Frisky Business

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Jan 1, 2003

Byline: Katie Caperton

Government security - July 2002 Homeland protection professional - July/August 2002 CSO - September 2002 Transportation security - November 2002

You'd think that in the months after September 11, as the subject of security became a national obsession, Primedia's Access Control & Security Systems, a 45-year-old trade publication covering security in business and institutions, would have benefited from the tragedy. Yet, like several similar magazines, it was heavy on tech ads in the throes of a tumbling economy. Undaunted, the editor and publisher proceeded to capitalize on their leg-up in covering security, and they dug deeper into new, post-9/11 markets.

First, last July, they introduced Government Security. Then, in November, they debuted Transportation Security. That launch, says publisher David George, would never have happened in a pre-9/11 world. "We think it's going to have legs for many years," he explains. "September 11th really refocused the security discussion from an expense to an investment." (Primedia is the parent of FOLIO:.)

Transportation Security focuses on airports - a subject that other magazines in the security niche covered, but only minimally. Before Transportation Security there was no U.S.-based magazine covering the beat. Editor-in-chief Larry Anderson says the title evolved from listening to core advertisers who desperately wanted to reach the 15,000 decision-makers in transportation security who were armed with larger budgets and who AC&SS had identified from polling 600 to 700 manufacturers and trade-show attendees.

"Our company, as well as others, has been gearing up because of all the homeland security," says Mara Weber, marketing communications manager for Honeywell, which placed an ad in the premiere issue of Transportation Security. The ad department at Honeywell was recently restructured to include post-9/11 niches. Weber got airport security. "It really wasn't until [2001] that we identified airports as something we wanted to put 100 percent focus on," she says.

All that homeland-security buzz left the door wide open for a swelling market of new security titles. CXO Media launched CSO in September 2002, aimed at 25,000 chief security executives. "It became clear to us that there was this population of movers and shakers out there in the security world who were jonesing for more coverage of security as a strategic issue," says editor-in-chief Lew McCreary. CSO has seen ad pages grow from 28 to 31 in its first two issues and, based on commitments already made, expects continued growth over the next two years.

Homeland Protection Professional, an independent publication aimed at emergency-response managers, was introduced last summer with a July/August issue. Editor-in-chief Scott Baltic echoes his competitors, confessing that he doesn't think "the interest would have been there on the part of potential readers - and advertisers," if the new market hadn't evolved.

Can the security market support more titles? Sherry L. Harowitz, editor of Security Managment, has a wait-and-see attitude. "Clearly security is now the hot area. People go where the money is. Five years from now it will be very interesting to see who is left."