The Glossy According To Gene

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

Down the road Tuller says he's seeking the same subscriber/newsstand ratios of "the core four" in the category: Maxim, FHM, Stuff and Gear. (Gear, for instance, has a circulation of 517,000, with 483,000 subs and 34,000 single-copy sales.) Insert cards in the launch issue will attempt to lure subscribers with a 56 percent discount off the newsstand cover price.

Like other celebrity editors, Simmons plays the starring role in the magazine - the premier issue showcases interviews he's conducted with Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, Fred Durst of the rap-metal band, Limp Bizkit, and Bill Maher of "Politically Incorrect." Naturally, there's no shortage of babes, either. The perennial siren of men's magazines, Carmen Electra, makes an appearance in the first issue. But it's not just about tossing "some girl who's-on-the-WB-and-looks-good-in-a-pair-of-hotpants on the cover," says Tuller. "It's [about] access. When Gene Simmons calls, people answer the phone."

The concept for Gene Simmons Tongue came together after Simmons and Tuller worked on a series of successful newsstand one-shots that capitalized on Kiss's top-grossing tours from 1996 to 2001, which reunited the original band members in full make-up to recapture the reverence (and money) of a Gen-X audience that grew up with songs like "Rock & Roll All Nite."

Who came up with the idea? "I think I did," says Simmons, with a knowing nod to Tuller. "Did I?"

"Yes, you did," replies Tuller.

The 2.5 million Kiss fan base, or the "Kiss Army," falls neatly within that 18- to 34-year-old audience Gene Simmons Tongue is targeting. A preliminary survey of 1,728 charter subscribers shows that the average Tongue reader is 32.6 years old and has an average income of $61,696. That puts the title between Maxim and Playboy (Maxim's average reader is 28.1 years old, with an average household income of $70,083, while the average Playboy reader is 35.8 years old with an average income of $60,188) and into position to capture the same base of electronics, video game and fashion advertisers that infused Maxim with $152.9 million in advertising last year.

And while the Simmons team didn't have any specific demographic info on the "Kiss Army" as a whole, Mediamark Research shows that classic rock fans have some fairly impressive statistics: They earn more money than the average male, buy more cars, drink more beer and purchase more electronic gadgets.

A shameless self-promoter, Simmons, 53, is a modern-day P.T. Barnum who has capitalized on those stats to construct a half-billion dollar franchise. With more than 2,500 licenses for Kiss-branded merchandise - cell-phones, watches, condoms and even coffins - Simmons habitually turns media interviews into infomercials. Recently, he's been flogging his New York Times best-seller, the tale of an Israeli immigrant named Chaim Witz who, through hard work and a little grease-paint, becomes Gene Simmons of the best-selling rock brand in America. His Web site, GeneSimmons.com, features a diary of his weekly business transactions where fans can track his 24/7 workaholic schedule as he wheels and deals for a potential TV show, Broadway musical, radio gig and a restaurant. "They buy anything with Kiss on it," says Simmons, "and I make sure I'm at the end of the line going, [extending his hand], 'Pay the piper.'"