Tag Archives: Magazine industry
Reading stories that only magazines can convey
by Chris Roush
Amy Chozick of The New York Times writes about the new magazine from Bloomberg LP called Bloomberg Pursuits.
Chozick writes, “Pursuits (which has the same name as a short-lived Wall Street Journal weekend leisure section) will be sent to 375,000 readers, with 60 percent of those living outside the United States, the company said. That demographic influenced features in the first issue, like one about wealthy Chinese buying vineyards in the Bordeaux region of France.
“‘Our readers spend a lot of time in the electronic world, but when it comes to lifestyle, it’s wonderful to sit back and read stories in a way only magazines can convey,’ said Michael Dukmejian, publisher of Bloomberg Markets and Bloomberg Pursuits.
“Bloomberg Markets and Pursuits have their own staff but will share resources with the wider company. (It’s separate from Businessweek, Bloomberg’s weekly magazine sold on newsstands and through traditional subscriptions.)
“Mr. Dukmejian said that Pursuits had its readers in mind and that he wasn’t worried that the conspicuous consumption celebrated in the magazine might seem tone-deaf.”
Read more here.
Bloomberg Pursuits has arrived
by Chris Roush
Bloomberg Pursuits, a new magazine for the rich on how they spend their money, arrived in the mailbox this weekend. Read more about the new magazine here.
Analyzing the future of Reuters magazine
by Chris Roush
Yvette Kantrow, the executive editor of The Deal, writes about the prototype Reuters magazine, published last month by the business news operation and overseen by Jim Impoco.
Kantrow writes, “Impoco, executive editor of Thomson Reuters Digital, also previously worked at The New York Times, and, it should be noted, Condé Nast’s short-lived Portfolio, which Capital New York points out is a former employer of at least four contributors to Reuters magazine. It’s an interesting detail, given that much of the hype and high expectations that preceded Portfolio’s launch was based on the oft-repeated belief that it had assembled a team of business journalism all-stars, as if that was enough to guarantee its success.
“Of course, it wasn’t, and Portfolio lasted only 21 issues. But the idea that if you snap up enough big names you’ll succeed stubbornly persists, both at conferences like Davos and at ambitious media outlets like Reuters, where Adler, the last editor in chief of Businessweek before its sale to Bloomberg, seems to have enacted something of a full-employment act for marquee journalists. Reuters’ archrival Bloomberg has also done its share of big-name hiring over the past couple of years — David Shipley, Michael Kinsley, to name just two — in addition to snapping up and relaunching Businessweek magazine as Bloomberg Businessweek. They may be electronic news services, but Bloomberg and Reuters both still believe in the power of print.
“Still, the similarities seem to end there. Bloomberg Businessweek, which claims nearly 4 million readers, serves a mass business audience; Reuters magazine, by contrast, is unabashedly for the Davos set. That’s an interesting group for a giant news service to target, given the current Zeitgeist and its mistrust of anything having to do with the 1%. But when it comes to Davos, it seems big-name journalists are happy to throw their hats in with the elite, whether that means flying off to Switzerland to rub elbows with CEOs as they frolic on Magic Mountain.”
Read more here.
Bloomberg to launch luxury magazine
by Chris Roush
David Lipke of Women’s Wear Daily writes Friday about Bloomberg Pursuits, the new luxury magazine from Bloomberg LP.
Lipke writes, “Bloomberg Pursuits is a spin-off of Bloomberg Markets, the monthly business magazine that also goes to Terminal users. Circulation for each of the two titles is 375,000, with the non-Terminal copies going to subscribers and newsstand buyers.
“‘You can’t get our audience anywhere else,’ said David Bowling, advertising director at Bloomberg Pursuits, noting distribution is highly international, with about 60 percent of the audience outside the U.S., in financial centers such as the U.K., Japan, Hong Kong and Germany. The average household income of Bloomberg Pursuits readers is $452,000, and 90 percent are male.
“The debut issue contains 46 edit pages and 30 ad pages, from brands such as Hermès, Chanel, Zegna, Rolls-Royce and NetJets. A second issue will be published in the fourth quarter, and the title is scheduled to go quarterly in 2013. The title will compete for ad dollars with business-oriented lifestyle titles, including WSJ., Departures, ForbesLife, Robb Report and the Financial Times’ How to Spend It.
“Editorially, Bloomberg Pursuits plans to distinguish itself from the competitive set by often spotlighting its own readership and exploring its passions. Stories in the first issue include profiles of a Bloomberg subscriber who travels to Antarctica on an icebreaker to witness a solar eclipse, another subscriber who builds his own racing yacht and a third who collects Ferraris, only to deconstruct and improve them.”
Read more here.
Reuters magazine part of broad consumer push
by Chris Roush
Joe Pompeo and Tom McGevern of Capital New York write Thursday about how the prototype Reuters magazine is part of a broader push by the news organization to reach consumers.
