Mr. Magazine

“Customers committing to longer term subscriptions and positive customer feedback. So they’re telling us that they want TV Insider, this is the magazine that they’ve been waiting for. We just have to market it on a larger scale and we have to promote it better…” Tony Frost

“You want to give people real content. There was a lot of lists online, but I think the curation is the key. We’ll pick each of the major streamers and other smaller streamers that our readers are interested in and give them an in depth amount of shows and reporting…” Michael Fell

When you think of the name TV Guide, your mind might go back about 40 years to the heyday of television and its printed cohorts, such as the aforementioned golden phoenix. And I call it a phoenix purposely because the frequency print magazine has definitely risen from the digital age’s ink ashes, along with two more great magazines from parent company NTVB Media:  TV Weekly and  now TV Insider (also frequency). While their accompanying websites are very complimentary and, in the case of tvinsider.com, going strong, you can’t emphasize enough that the print version of the magazines are just as prominent, if not more, than their pixels on a screen.

I spoke with Tony Frost, president and Michael Fell, group editorial director of the titles recently and we talked about the need for a printed streaming magazine that focused and curated television information for the readers. Tony and Michael are firm believers in print, much like yours truly. They see a definite want and need for this print magazine, along with the others. It was a refreshing discussion on something we all three love and have in common: print.

So please enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ exclusive interview…

But first the soundbites:

On what he was thinking in launching a monthly print magazine (Tony Frost): As I told you earlier in the year, Samir, Michael Fell, our group editorial director and editor in chief of TV Guide, carried out a very extensive survey of readers. And we got the response that there was a need for significantly more streaming-focused content. So we decided that we would give it a go.

On whether focused curation is the future of print (Tony Frost): Curation is a very  good word; we have experts – TV Guide’s complete editorial team  – who know TV from the inside out. The same team has brought that expertise to TV Insider. Over the whole year, the 12 issues will give you the most comprehensive guide on what to stream and why you  should watch the editors’ recommendations. The choices are carefully curated.   

On cornering the market on TV magazines and the synergy the publications are producing (Tony Frost): TV Weekly, produced out of NTVB’s Troy, Michigan HQ,  is a double issue and TV Guide is a content-laden triple. Both carry grids for regular channels  – in TV Guide’s case they have been doing this for 70 years. And we launched  TV Insider as a monthly for streamers. We’re covering all bases.

On cornering the market on TV magazines and the synergy the publications are producing (Michael Fell): You ask about synergy, I was thinking about how complementary the magazines are. I’ve always found this fascinating since Andy (DeAngelis) and Larry (MacKenzie) came on board; TV Weekly, as far as the grids and listings go are distributed regionally like TV Guide used to be.

On any changes coming up in 2024 (Michael Fell): A lot of 2023 was just seeing what works. Now we know that something like this can be successful and I think we’re going to be a little more focused on our cover choices.

On how the future magazine material might be decided (Tony Frost): In 2023, the emphasis was on what was the biggest show coming out from which streamer during the month that we went on sale. That’s where we started and continued during  2023. And now it might be that instead of doing the biggest show, we’ll still do a big show, but focus on a specific genre. 

On any predictions on streaming (Michael Fell): The reporting really settled into a certain groove post-strike about the contraction of the streaming services, such as not spending as much money, not going crazy with sequels, and being really focused. But we’re all about the consumers. And to me that’s a great thing, because streaming is THIS big and so if it becomes just THAT big, it becomes easier to handle for the consumers and we can in turn be more focused and curated for them.

On what they’d like to say that they had accomplished within the year (Tony Frost): We’re looking to extend our reach; we’re looking to make the magazine more visible; we’re looking for twice as many subscribers, and we’re seeing very encouraging early renewal indicators.

On what keeps them up at night (Michael Fell): I’m sleeping pretty well. (Laughs)

On what keeps them up at night (Tony Frost): There’s not much that keeps me awake at night, let me tell you. (Laughs too) 

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Tony Frost, president TV Insider, & Michael Fell, group editorial director and editor in chief, TV Guide. 

