Betting on Readers With a 'Passion'

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept, 2000 by Chris Anderson

Imagine Media aims to be the source for people wanting to keep up with the rapid growth and complex changes in technology.

Imagine Media CEO Chris Anderson is gearing up for more growth that he hopes will build on the $90 million in revenue the company chalked up in 1999 (which was a 74 percent increase in revenue from 1997). Imagine is launching two titles this fall--one on the future of technology, the other on the intricacies of the film industry. The latter will feature a complimentary DVD in each issue. Targeting a tech-savvy audience, Imagine markets a plethora of video gaming magazines, including Games Business, MacAddict and Maximum PC. But it's the award-winning Business 2.0--which raised its ratebase to 300,000 in August and hiked its frequency to biweekly- that has made the British import one of the fastest growing publishing companies in the country.

Imagine is also getting a toehold in the trade show business in the states. In an effort to compete more effectively on the lucrative conference circuit with rivals like The Industry Standard, Business 2.0's parent, U.K.-based The Future Network PLC, bought a 49 percent stake earlier this summer in the TED conference. TED stands for technology, entertainment and design. The magazine's first conference, Business 2.0 Live, will be held in October.

FOLIO: talked with Anderson about some of the pending moves at Imagine.

Q: In October, Imagine will be launching Total Movie (150,000 initial circulation), a title that will skew younger than competitors covering the film industry. How will the magazine distinguish itself from, say, Premiere, Movieline or Entertainment Weekly?

A: We have a huge insight into an audience that's skewed young and slightly male because of the background of what we've done. We think that audience isn't served well by the existing magazines in the market. But I wouldn't characterize Total Movie as being too skewed in that way. It's going to be a magazine with broad appeal. There will be a DVD with each issue--which has massive appeal--with clips, snippets and trailers that are covered in the magazine. It takes the magazine experience to a different level. Anyone with a DVD player is going to need Total Movie, and anyone who cares a whit

Q: You're also launching T3: Tomorrow's Technology Today. What markets are you going to target with this title?

A: We launch magazines when we find people who are excited about things driven by technology. Right now in technology there is an explosion of activity outside of desktop computers and a huge wave of devices being pumped into the market (cell phones, PDAs MP3 players, etc.). This explosion has created the same kind of excitement that home computers created a decade ago. It's changing the way people do stuff. But its' also confusing. These devices don't fall into neat categories. People realize there's a lot more they can do with digital devices, but they don't know how to use them. So this is the magazine that will give them the insight. And it's a market that's about to go mass.

Q: Ad pages for Business 2.0 and those of its competitors like Red Herring and Fast Company have been on fire. But hot books inevitably cool down (particularly in light of the market correction in April among Internet stocks). Have you put any safeguards in place for this event?

A: Business 2.0 is far ahead of its financial projections. We never planned for a world in which dot-com mania would continue unabated forever. We're building a long-term audience that's hugely valuable to a large number of advertisers. What's remarkable at the moment for Business 2.0 is how much its advertising base is broadening and how many traditional advertisers are coming into the book (Mercedes-Benz, Marriott, American Express).

The dot-com businesses aren't going away; they're being encouraged to take a more rational view of life. And for b-to-b dot-com businesses, Business 2.0 remains a core buy. When the dust settles, we're confident we'll end up with a powerful business for the long-term.

Q: How much revenue from the company is attributable to Business 2.0, and how does the product relate to the rest of Imagine in terms of cross marketing?

A: The Future Network's revenue last year was $300 million, and Business 2.0 was only a small portion of it; this year it's a bigger portion. The company has 130 magazines and Business 2.0 is the biggest; it's launching this year with editions in France, Italy and Germany, so the key synergy from Business 2.0 has been in terms of leveraging the brand and the business.

Q: Imagine Media is a market leader in gaming titles. Are there enough video-game enthusiasts to sustain this market over the long-term? Is it better to niche market with gaming titles, or go mass?

A: Each generation of technology has sucked into the market a broader audience and broader advertising base. Way back, there was no question that the market was niche for a few people. But we've ridden the wave, and with each generation our magazines have developed higher circulations and reached out to more people.