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Hoffman Media’s President & Chief Operating Officer, Eric Hoffman, to Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni: “We’re Deeply Committed To High Quality Print.” The Mr. Magazine™ Interview…

December 16, 2019

Mr. Magazine™ Presents… Conversations With Magazine and Magazine Media Leaders…

Hoffman Media’s president and chief operating officer, Eric Hoffman, faces 2020 with solid goals and realistic expectations as many wonder what the New Year will bring. Hoffman Media’s brand portfolio is strong, with titles such as Bake From Scratch, Southern Lady, and Cooking with Paula Deen, but as Eric talks about the challenges of the future, newsstand and distribution of magazines are high on his agenda. The question remains what awaits magazines and magazine media in 2020?

So please grab your laptop, iPhone, or pen and paper and be prepared to take notes as Mr. Magazine™ delves into the world of CEO’s, COO’s, Presidents, and other corporate magazine media leaders and asks them to put on their futuristic cap and share with him their predictions for 2020.

The conversations with the magazine and magazine media executives are going to be published chronologically as they took place…

Up first on Mr. Magazine’s™ list, Eric Hoffman, president and chief operating officer, Hoffman Media.

But first the sound-bites:

On his assessment of magazines and magazine media for 2020: I think it’s going to continue to be really difficult for magazine publishers; in particular those that have exposure to the newsstand. Hoffman Media is probably one of the more unique publishers in the country because we have an outside exposure to the newsstand, just because of our balance-revenue model between subscription, single copy and advertising. It sort of all runs independently. One favorable piece to the economics this year is it looks like paper prices are coming down a little bit, which 2018 put a lot of headwind out there for publishers that had heavy print exposure. I think those prices coming down a little bit is a good thing. Maybe it will provide a soft landing for some other sides of the business that maybe have increased in cost.

On any success stories from Hoffman Media for 2019 that he can share: We bought an event business away from F+W before they filed bankruptcy. And that business is The Original Sewing & Quilting Expo. It’s eight expos that we do around the country. We got a fairly attractive evaluation on that business. We have our first full year results coming up and frankly, I think it’s going to contribute about 30 percent of our profit this year. One highlight is this is certainly an opportunity to expand, especially when you have niche markets with passion-based customers that are willing to go with you wherever you go and will value the experience that you offer them.

On whether his biggest challenge for 2019 has been newsstand: Absolutely. If you look back at the newsstands for 2015. 2016 and 2017, they were three consecutive years of growth for us at a time when the industry really started to demonstrate some substantial downward pressure. And 2018 was sort of the year when the trend line caught up with us. We grew the business, almost doubled it from 2015 to 2017; I think we cracked the Top 10 in Magnet rankings for single copy volume. And not just topline, we were making it work from a profit perspective. And 2018 was also a substantial change, paper prices being high and newsstand was going through some substantial changes that caught up with us. So, we started to pull back in 2019 and I think you’ll continue to see that trend in 2020.

On why he thinks the magazine industry can’t come up with a new business model: Publishers are going to have to face the realization that rate base is… and again, there are exceptions, but for the most part it’s an outdated business model. I think publishers actually look smart in reducing rate base and thinking more about the quality of their customer base and focusing on endemic advertising that reaches their audience in an intentional way. If you want to buy a lot of advertising and you want to buy it cheap, it’s programmatic to solve that for the world. You can buy a lot for not a lot of money.

On whether he feels social media is friend or foe to the magazine business: I really think it’s your friend. Social media is a powerful way to reach new audiences, for sure. But it also gives you some tools in the bag to work with advertisers in a different way. We’re doing a lot of custom content developed for our audience and for influencers that relate to our audience and to our brand. We’ve been able to execute really interesting advertising campaigns across that platform.

On what keeps him up at night: What keeps us up at night is despite our intentional effort around running our business that’s subscription focused, balanced with single copy, focused on high quality, high-priced customers; I worry about the broader industry, that vendors are pressured and about the economics from the vendor side, fulfillment, printing, newsstand distribution, that there may be pressure there as well. Coupled with the fact that a lot of the larger publishers in our industry are also troubled right now. So what does that mean?

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Eric Hoffman, president and chief operating officer, Hoffman Media.

Samir Husni: As we approach 2020, what’s your assessment of magazines and magazine media?

Eric Hoffman: I think it’s going to continue to be really difficult for magazine publishers; in particular those that have exposure to the newsstand. Hoffman Media is probably one of the more unique publishers in the country because we have an outside exposure to the newsstand, just because of our balance-revenue model between subscription, single copy and advertising. It sort of all runs independently.

We run our newsstand business as its own P&L. We have liked the single copy business; we still like it, but I’ll tell you that with Curtis selling to Comag, or CMG, with national distribution, wholesale and newsstand analytics and data all sort of wrapped up under one company, admittedly I think that it makes a service. Not to name names, I’ve talked to several other publishing executives and I think there’s a consensus that it’s become a very difficult business.

One of the things that probably keeps most of us up at night is just the undue amount of fees that keep coming down the pike from the distributors and wholesalers, which frankly, just makes the economics of the single copy business almost impossible. When you look at the amount of money you’re spending on promotion, meaning checkout placements, merchandising opportunities, and trying to do those and do those right, it becomes counterproductive when you’re trying to offset more and more fees every year.

And just retailers. At the end of the day, anybody can just walk into any grocery store or bookstore and see our magazines in somebody else’s rack, their magazines are in our rack, so there’s an execution problem unfortunately, and I think that’s a wide issue that we have to get our hands around.

And what you’re going to see including coming out of Hoffman Media is a pullback in the single copy piece of the business, because the ROI is just not what it used to be. And I think that should be a scary proposition to the industry, because if Hoffman Media can’t make the single copy business work like we’ve historically been able to do, then that should be pretty indicative of where the industry is headed. We’ve always been at the forefront of the SIP business and just really managing high quality content across the newsstand. So, that’s one headwind that I think has to be addressed. And I’m not really sure what the answer is.

Second to that, I believe the printer consolidation question still exists. Quad and LSC, obviously, combined would create an odd pressure for publishers in that there becomes sort of a lack of options other than maybe a Fry or a couple of other nice, independent printers. But what does that mean in terms of the industry’s health if they don’t get a deal done? So, I think there are some questions there.

One favorable piece to the economics this year is it looks like paper prices are coming down a little bit, which 2018 put a lot of headwind out there for publishers that had heavy print exposure. I think those prices coming down a little bit is a good thing. Maybe it will provide a soft landing for some other sides of the business that maybe have increased in cost.

I tend to look at the advertising business at little bit different than most, just because most of our advertisement is very endemic; it’s a lot of relationship selling and frankly, we’re not winning a bunch of business because we’re responding to RP’s or meeting some sort of metric requirement from national advertising. We’re actually growing on the advertising side, this year we’ll be up actually almost 20 percent topline in our advertising business. A lot of that is driven by people understanding that the circulation model for our industry has been broken for a long time and Hoffman Media has always managed against the quality of our subscription file and not the quantity of it. I think now more than ever that is resonating with media buyers and with advertising clients.

Our advertising business has really been growing as a function of great custom content. If you’re good at creating content, I think that’s a way to leverage your business and grow. As an industry, I’ll tell you in total, a lot of people have their eyes on Meredith, just trying to get a look under the hood to see if they’re able to do with the Time Inc. acquisition. So far, it looks like they have not been able to successfully play out a lot of the economics of that deal. Unfortunately, being public measure, I think that’s sort of a yardstick that a lot of people keep a look at.

And finally I think for people who want to do deals, people who are leaving the media business, it’s a pretty good time to be a buyer. I think there are a lot of good magazine brands that will need to do something, either because they’re private equity backed or they have become an orphaned asset. If you have a longer view on the media business, it may be a pretty attractive time to be buying.

The flip side to it is, certainly the private equity world is saying the word print as if it’s a bad word these days, but I think there are really good businesses that are still in our industry. We still believe in the business; we’re deeply committed to high quality print. We’re complementing that with our digital business, we’re growing our cyber business. Run the right way, there is still an opportunity for people to monetize and grow in our industry.

Samir Husni: I know there is some pessimism about the future of the newsstands and what’s going on with them, in terms of distribution and the changing retail environment. Can you share any success stories from Hoffman Media that took place in 2019? What if a buyer came to you and said they were interested in buying Hoffman Media, what would be three accomplishments that you could tell them that happened in 2019? Not that you’re for sale, but just in case.

Eric Hoffman: (Laughs) If you get a high enough price, Samir, we can talk. (Laughs again)

Samir Husni: (Laughs too).

Eric Hoffman: I’m kidding. We love the business. We actually just acquired a company at the end of 2018. We bought an event business away from F+W before they filed bankruptcy. And that business is The Original Sewing & Quilting Expo. It’s eight expos that we do around the country. We got a fairly attractive evaluation on that business. We have our first full year results coming up and frankly, I think it’s going to contribute about 30 percent of our profit this year.

One highlight is this is certainly an opportunity to expand, especially when you have niche markets with passion-based customers that are willing to go with you wherever you go and will value the experience that you offer them.

Our Bake From Scratch brand, honestly, continues to thrive. Brian, my twin and counterpart that helps run the company, has become the face of that brand. He’s had several national TV appearances. We’ve won some really great advertising partnerships as a result of just being best in class when it comes to baking. And as it dovetails into our digital business, Bake From Scratch will probably cross 500,000 followers on Instagram. An enormous following for a magazine of its size, but it just speaks to a level of the quality of our content. And that has really become a tent pole for us to build that out.

The event business is one, Bake From Scratch another, and then three, in a pretty tough environment we’ve been able to grow the advertising business in excess of 20 percent this year. And I think that’s a function of us having really great sales professionals that understand our business and understand how we’re different than a lot of our competitors. We’ve become experts in the verticals we’re in and so when we talk to clients about food or about travel and tourism, we know that business and we live that business every day. So I think that has also helped us grow.

And then overall, topliners for the company will be up between five and eight percent this year. And if you look at it over a longer window, since 2014 the company is up almost 45 percent in revenue. Newsstand is going to be down substantially. Our subscription business is actually holding up, it’ll probably be flat year over year, but we’re running that business the right way. We’ve got great renewal rates and practically all direct-to-publisher subscriptions at strong prices.

Samir Husni: I take it your biggest challenge in 2019 has been the newsstands, the single copy?

Eric Hoffman: Absolutely. If you look back at the newsstands for 2015. 2016 and 2017, they were three consecutive years of growth for us at a time when the industry really started to demonstrate some substantial downward pressure. And 2018 was sort of the year when the trend line caught up with us. We grew the business, almost doubled it from 2015 to 2017; I think we cracked the Top 10 in Magnet rankings for single copy volume. And not just topline, we were making it work from a profit perspective. And 2018 was also a substantial change, paper prices being high and newsstand was going through some substantial changes that caught up with us. So, we started to pull back in 2019 and I think you’ll continue to see that trend in 2020.

As I said, I think there’s a lot of uncertainty around the A and C deal. With Curtis being acquired, there are just a lot of questions over what the future is going to look like, so we’re really working hard to build the business in other ways, to the extent that we can. That being said, newsstand in 2020 will still be 30 percent of the revenue.

Samir Husni: Why can’t the magazine industry come up with a different business model? Are bookazines with no advertisement the answer? You go to newsstands everywhere and all you see are bookazines. Are they the salvation of the industry?

Eric Hoffman: I think part of the challenge is the magazine business – if you look at the printers, if you look at the fulfillment houses, if you look at the newsstand distributors, the reality is that the top five publishers in the country are probably driving a majority of the revenue for all of them.

To a large extent, and I’m not saying everyone, but to a large extent the business model has become ‘we’ll do whatever it takes to get our subscription business to remain the same or grow because we have a rate base we need to manage.’ Magazine publishers literally do three and four-year subscription offers for less than $10. So, if you know anything about the math of the business, the hurdle they have to jump from an ad dollar per subscriber number is fairly large and I just think that advertisers have so many places to choose on where to spend their dollars. And for the last 10 to 15 years, the magazine business, while we talk about changing and innovation, selling pages is still a pretty big piece of the business whether people will admit it or not.

Publishers are going to have to face the realization that rate base is… and again, there are exceptions, but for the most part it’s an outdated business model. I think publishers actually look smart in reducing rate base and thinking more about the quality of their customer base and focusing on endemic advertising that reaches their audience in an intentional way. If you want to buy a lot of advertising and you want to buy it cheap, it’s programmatic to solve that for the world. You can buy a lot for not a lot of money.

And as a result everything else is changing. When an advertiser says that they’re shifting budgets to more digital, the print side of the house for the most part says let us rework our rates. You’re down to where there’s remnant and there are direct response advertisers, which we carry a few of, it’s not that we don’t, but the CPM they’re paying is so low.

As more advertisers shift away from their print application, it’s going to make it increasingly difficult. And I think you’re seeing that when you see magazines shutting down, or they’re rethinking the whole model. I can think of some examples where they’ve gone truly to newsstand and shifted the subscription liability on to other magazines, just to sort of buy some time.

Samir Husni: You mentioned earlier that Bake From Scratch had hit half a million on Instagram; do you think magazine media publishers are utilizing social media in the right way? Is social media friend or foe? Or just something you have no control over?

Eric Hoffman: I really think it’s your friend. Social media is a powerful way to reach new audiences, for sure. But it also gives you some tools in the bag to work with advertisers in a different way. We’re doing a lot of custom content developed for our audience and for influencers that relate to our audience and to our brand. We’ve been able to execute really interesting advertising campaigns across that platform.

It’s also a part of the brand voice. Bake From Scratch is a perfect example, where high quality print, based on subscription and single copy, dovetails the podcast and Instagram and some television appearances. We’re doing conferences. In 2020, we’re launching a Baker’s Blog, Baker’s Influencer Conference.

Bake From Scratch led four baking adventure trips this year, we took a group of our fans to Paris; another group to Alaska; we made two trips to San Francisco. And these are people that are spending thousands of dollars to have a very VIP experience with our brands. And a lot of that is done through the marketing and brand reach we have across social media.