Samir Husni: I’m calling 2023 the year of bookazines. We have more than 1,000 bookazines published and less than 100 regular frequency magazines. It may be closer to 50, I haven’t had a chance to count mine yet. Yet, if my memory serves me right, you are the only publisher launching a monthly magazine in 2023. Almost all of the new magazines that came out in 2023 are either quarterlies, bimonthlies, or twice a year. But you have launched a monthly. What were you thinking?

Tony Frost: As I told you earlier in the year, Samir, Michael Fell, our group editorial director and editor in chief of TV Guide, carried out a very extensive survey of readers. And we got the response that there was a need for a significant amount of  streaming-focused content. So we decided that we would give it a go.

And so far, it’s been an exciting challenge. We’re undoubtedly producing a very good magazine, getting a lot of praise from the industry and support from subscribers. And a decent number of them have signed up for a two-year deal, not just one. The numbers aren’t huge, but they are very encouraging. Our first subscription issue  was in April and after eight months we hit our first 12 months subs’ target. That is impressive. And we’re going to build on that in 2024.

We recognize the challenges of print magazine economics in the current climate, so we did take a cautious approach with marketing spend. And we decided that we had to make every test dollar count. The same with newsstand; we’ve been very cautious with our retail presence. But we feel there is support for this title. We used 2023 as an experiment  to see what works on the cover. We’ve gone from the launch issue with Kiefer Sutherland in March and his then new action series, to costume drama with Bridgerton. We’ve done the final season of Billions and  Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first  TV role in Fubar. By the way, Arnold,  loved the magazine – he complimented us big time on it. Plus we’ve tested Sci-Fi on the cover with Marvel’s Loki.

They’ve all sold similar amounts at newsstands, but Bridgerton and Loki seem to be the most solid. So we’ve been learning as we go along – in 2024 we aim to put pedal to metal. For instance, I believe we have a new Bridgerton in the spring, is that right, Michael?

Michael Fell : Yep, May is the next season.

Tony Frost: So we’ll be all over that for our readers. And we have The Walking Dead as well!

Michael Fell: Yes, Rick and Michonne are coming back at the end of February. So we’re looking at that as a possible March issue. And if I could add something to Tony’s response to your original question, the why of it all has to do with the volume of programming.

You can go back a year ago and go online and find television guidance, and some of this is still true today. There are a lot of lists where people will recreate the publicity release list of stuff coming up in a particular month. It’ll just be a list of titles with no information. Or a little plot info. You often find 50 best shows on Netflix to watch now. And I’m looking at that list and I’m thinking I know those aren’t the best shows; I can see they’re just adding a few lines to the press release from the titles. I think there was a need that we saw. A curated, focused, structured need for reviews and guidance where we report on the shows. 

You want to give people real content. It wasn’t there online. We’ll pick each of the major streamers and other smaller streamers that our readers are interested in and give them an in depth amount of shows and reporting. But it’s still something that they can understand and appreciate and take hold of, as opposed to the massive lists and surface reporting that was online. I really think curation is the key.

Samir Husni: So do you think focused curation is the future of print in 2024?

Tony Frost:  Curation is a very  good word; we have experts – TV Guide’s complete editorial team  – who know TV from the inside out. The same team has brought that expertise to TV Insider. Over the whole year, the 12 issues will give you the most comprehensive guide on what to stream and why you  should watch the editors’ recommendations. The choices are carefully curated.   

Michael Fell: The services? It doesn’t stop. It keeps coming up. We cover 10 to 12 of the premier streamers. Our readers will often request info about smaller services like Acorn and Britbox. A big part of what the magazine does is provide the library material. Going back, there’s so much volume on television, is a monthly magazine that has a fair amount of library content; is that worth it to the reader? And we decided internally that it was. 

