The NEW English Lessons

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Dec 1, 2002 by Greg Lindsay, Ruth Addicott

Byline: GREG LINDSAY AND RUTH ADDICOTT

Ed Needham, who is British, is the new managing editor of Rolling Stone. He came from the lad book FHM, also British. Needham's art director is Andy Cowles, who used to be at Q, Britain's biggest rock magazine, which inspired the look of Blender, which is published in the U.S. by Dennis Publishing, an arm of the British company that brought us Maxim. Blender is scaring the bejesus out of Jann Wenner, who, besides Rolling Stone, owns Us Weekly, whose editor, Bonnie Fuller, though not British, possesses a devilish genius for packaging celebrity fluff that is equaled only by the British phenomenon Heat. Heat competes in the U.K. with the gossip weekly Now, which has reminded behemoth Time Inc. that it should really think about launching yet another photo-driven, celebrity-soaked title in the States.

What we have here, it seems, is a foreign insurgency, possibly a full-fledged British invasion. The U.K.'s influence began to materialize on these shores soon after Maxim began kicking ass at American newsstands. Hoping to mimic some of publisher Felix Dennis' newsstand genius, American publishers began mimicking U.K. magazines. We borrowed their graphics-driven designs and courted British talent. Now, American publishers are buzzing about importing even more of the British publishing model: At the American Magazine Conference this fall, Hearst Magazines president Cathleen Black admitted she envied the U.K.'s lean staffing and consequently had slashed her company's head count by 10 percent. And Time Inc. editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine is bragging that his company is learning how to make low-cost magazines from IPC Media, the British magazine company Time acquired in 2001. "I just think we ought to figure out ways to be more productive than we've been," says Pearlstine. "I think we ought to take a look at it and see what we can learn."

What English lessons are really worth learning? What do they do over there that we ought to try in the homeland? And which British systems, like warm beer, are best left on the other side of the pond?

There are no easy answers - mainly because we operate with very different business models. For instance - and this is critically important - the British magazine market has been shaped primarily by geography. Higher postal rates and a concentrated area of distribution make it much more economical for the English to forgo subscription marketing and focus on newsstands. Single-copy sales represent about 80 percent of the circulation for most British magazines. They also make up the bulk of the revenue. Advertising income contributes much less to the bottom line than it does in the States. For example, the British version of Maxim derives just 50 percent of its revenue from ad sales, while its U.S. counterpart gets 80 percent. This reliance on the newsstand has forced the Brits to become experts in newsstand sales tactics: sell-through rates hover at an amazing 70 percent. They've spent more time and money than anyone testing what does and doesn't work at the stands. Therefore, this is where our first English lesson begins.

COVERS, COME-ONS, AND NEWSSTANDS

In England, magazines are built from the coverlines up. "You start conceiving issues beginning with the cover and ask, 'What stories do you need in this issue to make a strong, compelling cover?'" says Isobel McKenzie-Price, the editorial director of IPC's women's magazines. Because the cover is everything, the editorial team writes the coverlines first and then fills in the lineup. "That's a better approach than just shooting out lots of stories and tweaking the mix at the end," she says.

Clear, direct coverlines work best in the U.K. There's no room for coy come-ons and witty wordplay. "What we sell is the immediate benefit of this particular issue," says McKenzie-Price. Instead of teasing consumers into the book, the Brits almost always play it straight. "We'll have coverlines like 'Decorate Your Home Now!' or 'Get Great Hair!,'" she says. "We don't have the luxury of being clever or wordy."

Facing uncertainty from issue to issue and without subscriptions to fall back on, U.K. editors codify surefire words and colors on their covers. They stick with staple, hot-button favorites like free and are partial to red and other colors that pop on the newsstand. "I went to a magazine breakfast conference once, and the presenting editors and publishers had it down to a science," says former The Face art director Phil Vicker. "They said you should have six coverlines and three colors - one always being red, and one always being white. And never use black for a background color."

That doesn't mean they don't follow fads. The Brits obsess over every move the competition makes, and if something is working, everyone hops on it. But unlike here in the States - where sales trends unfold over months or years because so much circulation is tied up in subscriptions - British whims are more frenetic. What's hot and what's not changes overnight. "There was a trend...to use serif and orange type on the cover," says Vicker, "so every magazine used orange type - until they moved on to fluorescent pink type."