Samir Husni: What’s keeping you up at night these days?

Eric Hoffman: What keeps us up at night is despite our intentional effort around running our business that’s subscription focused, balanced with single copy, focused on high quality, high-priced customers; I worry about the broader industry, that vendors are pressured and about the economics from the vendor side, fulfillment, printing, newsstand distribution, that there may be pressure there as well. Coupled with the fact that a lot of the larger publishers in our industry are also troubled right now. So what does that mean?

Even if we can grow and squeeze out a decent year and continue to try and build our business, are there broader economic issues that as an industry we may have that could put pressure on everybody? And I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but I think there is some validity to that.

Certainly, if you go back and look a decade ago, at Anderson News going out of business, Source Interlink going out of business; the consolidation with TNG and Comag. And then ANC and Curtis, Publisher’s Press selling, and the overall consolidation with, basically now, Quad and LSC. You’re seeing consolidation as a survival tactic, but I think it’s also sort of scary.

On the retail side, do the retailers believe in the magazine business the way they used to? We’re losing shelf space as an industry. I think we have to do a better job of telling people why we exist and why we belong on the newsstand.

So, there’s a lot that keeps us up at night. But one of the things that helps me to sleep at night is our amazing team at Hoffman. We have some of the best in the business. Our commitment is to run our business the best way we can, to the extent that we can build it up and support the people around us. We are longtime believers in this industry. I’d like to think that a lot of these issues would get worked out. Unfortunately, I imagine there will be more magazines to fold and at the same time there will probably be more magazines launched. You just have to hope that both are positive for our business.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

Next up, Bonnie Kintzer, president & CEO, Trusted Media Brands.

Posted in Innovation in print, Inside the Great Minds of Magazine Makers, Magazine Power, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Leave a Comment »

Mr. Magazine™ Presents: Magazines and Magazine Media in 2019 & The Industry’s Projections For 2020…

December 13, 2019

It’s that time of the year again where Mr. Magazine™ reflects on what happened in magazines and magazine media in 2019 and then projects what will happen in the upcoming New Year 2020.

And while Mr. Magazine™ can tell you exactly how many new magazines were launched in 2019 and others can tell you how many magazines folded, I feel as an observer and student of the industry, the best place to learn about what went on this year and what’s expected to happen in 2020, is to go straight to the horse’s mouth, so to speak, and talk with the ones who would know; the movers and shakers of the industry.

From printing to distribution, from retailers to the corporate floors, Mr. Magazine™ presents a new end-of-the-year series entitled:

Magazines and Magazine Media in 2019 & The Industry’s Projected Future For 2020

The five objectives I hope to achieve from these informative interviews:

As we approach 2020 each individual’s assessment of the future of magazines and magazine media…
Three accomplishments or successes from 2019 for each company…
What each considers to be the biggest challenge they had to face or will face…
What their approach to the future business model of magazines and magazine media might be…
Whether social media (in its many different platforms) is a friend or a foe to magazine media and why…

And there would be no Mr. Magazine™ interview without the traditional question at the end of the interview, “What keeps you up at night?”

So please check back on Monday, December 16, 2019, for the first installment of this new series where Mr. Magazine™ will talk to the heads of the magazine media companies and many other media professionals about the current status and future of the industry…

Until then, hope to see you at the newsstands where Mr. Magazine™ will be rounding up the new magazine launches of 2019.

Posted in A Mr. Magazine™ Musing, Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Leave a Comment »

ACT 10 Experience Welcomes MPA’s IMAG 2020… Change Is The Only Constant… Save The Date: April 21 to 23, 2020

December 9, 2019

The Magazine Innovation Center at The University of Mississippi’s School of Journalism and New Media announces the theme for its 10th anniversary ACT (Amplify, Clarify, and Testify) Experience: Change Is The Only Constant. The ACT 10 Experience is also proud to announce that it is welcoming the MPA: The Association of Magazine Media’s IMAG 2020 community to the magazine media experience in Oxford, Mississippi. The dates for the event are set for April 21 to 23, 2020.

The Magazine Innovation Center was founded in 2009. The Center is the birthplace of the annual ACT Experience, which in 2020, will be in its 10th year. Each year MIC strives to provide industry leaders and aspiring media members a Think-and-Do Experience, brimming with ideas, inspiration and a little fun along the way. It’s also a time when students can meet and network with industry leaders and professionals in the media community to further their own portfolios and knowledge. The magazine students are paired with industry leaders to shadow and learn from their expertise and experience. It’s a three-day world filled with possibilities for everyone; from potential careers for students to new friendships and business conversations between leaders.

Nowhere else can future industry leaders (the students) exchange ideas and inspiration with current industry leaders (CEOs, presidents, publishers, editors and other magazine and magazine media professionals); it is truly a one-of-a-kind experience.

The ACT Experience brings together leaders in the magazine industry including MPA’s IMAG community to share best practices, resources and learning unique to enthusiast brands. Peer-to-peer networking, coupled with intelligence on issues central to enthusiast brands and the wider industry, make this gathering a “must attend” for indie leaders and their vendor partners.

In 2020, the ACT Experience will continue the discussions of the important issues facing the magazine and magazine media industry in this ever-changing world of media and technology. And of course, the value and benefit it will provide to anyone else interested in publishing and content will be incomparable.

The ACT 10 Experience will focus on the following six topics under its 10^th anniversary theme:

Change Is The Only Constant

Transformation of magazines from pure ink on paper entities to multi- magazine media platforms: print, digital, video, audio, events, and social media.
The future of social and marketing roles of magazines and magazine media
The future of paper and printing industries
The future of circulation and distribution
The future of advertising and marketing
The future of magazine launches

We will cover each of these important topics: distribution and circulation, advertising and marketing, creation and curation, transforming beyond print into digital, video, audio, and events, and last but not least, new magazine launch stories, along with other issues and information.

In addition to that, we’ll celebrate two awards during the conference: the IMAG award for excellence in Independent Magazine Media for 2019, and also the Magazine Innovation Center’s Launch of the Year for 2019.

Stay tuned for more details…

To reserve a place at the ACT 10 Experience register here

and feel free to email me with any questions at samir.husni@gmail.com

Looking forward to seeing you in April 2020.

Posted in ACT 10 Experience, Innovation in print, Inside the Great Minds of Magazine Makers, Magazine Power, News and Views | Leave a Comment »

Mr. Magazine™ Reveals the Future of the Magazine Industry*…

December 2, 2019

Photo by Robert Jordan/Ole Miss Communications

When Mr. Magazine™ talks, publishers listen and readers reap the rewards.

Dr. Samir Husni, the man behind the persona, is the founder and director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media. He is also professor and Hederman lecturer at the school. Executives from most of the major publishing houses have consulted with Dr. Husni, and he’s regarded by many as the country’s leading magazine expert, making Mr. Magazine the go-to authority on periodicals that are published and printed on paper.

We spoke with Mr. Magazine about the exciting evolution of the medium — from the emergence of short-run niche publications to the shift among digital brands toward using print to connect with customers.

Mr. Magazine on the Allure of Print

“If it’s not ink on paper, it’s not a magazine,” Dr. Husni declares. He rejects the idea that blogs, lifestyle sites or content aggregators qualify as so-called digital magazines. Instead, he draws a line between magazines and magazine media — the various digital content-delivery satellites that orbit a brand. Ultimately, he challenges anyone to find a definition of “magazine” that doesn’t involve print.

Dr. Husni is known for telling his students, “The day you’re happy with a virtual boyfriend or girlfriend, let me know.”

For Mr. Magazine, print is the only reality. He talks about the human desire to own things and the need to lose oneself in the reading journey. “With digital, we search for something specific,” he says. “There’s no element of surprise. With a magazine, I may be interested in a cover story, but then all of a sudden … ‘Oh, wow! There’s an article on inkjet printing!’”

Mr. Magazine on Finding His Purpose

Before he was Mr. Magazine, Samir Husni grew up in Tripoli, Lebanon. He was first exposed to American comic books (also known as comic magazines) when he saw a television ad for a new series: “Superman.” The weekly comic magazine cost 40 cents, the exact amount of his allowance. He ran to the newsstands to get one.

“As I crossed the street, flipping through the pages of that magazine, something happened,” he says. “Either the ink on paper or the smell of it seeped into my body. From that moment, I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life.”

After graduating from college at the top of his class, Samir was awarded a scholarship to come to the United States to work on a Ph.D. in journalism. He and his wife left Lebanon for the United States in 1978 on a journey toward what he called “the magazine Promised Land.”

Mr. Magazine on Why Print Magazines Aren’t Dead

In design, marketing and printing — where pundits are quick to pronounce things dead — Dr. Husni notes that there are more magazine titles on shelves than ever before.

“When I came to America in 1978, I think we had around 1,500 or 1,600 titles available to the general consumer. Now, we have more than 7,000,” he says. “Are we selling more magazines than we did in 1978? No, because we don’t have TV Guide with 18 million subscribers, Reader’s Digest with 18 million or National Geographic with 11 million. But for every TV Guide that sold 8 million copies a week on the newsstands, we have maybe 1,000 titles today to fill that void.”

According to Dr. Husni, the big difference is digital printing. “I remember the days when it used to take 10,000 copies to adjust color on press. But now, technologymakes it possible to print 500 copies. We’re seeing very niche, very specific magazines with press runs of 1,000 copies.”

These hyper-focused periodicals serve up in-depth content to narrower yet more loyal audiences. As in other industries, with magazine publishing, it seems the way to go is deeper, not broader. “That’s why I advise publishers and even printers to invest in short-run digital presses,” he says. “That’s the future of the magazine industry.”

Another player is the branded magazine — a periodical produced by a company for its unique audience. (Think Uncommon Path from REI and Paper Matters from Domtar.) By engaging customers with relevant content delivered in a high-touch format, brands can foster a sense of belonging and community.

To Dr. Husni, such tools aren’t merely a luxury — they’re mandatory. “How can you say that you have a 360-degree brand if you don’t have all of the components?” he asks. “To have a complete brand, companies need to manifest on all platforms.”

Mr. Magazine on the Future of Print Magazines

Looking ahead, Dr. Husni remains optimistic. He says print is neither winning nor losing the race against digital; rather, print is integrating itself into the branding ecosystem. Perhaps nowhere else is this more evident than among digital businesses.

“If digital were the same as a magazine, then why would digital companies like Airbnb and Netflix produce printed magazines to engage their audiences?” he asks.

Dr. Husni asserts that people value the sensory experiences of turning physical pages and navigating their way through content. Perhaps more importantly, brands that publish their own content have control over that content. He gives an illustration: “If, for example, Twitter decided tomorrow to ban media companies from using the platform, then what could a brand do? Twitter is a private entity; they control who’s in and who’s out. With print, brands can have complete control.”

Experience matters and print delivers — so much so that it’s redefining the role of the publisher. In the modern glut of information and noise, Dr. Husni believes magazines can help defragment our culture by creating communities around shared ideas.

“We’ve moved from mere content creators to content curators,” says Dr. Husni. “And now, we must become experience makers. The only way to engage your readers is to provide them with an experience in which they can lose themselves. A reader has to feel like a magazine was designed and curated with them in mind — and we have to make that happen.”

*A version of this story about Mr. Magazine originally appeared in Domtar’s Paper Matters magazine. Subscribe today to explore the world of print, design and paper. This article is taken from Domtar’s Newsroom and was published on Nov. 26, 2019.

Posted in Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views | 1 Comment »

The Definitive Guide On How To Launch Your Own Magazine In This Digital Age… A Mr. Magazine™ New Ink On Paper Book.

November 8, 2019

This last summer I spent quite a bit of time traveling and working on two new books: The Magazines And I which is in progress and The Definitive Guide on How To Launch Your Own Magazine + Lessons Learned From Those Who Have, which is out now and can be ordered by sending a check or money order for $80 to the Magazine Innovation Center, 114 Farley Hall, 555 Grove Loop, University, MS 38677.

Below is the Introduction to the book to give you an idea of how unique, applicable and spot on the advice is; advice from both me (Mr. Magazine™) and the 17 industry leaders and magazine entrepreneurs who were interviewed during 2018/2019 on Mr. Magazine’s™ blog. It’s a defining moment for all dreamers out there who want to start their own magazine, but just don’t know where to begin.

So, enjoy the Introduction and order your copy of the book today! The sooner you have it, the closer you are to fulfilling your magazine dreams!

The Never-Ending Power of Print in A Digital Age.

One word sums up the power of print in a digital age for me: magazines. That’s what this book is all about: magazines and how to launch them in this digital age.

It won’t be the first time or the last that someone will accuse me of losing my mind for advocating launching a print magazine today. In 2009 when I started the Magazine Innovation Center at The University of Mississippi with the tag line “Amplifying the Future of Print in A Digital Age,” colleagues, friends and foes alike thought that I had lost it. They all believed that I was so in love with print and magazines that I wasn’t thinking clearly. The future is digital and there is no room for magazines, they told me. But is it?

We have more magazines today on the marketplace than ever. More than 260 new magazines were published in the last 18 months, and more than 1,000 bookazines arrived on the nation’s newsstands. Both major publishers, Meredith and Hearst have published new magazines in the last six months, and so did hundreds of entrepreneurs.

Columbia Journalism Review wrote an article at the end of 2015 titled “Print Is The New New Media.” My reaction to the naysayers was very simple: I told you so. Every time someone starts a new magazine, or pub- lishes a new issue, it is new media. Magazines are ever changing and each issue is a continuation of what was published before.

Magazines, like the rest of humans and products, have a life cycle. A time to be born and a time to die. Today’s magazines, both new and old, are not like yesterday’s magazines and will not be like tomorrow’s magazines. However, they all have one thing in common. They are all much more than just content providers. They are experience makers that will take you into a “me time” journey like no other medium or platform can, engaging, appealing, pleasing, rewarding and above all satisfying to all your senses.