I told Tony this once; just before we were launching the magazine, I was in Tucson, Arizona visiting my brother and we were talking… do you know Mike Flanagan, Samir? He does a lot of shows on Netflix, like The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor. We were talking about some of his series and my brother mentioned how Mike Flanagan reuses some of his actors on different shows.

We were talking about Bly Manor and Midnight Mass and I asked him what about The Haunting of Hill House, which was Mike Flanagan’s first big Netflix series. He was like – what! I never even heard of it. And I was staring at my brother who subscribed to TV Guide magazine, was married and had two kids, one in college and one about to go to college, and I told him that his statement was proof to me that a monthly magazine with as much news stuff as we can, which also has a fair amount of library material, would be of major use to readers. He didn’t know anything about The Haunting of Hill House – and he liked Mike Flanagan’s other shows. I told him that I had a magazine for him that would be launching soon. 

Tony Frost: There’s 82 networks, 42 streamers, and 26 production studios currently. Plenty for us to write about. (Laughs) There’s also a bit of reverse engineering here, which I told you about earlier. First we had our well-established website, tvinsider.com, which has 10 million page views per month, so a lot of the work that Michael’s team does is repurposed on the website creating a natural synergy between the two. Also, tvinsider.com has proved to be a valuable source for new subscribers. So one supports the other and that has been a success.

Next year, apart from putting to use what we learned this year editorially and going deeper into that, we will continue drawing in subscriptions through traditional methods, reach new external audiences by direct mail and we’ve taken on a new digital marketing agency, named  salestube, based in Warsaw, Poland, to optimize paid search and social media efforts across all platforms for an even broader reach. That’s very important. 

As exciting as the material is that Michael’s team creates, we need more visibility; we have to get out there. And our website helps with the visibility. It’s very hard to make an impression at newsstand.  As you said Samir, there are so many SIPs out there. We have a small draw at newsstand which we use to really test covers and   editorial content,  as opposed to bringing in any real revenue. Ultimately, we see TV Insider as a subscription model, but that doesn’t mean in 2024 we won’t attempt some bold moves at newsstand.

Samir Husni: Let me ask you about your company, not only TV Insider. You’ve cornered the television magazine market. You have TV Guide, TV Weekly, and now you have TV Insider. In its heyday, TV Guide used to have 18 million in circulation, when there were no digital guides or anything. Is there any synergy in all of these guides you are producing?

Tony Frost: In this day and age, TV Guide magazine has a million subscribers And is jam-packed with content. That number is still very impressive. TV Weekly is doing well and in TV Guide we’ve just launched  “Extra” –  for subscribers to get digital access to a newsletter and grids updated every 24 hours. We are not standing still!

Michael Fell: In our 2024 preview issue we’re launching a newsletter service called “TV Guide Magazine Extra.” This service is just for subscribers and it’s a weekly newsletter serving two purposes. One is to give them access to online grids and listings, which are being updated every single day.

There is still a lot of appointment viewing, watching network and cable television, so we want to make sure that their literal day-to-day guidance is accurate. So this newsletter is going to provide online links to daily updated grids that are substantial with programming information and plot information that you won’t find anywhere else. Even on websites that already have online grids, the detail that will be provided is amazing. 

And also we’ll update them with new news items and articles within the newsletter for programming information, story information that we may not have been on top of in the previous magazine. So we want to make sure they’re completely updated with story and programming information.

Tony Frost: Last year when paper costs were sky high and most other chargesws were going through the roof, we had to make adjustments. The triple issue is a very robust magazine with a lot of content. 

Michael Fell: Going back to your question, you asked about synergy, I was thinking about how complementary the magazines are. I’ve always found this fascinating since Andy (DeAngelis) and Larry (MacKenzie) came on board; TV Weekly, as far as the grids and listings go are distributed regionally like TV Guide used to be. It’s almost ironic that the guys who came and took over TV Guide had their own guidance products which were being delivered regionally, which we know in publishing and printing, the paper and postage end is extremely difficult. But they are able to put Channel 2 for CBS because they’re locally delivered,

Tony Frost: TV Weekly is a bi-weekly listings magazine,  with regional editions just like TV Guide used to have. It is a valuable tool for many traditional TV users.

