The Glossy According To Gene

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 1, 2002

Byline: JOE HAGAN

On a Tuesday afternoon in February, two months and 30 days before Gene Simmons Tongue is scheduled to be unleashed on newsstands, the owner of said tongue is holding court in a small conference room on 7th Avenue in Manhattan.

"I'd like to go after the trucks of America," announces Simmons, dressed head to toe in black and heeled in snake-skin boots, "the big money guys. Trucks, cars."

"Well," says Steve Gross, a rep hired to sell ads for the premiere issue, "that's a process. I mean, everybody wants Detroit. I was about to say -"

"Listen to me," says Simmons, swatting away dissent. "You're about to tell me what's impossible. Not interested. Just get me the president of whatever-it-is [on the phone], and put me on. All I can do is ask him and he can either say no or yes. If he says yes, it's [snaps his fingers] Yes."

"We need access," insists Mitch Herskowitz, president of the rep firm.

"You don't need access," says Simmons, "you just need a phone number."

"All right," agrees Herskowitz, resigned. "I'll take you up on it."

Gross wants to get this straight: "So our job is to find out who the top player is and -"

"- and get me their phone number," says Simmons, thus ending today's lesson on the powers of celebrity entree. But not without a flourish: Bidding adieu to his departing companion, a busty Playboy model, Simmons demonstrates, for all to see, the most basic use of his name-brand appendage - a languorous kiss.

Make way for a little more bravado at newsstands this May. Gene Simmons, the demon-faced, fire-spewing rock star from Kiss, is joining the growing ranks of celebrities spinning iconic status into glossy brands, and fans into a readership base. It's a lucrative path first paved by Martha, then Oprah and Rosie, that not only gives in to public cravings for greater celebrity access, but also grants publishers the kind of established brand value that normally costs millions of dollars to build.

Of course, the formula has never been tested in an economic maelstrom of this magnitude. Not only did consumer ad pages plunge by 11.9 percent last year, but every conceivable expense - from circulation to distribution - got more exorbitant. Stunned by declining profit margins, most publishers are shelving risky start-up ventures in anticipation of better times.

But not Simmons. Having recently published a best-selling autobiography, Kiss and Make-Up, he's more than confident that a market exists for what he describes as a Rolling Stone-meets-Playboy take on Sex, Style, and Rock 'n' Roll.

"It's an insider view of men's lifestyle with a rock 'n' roll twist," explains publisher Allen Tuller. And while the Tongue team may have their hands full managing Mr. Simmons' ingenuous expectations of what it takes to court major advertisers into an unproven product in this market, they also have at least one industry-wide trend on their side. Gene Simmons Tongue is targeting the golden demographic identified by Dennis Publishing's Maxim. The laddie category - which proved that 18- to 34-year-old men with disposable income and an eye for nubile young hotties are interested in reading more than just sports magazines - is one of the few sectors where reader numbers are booming rather than contracting.

But Tongue isn't appealing only to frat-boy sensibilities. It will touch on the inner desire for fame among laddies who like to air-guitar. "Everybody wants to be a rock star," says Tuller, who gravitates to the lifestyle himself, favoring leather pants and silver jewelry. "Everybody wants to get backstage and everybody wants to get hot women."

The question is, will advertisers buy into the rock 'n' roll lifestyle that Simmons is selling? "As a new magazine, it's going to create buzz, and advertisers are going to take a look because they are reaching the younger male," says Anthony Arena, associate media director at Bozell New York, who places ads for the milk industry and for the anti-smoking campaign of the Lorillard Tobacco Company. "What is the message of this magazine? If it's sex, style and rock 'n' roll - overall, that's been working."

While his star wattage may be a little dimmer than other celebrities who've made a play for publishing lucre (his Q rating is below average, according to Marketing Evaluations/TvQ, while Oprah and Rosie both score well above average), Simmons is also taking a much more modest approach to his national rollout. To produce the quarterly, he's partnered with a publisher that knows how to cap costs: The Sterling/MacFadden Partnership, with its fad-inspired one-shots and low-budget newsstand monthlies like Metal Edge, has a certain expertise in the fast-and-cheap methods of manufacturing. Using a scaled-down model, Simmons and co. believe a start-up is not only possible in the here and now, but that they can teach the industry a trick or two along the way.

Says Tuller, "We're going to prove them all wrong."

Ever since AOL bought Time Warner to form a media dynasty that threatens the very existence of every other wannabe media monopoly, much has been made about scale. The thinking is that publishing houses that don't exert influence over major distributors and can't offer a multi-million dollar integrated ad buy have little defense against the number-one brands that can.