You are here for a reason. You are ready to take on one of the biggest undertakings of your lifetime. Without any delay, dive into this book that is the culmination of 40 years of studying, teaching, and consulting about the only subject I know, magazines. Allow me to present to you the definitive guide on how to launch your own magazine in this digital age.

Enjoy and let the fun begin.

And check out the Mr. Magazine™ interviews at the end of each chapter to read how 17 different people launched 17 new titles into the marketplace. Their stories are definitely worth the read. The interviews are:

Tom Tom magazine
MJ Lifestyle
Luckbox
The Magnolia Journal
The Pioneer Woman
Jugular
Sesi
Chill
Culturs
Jez
What Women Create
Sports History Magazine
Happy Paws
The Golfer’s Journal
Showstopper
Weekend Escapes
Oh-So

Millions of thanks to Canon Solutions America, Inc. and Domtar Paper for making this book possible.

Don’t forget, in order to get a copy send a check or money order for $80 to the Magazine Innovation Center, 114 Farley Hall, 555 Grove Loop, University, MS 38677.

Posted in A Launch Story..., A Mr. Magazine™ Brief, Innovation in print, Inside the Great Minds of Magazine Makers, Magazine Power, News and Views | Leave a Comment »

New Magazines Aplenty… The Mr. Magazine™ Launch Monitor

November 4, 2019

The Autumn season is upon us and Old Man Winter isn’t far behind, but be of good cheer, the world of magazines is providing you with some wonderful new magazines, jam-packed with information and entertainment for those Autumn evenings spent curled up in front of the fire.

For those planning an Italian Thanksgiving or just a fantastic meal for dinner one evening, I’m sure you will enjoy Condé Nast’s latest launch of La Cucina Italiana as a quarterly print magazine and website. Its arrival on our shores brings a good addition to the food magazines in the marketplace and brings a smile to a lot of fans of the culinary legend.

This beautiful magazine from Schumacher’s, the manufacturer and supplier that designs products for the interior design industry, has hit newsstands for the first time. As an in-house title, The Bulletin, was published and sent as a trade magazine for the interior design industry, but now people across the country can buy this great title. Schumacher’s should be proud of its efforts, the magazine showcases the beauty of what they do in a most excellent way!

The Spectator, one of the world’s oldest, continuously published magazines (since 1828), had its first U.S. edition hit newsstands recently after starting a U.S. digital presence last year. The British bulwark is a weekly which features politics, culture, and current affairs. With its unique brand of journalism, this great title is a breath of fresh air to the political scene and Mr. Magazine™ welcomes you to our shores!

Please enjoy the beautiful covers of our other great titles and in the meantime, get ready for a dynamic December!

Until the next time…

See you at the newsstands…

***And please remember, if Mr. Magazine™ can’t physically hold, touch and purchase the magazine, it does not enter the monthly counts. And counts now include only the titles with a regular frequency that are either new, first-seen on Mr. Magazine’s™ radar, or arriving to the national newsstands for the first time

Posted in Innovation in print, Magazine Power, New Launches, News and Views | 1 Comment »

Kill Pretty Magazine: For The “Freaks” Out There Who Thrive On Being The Outcasts & Who Revel In Each Other’s Differences – The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Tyler Nacho, Trash Editor Supreme, Kill Pretty…

October 29, 2019

“With my magazine, I like the fact that it can sit around your house and you can pick it up two years later and find an article that maybe you never read. It can keep giving you more different kinds of entertainment. There’s also a real tactile feeling when you’re holding a magazine. I love the concept of a Kindle, but I would never own a Kindle because I really enjoy the feeling of holding a book and turning the pages. I also like the idea of knowing how many pages are left in the book, how far I have to go. It might just be an old school way of thinking, but I’m a really tactile person and I just love everything about print. There’s also the visceral experience of turning the pages and showing your friends the pages and flipping through it that you just can’t get with the Internet.”… Tyler Nacho

A Mr. Magazine Launch Story…

A magazine for the societal outcasts, the uniquely different and the ones who run from normal; Kill Pretty is a big, bold, splashy publication filled with defiant, unapologetic, raunchy content that dares to stand out and be wildly and honestly different. In short, Kill Pretty has given its self-proclaimed “Freaks” a call-to-arms. The magazine is a finger gesture to the world that in the vintage words of a Quiet Riot song says: “we’re not gonna’ take it anymore.” We are proud of who we are and we welcome our outcast natures.

Tyler Nacho is, in the words of his own masthead, the Trash Editor Supreme of the magazine, along with being the founder and creative mind behind it. He is also a long-time freak and outcast himself, at least according to him. He knew from the young age of 13 that he didn’t fit into the surroundings that he called home. He heard a different drummer, one that didn’t find the beat of what many called “normal” seductive. So, he began to seek out the weird, the different, the unique; the outcasts.

I spoke with Tyler recently and we talked about Kill Pretty and its place in the world of magazines. Passion and love for his product is something that Tyler has an abundance of. And with a strong ardor for the avant-garde, whether it’s art or the people who create it, Tyler is a master of the unorthodox and an honest storyteller with a vivid style.

So, please enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Tyler Nacho, the trash editor supreme, Kill Pretty magazine. It’s a conversation as open and honest as the man himself is.

But first the sound-bites:

On why he was and is so fascinated with print: I grew up in a suburb in the Bay area and everyone around was rich, old white people. And my town just had nothing in it. There was nothing interesting or fun to do, and all the people in my school were these rich, snobby kids that I just couldn’t relate to. And I didn’t know why I didn’t fit in, but I didn’t. I knew that they just weren’t my people, but I’d never been exposed to anything but that. It was really frustrating, I had a really hard time growing up. I was like an outcast. Then one day I was walking down the street and I looked in a head shop, a bong shop, and they were selling this really weird magazine called “While You Were Sleeping” and it had articles about serial killers and interviews with porn stars, basically everything a 13-year-old boy would be really into. (Laughs)

On how he turned his upbringing into making his own magazine: I’ve always been a workaholic my entire life. There’s something in me that drives me to just work and work. I am always making things and as soon as I saw that magazine, I knew that I had to do it too. I immediately went home and started interviewing my friends. I was 13 years old and I thought of myself as a philosopher. I was having all of these deep thoughts at 13-years-old. (Laughs) And they were ridiculous now if you look at the early stuff that I put out, it’s pretty embarrassing. Even my first zine, a little black and white zine, I had a table of contents, articles and interviews, it was like a full-on magazine from the very start.

On how the magazine evolved into the Kill Pretty of today: As I said the vision hasn’t really changed. If you looked at one of the earlier magazines and then the new one, there are a lot of similar themes, but it’s just better. I’ve been doing this over 20 years now and I’ve put out somewhere between 30 and 40 specific publications, and each one has just gotten a little better and a little better. That’s how you get better art, by creating something and putting it out into the world, having everyone hate it, not like it, (Laughs) and then asking yourself why no one likes it. (Laughs again) I have to make it better.

On whether he is now living his dream: I’m definitely living part of the dream. I’m living the dream where I’m making a magazine that I actually like. The last few issues of Kill Pretty, I didn’t have any problems with and that’s really weird for an artist, to like their own art. I’ve hated every magazine that I’ve ever made. (Laughs) But the last two issues I still look at and tell myself they’re good. I wouldn’t change a thing with them and that itself is an incredible dream. That’s 20 years in the making to get to a point where I actually like what I’m making. But the dream would be a little better if I could sell some magazines. (Laughs) If people liked it enough to buy it, that would really complete my dream. My biggest dream is to have the magazine pay for itself.

On what he thinks differentiates a printed product today in this digital age: The problem with websites is that anyone can make a website, it doesn’t take a lot of work. I’ve made websites in a day and filled it with content. I’m a hard worker, but anyone can do that if they really want to. To make a magazine takes a tremendous amount of effort. Websites feel a little disposable. For example, I can go to a website that I really like and forget about it. If I get distracted by something I might never go back to that website again. I’m a collector and I’m also a materialist in a lot of ways. I’m not a materialist that buys fancy clothes, or a materialist in the traditional sense, I’m more of a collector. I’m into vintage antiques and weird things. I just love collecting stuff.

On the phrase “Twerk It. Work It!” being hidden in the UPC code on the cover: (Laughs) As a kid I used to buy all of these music albums and in the liner notes there would be descriptions of the producers and everyone that made the album. And sometimes, if you were lucky, at the end of the liner notes there would be a sentence or two for the people who were nerdy enough to read the liner notes. And sometimes it was a joke, sometimes it was a personal note to a friend; it was always something different, but I valued finding those things and I like creating things in my magazine for the people who are going to take the time and scour it.

On choosing the name “Kill Pretty” for the magazine: There are a few reasons why. One is I’m always trying to find ways to feel a little edgy and stand out. The word “Kill” is definitely a harsh word that stands out. Kill Pretty is a juxtaposition where I find a lot of beauty in destruction, beauty in things that aren’t typically beautiful. I also like the idea of more of a feminist nature of killing what we see as pretty in this world. Killing the idea of what’s typically pretty. Originally, when I came up with the name, it was about the juxtaposition of the beautiful and the ugly, because that’s what my magazine is. I cherish beautiful things, but I often find my inspiration in the ugly stuff. And I think they’re both worth looking at.

On the magazine having “Freaks Only” on the cover: (Laughs) Freaks only…well, I’ve been thinking a lot in my life about what the magazine means and why I’m putting it out and who it’s for. All of those questions are constantly going on in my mind and the reality is that I think everyone is realizing that a lot of us don’t fit into the normal ways of society. As in what people expect from us,. And everyone is kind of realizing they’re a little freaky in different ways. The idea behind it really is to cherish and respect the part of you that is different from everyone else and who doesn’t fit in completely.

On anything he’d like to add: It’s hard to say where the future of print is going. We’re seeing things like vinyl records coming back, but also I’ve met two people this year that didn’t even know what the word magazine meant. They said, oh, it’s a book, right? That was just so weird to me. I don’t know where magazines are going. It’s a really strange world, but I will definitely never stop making them for the rest of my life, even if it kills me. (Laughs) It’s too late for me to turn back now.

On the biggest misconception he thinks people have about him: That’s tough, because I’m a really open, honest person. And I’m trying to think of something… maybe just that I’m more judgmental than I am, because I have a lot of opinions. And oftentimes I have thoroughly thought out my opinions. And when people come into contact with someone who has a lot of opinions or really jumps on things, they kind of think that maybe I’m really judgmental. And I think I am judgmental, but not exceptionally that way.

On what someone would find him doing if they showed up unexpectedly one evening at his home: After hard work, probably more work. (Laughs) Often, I find myself working all night long. But if it was like Labor Day and I needed to just relax, then definitely watching movies. I’m a huge movie buff; I own over 1,000 VHS tapes. I collect VHS and I watch a lot of very obscure movies from the ‘70s and ‘80s. So, I will probably be smoking pot and watching some really weird movie. (Laughs) Or making a puppet. If I didn’t make puppets all day long for work, then that’s probably what I’ll be doing.

On what he would have tattooed upon his brain that would be there forever and no one could ever forget about him: (Laughs) Wow, that’s a huge question. How about just a really big smiley face?

On what keeps him up at night: I’m in a place right now where everything in my life is really coming together and I’m getting a lot of the things that I’ve dreamed of. I have a lot of big dreams and a lot of big projects coming up. My dreams are keeping me up. I’m imagining the world I’m living in now and my future. And it’s really exciting. I’m in a really good place right now. If anything is keeping me up, it’s just imagining what is to come.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Tyler Nacho, trash editor supreme, Kill Pretty magazine.

Samir Husni: Why are you so fascinated with print and why have you launched all these magazines and continue to launch magazines in print in this digital age?

Tyler Nacho: I grew up in a suburb in the Bay area and everyone around was rich, old white people. And my town just had nothing in it. There was nothing interesting or fun to do, and all the people in my school were these rich, snobby kids that I just couldn’t relate to. And I didn’t know why I didn’t fit in, but I didn’t. I knew that they just weren’t my people, but I’d never been exposed to anything but that. It was really frustrating, I had a really hard time growing up. I was like an outcast.

Then one day I was walking down the street and I looked in a head shop, a bong shop, and they were selling this really weird magazine called “While You Were Sleeping” and it had articles about serial killers and interviews with porn stars, basically everything a 13-year-old boy would be really into. (Laughs) It had very childish, silly articles, comedy articles, stuff like that. And it was this beacon of culture and a way of learning about things that I was interested in. I was obsessed with the library; I would read tons of books all the time, but I wanted new information. The Internet has kind of taken the place of that, but when you didn’t have the Internet in the ‘90s, all you had really were magazines and the backs of albums to read. It was really hard to get that kind of information.

So, when I found a magazine and it had all of that information collected and curated just for me, it was like this incredible piece of knowledge in a world that was completely devoid of anything like that. I just loved the idea that a magazine could be curated by someone and then travel to a place that they didn’t go and be this little nuclear bomb of comedy, inspiration and art. That it could be all of those different things for someone that really needed it and maybe didn’t know how to find it.

Samir Husni: How did you take that upbringing and turn it into a decision to make your own magazine someday?

Tyler Nacho: I’ve always been a workaholic my entire life. There’s something in me that drives me to just work and work. I am always making things and as soon as I saw that magazine, I knew that I had to do it too. I immediately went home and started interviewing my friends. I was 13 years old and I thought of myself as a philosopher. I was having all of these deep thoughts at 13-years-old. (Laughs) And they were ridiculous now if you look at the early stuff that I put out, it’s pretty embarrassing. Even my first zine, a little black and white zine, I had a table of contents, articles and interviews, it was like a full-on magazine from the very start.

I saw the vision and I knew immediately what a magazine was and I knew exactly why I wanted to do it. I kind of saw the whole thing from day one and it has evolved, but hasn’t changed a lot from that.

Samir Husni: The latest issue of Kill Pretty is a beautifully printed magazine, but bears no resemblance to any zine you’ve ever produced. How did you evolve into the Kill Pretty of today?