Pompeo and McGevern write, “At 64 pages, Reuters has all the meat of a mainstream news magazine and none of the filler. (There are no ads, unless you count a few stray promotional placements for the company itself, which merged with Canadian information-services giant The Thomson Corporation in 2008.) The artistic side was helmed by veteran design duo Robert Priest and Grace Lee, both of whom had a hand in Condé Nast’s ill-fated business title, Portfolio — once employer to at least four Reuters contributors (including Impoco himself), by our count.
“The thick, heavily varnished stock is luxurious enough for Davos, but gives the thing a bit of the feel of an alumni magazine; the pages are too heavy a lift to encourage browsing, an essential element in any real commercial magazine. And the typefaces, while correct, are somewhat par for the course: More evidence of the worldwide supremacy of the typeface called Mercury (brought to you by the New York foundry Hoefler+Frere-Jones, which has become exceedingly dominant in setting type for magazines and newspapers as well as movie ads and the reelection campaign of President Barack Obama).
“Recognizable too are Andy Friedman’s author-profile illustrations; you’ve seen similar art in every new magazine project of the last two years (Newsweek, for instance).
“But to a nonspecialist the design is likely to make Reuters stand out in its competitive set. Most magazines these days can be defined by where they strike the balance between readability and zazz. Businessweek is beautiful, but quite sober in its decisions, really; Reuters seems to be putting itself in many of its pages more in the territory of Wired, with extravagant use of silver metallic ink and spot-varnish, ambitious infographics, crazily cropped and placed photography and lots of new ideas about leading and kerning.”
Read more here.
Biz magazine ad revenue in 2011 outpaces rest of industry
by Chris Roush
TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
The 13 business magazines reported ad revenue of $1.24 billion in 2011, up 6.2 percent from the previous year, far outpacing the slight increase for the entire magazine industry, according to data released by the Publishers Information Bureau and analyzed by Talking Biz News.
Ad pages also rose 1.4 percent to 11,413.30 for the business magazines, which also outperformed the 3.1 percent decline in ad pages for the entire industry.
It’s the second consecutive year that the business magazine world has outperformed the overall magazine industry.
The business magazine with the biggest increase in ad revenue — and in ad pages — was Bloomberg Businessweek, which reported a 29.4 percent rise in ad revenue to $223.4 million and a 19 percent increase in ad pages to 1,536.71.
The worst-performing business magazine in 2011 was Smart Money, a Dow Jones & Co. publication. It reported a 12.9 percent drop in ad revenue to $32.7 million and a 17.4 percent decline in ad pages to 338.18.
Forbes remained the No. 1 business magazine in terms of ad dollars and ad pages. Its ad revenue rose 0.9 percent to $255.1 million, and its ad pages fell 3.9 percent to 1,844.84.
Fortune, a Time Warner magazine, dropped behind Bloomberg Businessweek in both categories. Its ad revenue rose 4.5 percent to $204 million and its ad pages fell 0.9 percent to 1,525.68.
Harvard Business Review reported strong numbers in 2011, with a 21.4 percent rise in ad revenue to $18.9 million and a 16.5 percent rise in ad pages to 436.04. Wired magazine reported a 17.6 percent rise in ad revenue to $99.8 million and an 8.9 percent rise in ad pages to 938.04.
Among the three personal finance titles, Kiplinger’s performed the best in terms of ad revenue with a 1.3 percent jump to $22.41 million, and a 10.6 percent increase in ad pages to 338.41. Money still has more ad pages than Kiplinger’s.
See all of the magazine results here.
Money partners with Real Simple on insert
by Chris Roush
Lucia Moses of Adweek writes about how two Time Inc. magazines — Money and Real Simple — combined on a money management insert in a recent issue.
Moses writes, “Because of the sluggish economy, Money has been shifting its editorial focus away from investing and trying to reach new readers.
“As a woman’s service magazine, Real Simple offered a way to do that, says Money managing editor Craig Matters. ‘The national conversation is about the economy,’ Matters says. ‘However I can push that out, it’s a good thing.’
“Money and Real Simple kicked around some ideas before coming up with the money management guide. ‘Even though our audiences are pretty different on an individual basis, our missions are so similar in terms of giving people actionable information,’ says Real Simple managing editor Kristin van Ogtrop.
“Money is looking at doing more collaborations with Real Simple and another corporate sibling, This Old House. ‘There are good service brands in the building where financial service would make a lot of sense,’ Matters says.”
Read more here.
New biz magazines to provide advice on using social media
by Chris Roush
Jennifer Preston of The New York Times writes Monday about four new magazines offering business owners advice on how to use social media.
