Back in 1998 Margaret Harold Roberts and Wendy Danforth launched Going Bonkers (ISSN 1067-1366) magazine from Palm Beach, Florida. The magazine was a wonderful collection of self-help, health and humor topics. Margaret and Wendy had hard time making a go from the self-help and funny magazine, so they changed it to a dog humor magazine. That did not work too. Well, now J. Carol Pereyra is editing a magazine with the same name and same theme. The tagline of the new Going Bonkers? (ISSN 1933-7752) magazine is “The self-help magazine with a sense of humor.” The new magazine (second issue shown above and is now on the newsstands) looks and feels like the 90s publication. I really do not know whether the new Katy, Texas Going Bonkers LLC is related to the first Going Bonkers folks or not, but I know one thing for sure the two magazines have in common: Problems getting advertising. So, rather than going bonkers the editors of the new magazines opted to go ad free with there second issue. They told the readers in an “Important Message to Our Readers” on the inside back cover of the magazine that they “chose not to accept paid advertisements” in this issue. They went on to say, “Most magazines depend on ad revenue to cover the high costs of production. We rely on the support of our subscribers. Future issues may contain paid ads — but for now — please enjoy this tranquil white page! Subscribe today. Thank you!” Well for the sake of staying sane, let us hope this “tranquil” space will help Going Bonkers? survive the madness of new magazines and their struggle to survive without any paid advertising…
Going Bonkers? One issue at a time…
April 8, 2007A tale of two magazines…or two companies?
April 7, 2007
Quick&Simple, Good Housekeeping’s women’s weekly was launched two years ago to be only the second women’s service weekly magazine on the market place and to compete directly with Bauer’s Woman’s World, the first women’s weekly that started the Bauer empire in the United States back in 1980. Compared to the magazine field worldwide, the American market has the least number of women’s service weekly magazines. In fact Bauer ruled that field (and continues to rule it) for more than 25 years without any competition. Bauer is also credited by revitalizing the newsstands through paying complete attention to the newsstands and introducing different promotional gimmicks like the In Touch Weekly “thank you issue for 25 cents”, and the introduction of additional weekly titles such as Life&Style Weekly and the soon to be published Cocktail Weekly. Hearst, Quick&Simple’s publisher took a page from Bauer by first, launching Quick&Simple to compete with Woman’s World, second Hearst is doing the same with the magazine’s cover prices strategy. They charged 25 cents for the first issue of Quick&Simple, then they priced the magazine at $1.49, same as Woman’s World current cover price, and later they increased it to $1.59, and this week Hearst dropped the price to 25 cents for its Easter (April 10) issue. Didn’t someone once said that imitation is the best form of flattery! The six million dollar question now is whether Hearst will ever think of launching a celebrity weekly to compete with the rest of the Bauer lines of weeklies? Let us wait and see.
No ink on paper for a week
April 6, 2007
The Week magazine is going green… for one week only. It is not the first magazine to publish a green issue, many others have done that before (Fortune, Vanity Fair, Creative Review, etc.). However it is the first magazine to really practice what it will be preaching on April 20, well at least for one week. The Week is not skipping a printed issue and publishing it only on the web in digital format, but rather adding a digital only issue to the subscribers. “This digital green issue will be an extra bonus issue for THE WEEK’s subscribers during a week when they are not printing a print issue, ” says the press release for the magazine. It adds, “By publishing its first-ever digital issue, THE WEEK is adding an extra issue for its readers but delivering it in a format that has a reduced impact on the environment. The digital issue will include all of THE WEEK’s regular editorial features with selected ones focusing on the environment or related issues.” Well, I have two questions about the wisdom of doing such a noble thing, the first is what about the newsstand buyers, no matter how small the numbers are; and two if we really believe that we are in the “dead trees” business as my friend Bob Sacks often refers to the magazine industry, why not publish digital all the time? Is it enough to save the environment one week a year and forget about the rest of the year…that is if our business is really the business of “dead trees?”
Wow…what a Volt!
April 5, 2007
This magazine is definitely going into my vault. Volt is the new British magazine that wants to “breathe new fire and direction to the genre of ‘The Fashion Magazine’.” An oversized publication (13 x 17) the first Volt delivers “an electrifying celebration of great British fashion, beauty and talent…” The magazine invites the readers “on a journey of tantalizing imagery” and what a journey it is. Stunning photography and an unusual mix of color and black and white makes Volt a must for any creative person with a passion to fashion and beauty. “With a pinch of imagination and a dash of innovation,” the editors “have brought forth something brave, fresh and addictive– a treasure to be hung on walls, collected, or merely admired.” And you can do any or all of the aforementioned without damaging the magazine. It comes folded but not bound, so it is all ready to frame. Published only twice yearly will make the wait for the second journey tough, but worth it. Volt is edited by Rui Faria and designed by Michael Harrison.
