The Glossy According To Gene

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

Thanks to the success of the laddie titles, a gaggle of imitators and like-minded niche publications are rushing to fill out the men's lifestyle space - from the African-American-geared King, to the Canadian-born Razor (see story, page 15). Rick Jones of Douglas Jones Group, a consultant who recently worked on the launch of a men's lifestyle magazine called Controversy, admits, "It's become very crowded. A lot of people are jumping on that platform right now. We don't know what that limit is yet. To go from zero to six to 10 players is a lot of growth."

Greg Oehler, president of Oehler Media and a consultant to Gene Simmons Tongue, says there's a way to sidestep the mob. "The category is crowded, it's busy, and I'm of the belief that when you've got a market like that, you want something fresh and new. If you look at our crossover and duplication, it's the same mindset and buying power, but low duplication from Maxim and Stuff."

Dana Fields, president and executive publisher of FHM, says a shakeout looms, and the men's titles with the biggest distribution muscle will win. "The ones that don't have strong corporate backing will suffer," she says.

A month before Tongue's April 16 ship date, an informal survey of the ad community showed that few media buyers had even heard of it, never mind considered it in a media plan. "On first impression, I thought it was a joke when I heard Gene Simmons Tongue," says Jan Weinstein, senior vice president, group media director of Foote, Cone & Belding.

"Gene Simmons is going to mean a lot of things to someone, but it could polarize negatively as much as it polarizes positively," observes Paul Woolmington, CEO of the Media Kitchen, a joint venture with Kirschenbaum Bond & Partners that places clients like Hennessey in Maxim and Esquire. "You've got to explain it very articulately. And I think a lot of people making decisions want it served up neatly. I'm not sure this is as neat as some of the other packages. What is Gene Simmons? I don't know."

Tuller has set aside 20 pages for advertising in the first issue. As of late March, with three weeks until close, the magazine had about half the pages sold - but the blue-chip ad dollars they hoped would be part of their ad base were still missing. To court the bigger accounts, Tuller teamed with another ad consultant, AMF Advertising, and threw a cocktail party for potential clients at Los Angeles' Four Seasons Hotel. Ken Rose, the president of AMF, says he had some leads, but the most promising was Callaway Golf, a maker of golf clubs.

What of the Detroit dollars? The big liquor ads? The gaming companies? "They'll come," shrugs Simmons, a might less haughty than in February. "Initially, in that first issue, we'll get some advertising. We'll do fine." But, he also admits, "There's going to be a learning curve."

A moment later he's predicting he'll have a 50 to 70 percent sell-through on the newsstand - and "by the way, we'll make lots more money than magazines that sell millions. After 25,000 copies, we're making money."