Mr. Magazine

Wow, what a second quarter of 2010 for new magazine launches. The marketplace witnessed the birth of 56 new titles with an intended frequency of four times or more in addition to 155 annuals and specials bringing the total for the second quarter of 2010 to 211 new titles arriving at the nation’s newsstands for the first time.

The overall total for the second quarter exceeds that of the second quarter of 2009 by 44 titles. In the second quarter of 2009 there were a total of 167 titles from which 52 had an intended regular frequency of more than four times a year.

Needless to say that the special interest publications with their hefty cover prices of $10.99 and $11.99 are becoming the norm to the big publishers such as Time Inc. and Reader’s Digest, however quite a few of mid size to small publishing houses still have big belief in the retail marketplace that they continue to bring out monthlies and quarterly magazines covering every topic possible aimed at every age possible from the young to the old as the images of some of the new titles arriving to the marketplace recently illustrate.

By the way, did I fail to mention that all of the above mentioned magazines and numbers are based on ink on paper magazines that I did purchase each and every one of them from the nation’s retail marketplace. Why don’t you do the same and pick up a magazine or two and experience the wonderful world of ink on paper magazines. It is not the same experience as digital. Guaranteed.

(Addendum): And here’s one more stat worth mentioning in response to a friend’s e mail:
So far this year has proven to be the best yet… In the first half of 2007 a total of 356 titles first appeared on the nation’s newsstands, in 2008’s first half 285, 2009’s first half 327 and so far in the first half of this year 380. Amazing and resilient!

New magazines are the new blood that runs through the veins and arteries of our industry. They are what gives our industry the constant pulse that keeps the industry well, alive and kicking. In celebration of my 25th anniversary of Samir Husni’s Guide to New Magazine I revealed earlier today, at the Retail Marketplace Conference that is hosted by the Magazine Publishers of American and the Periodical & Book Association of America in Boston, Ma, the names of 25 notable new magazines published for the first time between 1985 and 2010.

What follows is an adaptation of my presentation at the conference and the list of the 25 notable new magazines of the last 25 years.

25 Notable Magazine Launches from the last 25 Years

Over 25 years I have counted, collected, coded and consulted thousands of magazines. There have been good years, bad years, strange years and frustrating years; but every year has been an enjoyable year. When I started, there were people telling us that magazines were dying, that television was choking their life away. There were folks saying print was dead, and that I hadn’t yet caught on to changing trends.

The following list 25 notable magazines from the last 25 years is dedicated to those individuals who have been saying we are publishing in vain and that magazines are a soon-to-be-extinct medium. They were wrong 25 years ago, and they are still wrong and you will continue to be wrong. To paraphrase Roy Reiman’s famous advice for those who want to start a new magazine, the magazines in this list know how to be different and know how to be better.

The options were endless. A lot of magazines had a great run for years and then changed ownership and with that their days of glory faded. Some were ground breakers, but the copy cats came along and outsmarted and outperformed them. Some continued to be true to their DNA from day one and thus rose to the top of the pile..

Magazines like McSweeney’s show that the magazine buyers in America are hungry for unique, quality products. You won’t find a more innovative magazine on the newsstands or a more devoted readership. But aside from uniqueness, all of these magazines share three common characteristics: recognition, repetition and addiction.

Magazines like Lucky and Spry recognize who their audiences are and can better address their needs, wants and desires. This recognition is paramount because no magazine can be successful when it doesn’t know who its audience is. All magazine audiences want a level or repetition. They are not looking for the same story issue after issue, but read over the cover lines of Men’s Health for the last year. Men’s Health will always talk about better sex and better abs. This doesn’t make the magazine boring, it helps readers know what to expect at the newsstands. Repetition is all about developing a formula that matches up readers with content and sticking with what works. By sticking with that formula, these magazines have built addictive content. Just like Wizard magazine has done, once readers are addicted to the product you are producing, you have an audience that no economic downturn or increase in paper prices can destroy.

