A Trio of TaTa’s (One Just For Now) — Mediaweek

Another three publications said farewell this week in the face of plunging ad sales: Best Life, Travel & Leisure Golf, and Scottsdale magazines. The mature men’s lifestyle pub, Best Life, published by Rodale, shut down after just 4 years in production. The mag targeted 40-plus men with well-rounded interests: a.k.a wealthy middle-aged men that had babies and big bank accounts. It was doing well through 2008, growing in size and bringing in 88 new advertisers, but was unable to sustain this growth during the economic downturn, as has been the case with so many other publications that rely on the  luxury logos to stock its ad pages. This year through April, the mag’s ad pages have fell 38.5%, compared to 16.5% for the men’s lifestyle/fitness/outdoor category overall. The good news (wait there’s good news?) is that Rodale hopes to place 10-15 of Best Life’s staffers in other positions in the company.

The staffing reshuffle is taking place elsewhere in the pulishing world, as AmEx shuts down its niche golf publication, Travel & Lesiure Golf, after a 31.4% drop in ad pages this year was reported. And AmEx isn’t trying to cite any other reason for saying sayonara to the mag, as some others have. The mag was in the process of switching to a controlled-circulation model, and lowered its rate base from 625,000 to 500,000 as part of this move. However, it simply wasn’t enough to save the pub. However, there’s some good news in this story as well: its affinity organization, the T&L Golf Players Club, will continue and it has yet to be decided what will happen with the mag’s website and affiliated events. AmEx hopes to find a new home for some of the mag’s 18 employees as well.

Finally, Scottsdale magazine, which was acquired from the former private owner and publisher, Vicki Collins Edwards, by Modern Luxury in mid-February, will be shut down for a minimum of 6 months while it undergoes a “complete overhaul.” The publication will join the Modern Luxury ranks that now encompasses 13 controlled-circulation titles aimed at high-income residents in the country’s prime markets. The design, content, and circulation will be altered, and thus the mag’s staff of 12 has been let go until further notice. It was not reported if these employees have been given any promise of employment after the redesign. In an interesting move for a publication that is so market-specific, ML plans to replace 1/4 of the content with editorial that runs in its other titles. ML is backed by private equity, and seems to weathering the economic storm better than many other publishers, as indicated by its launch of a New York title, and acquisition of the Arizona mag in early 2009.

 

Conde Nast Folds Domino – Mediaweek

So just a few days after I posted on the possibility of niche publications takign the cake in this softened economy, Conde Nast shuts down its “hip shelter” publication Domino (and I’ll take this time to mention that they are shutting down the website too but you can still follow that link to operations shut down in March). Yet while I would classify Domino as a niche publication, I think that the specific niche is more important in this case. As Conde Nast CEO, Chuck Townsend, noted the decision to fold this publication was completely due the weakened economy and the shattered housing market.

Let’s face it — how many people are really looking to redecorate their homes right now just for the hell of it. Domino always set forth some great affordable ways to decorate and make the best of small spaces, but when it comes down to it when purses are pinched I don’t think most people are considering even changing up the curtains, let alone a remodel. This article also noted that some critics have wondered if the publication’s title made it difficult for the book to find a home in the marketplace. I found this interesting because I have always questioned the meaning behind the title of this publication, and even hafter working at Conde Nast for almost a year I was never able to get a straight answer from anyone who worked there. That said — loved this mag and it will be missed — now I’m definitely glad I saved all my old issues for a rainy decorating day!

 

Is Niche the Only Way to Go- Mediaweek

Self, Cookie, Big Winners at Conde Nast

This article from Mediaweek summarized the results of publishing house, Conde Nast’s, annual publishers’ meeting. The trade publication set forth their position that Conde Nast has weathered the storm of plummeting ad revenue through adopting a laid-back, steady approach to maintenance and growth. Self, Cookie, Details and Golf World each received awards for their performance during the economic reccession.

While all the publications, with the exception of Golf World, still experienced a decline in ad pages, they each managed to suffer significantly less than the overall decline in their respective genre categories. Seeing as the awards were given to the publishers at these titles, it would only follow that these publications were able to sustain their performance under the guiding hands of their business staff.

Yet, what I found particularly interesting in this article was that all the awards went to relatively small, niche publications within the powerhouse publishing group. As the economic recession continues to be felt by all, subscriptions are being canceled or not renewed, and newsstand sales are down. With fewer eyes on the pages, advertisers lack incentive to invest, and thus the chain reaction follows that publications have fewer dollars to operate.

I believe that the niche publications have prevailed since their readers are more inelastic than those who pick up the more mass market publications. For example, those who seek out an upscale parenting publication like Cookie or a magazine entirely dedicated to all things golf like Golf World are representative of extremely targeted market segments. Nearly all the content in these publications is somewhat applicable to the reader. However, when the majority of readers of Vogue most likely could never afford half the items shown on its pages, and used the publication for more aspirational purposes, it is unlikely that they will continue to purchase when times are tough. Thus is niche the publishing route of the future?