Life refuses to die…
April 5, 2007
No matter what, Life seems to continue appearing on the newsstands in one shape or form. This time, it is back as a mook or what is now referred to as “book-a-zine” format. Of course, the weekly Life is not dead yet (two more weeks on its lease of life as a weekly). This week the second Picture Puzzle mook from Life appears on the newsstands with two more issues planned for this year. Life’s first picture puzzle mook was launched in Nov. 2006 and “went to press five times to fulfill consumer demands” according to a press release from Time Inc. It should be noted that the $10.99 mook was launched after the huge and positive response the picture puzzle last page of the weekly Life newspaper supplement received from its readers. As mentioned earlier on this blog, Time Inc. has pulled the plug on the weekly Life, but I do not think any one will ever be able to pull the plug on the brand. Long live Life.
Magazine launches down in Q 1, ’07
April 4, 2007
Rocket, Sewstylish, Saphir, Urban Ink, Barbie, First Home, and Seven are but seven (no pun intended) new titles from a total of 145 new magazines introduced to the American magazine scene in the first quarter of 2007. This is a drop of 47 titles from 2006. The first quarter of 2006 witnessed the introduction of 192 new magazines. Another major drop was the number of titles published four times or more in the first quarter of this year. Only 50 magazines were launched with the intention to be published at least four times a year compared with 72 in 2006. There were fewer annuals, 10 compared to 20 last year and fewer specials, 77 compared to 93. For a complete list of all the titles launched in the first three months of 2007 click here. So what do those numbers mean? Not much. Since I have started tracking new magazine launches, I have witnessed a two or three years’ declines after a very healthy and busy year. In 2005 we have seen 1013 new launches, the number dropped to 901 last year, and if the trend of the previous years continues, we will see another drop again this year before the numbers bounce back. Call it market correction if you please, but definitely it is NOT a sign that print is on its way out. History will tell us otherwise. So enjoy this quarter’s crop and look forward to more titles to come next month.
When Harry met Emma, Rupert and Daniel… or Technology Gone Wild
April 3, 2007
For years it used to be the TV Guide turf: Collectible covers of television series (including 35 different covers on Star Trek’s 35th anniversary), movies, NASCAR, etc. This week, it is Entertainment Weekly turn with multiple covers. Throughout its history, the magazine has done few multiple covers before, but this week’s showcasing of three “very young stars” of the new Harry Potter movie is yet another sign of “technology gone wild.” The mere fact that we can have multiple covers at a very low cost is no reason to start creating collectibles from non-collectibles. Every time I look at my real valuable collectible magazines, I can never see the word collectible on the cover. It should be a good give-away sign to readers that any magazine that screams collectible on the cover is definitely NOT. But just in case you want to prove me wrong and want to collect all three covers of this week’s issue of EW you can either search the newsstands like I did, or just call EW at 1-800-828-6882. One, two or three covers, EW remains one of the best over-all entertainment guides out there. It is worth every penny of the $3.50 cover price. Multiply that by three, well…that is a different story.
Jackie, JFK and now George…
April 3, 2007
Finally the whole Kennedy clan is reunited again… albeit in The Netherlands. Not only Jackie and JFK are well and alive in magazine formats in Holland, George is also well and alive there too. The second issue of George was just released with Senator Barack Obama on the cover. The magazine was started late last winter with Prime Minister Tony Blair on the cover of the first issue and an introductory letter by Richard Bradley who worked as an editor at the original George magazine that was started by John F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Jackie). The magazine published from 1995 until Jan. 2005. It lasted 18 months after the tragic death of JFK jr. The Dutch publisher hopes that the Dutch George will fill a void in political magazines that the original magazine filled when it was published in the USA. In the words of Bradley, “Often, people will tell me how much they miss George. I respond that I miss it too, and that I wish there was another one like it. Now, I hope, there is.” Of course, Bradley’s intro is the only English in the magazine, the rest, needless to say is Dutch.
When Digital marries Print …
April 2, 2007
“Be one of the first 5,000 people to have a customized issue of Wired delivered to your home in July,” says the flyer attached to my sub copy of the April issue of Wired. Few years ago Reason magazine did something similar to this promotion. However, in the case of Reason the subscribers had no input in the choice of the covers, the magazine at that time published a satellite image of each subscriber’s home on the cover. This time Wired wants you to design the cover, write the cover lines, chose the colors and to top it all put your own picture on it … It is amazing what can be done today when we put the technology to the right use. Complement rather than compete. If you want to be one of the 5,000 people to have your own Wired cover, click here. Just a quick warning, when uploading your picture, be sure that the picture file is small.
When 4 X 1 = 1
April 1, 2007
That may be the wrong math, but that’s what I got from looking and buying all four copies of the recent issue of Bomb magazine. I know for sure that they did not do that as April’s fool day to trick people into buying four issues of the same magazine, yet I kept asking myself why four covers, what is the difference, how can people see all these differences in the two and half seconds people are willing to give us on the newsstands… a lot of questions, but no answers came to mind. It reminded me of the advice I always give my clients, “any cover line or art that you need to explain means one thing only: do not use.” I would have given the same advice to Bomb if they’ve asked me.
