Tackling A Magazine's Makeover

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Jan, 2001 by Jennifer F. Steil

ARE SALES SAGGING? ADVERTISERS APATHETIC? EDITORIAL PUTTING READERS TO SLEEP? IT MIGHT BE TIME TO BRIGHTEN YOUR BRAND.

Eyen for magazines, there's no fountain of youth. But a little editorial alchemy can help keep a magazine fresh as time goes by and audiences' tastes and interests shift.

We're not talking about a complete overhaul. Rejuvenating your brand is not the same as repositioning it. Repositioning occurs when something isn't working at all. A major shift in the market, for example, could indicate a big change in target audience. Or, for a newer brand, it could mean that the initial editorial focus was way off the mark.

Rejuvenation, on the other hand, entails minor tweaking, not major surgery. It's an effort to grab your readers a little more firmly, to update outdated editorial, or to clarify editorial focus. It can happen when your advertising and circulation numbers are not taking a nosedive, but they aren't rocketing to the moon, either.

In short, rejuvenation is intended to make a good magazine better, whereas repositioning sets a wayward magazine in an entirely new direction.

Several common symptoms should prompt suspicions that your brand could use a pick-me-up. A decline in the number of letters to the editor, for instance, could point to a problem. "When people stop taking issue with what you're doing, when letters drop off, it means people aren't paying attention," says Peter Craig, president of the Magazine Consulting Group in Los Angeles. "If a consumer magazine talks about an issue and no one cares, then, well, no one cares!"

Another sure sign of reader weariness is a drop in renewal rates, or, for trade magazines, a fall-off in requalifications.

Other obvious clues include a slump in circulation and a dwindling number of advertising pages.

Sometimes you have none of these--but instead of waiting for your readers to notice something wrong, you want to be one step ahead of them, proactively leading their interests rather than merely responding to them.

The benefits of revitalization are legion. Clarifying or slightly altering a magazine's mission can enhance and expand advertiser interest. It can give a magazine an edge in an increasingly competitive marketplace. And it can attract new readers. Experts outline a three-step process for freshening a magazine and fine-tuning it to best serve the audience.

RESEARCH

You can't make intelligent changes before you know what's working and what's not. So the first step for an editor who's considering any sort of refurbishment is to read over an entire year's worth of issues and take notes. Then, armed with a thorough knowledge of the magazine, conduct a listening tour.

When Anne Alexander, former editorial director and vice president of Prevention, wanted to gather this information, she met with other editors, major advertisers, ad salespeople and readers to find out what they liked and didn't like about the magazine. She also read every letter from every reader and listened in on phone calls from readers.

Reader surveys (by mail or by phone) and focus groups also help indicate which parts of the magazine are enthralling and which are making readers yawn.

In the wake of this exhaustive research, it falls to the editor, or a team of editors, to decide what changes are appropriate. "A good editor will intuitively know what is a magazine's inherent worth--why she likes it," says Alexander. "Otherwise, you get a flood of opinions and information. You have to know your own mind."

EXECUTION

If your research and instincts tell you that modifications are in order, it's time for action. There are many different ways to rejuvenate a magazine. You may want to restructure it, moving departments so that their placement in the magazine better matches your readers' interests. Or you may want to rename departments to make their purpose clearer.

Alexander did both of these things at Prevention. Because readers indicated that they were particularly interested in news, she moved the news sections to the front of the book. She also added several sections dealing with contemporary topics, such as caring for aging parents, home and natural remedies, and quick cooking. Other sections were renamed to sharpen their purpose. "Skin Fitness," for example, was renamed "Best Bets in Beauty," which Alexander thought was clearer.

Research might also tell you that you need to add a missing element to your magazine. Barbara Tapp was brought aboard at Art & Antiques specifically to add the lifestyle component that the editors had decided was missing. To liven up her magazine about "dead objects," Tapp added features on how people actually live with their collections, as well as a section spotlighting emerging artists. The magazine's photography was brought to life by including more people in the shots.

Adding these lifestyle elements has enhanced advertiser interest, Tapp says. "This opens new areas other than art galleries and antiques shops," she says. "Any luxury goods, luxury cars--those are lifestyle categories, and when you add a lifestyle component, that naturally follows."