Michael Fell: Yes, so we take care of that customer who’s looking for really local information.

Samir Husni: Yes, such as mine is the Memphis area.

Tony Frost: Exactly. So TV Weekly is a double and TV Guide is now a triple. And we have TV Insider as a monthly for streamers. We’re covering all bases. 

Samir Husni: As we look forward toward 2024, will there be any major change coming up in the New Year? As compared to 2023?

Michael Fell: A lot of 2023 was just seeing what works. Now we know that something like this can be successful and I think we’re going to be a little more focused on our cover choices. If you look at all the covers, they’re certainly very broad, covering your hit Netflix dramas, Marvel Sci-Fi’s, maybe we’ll think about DC, I don’t know. (Laughs) I try, I really do try with DC and Zack Snyder, but it’s on and off. The biggest star in the world, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a great serial drama coming from Showtime; we’ve covered all kinds of shows. And I can’t tell you what it is right now, but I think what we’re going to be able to do in 2024 is be more focused on the covers. And really drill down on what’s going to work.

Samir Husni: How do you decide what you’d like for the material to be?

Tony Frost: In 2023, the emphasis was on what was the biggest show coming out from which streamer during the month that we went on sale. That’s where we started and continued during  2023. And now it might be that instead of doing the biggest show, we’ll still do a big show, but focus on a specific genre.

Samir Husni: Do you have any predictions about streaming? Will it continue to go up or is it hitting its status quo?

Michael Fell: The reporting really settled into a certain groove post-strike about the contraction of the streaming services, such as not spending as much money, not going crazy with sequels, and being really focused. But we’re all about the consumers. And to me that’s a great thing, because streaming is THIS big and so if it becomes just THAT big, it becomes easier to handle for the consumers and we can in turn be more focused and curated for them. 

There’s still going to be an amazing amount of overwhelming television and if the reporting from the industry says the sky is falling, we’re still thinking more about the consumers’ point of view. Such as number one: they’re not going to notice and two: it’s around the edges. And now streamers are focusing on, hey, maybe we shouldn’t do that fancy show that no one watched but we got to work with this great director. They’re like, let’s make some more shows that people are going to watch. And that’s all good for the consumer, the watcher, the viewer and that’s our audience. We’re not really industry-focused, we cover the industry, but always from the consumer point of view.

So, there will be some contraction, but I think it’s all good for the viewers. There will be plenty to watch. I’m just not crazy about the people feeling overwhelmed, especially if they’re reading our magazine.

Samir Husni: Let’s imagine that we’re in December 2024, what would you like to tell me you had accomplished throughout the year?

Tony Frost: We’re looking to extend our reach; we’re looking to make the magazine more visible; we’re looking for twice as many subscribers, and we’re seeing very encouraging early renewal indicators. Customers committing to longer term subscriptions and positive customer feedback. So they’re telling us that they want TV Insider, this is the magazine that they’ve been waiting for. We just have to market it on a larger scale and we have to promote it better. 

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Michael Fell: I’m sleeping pretty well. (Laughs)

Tony Frost: There’s not much that keeps me awake at night, let me tell you. (Laughs ,too)

I did want to say that one of our biggest successes over the past couple of years has been Yellowstone. We covered it from the beginning. TV Guide was the first  magazine to put  Yellowstone on its cover. Our  Yellowstone articles have been repurposed for our website tvinsider.com and we did three SIPs under the TV Guide logo. Obviously, the show has been featured in TV Insider magazine on a regular basis. In November we completed our fourth Yellowstone SIP in a partnership with a360, under the subhead The Complete Story – All Four Seasons. It has sold well in a short time with a cover price of  $13.99. We are happy with the results so far – and so are a360. I use this as an example of how important it is for a company like ours to be nimble and smart … always looking for the next opportunity.

Samir Husni: Thank you.