Tyler Nacho: Well, as I said the vision hasn’t really changed. If you looked at one of the earlier magazines and then the new one, there are a lot of similar themes, but it’s just better. I’ve been doing this over 20 years now and I’ve put out somewhere between 30 and 40 specific publications, and each one has just gotten a little better and a little better. That’s how you get better art, by creating something and putting it out into the world, having everyone hate it, not like it, (Laughs) and then asking yourself why no one likes it. (Laughs again) I have to make it better.

I’ve never had people like my magazine, but I always kept making it. And at first, early-on, it was a way to get attention, to get girls; to show people that I had all of these interesting thoughts and I had a well-curated brain. And I had proof, the magazine that I made.

Now I question myself every single time I make my magazine. I ask myself why I’m doing this; should I stop; it’s really hard. With the new issue I had to move out of my house and sleep on couches to print this magazine. It’s like my entire life is dedicated to putting this out and I lose a lot of money with every issue.

But there are two specific reasons I do it. The first is I just love doing it; it’s my number one passion and I love having a magazine finished. It feels so good. The second one is that I can walk into a room, into an interview, and I can hand anyone my magazine and it’s this immediate resume, where people can look at it. And they can judge a lot about me knowing that I created every single page of the magazine, it shows how much I can do and how hard I work. All of my biggest jobs that I’ve gotten, most of them have come because I make this magazine. So, even though the magazine itself doesn’t make me money, I’ve made a lot of money because I make the magazine. It’s an amazing way to get my foot in the door.

Also, I get to interview my heroes. My list of people that I worship and want to interview is getting smaller and smaller, because every issue I get a few more of those people and that’s an incredible opportunity. To be able to sit down with someone that I’m really obsessed with and have an hour or two hour, sometimes three hour, conversation with them is priceless.

Samir Husni: In doing the magazine, are you living your dream now?

Tyler Nacho: I’m definitely living part of the dream. I’m living the dream where I’m making a magazine that I actually like. The last few issues of Kill Pretty, I didn’t have any problems with and that’s really weird for an artist, to like their own art. I’ve hated every magazine that I’ve ever made. (Laughs) But the last two issues I still look at and tell myself they’re good. I wouldn’t change a thing with them and that itself is an incredible dream. That’s 20 years in the making to get to a point where I actually like what I’m making.

But the dream would be a little better if I could sell some magazines. (Laughs) If people liked it enough to buy it, that would really complete my dream. My biggest dream is to have the magazine pay for itself. I would love to survive off of it, but I don’t think that’s going to happen in the form it is right now. For it to just pay for itself is the ultimate dream.

Samir Husni: What do you think differentiates a printed product today in this digital age and why you chose a printed magazine to showcase your work?

Tyler Nacho: The problem with websites is that anyone can make a website, it doesn’t take a lot of work. I’ve made websites in a day and filled it with content. I’m a hard worker, but anyone can do that if they really want to. To make a magazine takes a tremendous amount of effort. Websites feel a little disposable. For example, I can go to a website that I really like and forget about it. If I get distracted by something I might never go back to that website again. I’m a collector and I’m also a materialist in a lot of ways. I’m not a materialist that buys fancy clothes, or a materialist in the traditional sense, I’m more of a collector. I’m into vintage antiques and weird things. I just love collecting stuff.

With my magazine, I like the fact that it can sit around your house and you can pick it up two years later and find an article that maybe you never read. It can keep giving you more different kinds of entertainment. There’s also a real tactile feeling when you’re holding a magazine. I love the concept of a Kindle, but I would never own a Kindle because I really enjoy the feeling of holding a book and turning the pages. I also like the idea of knowing how many pages are left in the book, how far I have to go. It might just be an old school way of thinking, but I’m a really tactile person and I just love everything about print.

I love the fact that it’s on newsstands and it just shows up in all of these weird places. I like the fact that when one person gets a magazine, they share it with their friends. And I think there is some statistical average that 16 people see one magazine every issue, something like that. Whether that’s true or not, I’m not sure, but it’s cool how you can give someone a magazine and they’re going to pass it around.

There’s also the visceral experience of turning the pages and showing your friends the pages and flipping through it that you just can’t get with the Internet. The great thing about the Internet is it’s free. (Laughs) Besides that, it comes with a disposable nature.

It’s hard to do, but I’m trying to create articles where people have to be interactive with the magazine, such as an article where someone has to cut something out of the magazine or draw on the magazine or turn it upside-down.

We’ve been talking a lot about how do we get people to actually destroy their copy of the magazine for some reason. (Laughs) I just think that’s really funny, because everyone sees everything as a valued collector’s item, it’s funny to challenge people’s ideas of collector’s items. Collector’s items are kind of silly anyway because most of the time people never actually sell these things they see as valuable, so whether it’s worth 100 grand or $2, it doesn’t really matter if you’re never going to sell it. It’s a little funny to me to say, well, if you want to play this game we put in the magazine, you have to ruin it, make it unsellable. (Laughs)

Samir Husni: You make me pay a $10 cover price for the magazine and hidden in the UPC code is: Twerk It. Work It! (Laughs) Tell me about that.

Tyler Nacho: (Laughs) As a kid I used to buy all of these music albums and in the liner notes there would be descriptions of the producers and everyone that made the album. And sometimes, if you were lucky, at the end of the liner notes there would be a sentence or two for the people who were nerdy enough to read the liner notes. And sometimes it was a joke, sometimes it was a personal note to a friend; it was always something different, but I valued finding those things and I like creating things in my magazine for the people who are going to take the time and scour it.

In the third issue of the magazine I hid a couple of things. And the one that was my favorite was a bunch of text in the spine of the book. So you could stretch the magazine open and read it, but if you wanted to read everything you had to actually pull the magazine apart to read all of the text there.

Samir Husni: Why did you choose the name “Kill Pretty” for the magazine?

Tyler Nacho: There are a few reasons why. One is I’m always trying to find ways to feel a little edgy and stand out. The word “Kill” is definitely a harsh word that stands out. Kill Pretty is a juxtaposition where I find a lot of beauty in destruction, beauty in things that aren’t typically beautiful. I also like the idea of more of a feminist nature of killing what we see as pretty in this world. Killing the idea of what’s typically pretty. Originally, when I came up with the name, it was about the juxtaposition of the beautiful and the ugly, because that’s what my magazine is. I cherish beautiful things, but I often find my inspiration in the ugly stuff. And I think they’re both worth looking at.

Samir Husni: Do I have to consider myself a “freak” for buying it, because the cover reads that it’s for “freaks” only?

Tyler Nacho: (Laughs) Freaks only…well, I’ve been thinking a lot in my life about what the magazine means and why I’m putting it out and who it’s for. All of those questions are constantly going on in my mind and the reality is that I think everyone is realizing that a lot of us don’t fit into the normal ways of society. As in what people expect from us,. And everyone is kind of realizing they’re a little freaky in different ways. The idea behind it really is to cherish and respect the part of you that is different from everyone else and who doesn’t fit in completely.

If you’re someone who really just wants to fit in and who really loves the social norms of the world, then I’m not sure you’d really care for my magazine. It’s probably not made for you. This is a magazine to learn about the strange, weird subcultures of the world and artists that are doing things outside the norm. It’s kind of like a warning sign to the squares, to the people who aren’t interested in being creepy – hey, don’t pick this magazine up. Go get “Martha Stewart Living” if you need a magazine to read. (Laughs)

But for the people who want to explore the sides of themselves that aren’t as easily digestible, that’s who Kill Pretty is for.

Samir Husni: Even if they pick it up by mistake, you tell them in your editorial that if they don’t have an inner freak, put down the magazine. So, they’re warned from the cover to the editorial page. (Laughs)

Tyler Nacho: (Laughs too) Yep.

Samir Husni: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Tyler Nacho: It’s hard to say where the future of print is going. We’re seeing things like vinyl records coming back, but also I’ve met two people this year that didn’t even know what the word magazine meant. They said, oh, it’s a book, right? That was just so weird to me. I don’t know where magazines are going. It’s a really strange world, but I will definitely never stop making them for the rest of my life, even if it kills me. (Laughs) It’s too late for me to turn back now.

Samir Husni: What is the biggest misconception you think people have about you?

Tyler Nacho: That’s tough, because I’m a really open, honest person. And I’m trying to think of something… maybe just that I’m more judgmental than I am, because I have a lot of opinions. And oftentimes I have thoroughly thought out my opinions. And when people come into contact with someone who has a lot of opinions or really jumps on things, they kind of think that maybe I’m really judgmental. And I think I am judgmental, but not exceptionally that way.

I’m also very open to people proving me wrong. I love being wrong about people. If I see someone and I think certain things and then they prove that they’re not that way, it’s thrilling to me. It gives me a sense of hope in the world. So, I’m very open to people being different. There really aren’t a lot of misconceptions about me. If you talk to me, I’m really open, honest and truthful. I’ll give you my two cents. There used to be a lot of misconceptions, but over the past five to ten years, I think I am becoming more and more just an honest person.

Samir Husni: If I showed up unexpectedly at your home one evening after work, what would I find you doing? Having a glass of wine; reading a magazine; cooking; watching TV; or something else? How do you unwind?

Tyler Nacho: After hard work, probably more work. (Laughs) Often, I find myself working all night long. But if it was like Labor Day and I needed to just relax, then definitely watching movies. I’m a huge movie buff; I own over 1,000 VHS tapes. I collect VHS and I watch a lot of very obscure movies from the ‘70s and ‘80s. So, I will probably be smoking pot and watching some really weird movie. (Laughs) Or making a puppet. If I didn’t make puppets all day long for work, then that’s probably what I’ll be doing.

Samir Husni: If you could have one thing tattooed upon your brain that no one would ever forget about you, what would it be?

Tyler Nacho: (Laughs) Wow, that’s a huge question. How about just a really big smiley face?

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

Tyler Nacho: I’m in a place right now where everything in my life is really coming together and I’m getting a lot of the things that I’ve dreamed of. I have a lot of big dreams and a lot of big projects coming up. My dreams are keeping me up. I’m imagining the world I’m living in now and my future. And it’s really exciting. I’m in a really good place right now. If anything is keeping me up, it’s just imagining what is to come.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

Posted in A Launch Story..., Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Leave a Comment »

Ink’s Cofounder & Co-CEO, Simon Leslie To Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni: “I Think Sometimes People Forget How Important This Media [Print] Is And How Much It Means To People On Their Journeys,” The Mr. Magazine™ Interview…

October 21, 2019

“My products are in a place where we haven’t got as much digital interference as some of the other people have. And readers don’t have to get out there and buy it, it’s right there in front of them. They have to spend $300 or $400 on an airline ticket, but the magazine is there and it gives them stuff they didn’t know they needed to know, and I think that’s why they’re still engaged with it and still excited by it, still inspired by it. And because of that, we find brands that want to be associated with that. The biggest challenge that the other brands are having is they have stopped investing in their product, they have stopped believing in their product, they have stopped loving their product. They have listened to what the naysayers have told them, as opposed to believing in why they existed in the first place.”… Simon Leslie

Motivational speaker, motivational writer and author, Simon Leslie, is a man who defies defeat, yet accepts it when it comes and learns from it. He is a believer in the print product, but knows the advantages of digital and doesn’t write off either. He is also seeing growth and optimism in the future of his company, Ink.

Simon heads up Ink’s global commercial operations, overseeing the media sales teams in six of its offices around the world. A natural-born seller, he began his career in door-to-door insurance sales at the age of 17. Today, Simon is responsible for Ink’s global sales and business strategy. He is also instrumental in defining Ink’s unique sales culture, of which he believes in motivating his team to believe in themselves and the products they’re selling wholeheartedly, along with helping the brands they represent to reach and help more people.

In fact, the help factor is so strong in Simon that he has written a new book, “There Is No F In Sales,” that offers many tips and advice, and his unique and successful approach to selling, to people who are just starting out or those who are in the thick of it today.

I spoke with Simon recently about the new book and about the ever-growing success of Ink, the inflight travel brand that has more than 30 print publications for its travel partners. The book is a culmination of the knowledge he’s learned over the last 33 years in sales. And if Ink’s success story is any indication of his expertise, salespeople from around the globe may want to pick up a copy as soon as possible. By the way, all the proceeds from the sales of the book goes to charity, Simon informed me.

But until then, I hope that you enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Simon Leslie, cofounder and co-CEO, Ink.

But first the sound-bites:

On why he wrote the book: I wrote the book because I wanted to share some of the things that I’ve learned and accumulated over the last 33 years of being in sales. I wanted to write the book because I wanted to generate money for charity, all the profits from the book are going to charity. And I wanted to help people, who I think, are going through some of the same struggles as I’ve been through, to maybe not make the same mistakes that I’ve made along the journey. If they’re starting out, they can learn something from it; if they’re halfway through their career, they can learn how to accelerate, and if they’re getting to the end of their career and thinking about what to do next, there are bits of advice in it for that as well. It’s giving a full list of ideas of how to deal with certain situations, and hopefully people won’t make as many mistakes as I did.

On what he would say about the book if he were writing a review: I would say it’s not a difficult read; it’s written in short chapters with tips at the end of each chapter. It’s funny, the author is incredibly funny, and there is some great advice for people going through different phases. And it’s delivered in a conversational way. A lot of books give you lots of ideas, but those ideas may have never been done at all. These are real life situations that I have encountered and then I tell you how I dealt with them.

On why he thinks his company Ink is flourishing while many others are not: The answer is going to be timely. Recently somebody ran a sub-2 hour marathon for the first time and I love that. I love the fact that they went through every little detail to make sure they performed and everybody did what they needed to do, and that got them the result they wanted. And I think that sums up how I operate. I look at all the details, I work out what we need to do, how we need to do it, and we work together, and that’s mostly coming from the team. I have a great team. And they believe what I believe and together we’re all rowing in the same direction. We believe in our media and we believe in our product.

