Today Publishing, Tomorrow The Mall

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Jan 1, 2004 by Pamela J. Black

Byline: PAMELA J. BLACK

Every publisher knows that brand extensions and cobranding are increasingly critical to success. It's now considered de rigeur for every magazine to have a Web site, and many have ventured into radio and TV. (Conversely, some TV shows have successfully spawned print brands: ESPN, Lifetime, MTV, and Oprah, to name a few.) Magazines such as Maxim, Elle, Car & Driver, and Cosmo will soon let fans download horoscopes and car reviews to their cell phones. Every point of connection with potential new readers, or added value to old readers, can increase a mag's currency.

But not all ventures are worthwhile. The Rosie debacle - in which a cobranded TV show ended and its star radically altered her personal brand - was downright lethal. Clearly, there is no single formula for success in brand extensions, but there are certain guidelines that help publishers make the right call.

"The key is being true to the core brand's asset value," says Tyler Schaeffer, a media buyer at Foote, Cone & Belding. "Failures occur when a brand is not rooted in the core capabilities and values of the content and the company that's doing it." Perhaps the easiest extension for publishers is spinning off other magazines: Stuff and Blender, Maxim's progeny, Teen Vogue, CosmoGIRL!, and Sports Illustrated for Kids, among others, are successful examples. In fact, CosmoGIRL! has grown from an initial rate base of 500,000 at its 1999 launch to 1.25 million. This year it will be up nearly 20 percent in ad pages, according to Publishers Information Bureau, and 21 percent in total circulation, according to ABC, at a time when other teen titles have had decreases.

But just knowing and valuing your brand isn't enough. You must know and value your audience. Though SI for Kids has been doing well and SI On Campus looks like a hit, Time Inc. pulled the plug on SI for Women after 12 issues. While SI's publisher, Fabio Freye, would say only that it wasn't profitable, others speculate that the magazine's image got caught up in the gender issues that bedevil women's sports and lost its way.

Crossing media platforms also requires that the brand equity stay intact. Car & Driver, Martha Stewart, National Geographic, and Fortune, for example, have all jumped the divide from print to broadcast, giving them more flexibility to offer advertisers multi-media packages and greater audience exposure. But Better Homes and Gardens pulled its TV programming when it wasn't "aesthetically at the level we wanted it to be," says publisher Dan Lagani.

"Some magazines jumped into TV just to get their brand out there," says Fortune publisher Mike Federle. "There has to be a business purpose. It has to relate to your content," he says. Fortune, which had mixed results from its "synergistic" programming on Time-Warner's CNN, saw a great fit when PBS wanted to revamp Wall Street Week sans longtime host Louis Ruykeser. The show is now co-anchored by Fortune editor Jeff Colvin, who keeps a tight rein on the content: "When putting together TV properties, we make sure there's synergy and a high upscale audience."

Another route publishers can take is merchandising, signing licensing deals with retailers or manufacturers. Martha Stewart adroitly parlayed her print brand into other businesses - from paint to furniture to hardware. For the first nine months of 2003, she had revenues of $23 million from TV, merchandise and Web commerce, even as circ for her flagship, Martha Stewart Living, dropped from 2.3 million in 2002 to 1.8 million in 2003. Her Signature line of furniture, launched last year, is manufactured and distributed through Bernhardt Furniture Co. to 235 stores nationwide.

"Stewart takes each of the businesses she enters and makes them fully fledged units," says Peter Kreisky of Kreisky Media Consulting. "She only uses high-quality partners, and she retains control of the brand through rigorous standards." Publishers should be wary of jumping on faddish products, however.

"If you just shoot for a trend, you will be shooting yourself in the foot," says Hearst brand development coordinator Glen Ellen Brown. "You have to know your brand and your consumers' behavior. Find a trend that is relevant and enduring. You need to know your brand and your consumers behavior."

Country Living, itself a House Beautiful extension, has seized Martha-like on the craze for home makeovers by developing a line of products with Lane Furniture. Sales hit $20 million in 2003. Now, House Beautiful is partnering with May's Department Stores to offer furnishings. "Any shelter brand that's not building on this trend in brand extensions is missing a huge opportunity," says Brown.

At the same time, publishers should be wary of attaching their brand to products that are too far afield or compete with advertisers. "The more you evolve away from your core product, the greater the risk," says Rich Gagnon, executive media director at Foote Cone & Belding. While there's a logical extension between shelter books and furniture, many wonder if Maxim's licensing deal with Z-lines Design for home/office furniture isn't a stretch.