This list has magazines that have shown this is the medium that understands the American people, focuses on the positives in life and seeks to provide service to millions of readers every issue. No other medium can make those claims, and no other medium is as trusted, loved and celebrated as the magazine medium is. Even with such new inventions as the iPad, nothing can take the place of my first love.

Choosing the most notables of the last quarter century was not an easy task. However, when all was reviewed and checked 25 magazines climbed to the top of the thousands plus ladder. They are listed by historical order and they have three things in common: They all are still being published; they all stayed true to their DNA; and they all cared from day one about the customers who count and not counting customers. Readers were the customers of those magazines and this list shows you why.

1985 Elle
As a small magazine that challenged the fashion big wigs, Elle soon became the centerpiece of the fashion publishing world. The first import from France whish now shares a brand with 42 other international siblings. It dared to sell an idea rather than a business plan and the dare worked.

1986 Men’s Health
When you come up with a formula that works, stick with it. That’s what Men’s Health has done for years and it still draws in millions of readers every month.

1987 Cooking Light
If you ever question the viability of print, just take a look at Cooking Light. This magazine hasn’t stopped growing in circulation and advertising since it hit the newsstands almost 25 years ago.

1989 First for Women
Not all business models are created equal. By distributing in shopping carts and not requiring retailers to return cover price revenue for sold magazines, Bauer carved out a section of the magazine industry all for themselves.

1990 Entertainment Weekly
Despite a slow start, Entertainment Weekly is now the source for all things entertaining. Over the last 20 years, this example of success has followed pop culture and given us great writing and photography.

1990 Martha Stewart Living
Martha Stewart Living shows how powerful print can be in branding not just a category of interest but also an individual. As an offshoot of her television show, MSL defined home and home Service magazines.

1992 Wizard
Wizard makes you wonder if anyone over there could see into the future. Since before comics were a pop culture craze, Wizard has been dishing out all the information about anything and everything comic related.

1993 Fast Company
Fast Company proves that the good survives. With its launch before the dot com bust of the 90s, Fast Company has earned its keep by showing that no matter the economy, good content can sell.

1993 Wired
Wired understands that all things electronic and innovative are a lifestyle–or to be more exact—an obsession for some people. Just like the technology in its pages, there aren’t very many magazines in this category that have survived the test of time, but
Wired has and it is growing.

1994 InStyle
Success breeds success they say, and InStyle is a great example. With its start in the pages of People magazine, InStyle has grown into the source for celebrity-obsessed
Americans. The first magazine to humanize celebrities and show them shoeless in its pages.

1997 Maxim
Maxim proves there is no such thing as a dumb idea. Despite everyone saying it would never work, Felix Dennis launched Maxim and was soon the owner of a 1 million plus circulation title.

1998 ESPN
As a magazine that was multiplatform before multi-platform was even a term, ESPN the Magazine proved that great writing and photography can allow you to challenge anyone, even the biggest sports magazine on the market.

1998 Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concerns
McSweeney’s is based on innovation from frustration. After roadblocks concerning the current business model, Dave Eggers launched McSweeney’s. There is no denying that this magazine is quite possibly the definition of innovation.

2000 American Profile
Knowing your audience and providing them with great content will always be a successful formula. The Publishing Group of America took this advice to heart and is still benefiting from this 2000 launch.

2000 Lucky
Luck had nothing to do with the success of this title all about shopping. By taking a successful trend overseas and adapting it to the American market, Lucky magazine transformed a common activity and made a successful business

2000 O, the Oprah Magazine
What can you say about Oprah’s magazine? It’s a great extension of an individual who has proven she knows how to market herself and package her brand

2000 Real Simple
On a newsstand dominated by women’s magazines full of sex, celebrities and chocolate,
Real Simple proved these weren’t necessary for a good launch. Millions of readers and advertisers agree each month.

2001 The Week
The Week is the curator of the best journalism money can buy and the publication that makes even the most ignorant aware of what is going on in the world. It also personifies the Mr. Magazine tagline of more information in less time and less space.

2002 InTouch Weekly
The fast and fun content of InTouch Weekly is perfectly in line with the expectations of the 800,000 weekly readers of this celebrity title. It proves again that knowing your reader is still key to a successful magazine.