On his secret sauce of why his advertising revenue-based business model still works for Ink: (Laughs) My magic formula. I can only tell you it’s a good team and a 100 percent belief in our product. We spend a lot of time training, and in personal development, working on mindsets of how do we get these people performing at the level they want to perform at. How do they deal with all the excuses and reasons why people don’t want to work with us? And how do they come up with better stories? It’s a story, life is one big story. And it’s encapsulated in the book: the ones who can tell a better story are the ones who succeed. And if you tell good stories, if people believe your stories and they believe in what you’re doing, that’s important.

On whether his business has felt more like a speedboat, such as the one in the ad he tore out when he was only 21, propelling him to do more than dream: The example of me tearing out Sunseeker ads from The Sunday Times goes along with what the ad actually read: Many dream and few achieve. That really inspired me and I was trying to explain how much that did for me in my career. It was so motivating, but that’s not necessarily what Sunseeker wanted; they wanted to sell boats. And sometimes you don’t realize the correlation between the message that you put out there and what it does for people.

On what position he places Ink when he goes out to sell for the magazines: Today we are focused on travel media, and it’s more space. I’m spending nearly every waking hour looking at how I can be better in that space. At the moment I have airports, I have people at home, I have people who, before they check in, I inspire them before they even decide where they’re going to go. I then get them on the airplane and I can talk to them about where they’re going, where they should go or might go, where they should think about going. And then I get them on the way back, and I have a different message for them. So, I am interested only in the traveler. And that traveler has a high propensity to spend money. They’re agile, opportunistic, and they don’t think twice about spending money.

On whether he differentiates between selling the traveler to the advertiser or selling the stories to the traveler: I have to make sure that I inspire the traveler. I have to keep the new content fresh and well-researched pieces of editorial to make sure they pick that magazine up and that they’re excited, which is what they continue to do. In our research we did the Harris poll about six weeks ago, and the recall and pickup was getting close to 90 percent. It was unbelievable. Then I have to make sure that the airlines love their products as much as we do, because they have to carry this around the universe and their customers have to be engaged and inspired, and have to do great feedback.

On whether he’s had to face any challenges along his journey: I’ve had more challenges in 25 years than anyone should have. When we started in 1994 it was a recession, then we had the dotcom boom and bust, then we had 9/11, we had 7/7, we had the Great Recession; we had countries going bust. Then we had our own growing pains; when you’re private equity-backed, there’s never-ending growth, so you have to keep growing and making decisions. And sometimes you make wrong decisions and you live with the consequences of those as well. And there will be another 20 challenges in the next 20 years. The thing that I really do want to get across is that I’m super-excited. Probably more excited than I’ve ever been.

On mentioning in his book that he doesn’t admit defeat unless he’s tried every single, possible path: Well, sometimes you have to lose. I question if I prefer losing to winning, because I’ve learned more from losing than I have winning. You do have to keep going, it’s a hurdle race and sometimes you’ll fall over and sometimes you’ll jump beautifully. Or you’ll get to the hurdle and you’ll refuse. And that’s the art, you have to keep racing and the opportunities will present themselves.

On Ink’s expectations for 2020: We’ve just went into Ethiopian, so we’re getting back into Africa. I’m really excited about that. With this business, one of the first airlines we had was in Africa, so it’s going back to where we started, which is quite exciting. Ethiopian Airlines is the largest airline on Africa and we’re launching a new magazine, which will come out this month. And that will get bigger and bigger next year.

On whether this year will be a financially bountiful year: I think we’ve had records in about a dozen titles and that’s not records for this year, that’s the best ever. I have to say, we’re not seeing a downturn, if anything we’re seeing optimism. Our U.S. operation is up 24 percent from last year. The problem with that is, next year we’ll expect that again, but we keep doing it, we keep finding growth. And what’s exciting about the growth is that we’re helping companies at the same time reach new customers that they weren’t reaching.

On what motivates him to get out of bed: I’m getting more and more excited by watching the team grow, I’ve seen them develop. The pace that we are seeing some of the youngsters come through at is just incredible. They’re 19, 20, 25, 30 years old and they’re just doing things that even they didn’t believe were possible for them to achieve. And we’re just excited by that. Every time we have success, we also have some that don’t succeed, but we’re doing more and more to improve our ratio of making them absolutely great salespeople, with great customers.

On if he ever believed he would become a motivational speaker, writer and author from his days of clipping ads from the Sunday Times years ago: Some days, as you may have seen in the book, I have to pinch myself to actually believe what I’m allowed to do, what I’m making happen, and it’s incredibly rewarding.

On the biggest misconception he thinks people have about him: I only see positive; I don’t worry about what people say about me, everyone is entitled to their opinion. (Laughs) When I started out, people said I’d be bankrupt, and I use those statements from my younger years to motivate me, I was going to prove them wrong. In the last 10 years, how many times has someone told us that print was going to die, that there is no place for print and they’re wrong. And they’ll continue to be wrong.

On what someone would find him doing if they showed up unexpectedly one evening at his home: You’ll probably listen to a podcast with me. You’ll find me with my earphones in and working on my brain, working on my knowledge, working at how I can learn to get better, and relaxing, I do meditation. It’s really important to me to give my family time as well, so I’m making sure that I’m sharing my knowledge with them and that we’re all growing together. I’m the father of four boys and I’m incredibly proud of the way they’re all developing. And that’s good, because for a long time I was an absent father, but I’m very proud of them.

On what keeps him up at night: Normally indigestion. (Laughs) No, it’s very rare that I get up at night, I sleep really well.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Simon Leslie, cofounder & co-CEO, Ink.

Samir Husni: You’ve just written a book “There Is No F In Sales,” tell me, why did you write the book?

Simon Leslie: I wrote the book because I wanted to share some of the things that I’ve learned and accumulated over the last 33 years of being in sales. I wanted to write the book because I wanted to generate money for charity, all the profits from the book are going to charity. And I wanted to help people, who I think, are going through some of the same struggles as I’ve been through, to maybe not make the same mistakes that I’ve made along the journey. If they’re starting out, they can learn something from it; if they’re halfway through their career, they can learn how to accelerate, and if they’re getting to the end of their career and thinking about what to do next, there are bits of advice in it for that as well. It’s giving a full list of ideas of how to deal with certain situations, and hopefully people won’t make as many mistakes as I did.

Samir Husni: The book reads as though you and I are sitting and having a conversation. I can hear you talking throughout the book, telling me it’s okay to not be okay, that challenges will be faced and this is what I do with them. I am going to have successes and I am going to have failures. If you were to write a review on Amazon about the book, what would you write?

Simon Leslie: I would say it’s not a difficult read; it’s written in short chapters with tips at the end of each chapter. It’s funny, the author is incredibly funny, and there is some great advice for people going through different phases. And it’s delivered in a conversational way. A lot of books give you lots of ideas, but those ideas may have never been done at all. These are real life situations that I have encountered and then I tell you how I dealt with them.

Samir Husni: I know you have encountered many of those real life experiences on both sides of the Atlantic, if not all over the world. Once, in an email, you asked me why all of these people were closing magazines or selling them, your company, Ink, was doing very well. Why do you think Ink is thriving during a time many others are not prospering?

Simon Leslie: The answer is going to be timely. Recently somebody ran a sub-2 hour marathon for the first time and I love that. I love the fact that they went through every little detail to make sure they performed and everybody did what they needed to do, and that got them the result they wanted. And I think that sums up how I operate. I look at all the details, I work out what we need to do, how we need to do it, and we work together, and that’s mostly coming from the team. I have a great team. And they believe what I believe and together we’re all rowing in the same direction. We believe in our media and we believe in our product.

Of course, we get people telling us that they have no print agenda, telling us that magazines aren’t important, but we just don’t believe it and we don’t accept it. It’s like when there was a recession, I said to my team, we’re just not participating. Let it carry on. Some of the biggest companies are formed during recessions. Some of the brightest stars were created when times were tough. I’m actually looking forward to a recession, because that’s going to bring so many opportunities that haven’t been here. People aren’t doing anything at the moment, they’re just sitting and waiting, and you actually need a shakeup from time to time to bring opportunity and fresh ideas.

Samir Husni: You’re results are more than just fiction or a dream or a belief. Your entire business is based on advertising revenue, and yet you’re succeeding where many who have that same business model are failing. What’s your secret sauce?

Simon Leslie: (Laughs) My magic formula. I can only tell you it’s a good team and a 100 percent belief in our product. We spend a lot of time training, and in personal development, working on mindsets of how do we get these people performing at the level they want to perform at. How do they deal with all the excuses and reasons why people don’t want to work with us? And how do they come up with better stories? It’s a story, life is one big story. And it’s encapsulated in the book: the ones who can tell a better story are the ones who succeed. And if you tell good stories, if people believe your stories and they believe in what you’re doing, that’s important.

My products are in a place where we haven’t got as much digital interference as some of the other people have. And readers don’t have to get out there and buy it, it’s right there in front of them. They have to spend $300 or $400 on an airline ticket, but the magazine is there and it gives them stuff they didn’t know they needed to know, and I think that’s why they’re still engaged with it and still excited by it, still inspired by it. And because of that, we find brands that want to be associated with that.

The biggest challenge that the other brands are having is they have stopped investing in their product, they have stopped believing in their product, they have stopped loving their product. They have listened to what the naysayers have told them, as opposed to believing in why they existed in the first place.

Samir Husni: Do you think your business has been more like that speedboat ad that you were tearing out and falling in love with at age 21, rather than a more relaxing and slower sailboat that others may have admired?

Simon Leslie: The example of me tearing out Sunseeker ads from The Sunday Times goes along with what the ad actually read: Many dream and few achieve. That really inspired me and I was trying to explain how much that did for me in my career. It was so motivating, but that’s not necessarily what Sunseeker wanted; they wanted to sell boats. And sometimes you don’t realize the correlation between the message that you put out there and what it does for people.

Samir Husni: What message, in general, does Ink have now? As we approach 2020, where would you put Ink as a company that publishes several titles, websites and video? What position do you place Ink as you go out and try to sell even more ad pages?

Simon Leslie: Today we are focused on travel media, and it’s more space. I’m spending nearly every waking hour looking at how I can be better in that space. At the moment I have airports, I have people at home, I have people who, before they check in, I inspire them before they even decide where they’re going to go. I then get them on the airplane and I can talk to them about where they’re going, where they should go or might go, where they should think about going. And then I get them on the way back, and I have a different message for them. So, I am interested only in the traveler. And that traveler has a high propensity to spend money. They’re agile, opportunistic, and they don’t think twice about spending money.

When you’re on holiday and when you’re traveling, that’s a time when that credit card gets used far more than when you’re sitting in an office or at home. So, I have this affluent consumer who’s a different face than most consumers and I’m just saying this is my customer; this is what he or she or they look like, and this is what they’re going to deliver over the next 12 months. The art for me is to get more and more granular into where they’re spending their money, how they’re spending their money, why they make certain decisions, so understanding their behavior. The portfolio that we have is really exciting right now.

Samir Husni: Do you differentiate between selling that traveler to the advertiser or selling the stories to the traveler?

Simon Leslie: I have three customers. I have to make sure that I inspire the traveler. I have to keep the new content fresh and well-researched pieces of editorial to make sure they pick that magazine up and that they’re excited, which is what they continue to do. In our research we did the Harris poll about six weeks ago, and the recall and pickup was getting close to 90 percent. It was unbelievable. Then I have to make sure that the airlines love their products as much as we do, because they have to carry this around the universe and their customers have to be engaged and inspired, and have to do great feedback.

I don’t know if you remember, but a couple of years ago I launched something called #Hemigram on social media and I talked about how people want to see their face in print. We just relaunched it, we produced a 200 page book on all these pictures that people have sent us with a copy of United magazine in the most unbelievable locations around the world. And I think sometimes people forget how important this media is and how much it means to people on their journeys. So, I have to please everybody.

Samir Husni: Have you had to face any challenges on your own journey, and if so, how did you overcome them?

Simon Leslie: I’ve had more challenges in 25 years than anyone should have. When we started in 1994 it was a recession, then we had the dotcom boom and bust, then we had 9/11, we had 7/7, we had the Great Recession; we had countries going bust. Then we had our own growing pains; when you’re private equity-backed, there’s never-ending growth, so you have to keep growing and making decisions. And sometimes you make wrong decisions and you live with the consequences of those as well. And there will be another 20 challenges in the next 20 years.

The thing that I really do want to get across is that I’m super-excited. Probably more excited than I’ve ever been. I have an opportunity to affect certain people who work for inflight, to enhance it and help them improve. And I have a chance to inspire a generation of travelers.

Samir Husni: You mention in your book that you don’t admit defeat unless you’ve tried every single, possible path. Keep on going and going and going. Is that your motto in life, your motto in selling, or is that just nice talk?

Simon Leslie: Well, sometimes you have to lose. I often question if I prefer losing to winning, because I’ve learned more from losing than I have winning. You do have to keep going, it’s a hurdle race and sometimes you’ll fall over and sometimes you’ll jump beautifully. Or you’ll get to the hurdle and you’ll refuse. And that’s the art, you have to keep racing and the opportunities will present themselves.

It’s really funny, I watch all of these viewers on Instagram every day telling people the seven things they need to do to be successful and the 10 things that can help them become a multibillionaire. And I think to myself: I didn’t know any of those things and yet I’ve had some nice success. So, sometimes what people think will make them successful is not necessarily what actually creates the success. What creates the success is the failings, the challenges, and the things that don’t go as planned and you having to adapt.

Samir Husni: What are Ink’s expectations for the year 2020? Will there be any new magazines coming up?

Simon Leslie: We’ve just went into Ethiopian, so we’re getting back into Africa. I’m really excited about that. With this business, one of the first airlines we had was in Africa, so it’s going back to where we started, which is quite exciting. Ethiopian Airlines is the largest airline on Africa and we’re launching a new magazine, which will come out this month. And that will get bigger and bigger next year.

We have a few more airlines on the backburner ready to come over to our stables. We are now going into airlines and doing so much more than just magazines. We do partnerships; we bring brands to vend to help them grow. We just launched a new program called “Clubhouse TV,” which is a dedicated channel for airlines to have their own TV network within the clubhouse, which is starting really well.

