EGM (Electronic Game Monthly), three quilting magazines, a scrapbooking mag, a baseball card magazine, and three different guitar magazines. Much to my surprise, Jackson seems to have its fair share of weight lifters and guitar heroes. Who knew?

There were no surprises at the checkouts either: Soap Opera Digest (among other similar titles), Us, People, TV Guide, Readers Digest, National Enquirer, and plenty of digest-sized recipe books. These are, more or less, the same magazines that have been on checkout stands around the country as for years.

The biggest surprise to me—and the biggest amount of real estate on the newsstand—was taken over by puzzle books. Crosswords, Find-a-Word, Word Seek, Sudoku took up an entire shelf on one of the racks with 50 different titles alone! I was also surprised not to see any faith or religious-themed magazines, considering Jackson is the first notch of the Bible Belt. Another notable omission was the lack of Spanish language magazines such as Latina or People en Espanol. The Hispanic population has drastically increased in recent years and this is a population that is being totally ignored.

With the exception of TV Guide, not a single magazine that I subscribe to could be found at Wal-Mart. I remember looking for the new Entertainment Weekly on one trip home and was out of luck. (It would be easier to find a pork roll at a bar mitzvah than a Vanity Fair at an Alabama Wal-Mart!)

My own magazine, Southern Breeze, was nowhere to be found either. No matter, Jackson is out of our coverage area anyway! The ONLY regional on their shelves was Southern Living which, again, was no surprise at all. Unfortunately, for future magazine editors/teenage nerds like myself, MAD was MIA.

I’m not sure what this selection says about the population of my hometown but I do know what it says about Wal-Mart’s magazine mavens: they know their audiences pretty darn well!

NOTE: If anyone reading this column from other parts of the country would like to comment on what they find at their local Wal-Mart, please let me know in the comments section below!
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Guerrilla Cover Testing

Bill Mickey — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:11:04 -0500

I interviewed Kristy Kaus, Active Interest Media's research director, for a story I wrote in the January issue of FOLIO:. Kaus has been doing cover research for a number of AIM's enthusiast titles, and her program has provided a measurable boost in newsstand sales. The research is done via online surveys-a method that puts cover testing well in the realm of small to mid-sized enthusiast publishers that otherwise wouldn't spring for a full-on, focus-group or direct mail approach.

The testing is performed through a proprietary Web-based survey platform developed by Kaus, and can be executed with a 36-hour turnaround. If you're feeling skittish about using an online-based testing group, don't be. Kaus notes that readers are typically online anyway, and backtested her groups just to be sure their opinions matched performance. "We tested a past poor performer versus a past top performer. With every control on the online survey the top performer won. So that was enough to validate the program for us, that it's effective. And it gave us enough assurance that moving forward was a smart idea," Kaus told me.

I suppose it's a more guerrilla approach to cover testing, and perhaps not as hermetically sealed as a formal, live version, but Kaus' numbers speak for themselves: "For every test that I have done, the sellthrough has either stabilized with the same issue month the year prior or it has increased, and in some cases increased pretty substantially," says Kaus. Southwest Art jumped 12 percent in singlecopy sales, and Vegetarian Times increased 21 percent, for example.

Not too shabby.
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AMI and Source Interlink Close to a Deal?

mtownsley — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:00:00 -0500

In an October 25 story in the New York Post, Keith Kelly reported that merger talks were underway between American Media Inc. CEO David Pecker and Ron Burkle of Source Interlink Cos. At the time, the two sides were thought to be close to inking a deal, but neither party would confirm or deny the report.

The Post is reporting today that a price of $1.2 billion has been agreed upon, the only stumbling block being that the banks want Source to put more equity into the deal. David Pecker and Evercore Partners bought American Media in 1999 for $850 million. In 2003 American Media bought health and fitness magazine publisher Weider Publications for $350 million. AMI titles include The National Enquirer, Star Magazine, Globe Magazine, Country Weekly, Shape, Men's Fitness, Muscle & Fitness and others.

Last May, Source acquired Enthusiast Media, which included Primedia's 70 special interest magazines and 90 associated Web sites, for $1.2 billion in cash, sparking concern among circulators about the company owning magazines and controlling the newsstand supply chain simultaneously.

But the Primedia acquisition did not include a distribution source. Now, if the AMI merger goes through, AMI's distribution arm, Distribution Services, Inc., which specializes in in-store magazine merchandising, will be a large part of the deal. Current DSI publishing clients include Bauer, Newsweek, Meredith, Rodale, and Hachette Filipacchi.
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Murdoch’s Plans to Make WSJ.com Free, Rival The Times

mtownsley — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:00:00 -0500

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch announced this week that he intends to make access to The Wall Street Journal's Web site free-a move he believes will attract "large numbers" of big-spending advertisers.

"We expect to make that free, and instead of having one million [subscribers], having at least 10 million-15 million in every corner of the earth," Murdoch said.

News Corp. has signed an agreement to acquire Dow Jones & Co., and the deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. A special shareholders meeting is scheduled for Dec. 13 in New York.

WSJ.com currently has about one million subscribers and generates about $50 million in annual user fees.

This move could be seen as the first step in setting up The Wall Street Journal as a direct rival to The New York Times, which is a major goal of Murdoch's, according to observers.

