Hamptons Publisher To Launch Gotham

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Nov, 2000 by Jennifer F. Steil

Confident he'll be able, once again, to capitalize on cool, Binn plans a New York City title for that rich and with-it crowd he knows so well.

When your lush, oversize glossies attract the hip and rich crowds of the Hamptons and Miami Beach--as well as a steady stream of advertising dollars--New York City would be the next logical step. That's where Jason Binn, owner and publisher of Hamptons and Ocean Drive, plans to launch his next coffee-table tome, Gotham, in March. Initial circulation is 80,000, with a possible cover price around $3.95. Binn is targeting career-oriented people in their mid-30s who aren't planning for retirement. And, oh yes, a high degree of disposable income helps.

Asked how much the launch will cost, Binn would say only, "A lot. It's a big project, New York." He's got a jump-start with high-end advertisers, though, landing a number of Madison Avenue boutiques, Armani, Dior and Bottega Veneta.

Q: What precipitated the launch of Gotham?

A: Our average reader's home in the Hamptons--where they spend maybe 16 weeks a year--costs approximately $3 minion. Imagine how much their homes in New York are, where they spend the whole year. Hamptons has existed for 23 years and developed an incredible database. Half of our distribution of Gotham will be given to Hamptons readers during the off-season. But the Hamptons is a different market--very outdoor, very light--and New York is more serious. Gotham will be a monthly (Hamptons is weekly), so we need to create more edge and impact.

Q: Why launch Gotham now?

A: There's momentum right now. Hamptons has dose to $6 million in ad revenue, with over 200 total pages a week. We distribute 36,000 ABC-audited copies per week, with roughly a 55:45 ad:edit ratio. Eighty percent of our ad revenue comes out of New York City. In the past three years, since I've been involved with the company, the page count and ad revenues have close to tripled.

Q: What will Gotham's content be?

A: I haven't brought on my editor yet, and a lot of it will be in the control of the editor, but the layout and design will be compatible with what I'm doing now with Hamptons and Ocean Drive. Oversize and glossy--lifestyles of the rich, hip and cool.

Q: How will you set yourself apart from other New York magazines? Titles like New York, The New Yorker, Time Out and Manhattan Style, which is being launched this month by Joseph Decristofaro [former publisher of Hamptons Country] and Jack Laschever [former publisher of GQ]?

A: There are publications out there that have a marketshare. What I do is a little different--the format, for example. And our magazines have created a certain kind of buzz. New York and Time Out--they're distributed all over the world; they're bibles of New York. I am focusing only on a niche market--the New York City inner sanctum.

Q: How much of Gotham's circulation will be paid?

A: About 10,000 will be on the newsstands. Subscriptions and direct mail will account for about 35,000. The rest will be free at the right parties, events, hotels and window storefronts. We'll do promotions on newsstand fronts as well as for the right charities.

Q: How will you avoid a fate similar to that of Manhattan Inc., which was launched with much hoopla in the mid1 980s and folded a few years later after a few incarnations?

A: I've been waiting to come to New York for 10 years. I wanted to wait until everything was strong and stable, with revenues and page counts consistently going up.

Q: What drew you to magazines?

A: When I was 23 or 24, Jerry Powers, who became my partner at Ocean Drive, walked up to me one night in Miami and said, "Did you ever make money off all these people?" When I said no, he said, "You're a fool."

There are so many jobs out there. It's nice to work hard and see the results in your hand, to touch them. Very few businesses give you that.