We’ve just acquired ReachTV, which is the fastest growing airport network and is available at 90 airports in the U.S., and we’re going to grow that across the rest of the world. So, I have things that I need to do, and I promise you that we won’t slow down. If you’re talking to me around New Years’ time, and you ask me have I achieved all those things that I set out to do, I think the answer will be a resounding yes, because I’m bringing in even more coaches, even more trainers. people who are going to help my people get better. One that I am quite proud to have added is a young lady who is an Ultraman, she participates in Ultraman races, which is 520 km over three days. And she beats the guys at it. So, she has the most incredible mindset. And if I can get her to share that mindset with the people here, dealing with the old naysayers won’t be a problem anymore.

Samir Husni: As Thanksgiving approaches, I see on your website that you have a turkey made out of dollars, will you be having a financially bountiful Thanksgiving?

Simon Leslie: I think we’ve had records in about a dozen titles and that’s not records for this year, that’s the best ever. I have to say, we’re not seeing a downturn, if anything we’re seeing optimism. Our U.S. operation is up 24 percent from last year. The problem with that is, next year we’ll expect that again, but we keep doing it, we keep finding growth. And what’s exciting about the growth is that we’re helping companies at the same time reach new customers that they weren’t reaching.

People were spending a lot of money on digital and it’s getting harder and harder to get anything set, the noise is so loud. And for you to be able to understand that with all of the different changes and all the algorithms, sometimes something as simple as having a magazine on an airplane is rendering sharper returns than where they’ve been over the last couple of years.

Samir Husni: What makes you tick and click these days and motivates you to get out of bed in the mornings?

Simon Leslie: I’m getting more and more excited by watching the team grow, I’ve seen them develop. The pace that we are seeing some of the youngsters come through at is just incredible. They’re 19, 20, 25, 30 years old and they’re just doing things that even they didn’t believe were possible for them to achieve. And we’re just excited by that. Every time we have success, we also have some that don’t succeed, but we’re doing more and more to improve our ratio of making them absolutely great salespeople, with great customers.

And it’s really important that we’re spending time making sure that they understand what the customer needs and wants, because sometimes they don’t always know what they need and want, but we give them good advice, which doesn’t mean they always take it, but we’re getting better and better at understanding what brands need to do.

Samir Husni: Since you clipped that ad in the Sunday Times those years ago, did you ever think you would not only become a salesperson, but also a motivational speaker, writer and author?

Simon Leslie: Some days, as you may have seen in the book, I have to pinch myself to actually believe what I’m allowed to do, what I’m making happen, and it’s incredibly rewarding.

Samir Husni: What’s the biggest misconception you think people have about you?

Simon Leslie: You tell me.

Samir Husni: (Laughs)

Simon Leslie: I only see positive; I don’t worry about what people say about me, everyone is entitled to their opinion. (Laughs) When I started out, people said I’d be bankrupt, and I use those statements from my younger years to motivate me, I was going to prove them wrong. In the last 10 years, how many times has someone told us that print was going to die, that there is no place for print and they’re wrong. And they’ll continue to be wrong.

Samir Husni: If I showed up unexpectedly at your home one evening after work, what would I find you doing? Having a glass of wine; reading a magazine; cooking; or something else? How do you unwind?

Simon Leslie: You’ll probably listen to a podcast with me. You’ll find me with my earphones in and working on my brain, working on my knowledge, working at how I can learn to get better, and relaxing, I do meditation. It’s really important to me to give my family time as well, so I’m making sure that I’m sharing my knowledge with them and that we’re all growing together. I’m the father of four boys and I’m incredibly proud of the way they’re all developing. And that’s good, because for a long time I was an absent father, but I’m very proud of them.

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

Simon Leslie: Normally indigestion. (Laughs) No, it’s very rare that I get up at night, I sleep really well.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

Posted in Across the Pond, Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | 3 Comments »

1919: A Pivotal Year For Magazines… A Mr. Magazine™ Musing…

October 16, 2019

Mr. Magazine™ was relaxing in his vault recently when it dawned on him that the magazines of 1919 were looking back at him from all around the massive room. The faces of a century ago seemed to be channeling his psyche pointedly, beseeching him to tell their story. He stared back at them, turning slowly in a circle, absorbing their loud but silent pleas completely. And then he wrote this…

The Year Was 1919

Reflecting the times has always been something that magazines do well; 100 years ago and today. The covers told the stories vividly. From Teddy Roosevelt on the cover of “The New Success,” to an editorial his son, Theodore Jr., wrote in “Our Boys” magazine, 1919 served as a year to remember in magazine history.

Highlights Of The Times

In 1919, the first World War (or the Great War, as it was called back then) had just ended and the country was trying to absorb the effects, financially and emotionally. Woodrow Wilson was the leader of the free world and his dream of a League of Nations becomes a reality after the League Covenant is adopted at the Paris Peace Conference.

Also in 1919, a group of 19 magazine publishers from across the entire magazine publishing scene, from consumer to trade and farm publications, came together to form the National Association of Periodical Publishers, Inc., which later became MPA – The Association of Magazine Media.

The Role Of The Magazine

The role magazines played as experience makers was and still is remarkable. “Harper’s Bazaar,” for example, had its Christmas, 1919 edition, in which the magazine offered an invitation to its new and enlarged offices in the heart of fashionable Paris:

We cordially invite all Americans visiting on either pleasure or business to make these new Harper’s Bazar offices their Paris headquarters. Particularly do we wish to point out the advantages of consulting with our resident representatives there before embarking on shopping expeditions in fashion’s capital.

In short, Harper’s Bazar was offering American newcomers to the city of Paris a verbal guide to the shops and couturiers of the city, advising Americans where to find what they wanted, how to get there, and even how much they should pay. A total experience with one of their favorite magazines, indeed.

When Magazines Ruled The Land

A century ago magazines ruled the land. From the mass general interest titles like “The Saturday Evening Post” and “The National Geographic Magazine” to the more specialized and niche publications such as “The Farm Journal” and “Field and Stream,” 100 hundred years ago the scepter of information and entertainment belonged to magazines.

And when it comes to specialty titles, niche magazines do not just belong to the 21^st century. In 1919, there were singular topics covered on a regular basis in magazines: “Successful Farming,” “The American Legion Weekly,” “Photo-Era,” and the list goes on and on. So, being a niche magazine is not a new idea, it’s just a good idea that continues today.

Looking Good For Your Age

When something or someone lives to see 100 years or more, they know what the word longevity means. Magazines that have such a long heritage are indeed something very special. Today there are more than 50 print magazines that have flourished for more than 100 years.

From “Harper’s Bazaar” to “Scientific American,” “Good Housekeeping,” to “The Nation,” these legacy titles have become generational favorites over the years and each one of them are as relevant, informational and entertaining today as they were during the eras of their infancy. Magazines reflect our society no matter the year on the calendar. They always have and they always will.

When The Presses Stopped

Wanting higher wages and better hours in their work week, local unions in New York City made their demands clear in 1919 to their international unions, closing every magazine printing establishment in New York City by striking. The end result was magazines that were late being delivered and in some cases, not being delivered at all, such as with the November issue of Harper’s Bazar:

Harper’s Bazar, December, 1919

In not publishing a November number, Harper’s Bazar skipped an issue for the first time in fifty-one years. This unprecedented occurrence was a result of the stand taken by New York Publishers in their controversy with the radical local printers who went on strike in defiance of the orders of their international unions. Even at the sacrifice of one of our most important issues of the year, Harper’s Bazar believed it necessary to stand together with all other New York Publishers in resisting the tyrannical demands of certain irresponsible leaders who were disowned by their own international unions and the American Federation of Labor. Subscribers will receive, instead of their November issues, one more number after the date on which their subscriptions would ordinarily expire.

And read the ad from the Periodical Publisher’s Association of America that appeared in the November issue of The National Geographic Magazine:

The Reason Why Magazines Published In New York City Will Be Late

Differences between certain local unions and their international unions have closed every magazine printing establishment in New York City. Some of the local unions have retained their membership in their international union, while the pressmen, feeders, and paper handlers have seceded and struck. These local unions demand a 32½ to 44- hour week and an increase of $14 per week, with double and triple pay for overtime, to take effect immediately. The international unions contend that the men should return to work and the entire matter be left to arbitration.

The publishers of the magazines meanwhile must suspend publication until the unions fight out their differences. This means “Collier’s Weekly,” “McClure’s,” “Pictorial Review,” “Cosmopolitan,” “Hearst’s Magazine,” “Harper’s Bazar,” “Good Housekeeping,” “Harper’s Magazine,” “Metropolitan,” “Scribner’s Magazine,” “Century,” “Munsey’s,” “Popular,” “Delineator,” “Everybody’s Magazine,” “McCall’s,” “Popular Science Monthly,” “Vogue,” “Vanity Fair,” “Motion Picture Magazine,”, and 152 others, as well as many of the largest trade papers in the country, will not appear on time as usual.

Some of the publishers are making plans to remove their plants from New York to other places, and many Western cities are bidding vigorously to induce these publishers to consider their particular localities. Three very large publications have already completed plans for permanent removal, and their printing machinery and paper supply are now being shipped to Chicago.

The millions of readers of the publications affected by the strike are requested to be patient and to refrain from writing the publishers concerning delays in receipt of magazines. It will be only a question of a short time until the presses will again be running.

(Signed): Periodical Publisher’s Association of America.

NEW YORK CITY, October 10, 1919

The times were difficult, but magazines stayed strong.

Audience First

Putting the reader first was always important to magazines, even in 1919 and remains the mantra today. A magazine that was the backbone of what is now the Meredith Corporation, “Successful Farming” proudly stated it was for: the busy, practical working farmers of America whose interests determine its policy. The magazine published in the interest of the reader. And you can’t argue with that statement. If you don’t take care of your readers, your publication will not know success. It was true in 1919 and it’s still true today. Without your audience, what do you have? A nice book of information that no one is interested in.

Mr. Magazine™ Reflects…

Suffice it to say that 100 years have passed since 1919. Many things have changed; many things. However, some things haven’t. Information, entertainment, niche brands, and the most exquisite experiences can all still be found in magazines. That is a fact that has not, and will not ever change. Magazines and Mr. Magazine™ himself, if I may be so bold as to toot my own horn, are staunch advocates for the print experience. Both of us love to inform, entertain and create inimitable happenings in people’s lives that no pixels can recreate. Seeing us both in the flesh is quite the experience. And you know what they say… if it’s true, it ain’t bragging.

Until the next time…

Mr. Magazine™ will see you at the newsstands, somewhere between today and the portals of the past…

Posted in A Mr. Magazine™ Musing, From the Vault, Innovation in print, Magazine Power, News and Views | Leave a Comment »

Tom Witschi, President Of Consumer Products, Meredith Corporation, To Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni: “Magazines Are Still Popular And Strong… And So Is Our Consumer Marketing Business.” The Mr. Magazine™ Interview…

October 14, 2019

“I will say that The Magnolia Journal success, which you have certainly written about, is a great poster child for the magazine industry. Meredith is certainly proud and vocal about this phenomenon, but the press and the media industry seem quite muted. Magnolia is an example of a great idea created around a popular topic and noted celebrities that has become very profitable and successful. This new magazine model of high subscription pricing and less dependence on advertising is an interesting formula for the future and we have additional titles in the pipeline that will replicate this format. Magazines are still very popular and strong. As I said before, our consumer marketing business is experiencing strong results. Sourcing opportunities are expanding and direct mail continues to deliver high response rates. The marketplace would lead you to believe that consumer interest in magazines is declining, but we’re seeing quite the opposite.”… Tom Witschi

Tom Witschi is president for Consumer Products for Meredith Corporation and he oversees the operations and marketing of Meredith’s consumer facing products. It’s a wide scope of products and services that both challenges and excites him. Previously, Tom was president of Meredith’s Lifestyle Group. In this position, he had oversight for 10 Meredith brands and businesses including Shape, Allrecipes, EatingWell, Rachael Ray Every Day, Traditional Home, Midwest Living and More along with Brand Licensing, Content Licensing and the Special Interest Publishing Group. So, Tom has always known a bit about challenges that he always looks at as opportunities

I spoke with Tom recently and we talked about the challenges, but more importantly, we talked about the opportunities that presented themselves, especially with Meredith’s acquisition of the Time Inc. brands. Tom may have become a bit more challenged, but his excitement increased two-fold with all the possibilities and opportunities the merger provided.

In addition to running Meredith’s large Consumer Marketing activities, Tom also oversees Meredith Brand Licensing which includes over 50 partnerships across multiple brands including Better Homes & Gardens flagship alignment with Walmart and over 3,000+ home and outdoor products available at 4,000 + stores and at Walmart.com. In addition, Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate in partnership with Realogy, EatingWell frozen meals, snacks and side dishes in an alliance with Bellisio Foods and Real Simple home products in conjunction with Bed, Bath and Beyond. He also oversees Synapse and Bizrate Insights, two affinity marketing businesses that were acquired as part of Meredith’s 2018 acquisition of Time Inc. Through their proprietary distribution channels, Synapse and Bizrate generate over 17 million annual subscriptions for over 250 publishers and these businesses are aggressively moving into marketing other products and membership services in the wellness, music and entertainment categories. In addition, Tom oversees Meredith’s digital consumer product initiatives including their fast-growing e-commerce activities across content, promotional offers and their proprietary shopping engine as well as their lead generation business (Meredith Performance Marketing) and finally paid products that includes Apps, brand memberships and their emerging partnership with the recently launched Apple News +.

It’s a busy day for Tom, but one that gives him excitement, reward and satisfies the passion he has for what he does. And according to Tom, there are some new irons in the fire that will soon come to fruition that are sure to make his day even busier and better. So, stay tuned. And magazines are still strong and vibrant and showing no signs of waned interest from their readers.