Preston writes, “The magazines, published by GSG World Media, will cost $7.95 each at Office Depot stores. They will also be free in various digital formats to five million people who will receive an e-mail from Office Depot this week. The magazines are called: Tweeting & Business; LI & Business; fb & Business and The Big G & Business. A related Web site called socialmediamags.com will open on Monday.
“Despite the huge volume of information about social media tips and tools online and in print, Eric Yaverbaum, associate publisher of the magazines, says he and his partners see an opportunity to use the print magazine format to reach some business owners trying to learn more about the digital world. He said that they were printing a total of 250,000 copies of the magazines at their introduction.
“‘Small-business owners and entrepreneurs are all trying to figure social media out,’ Mr. Yaverbaum said. ‘Print magazines help make the information accessible to them. There will be great success stories and useful information.’
“Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, the former chief marketing officer for Kodak, and one of the early evangelists for Twitter, is the editor of the magazine about Twitter. He will also have a monthly column and videos offering tips.”
Read more here.
New editor named at Minnesota Business
by Chris Roush
Sheri O’Meara has been named editor in chief and Dana Johnson has been named assistant editor at Minnesota Business.
A story on the St. Cloud State University website states, “O’Meara graduated with a bachelor of science in mass communications and an emphasis in public relations and advertising. She most recently served as editor of a variety of trade, consumer and custom publications, including Minnesota Meetings + Events, Format Magazine, Sun Country Airlines’ in-flight magazine and WF Vision. She is author or co-author of four books in The Minnesota Series, including: ‘Storms!,’ ‘Storms 2,’ ‘Media Tales’ and ‘Famous Crimes.’
“Johnson graduated in May with a bachelor of science in mass communications and emphasis in news editorial. She served as editor in chief of the University Chronicle from 2009-10. She also worked at KVSC 88.1 FM as a news reporter and the host of Monday Night Live from 2009-11.
“O’Meara started her career as copy editor at Skyway News (now Downtown Journal), ‘That was back in the days before desktop publishing,’ she said, ‘When we cropped and sized photos with a ruler and photo wheel and our hands were sticky at the end of the day from handling pasteups.’ She attributes page makeup classes in school for helping her land her next job: design director at Minneapolis-St. Paul CityBusiness (now Business Journal).
“Next for O’Meara came jobs at the former Twin Cities Reader, where as custom publishing manager she oversaw client publications that included the Parade of Homes magazine and arts programs for the Guthrie Theater and Minnesota Orchestra, and at K102-FM as editor-publisher of a country music magazine. She launched a freelance business in 1994, serving as editor of a number of publications for more than 15 years.”
Read more here.
Bloomberg Businessweek outperforms other biz glossies in third quarter
by Chris Roush
TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
Bloomberg Businessweek reported a 49.5 percent increase in advertising revenue and a 39 percent rise in ad pages during the third quarter, continuing its rebound after a lackluster performance in 2008 and 2009.
The magazine, acquired by Bloomberg in late 2009, reported ad revenue of $49.7 million and ad pages of 340.10 in the third quarter, according to data released Monday by the Publishers Information Bureau and analyzed by Talking Biz News.
In comparison, Fortune magazine reported a 10 percent increase in ad revenue to $56.4 million and a 4.5 percent increase in ad pages to 420.56 during the three months ended Sept. 30. Forbes magazine posted a 0.7 percent decline in ad revenue to $42.1 million and a 4.1 percent drop in ad pages to 293.30 during the same time period.
The gains by Bloomberg Businessweek continue its strong performance from the first six months of the year, when it had a 27.7 percent rise in ad revenue and a 15.8 percent increase in ad pages.
The only other business magazine with similar strong growth in the third quarter was the Harvard Business Review, which posted a 32.9 percent increase in ad revenue to $3.2 million and a 25.8 percent jump in ad pages to 72.13.
Fast Company also reported an 18.3 percent gain in ad revenue to $8.6 million and a 13.5 percent rise in ad pages to 99.65.
Two Dow Jones & Co. publications reported mixed results. Barron’s posted a 20.1 percent gain in ad revenue to $13 million and a 15.6 percent gain in ad pages to 265.05 during the quarter. However, personal finance magazine SmartMoney posted an 11.7 percent decline in ad revenue to $7.1 million and a 15.9 percent drop in ad pages to 73.05.
Other personal finance publications also struggled. Kiplinger’s posted a 4.5 percent decline in ad revenue to $4.8 million but a 12 percent rise in ad pages to 72.09, while Money magazine reported a 0.7 percent decline in ad revenue to $30.0 million and a 5.1 percent drop in ad pages to 138.33 during the quarter.
Growth at tech-oriented magazine Wired slowed in the third quarter. After posting a 37.7 percent gain in ad revenue and a 26.6 percent gain in ad pages during the first three months, Wired’s third-quarter ad revenue growth was 6.9 percent while its ad pages fell a half of a percent.
See all of the magazine data here.
