Where are the new magazines? Following a flurry of major launches last year--among them, Condé Nast's Domino, Cookie and Men's Vogue, Rodale's Women’s Health, Hearst Magazines' Quick & Simple and Weekend, and Northern and Shell's British import OK!--publishers have put the brakes on developing new titles, focusing instead on growing their established brands.
A handful of high-profile startups that have hit the market this year include Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s Blueprint, Disney Publishing’s Wondertime and Hachette Filipacchi Media’s French import Shock. On the launchpad is Condé Nast’s business title Portfolio, slated for next April. Otherwise, startups are few and far between.
Samir Husni, the University of Mississippi journalism professor who tracks new magazines, confirmed there are far fewer launches this year than last. Even the number of startups in 2005, considered an active launch year, “declined dramatically” from the previous year, he said. “The numbers are going down and down and down.”
To be sure, market forces—including escalating production and distribution costs, a depressed ad market, saturated magazine categories and an ever-crowded newsstand—are principal factors. It’s tougher than ever to make a launch fly, even for the big publishers.
Witness the number of recent startups, including Condé Nast’s Cargo and Vitals and American Media Inc.’s Celebrity Living, that quickly came and went.
It’s no wonder publishers are more cautious about launching, considering that a mass magazine rollout today can run anywhere from $30 million to over $100 million, according to those in the know.
“The barrier for entry, because of industry consolidation, only gets higher and higher every year, leaving a lot of launch activity to the majors,” explained David Carey, group president, publisher at Condé Nast Business Media, who oversees Portfolio. “To launch a magazine today, you need a great editor, a solid business team and world-class circulation resources,” Carey said. “The odds of coming up with all three as an independent venture are much harder to do.”
To Carey’s point: Maer Roshan’s indie Radar, the celebrity-skewering startup that’s had its plug pulled twice already and is making a third run with the backing of Integrity Media, whose investors include Yusef Jackson, son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Radar’s Web site starts up next month while the magazine hits early next year, said Roshan.
When it comes to growing their businesses now, the major publishers are playing it safe rather than risking multimillions on startups.
Burned from jumping into hot categories that quickly became overpopulated and edged out the weakest players, publishers are concentrating instead on extending proven brands via online and mobile offerings, events, merchandising, TV programming and print spinoffs.
Several recent launches, including Men’s Vogue and Women’s Health, were, in fact, offshoots of established titles. That lack of big, new ideas is distressing to some. As Husni put it, “Uniqueness is becoming rare.”
One top editor who has shopped around magazine proposals expressed frustration that publishers seem less willing to take chances. The editor, who did not want to be identified, complained that the first thing a publishing exec asks when presented with a business plan is, “What’s it like that’s been successful?”
Robin Steinberg, senior vp, print director at MediaVest, added, “I would agree there’s probably saturation within most categories, and it would be ideal when launching if we could identify something new and different that creates consumer demand and doesn’t cannibalize something already out there.”
John Loughlin, executive vp, general manager at Hearst Magazines, mused, “I think you’ve seen a marketplace that has rewarded both truly new ideas but also has rewarded fragmentation and the slicing of a category into subcategories.” Hearst launched 10 titles over the last seven years, three in 2005 alone. No launches are on the horizon, however.
Meredith Corp., publisher of Better Homes and Gardens and Parents, has focused on special-interest publications and custom publishing over launching new brands.
Time Inc., which turned out three startups in the fall of 2004, including All You, Cottage Living and the relaunch of Life (see story below), has unveiled no new titles since, focusing instead on growing its digital businesses. This year, Time Inc. launched online men’s magazine Office Pirates. Ned Desmond, president of Time Inc. Interactive, explained, “Launching a new media brand is often a rocky, iterative, nail-biting kind of experience. But it’s gratifyingly smooth to apply the editorial energies and acumen of existing titles to online.”
Roshan believes the lure of interactive—so much easier and cheaper than producing a magazine—has kept many entrepreneurs like himself away from print as well. That’s a mistake, he said: “There’s great synergy they’ll miss out on by focusing just on online.”
For his part, Condé Nast’s Carey is confident we will see a rash of magazine launches again. “If you look over long periods of time, you will find upticks and slower periods,” he said. “But there are a lot of products in some form of development and growth all the time.”