So, I hope that you enjoy this conversation with a man who was born to be busy and creative; in fact, he thrives on it and feels very fortunate to be a part of it, the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Tom Witschi, President, Consumer Products, Meredith Corporation.

But first the sound-bites:

On his very extensive career in the magazine media industry and what about that makes him tick: What makes me tick is hard to say (HA)…..I think I have broad knowledge of the media business that has really helped me, and good instincts both for differentiated products, business pacing, and certainly personnel and the right people to put into the right positions. I guess my background has prepared me well to handle the portfolio that I have today, which is also very broad, quite different and evolving. I certainly enjoy building businesses and looking for new and unique ways to get results. The businesses I run today are for the most part very different from each other and require different approaches and skillsets from our teams.

On his description of the magazine media times today: Well, I think there a couple of things going on today. First, I would say that conditions are changing rapidly, not a surprise to anyone. But it’s very difficult to predict the future and that makes change even harder. There are many people out there who seem to know what will happen 18 months from now, but I’m not so sure prognostication works too well in the media business these days. I’ve never seen a time where it’s more difficult to predict where things are going to go. And that’s both exciting and challenging at the same time. When I look back at the earlier part of my career, things were much more predictable, and you had a good idea of what was going to happen two years out. Three-year plans could really be achieved!! (HA) Today it’s really, really difficult. On the other hand, I would say from a very positive standpoint that the magazine media business today is way more complex and there are more opportunities for great ideas and brands.

On a quote a colleague of his in the industry made that said they no longer publish magazines, they create brands: Yes, I think that’s a fair and reasonable statement. Meredith remains very brand-focused and our strong content and engaged audiences are driving our point of difference. When we consider the larger media landscape….. we look at Facebook and Google for instance, the largest companies that are certainly in a very strong position today, but where Meredith stands out and delivers is with our exceptional brands and high-quality content. And that’s something that we will always hold onto provided we continue to invest and nourish but we cannot underestimate powerful brands and we need to continue to put them front and center.

On why he thinks today, suddenly, the talk has changed from being a magazine publishing company to a brand company: Obviously the economics and the fundamentals of magazine publishing have changed dramatically. I would argue that there still many good days ahead for magazines and certainly, consumer demand continues to be encouraging. I’m still a believer in magazines, but I’m also a realist and the formula is different today and we understand that declining advertising puts great pressure on the traditional model. But in the end, great magazines are great brands and thus have fantastic opportunities in the digital, video, commerce and licensing spaces to just name a few natural extensions……as we continue to demonstrate, great brands can expand their wings into so many new areas.

On whether he thinks it would have been possible to have the 15 year relationship Meredith has had with Walmart without a brand like Better Homes & Gardens and a print magazine like Better Homes & Gardens: Probably not… I mean I think it’s an extraordinary relationship that we have built with Walmart. It would be extremely difficult to replicate largely because the retail environment has changed so dramatically since that arrangement was first put together over 15 years ago. We have certainly grown with it and it’s become a huge business for both Walmart and us. But it would be extremely difficult to replicate that in today’s retail environment. We continue to grow this business nicely and were up double digits in our fiscal year that ended June 30th. For as large of a business as we have, to experience 12½ percent annual growth is extraordinary. It’s certainly a testament to the scale and power of Walmart and it involved lots of new product introductions, the refreshing of existing products and innovative marketing and promotional support. We now have over 3,000 skews in Home and Outdoor-related products, so there’s a lot of merchandise and a lot of choice, but in the end very high quality, well designed products at great prices. And now Walmart’s Internet side is really ramping quickly and we’re certainly a part of this exciting growth.

On whether he was overwhelmed by all the different brands he obtained when Meredith acquired Time Inc.: It’s been a very interesting and challenging merger. It’s always difficult to bring two large companies together; they have different approaches to business; they certainly have some differences in products, and it’s always a challenge to bring together two separate and distinct cultures but I can honestly say it has all come together extremely well. We shared alot in common coming into this merger in terms of expertise and business practices. Without question, I view this acquisition as a very big positive for us and for the future. Time Inc. had extraordinarily strong brands and they complemented the Meredith brands. Ultimately, together we are just that much more powerful and distinctive.

On Meredith’s licensing business being one of four cornerstones that falls under the Consumer Products umbrella and what are the other three: The first is Consumer Marketing, which is magazine subscription marketing and the digital storefront for our magazines called magazine.store. It’s also our continuous books business and it’s our digital editions. So that’s the consumer marketing piece. The second is Synapse and Bizrate Insights, and that came with the Time Inc. purchase, two highly successful companies that work sort of as brother/sister. They are affinity marketing businesses that generate magazine subscriptions, owned and operated clubs and other third-party products and services. The third group is what I would call our digital growth initiatives and that’s really broken into three areas. First paid products which include our apps (Cozi, largest family calendaring app and cooking light diet), membership and partnership programs and our just launched alliance with Apple and the Apple News + product. The second area is Meredith Performance Marketing, our lead generation technology and platforms that sources leads in the home improvement, healthcare and soon to be launched Streaming Services sector. And the last piece of the digital growth area is our fast growing and highly successful e-commerce business. We own and operate a proprietary shopping engine called Shop Nation that sources millions of products options and presents them to consumers through Meredith branded store fronts. Also, we operate a fast-growing content for commerce group that works closely with our digital editors to drive shopping activity through stories and product showcases. And lastly Linfield Media which operates the award-winning site PromoCodesForYou. We work directly with some of the largest retailers to push out promotional offers and discounted opportunities to consumers. Our three ecommerce areas work closely together and have developed excellent chemistry.

On whether he thinks Meredith should give him a few more responsibilities since he has so few (jokingly asked): (Laughs) I have plenty to think about and plenty to do, that’s for sure. I am very fortunate to be challenged and it’s a very exciting period to be in the media space. When you reflect on the assets that a company like Meredith has, our large database of loyal customers really stands out. But historically, magazines were the only products that we were charging our passionate brand fans. So now what we’re charged with doing today is saying that we want a larger piece of the consumer wallet and there are certainly more great and appropriate products and services that we can market to our customers.

On why he thinks the media always seems so negative when it comes to reporting news about magazines and magazine media: Not always, but it does seem like the press has painted an unbalanced picture of our media segment. As I said to you earlier, we had a sensational year in our magazine subscription business; the year ending June 30th. When we brought Meredith and Time Inc. together, we realized that both companies had strong direct marketing expertise. But we also had different ways of marketing our magazines. And so, we were able to very quickly find out and test into what practices would effectively transfer. We have seen some very encouraging results that are now being pushed out across our portfolio. Regarding the negativity. I guess a big part of it is being driven by the decline in print advertising but there are so many other positive things to talk about, and I think new consumer products is certainly one of those exciting areas where we are seeing meaningful growth and it’s becoming a big part of the overall Meredith portfolio. The key is brand diversification and ultimately diversification of the company’s revenue that is better balanced between advertising and consumer streams.

On what he would tell someone the highlights of 2019/2020 were if it was a year from now: We’ve made three acquisitions, one in March of 2019 that I talked to you about earlier, the digital couponing company, Linfield Media which is off to a great start and fits so well into our ecommerce strategy. In addition, we recently purchased Magazine.com, which is really a competitor to our Magazine.store which we built and launched three years ago. Sourcing magazine subscriptions digitally is increasingly an important area for us and through these two sites, we will generate millions of subscriptions for Meredith titles as well as other publishers. And the third acquisition will be closing shortly and fits nicely into our Synapse growth strategy as well as enhance Meredith’s content quality and expertise.

On anything he’d like to add: I think this is a very positive time in the media business. Yes, there are challenges, but the opportunities and possibilities continue to grow and it is our job the make the right bets and direct our resources to the best payoffs. There is a great deal of optimism at Meredith; we’re in a very exciting period and I’m fortunate to be a part of a smart and highly engaged leadership group that’s helping to steer the way.

On what he thinks is the biggest misconception people have about him: (Laughs) That’s a hard one to answer. I view myself as pretty straight forward and I think the people who work for me know that… I’m very detailed oriented and I guess that trait could be viewed as difficult at times, but I’m very open and I think very fair, balances and inclusive. And I try to operate this way, not only with my direct reports, but with all levels in our organization. We’re only as good as the people who work on our businesses. We can build great products and have great strategies; we can do all kinds of things the right way, but if we don’t have the right personnel in place and those people aren’t passionate and motivated and work well together, we not going to be successful.

On what he would have tattooed upon his brain that would be there forever and no one could ever forget about him: Passionate.

On what someone would find him doing if they showed up unexpectedly one evening at his home: I’m very passionate about sports, both doing and watching. I’m really focused on certain sports that I like to play (racket sports in particular) as well as just working out. I’m also a huge music fan. So, I would say that both music and sports are my passions and you would find me probably doing something related to those two categories if you spent a weekend with me or a couple of evenings.

On what keeps him up at night: I’m really driven to meet goals and do things well. So, what keeps me up at night is usually the 30-60-90-day plan of what we as a group want to accomplish and the outcomes we’re hoping for or expecting. That’s what keeps me up at night. The macro issues of the world crumbling or the media business changing, I feel like I have that relatively under control. It’s probably more about the 30-60-90-day execution plan that I’m constantly thinking about and working on. I don’t know if it keeps me up at night, but it’s certainly on my mind quite a bit.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Tom Witschi, president of Consumer Products, Meredith Corporation.

Samir Husni: In your career you have been publisher at Hachette, vice president/international publisher at Reader’s Digest Association, CEO of the EatingWell Media Group, and now you’re at Meredith as president of Consumer Products. What makes you tick and click in your professional life?

Tom Witschi: It’s been a very interesting professional journey, for sure. I’ve been very fortunate to have been exposed to different parts of the media business. I obviously started in the sales area and then went into sales management. Then that propelled me into general management and along the way I got experience with new products and international, and eventually my stint as the CEO of EatingWell, which was more of a startup and is now part of the Meredith family. I started here in mid-2011 as President of what we called the Lifestyle Group and a little over three years ago (in August 0f 2016) I moved on to become the President of Consumer Products.

What makes me tick is hard to say. I think I have a broad knowledge of the media business that has really helped me, and good instincts both for products, business pacing, and personnel and building teams to execute on the strategy. I guess my background has prepared me well to handle the portfolio that I have today, which is also very broad and largely very different. All of the businesses under me require different skillsets.

Samir Husni: To say the least in this magazine media climate, these are interesting times.

Tom Witschi: Very, very.

Samir Husni: Can you describe the times for us? (Laughs)

Tom Witschi: (Laughs too) Well, I think there a couple of things going on today. First, I would say that conditions are changing rapidly, as we all know. But it’s very difficult to predict the future and that makes change even harder. There are many people out there who seem to know what will happen 18 months from now, but I’m not so sure prognostication works too well in the media business these days. I’ve never seen a time where it’s more difficult to predict where things are going to go. And that’s both exciting and challenging at the same time. When I look back at the earlier part of my career, things were much more predictable, you had a good idea of what was going to happen two years out. Three-year plans could really be achieved! Today it’s really, really difficult.

On the other hand, I would say from a very positive standpoint that the magazine media business today is way more complex and there are more opportunities for great ideas and brands. In our case, I think content is driving the brands. When you think about the different areas that Meredith is involved in today versus going back 10 years ago, that’s the exciting part.

I would follow that by saying the challenge to all of these opportunities is you have to make the right bets. You don’t have unlimited resources. Let’s say there are 20 choices, I’ll use that as an example, of businesses that you can go into and you’re probably not going to be able to do them all well, so where you focus your attention and your resources is critical to success in today’s media world.

Samir Husni: A counterpart colleague of yours in the industry was quoted recently as saying, they no longer publish magazines, they create brands and the magazines are a part of that brand.

Tom Witschi: Yes, I think that’s a fair and reasonable statement. Meredith remains very brand-focused and our strong content and engaged audiences are driving our point of difference. When we consider the larger media landscape we look at Facebook and Google for instance, the largest companies that are certainly in a very strong position today, but where Meredith stands out and delivers is with our exceptional brands and high-quality content. And that’s something that we will always hold onto provided we continue to invest and nourish but we cannot underestimate powerful brands and we need to continue to put them front and center.

We have all kinds of other expertise, we certainly have data and insight that puts us in a very unique position. We know our customer and we know how to serve our customer, market to our customer. We have great marketing expertise, direct marketing expertise, but at the real center of it is brands and content. And to the person’s point before, again, our job is to decide what products and services we want to attach to these brands. And magazines are one piece of it.

Samir Husni: My relationship with Meredith goes all the way back to 1984 when I started the magazine program here at the University of Mississippi through funding from Meredith. And even back then they had Better Homes & Gardens real estate agencies. They were always much more than just a magazine. Why do you think today, suddenly, the talk changed from being a magazine publishing company to a brand company?

Tom Witschi: It’s a necessity. Obviously, the economics and the fundamentals of magazine publishing have changed dramatically. I would argue that there still many good days ahead for magazines and certainly, consumer demand continues to be encouraging. I’m still a believer in magazines, but I’m also a realist and the formula is different today and we understand that declining advertising puts great pressure on the traditional model. But in the end, great magazines are great brands and thus have fantastic opportunities in the digital, video, commerce and licensing spaces to just name a few natural extensions……as we continue to demonstrate, great brands can expand their wings into so many new areas.

We formed the Consumer Products Group in August 2016 really with that intention. We needed to accelerate our growth and we needed to focus on the consumer. For the most part, our model had been advertising-centric. And you’re right, in our past, we have done other things, for sure, such as brand licensing, but a big chunk of our business was tied to the advertising piece. So, we made a conscious decision that we needed to put more effort into the consumer products area, and really diversify our portfolio or our business model. And that’s what we’ve been really focused on.

So, I would say it’s a necessity and again, getting back to the exciting part of it, there are lots of things that brands can participate in within this media space. The list is long, and you learn every day and you learn which avenues to take and which avenues will be most beneficial for your business, both long-term and short-term.