2003 Everyday Food
Everyday Food is the little engine that could of the newsstands. No one thought that Martha Stewart could launch a successful title after her court troubles, but this title showed that Martha still knows this category front to back.

2004 All You
As a great partnership between the country’s largest retailer and one of the country’s largest magazine companies, All You shows that it doesn’t have to be difficult to find customers where they are.

2004 Life & Style Weekly
As another magazine that traces its roots back to its sister InTouch magazine, Life & Style Weekly proves that the successful apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
It’s a spin-off, but it lacks none of the quality of the original.

2006 Relish
Circulation of 6 million is a great goal, especially when it’s the initial circulation at launch. But that 6 million is nothing now that you see Relish has a circulation around 15 million.

2008 Food Network Magazine
When asked what would make their experience better, hundreds of thousands of Food Network viewers said they wanted a magazine. Now with a circulation of 1.4 million,
Food Network is skyrocketing on the newsstands and mailboxes.

2008 Spry
As a newspaper supplement focusing on health and well-being, Spry quickly found its niche and carves out a spot among its 9 million readers. This is a great addition to America’s hurting newspapers. Maybe the Spry visit will be what the doctor’s prescribed for a healthy newspaper.

I would love to read your comments on the aforementioned selections and which magazine do you think deserves to be THE MOST NOTABLE LAUNCH of the last 25 years. Enjoy.

As much as I try to avoid writing about personal stuff in this blog, however the gift I received from my kids (picture on the right) for Father’s Day yesterday forced this blog to be written.

25 years ago, in 1986, I published my first Samir Husni’s Guide to New Magazine listing the 234 new magazines that I was able to find and document in 1985. In few days the 25th Anniversary edition of the Guide will be out listing 704 new magazines that were first launched in 2009.

The Guide has been and continue to be a labor of love. The name came from my wife who suggested calling it Samir Husni’s Guide just in case I missed a magazine launch here or there. My kids, who accompanied me on many many trips to the newsstands and witnessed my love affair with magazines first hand, rewarded me on this 25th anniversary year of the Guide with a poster that they designed, scanned, printed and framed with all the 25 covers of the Guide.

And, so I will not think they are asking me to stop, they wrote on the poster, “25 Years of Success… and Still Counting.” They assured me that the “counting” is a “pun intended!” Thank you Marie for helping give birth to the Guide and thank you Diala, Laura and Afeef for the best Father’s Day gift yet. And for the thousands of publishers of new magazines, thank you for the first 25 years of new magazines and here’s to the next quarter century of new magazine launches… that is ink on paper new magazine launches. Cheers.

April has been a great month for new ink on paper magazines. Yes, I know, all the attention has been focused on the iPad and the future of digital publishing, so when 64 new magazines appeared on the newsstands for the first time last month no one took notice. Everyone was so busy counting how many iPads have been sold and how much should we charge for the magazine apps on the iPad. No one bothered to take note that the number of magazines launched in April of 2010 is 18 more magazines than that of April 2009. In addition to that 16 of those newly introduced titles have a frequency of 4 times or more. You can see each and every one of those magazines (and the first three months of 2010) here.

In the next few days I will be reporting on some of the new magazines being introduced on the marketplace, here and abroad. Here is part one with three magazines: DAVID, Out There and Creative Nonfiction.

DAVID: “For people whose understanding of history informs their contemporary identities,” writes Max and Joanne Friedland, the magazine publishers in the premier edition of David, the magazine. Aimed at the Las Vegas’ Jewish community, the Friedlands add, “in a city full of transplants, DAVID is our native son, born in this season of new beginnings, a testament to our creative will unbroken, and always inspired by what is possible.” The magazine editor in chief Martin Stein describes the mission of DAVID and its relation to Las Vegas as such. “This is Las Vegas, after all — the entertainment, dining and shopping capital of the world,” Stein writes. “With that in mind, we decided to create a bold, hip magazine that reflects our modern, Jewish reality,” he adds.