"Murdoch will do anything to take market share away from the Times. He has gotten farther than anybody else and can afford to undercut anybody else," Martin Dunn, deputy publisher of the Daily News, told Crain's New York Business back in August. "Anyone who thinks he will play by Marquess of Queensbury rules is living in a cloud-cuckoo-land."

The New York Times also opened up access to portions of its Web site. In September, the Times announced that it would stop charging its readers for access to its online subscription program TimesSelect as well as the majority of its archives.

Other weapons that could be used by the Journal to compete with the Times could include steep reductions in ad rates and direct targeting of the Times' current advertisers.

Murdoch also outlined plans to compete last month at the annual Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that included increasing the WSJ's national and international coverage, as well as coverage of cultural issues in order to get advertisers from venues such as movie studios.

According to the Guardian Unlimited, when asked whether Murdoch was aiming to kill the Times, he replied, "That would be nice."

For more on the viability of online newspapers like the Times and WSJ, click here.

-- Chandra Johnson-Greene
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On Franchise Issues

Tony Silber — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:00:00 -0500

An analysis of publishers’ statements filed with Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed that while some franchise issues, like the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, are wildly popular with consumers, others are not.
But that shouldn’t de-value the importance of special magazine issues. There’s a great many people who each year look forward to People magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful People list, as well as Forbes annual Investment Guide. Instead, magazines should look for ways to tweak their formula to meet the needs of the consumer.
Or, even better, publishers should do what Forbes is doing, making its annual lists of Billionaires, Most Powerful Celebrities, Top Companies to Work For, etc., a true multimedia experience. Forbes realizes that there are a lot of people out there that just will not pay for news anymore. So rather than trying to beat them, they’ve joined them.
Whenever a special issue of Forbes comes out, it’s one of the top stories of the day highlighted by the search engine Yahoo. From the Yahoo story, readers can link to Forbes Web site where they can find even more articles and information on the special information contained in that franchise issue. And Forbes doesn’t just offer little teasers on its Web site of the articles featured in the print version of the franchise issue. Instead, it gives readers full magazine articles and original Web content that can either complement or be read in place of the magazine.
And the effort is working because even when the franchise issue doesn’t fly off the shelf, hits to Forbes’ Web site increase greatly during the week that the issue hits the stands. Using those metrics, Forbes can probably, if it hasn’t started to already, begin charging advertisers a premium to advertise on its site during peak traffic weeks such as those when its franchise issues come out.
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Time Starts New Ratebase Fad?

Tony Silber — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 03:00:00 -0500

Time Inc. has announced that Time will be reducing its ratebase from 4 million to 3.25 million. The magazine will also boost its newsstand cover price by $1.

The statement takes an overtly gushy tone, billing the move as a “bold attempt to revolutionize the way mass magazines sell advertising.” Ed McCarrick, Time’s president and worldwide publisher assures the public (read: advertisers and train wreck enthusiasts) that they’re making a “groundbreaking move from a position of strength.” Freshly installed managing editor Richard Stengel says it’s a “bold step.”

There’s a reason for all the hyperbole: cutting ratebase has traditionally been seen as sign of weakness – or the result of a circulation snafu discovered by an auditor. So Time has to come out on the offensive, and this may just be the move that starts a new ratebase reduction fad.

Observers, namely, Dan Capell, have noted that it will take one of the big guys – Time Inc., Hearst, Conde Nast, etc. – to make the first move before others take the step. They have also said that ratebase has become an increasingly ineffective audience measurement tool for an ad buy and that magazines should be measured in a way similar to other media.

Plus, reducing ratebase can pay dividends in distribution efficiencies. What remains to be seen is if other publishers can break their ratebase habit and if media buyers will make the leap along with them.

Find more coverage here, here and here.
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Circ Day La: Role Model For A Successful Regional

Tony Silber — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 03:00:00 -0400

I only spent part of the day yesterday at the Western Fulfillment Management Association’s Circ Day LA, but it was clear that there was a buzz and vitality in the room. Held at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the event attracted about 175 circulators, other publishing professionals and about 15 supplier companies mostly from California. But to me there seemed to be a sense of camaraderie at the event that demonstrates the strength of regional events. (Actually, 175 attendees also demonstrates the strength of this particular event—that’s a good turnout.)

As someone about to put on the 2006 Folio: Show in two weeks—by far the largest single magazine-industry event as measured by attendees and exhibitors—I also recognize the value of smaller, intimate regional events. Done well, in the manner of the CRMA, or the Magazine Association of the Southeast, these events provide professional development, networking and esprit de corps for large and especially smaller players in a particular section of the country.
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YEAR	DATE	SINGLE COPY SALES	12-MONTH AVG.	AD PAGES	COVER MODEL
2007	Feb. 16	1,060,000	87,043*	109.95	Beyoncé
2006	Feb. 17	1,152,275	86,173	111.00	"All-Star" Cover
2005	Feb. 18	1,083,827	85,548	106.87	Carolyn Murphy
2004	Feb. 13	1,563,694	100,941	112.50	Veronica Varekova
2003	Feb. 25	1,216,495	100,626	113.00	Petra Nemcova