Samir Husni: With this business, the consumer products, needless to say, one of the biggest businesses you have is your relationship and licensing business with Walmart. Do you think that would have been possible if you hadn’t had a brand like Better Homes & Gardens and a print magazine like Better Homes & Gardens?

Tom Witschi: Probably not… I mean I think it’s an extraordinary relationship that we have built with Walmart. It would be extremely difficult to replicate largely because the retail environment has changed so dramatically since that arrangement was first put together over 15 years ago. We have certainly grown with it and it’s become a huge business for both Walmart and us. But it would be extremely difficult to replicate that in today’s retail environment. We continue to grow this business nicely and were up double digits in our fiscal year that ended June 30th. For as large of a business as we have, to experience 12½ percent annual growth is extraordinary. It’s certainly a testament to the scale and power of Walmart and it involved lots of new product introductions, the refreshing of existing products and innovative marketing and promotional support. We now have over 3,000 skews in Home and Outdoor-related products, so there’s a lot of merchandise and a lot of choice, but in the end very high quality, well designed products at great prices. And now Walmart’s Internet side is really ramping quickly and we’re certainly a part of this exciting growth.

It’s really an extraordinary story, but it spans 15 years, so a lot of people have worked very hard on this business from both companies to make it successful.

Samir Husni: Less than three years after establishing the Consumer Products Division and becoming president, Meredith acquired Time Inc., so you’ve had more brands to come onboard. Were you overwhelmed by all the different brands you suddenly had?

Tom Witschi: It’s been a very interesting and challenging merger. It’s always difficult to bring two large companies together; they have different approaches to business; they certainly have some differences in products, and it’s always a challenge to bring together two separate and distinct cultures but I can honestly say it has all come together extremely well. We shared a lot in common coming into this merger in terms of expertise and business practices. Without question, I view this acquisition as a very big positive for us and for the future. Time Inc. had extraordinarily strong brands and they complemented the Meredith brands. Ultimately, together we are just that much more powerful and distinctive.

No, it’s been very helpful for the Consumer Products business. In August 2016 when we launched it, then it was just Meredith and we were somewhat limited, but today we’ve been helped by the addition of the Time Inc. brands. It has made our business much bigger and also the opportunities are much greater as a result of the two companies coming together.

Our licensing business is one of the four areas under Consumer Products, Grand Licensing. And we now have about 50 partnerships through 10 of our brands. And many of those relationships are through the Time Inc. brands. Now nothing that approaches the size and scale profitability of the Walmart relationship, but some very strong licensing arrangements that came with the Time Inc. deal. That gives you some idea of what scale can do and that puts us in a very great position to grow that business moving forward.

Samir Husni: You mentioned that this is one of four cornerstones of the Consumer Products Division, what are the other three?

Tom Witschi: The first is Consumer Marketing, which is magazine subscription marketing and the digital storefront for our magazines called magazine.store. It’s also our continuous books business and it’s our digital editions. So that’s the consumer marketing piece. The second is Synapse and Bizrate Insights, and that came with the Time Inc. purchase, two highly successful companies that work sort of as brother/sister. They are affinity marketing businesses that generate magazine subscriptions, owned and operated clubs and other third-party products and services.

First paid products which include our apps (Cozi, largest family calendaring app and cooking light diet), membership and partnership programs and our just launched alliance with Apple and the Apple News + product. The second area is Meredith Performance Marketing, our lead generation technology and platforms that sources leads in the home improvement, healthcare and soon to be launched Streaming Services sector. And the last piece of the digital growth area is our fast growing and highly successful e-commerce business. We own and operate a proprietary shopping engine called Shop Nation that sources millions of products options and presents them to consumers through Meredith branded store fronts. Also, we operate a fast-growing content for commerce group that works closely with our digital editors to drive shopping activity through stories and product showcases. And lastly Linfield Media which operates the award-winning site PromoCodesForYou. We work directly with some of the largest retailers to push out promotional offers and discounted opportunities to consumers. Our three ecommerce areas work closely together and have developed excellent chemistry.

Synapse is based in Stamford, Connecticut and Bizrate Insights is actually in Los Angeles. Just to give you some idea, they did about 18 million magazine subscriptions last year and we work with 250 publishers through our programs, our touchpoints and our distribution channels. So, that’s a very exciting business and we’re actually going to be making a big announcement in the next week about an acquisition for that group that will really add an additional, what I would call product and service, to the Synapse and Bizrate infrastructure. They have mostly been focused on magazines and it’s very, very successful, but we see that we have the infrastructure to support other products and services that have similar models to magazines.

This is a good example of a growth opportunity where we already have the retailers in place; we already have the online channel with Bizrate Insights and we’re predominantly selling magazines, but we can sell health-related products; we can be in the streaming services business, we’re already working with Spotify in the music business, so these are very similar membership models to what we have with magazines. And that’s a natural fit.

That’s the second group. The third group is what I would call our digital growth initiatives and that’s really broken into three areas. First is paid products and we operate two app businesses, one is called Cozi, which is the largest calendar-joined application for busy families; the other one is called Cooking Light Diet, which is a meal planning app. We also run Apple News Plus, our new relationship with Apple that just launched in April. That’s out of the paid products group. And then House Plans, which is a nice little business but growing, and also membership programs. We build membership programs around our brands.

The second area is called Meredith Performance Marketing, which is our lead generation business. We bought a company 2½ years ago out of Boston, and they predominately work in the Home Services space, and they’re a very close tie to Home Advisor. But we’re now moving into healthcare and also into streaming services as well, where lead generation is becoming a very important thing.

And the last area, which is probably our biggest growth area, is ecommerce. We are growing that business extremely quickly through three areas. We have a shopping platform called Shop Nation, which we bought in 2013. Time Inc. was very adept in an area called Affiliate Content Marketing, where we’re really using content on websites to drive commerce. And that business has accelerated in the last 18 months since we purchased Time Inc. in a big way. So, we’re doing a lot more of what we call affiliate content work with our websites.

And then lastly, we bought a small company back in March that is now turning out to be a real jewel for us called Linfield Media and they focus on the digital coupon space. So, that was a very important piece of the ecommerce area that we didn’t really touch and we were able to purchase that company back in March. The three areas, between Shop Nation, Affiliate Content Marketing, and Linfield, are now working very much together and it’s propelling our ecommerce growth to really big numbers right now. So, in a nutshell that’s my world.

Samir Husni: It doesn’t seem like you have too much to do. Do you think Meredith should give you a few more responsibilities since you have so few? (Laughs)

Tom Witschi: (Laughs too) I have plenty to think about and plenty to do, that’s for sure. I am very fortunate to be challenged and it’s a very exciting period to be in the media space. When you reflect on the assets that a company like Meredith has, our large database of loyal customers really stands out. But historically, magazines were the only products that we were charging our passionate brand fans. So now what we’re charged with doing today is saying that we want a larger piece of the consumer wallet and there are certainly more great and appropriate products and services that we can market to our customers.

That’s what we’re focused on – really leveraging the assets of Meredith. And as part of that either requiring or starting new areas where we can leverage Meredith assets and invite consumers to try and get involved with more products and services.

Samir Husni: I’m sure since assuming this position it hasn’t exactly been a walk in a rose garden. You’ve probably had some challenges that you’ve had to overcome. Why do you think the media always focuses on the negative instead of the positives? You really don’t read about the success stories, such as the 12½ percent increase Meredith had with its Walmart relationship.

Tom Witschi: Not always, but it does seem like the press has painted an unbalanced picture of our media segment. As I said to you earlier, we had a sensational year in our magazine subscription business; the year ending June 30^th. When we brought Meredith and Time Inc. together, we realized that both companies had strong direct marketing expertise.

But we also had different ways of marketing our magazines. And so, we were able to very quickly find out and test into what practices would effectively transfer. We have seen some very encouraging results that are now being pushed out across our portfolio. Regarding the negativity. I guess a big part of it is being driven by the decline in print advertising but there are so many other positive things to talk about, and I think new consumer products is certainly one of those exciting areas where we are seeing meaningful growth and it’s becoming a big part of the overall Meredith portfolio. The key is brand diversification and ultimately diversification of the company’s revenue that is better balanced between advertising and consumer streams.

Just bringing together two organizations that not only have good brands, but also have great individuals, great personnel, and applying best practices has been a big win for us. I don’t know about the negativity. I guess a big part of it has been because of the advertising challenges on the magazine side, but there are so many other positive things to talk about, and I think consumer products is certainly one of those things, where we’re seeing meaningful growth now and it’s a big part of our overall portfolio. And that’s something that we’re really excited about and think there’s a lot more growth to be had.

It’s a balancing act, but to get to the point that you and I discussed earlier, what’s exciting today is that we have so many opportunities out there. We’re not lacking in opportunities, it’s picking the right ones. But when you have that many opportunities, you’re always going to have some things that are down and not doing as well, and other things that are growing and on a different trajectory than they were maybe a year ago. So, that’s part of my job. And part of our job at Meredith is balancing all of that. And again, choosing the things that we want to invest our time and resources into. I think it’s a wonderful, exciting time in the business. I also think there are great things to talk about with companies like Meredith that have first-rate brands and first-rate content.

I will say that The Magnolia Journal story, which you have certainly written about, is a great poster child for the industry. Nobody ever talks much about that. There’s an example of a great idea; the magazine is obviously very, very profitable and successful. We have a lot of examples of that and we have more that are coming in the near term. Magazines are still very popular and very strong. As I said before, in our consumer marketing business we’re seeing really good results and direct mail continues to work well. We’re sourcing our subscriptions through all kinds of areas. People would lead you to believe that there isn’t interest anymore, but we’re seeing quite the opposite.

Samir Husni: If you and I are chatting a year from now, what would you tell me were the highlights of the 2019/2020 year in consumer products at Meredith?

Tom Witschi: We’ve made three acquisitions, one in March of 2019 that I talked to you about earlier, the digital couponing company, Linfield Media which is off to a great start and fits so well into our ecommerce strategy. In addition, we recently purchased Magazine.com, which is really a competitor to our Magazine.store which we built and launched three years ago. Sourcing magazine subscriptions digitally is increasingly an important area for us and through these two sites, we will generate millions of subscriptions for Meredith titles as well as other publishers. And the third acquisition will be closing shortly and fits nicely into our Synapse growth strategy as well as enhance Meredith’s content quality and expertise.

I’m going to be very focused on the success of those three acquisitions, integrating the people and the businesses into Meredith and taking advantage of the synergies we have. And where it’s appropriate, branch it out to other parts of the company where there is crossover. So, I would say the acquisitions are going to be a big part of our success over the next 12 months.

And we have a lot of things percolating in every business. We expect to grow our commerce business by roughly 80 percent over the course of the next year, that’s going to keep us awfully busy. We’re seeing huge increases in our lead generation business right now. And with our brand licensing, we’re on the verge of announcing two very sizeable deals over the next two months. We think we’ll be closing those and announcing them by Christmas.

There are things happening all the time. We have our wonderful leadership team, and we’re always looking for new things to do and think about and to acquire. So, there’s never a dull moment, but we have a lot on our plate and a lot to execute on for this year. That’s just a sampling of the things that are happening or about to happen.

Samir Husni: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Tom Witschi: I think this is a very positive time in the media business. Yes, there are challenges but the opportunities and possibilities continue to grow and it is our job the make the right bets and direct our resources to the best payoffs. There is a great deal of optimism at Meredith; we’re in a very exciting period and I’m fortunate to be a part of a smart and highly engaged leadership group that’s helping to steer the way.

Samir Husni: What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about you?

Tom Witschi: (Laughs) That’s a hard one to answer. I view myself as pretty straight forward and I think the people who work for me know that… I’m very detailed oriented and I guess that trait could be viewed as difficult at times, but I’m very open and I think very fair, balances and inclusive. And I try to operate this way, not only with my direct reports, but with all levels in our organization. We’re only as good as the people who work on our businesses. We can build great products and have great strategies; we can do all kinds of things the right way, but if we don’t have the right personnel in place and those people aren’t passionate and motivated and work well together, we not going to be successful.

It’s hard for me to answer misconceptions of me, but I guess at the end of the day I always want to be approachable, so if people feel I’m not approachable, I want to be. I know the power of people in this business. You want to work at a place where you’re motivated at and you want the leadership to be clear on the vision. It’s probably more of a feel than a misconception, and that feel would be that I’m not communicating enough or I’m not approachable enough. And I always want to be.

Samir Husni: If you could have one thing tattooed upon your brain that no one would ever forget about you, what would it be?

Tom Witschi: Passionate.

Tom Witschi: Maybe all the above. (Laughs) No, I’m very passionate about sports, both doing and watching. I’m really focused on certain sports that I like to play (racket sports in particular) as well as just working out. I’m also a huge music fan. So, I would say that both music and sports are my passions and you would find me probably doing something related to those two categories if you spent a weekend with me or a couple of evenings.

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

Tom Witschi: I’m really driven to meet goals and do things well. So, what keeps me up at night is usually the 30-60-90-day plan of what we as a group want to accomplish and the outcomes we’re hoping for or expecting. That’s what keeps me up at night. The macro issues of the world crumbling or the media business changing, I feel like I have that relatively under control. It’s probably more about the 30-60-90-day execution plan that I’m constantly thinking about and working on. I don’t know if it keeps me up at night, but it’s certainly on my mind quite a bit.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

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Mr. Magazine

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Archive for the ‘Innovation in print’ Category

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Mr. Magazine on the Allure of Print

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Mr. Magazine on the Future of Print Magazines

*A version of this story about Mr. Magazine originally appeared in Domtar’s Paper Matters magazine. Subscribe today to explore the world of print, design and paper. This article is taken from Domtar’s Newsroom and was published on Nov. 26, 2019.

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A Road Map to Mr. Magazine Website

Archives

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Mr. Magazine™ at www.mrmagazine.me

A version of this story about Mr. Magazine originally appeared in Domtar’s Paper Matters* magazine. Subscribe today to explore the world of print, design and paper. This article is taken from Domtar’s Newsroom and was published on Nov. 26, 2019.