A hip, upbeat, necessary, sufficient and relevant magazine for the Las Vegas Jewish community with a lot of benefits for both Jews and Gentiles. A must if you live in Las Vegas, and a must if you plan to visit there.

Out There: The mission of this UK import is “to celebrate all aspects of homoculture, to scour the world to discover your talent, delight in your stories, to show just what a sexy, savvy, sweet and sour bunch we are.” Uwern Jong, the magazine publisher and Martin Perry, the creative/editorial director of Out There know that the launch issue of the magazine “isn’t a complete picture of the global gay experience, but there was only so much that we could fit into 200 pages. We are only what you make us, so if you like what you see, or think you know something we should be covering please let us know. We know you’re Out There.”

Out There could easily be dubbed the MONOCLE of the global gay culture. In fact, the size, design and type of paper Out There use is nothing but a reminder to me of Monocle. Whoever said imitation is the best form of flattery was never wrong. It is easy to say, Out There is one of the best new magazine launches I have seen out there.

Creative Nonfiction: Lee Gutkind, the creative non-fiction guru states it very well when he writes in the introduction to the first issue of the new magazine, “I believe there are many reasons for creative nonfiction’s popularity, beginning with the practical fact that people — readers — respond to stories, to narrative.” Started as journal in 1993, the publication evolved with this issue into a magazine. Why you may ask? Well, maybe the answer can be found in Gutkind’s remarks on the the status of society today. He writes, “Even as new technologies bring the world closer together, our lives are becoming increasingly isolated. Many of us don’t even know our neighbors’ names. Social media have replaced actual social life. And yet, we crave the intimacy that humans forge through storytelling, through sharing and comparing our experiences.”

And Mr. Gutkind is not telling you a fib. In this day and age of “isolated connectivity” people are hungrier than ever to hear a good story, to share a good story and to be part of a good story. In a world of celebrities and fiction, fantasy and virtual reality, the world needs some creative nonfiction. In fact it needs a lot!

To be continued…

“Cooking is the one area where print beats digital for convenience.” “The very old and the very young are both still reading printed material.” “I think the classic magazine revenue model is dead.” The aforementioned soundbites are but three sentences of the many words of wisdom Steven Slon, the editor in chief of the new children’s magazine ChopChop had to see in the Mr. Magazine™ interview.

The newest entry to the children’s magazine market focuses on food as its corner stone, but also covers health and nutrition as it ventures into new areas no other children magazine have ventured before. Both on the business side and the editorial side ChopChop takes a completely different approach to launching a magazine and to reaching an audience ignored by magazine publishers for so long.

I asked Mr. Slon (via e mail) who was, for years, the editor of AARP, The Magazine (aimed at 50+), and now the editor in chief of the new magazine ChopChop (aimed at 5+) about the shift to editing a children’s magazine, the magazine marketplace today and the future of print. What follows is the complete exchange with Steven Slon.

Samir Husni: With the internet taking off faster than a speeding bullet, iPads and other tablets moving printed magazines and books out of the front page news, why would you start a printed childern’s magazine?

Steve Slon: Cooking is the one area where print beats digital for convenience. You want to be able to lay the pages displaying the recipe open next to where you’re working. No matter if it gets splattered on or lightly dusted with flour. You can’t place your ipad,iphone, or Kindle on the stove. Or near it. And, yes, you could print a recipe and carry it to the stove, but that’s a couple of extra steps. Having made all these points, we are building out a website as we speak, and have future plans for developing apps and other tools of the hand-held communication world.

SH: Do you know whether it makes a difference for kids to read from a laptop, digital device or a printed magazine or book? Any studies you are aware of? etc. etc.

SS: Don’t know of any studies per se, but our mission is to reach children of all economic levels, with special attention to children at and below poverty level. Low income families are much less likely to own a computer. According to a recent paper, “Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital,” in the U.S, “less than half of children with family incomes under $25,000 lived in a household with a computer, compared to 92 percent of those with family incomes over $100,000.” [Citation from Stephen J Dubner’s blog, PDF of paper at http://www.columbia.edu/%7Ecp2124/papers/computer.pdf.] That said, even young children who have computers enjoy the tactile and visual pleasures of holding a book or magazine in their hands.

SH: The Food Network magazines is doing very well and so are the rest of the new food magazines, what are the odds for ChopChop to make it in this crowded marketplace?

SS: There isn’t much in the market aimed at children. But what makes us different is primarily a) Quality and b) Authority. I’ll explain in a minute, but let me back up first and say that we’re competing, not as a magazine, but as a health and nutrition educational resource that happens to be in the form of a printed magazine. We began by marketing ourselves to pediatricians who are extremely frustrated by their inability to make the slightest dent in the massive and growing childhood obesity crisis. They feel that they are spitting into the wind when they tell a family with overweight children that the children need to watch their food intake and exercise more. Lecturing doesn’t work. ChopChop, for them, is a tool that they can “prescribe” to families. And pediatricians are telling us they are thrilled to have this tool at their disposal. The big goal is to move the dial in the direction of cooking and eating together as a family. So, our mission is not really to produce a magazine, but to encourage nutritional literacy that will last a lifetime. That said, it’s a great magazine! Unlike most “educational” materials, ChopChop is lively and engaging and fun. It has the look and feel of a consumer publication. So, back to the point of our differentiation: We’ve put together a top-notch team of veteran magazine-industry designers, photographers, and reporters—all working pro bono to support what we all feel is a valuable mission. (Please note especially the charming profile of a 14 year old chicken farmer by Susan Orlean.) As to the second point of differentiation, authority, our brilliant and charismatic founder Sally Sampson, a well-known cook book author, is deeply networked in the health community, particularly in the Boston area. She has put together an advisory team that includes leading names from Harvard, Tufts, BU and more. This kind of backing and knowledge can’t be replicated.

SH: How would you describe today’s children’s magazine marketplace? Is it in a state of growth or retreat?

SS: The beauty of ChopChop magazine is that it is completely outside the classic magazine model—children’s or otherwise—in that we do not depend on newsstand or advertising—and in fact, while we offer subscriptions, that’s not a serious revenue stream either; subs are only for the convenience of people who’ve heard of the publication and want to get it at home. We are supported in the most part by foundation, government and corporate dollars. We also receive modest levels of financial support from schools, children’s hospitals, childrens’ clubs and pediatricians.

SH: Will it matter where your great content is consumed? On the screen or on the pages of the magazine?

SS: For the present, it’s better in the printed magazine form, for reasons covered in the first question. And also because the product needs to be tangible in order for pediatricians and family physicians to “prescribe” it to their patients. In the future, that model may shift as the tools for transmitting information change. But for now, we think it works best as a physical entity.

SH: What advice you will give for someone coming to you and saying “I want to start a new kid’s magazine…” What would you tell that someone?

SS: Magazines succeed with their audience if they connect in a personal way. I would say, you’ve got to think like a kid and imagine what you’d want a magazine for you (as a kid) to be like. On the business side, I’d say, you’ve got to think very creatively. You have to do something different. I think the classic magazine revenue model is dead.

SH: On a personal note, you have made an 180 degrees switch from editing a magazine for the 50+ (AARP, The Magazine) to a magazine for the 5+. How does feel to make such a move?

SS: For one thing, the very young and the very old are both still reading printed material. The old because of custom, and the young because of school. (Schools are not completely wired…yet.) But, yes, of course it’s different. And, it’s a wonderful change of pace. I need regular change and big challenges to keep the juices flowing.

SH: What is the goal and vision of ChopChop and what do you expect to accomplish from launching such a magazine?

SS: I think I said some of this above, but our mission is to “Teach kids to cook and to be nutritionally curious and literate; Empower kids to actively participate as health partners with their families & doctors; Establish and support better eating habits for a lifetime of good nutrition; and σtem the tide of unhealthy children who are growing into unhealthy adults.” Our grand vision is to reverse and prevent childhood obesity.

SH: What are you doing to ensure a print future in a digital age?

To paraphrase the character Vinnie telling Robert De Niro about the murder of Joe Pesci in the movie Goodfellas, “[it’s] gone and we coudn’t do nothin about it.”