Real-World Solutions

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

ANCILLARY PROFITS

When sales of lithographs and posters of the December 10, 2001 New Yorker cover unexpectedly generated $400,000 in cash, Conde Nast knew it had stumbled onto a new revenue stream. Previously, the publisher had dabbled in the arts with sales of New Yorker cartoons. But with CondeNastArt.com - a site that sells reproductions of classic CN covers from the 1910s through the 1950s - the company is expanding its offerings. Included in the 200 prints now available online are vintage takes from Vogue, Vanity Fair, House & Garden, Gourmet, and Mademoiselle. The site - which went live at the end of the summer, in sync with promotional house ads that appeared in Sept. issues - is searchable by title, decade, illustrator, and topic (such as "Fashionable Pets"). A matted print sells for $250 and a framed version for $350. To publishers looking to get in on the cover art biz, Primalia Chang cautions, "You have to be careful that you really protect and preserve the brand." If you tchotchke-ize cover reproductions, you stand to lose more than ancillary revenue.

Super-Size It

ADVERTISING

American Express Publishing's Travel Leisure isn't new to the world of marketing partnerships. But its September issue featured a first for the luxury travel-and-lifestyle mag: a 20-page Perry Ellis insert that was produced by T L's "special sections department." (The fine print says that the magazine's editorial staff wasn't involved in it's production.) The ad insert is part of a broader program that T L has brokered with Perry Ellis, which includes 10 parties hosted throughout the country and a variety of giveaways (such as 15 six-day transatlantic cruises on the QE2). So Perry Ellis gets a huge special advertising section and a suitcase full of marketing bells and whistles. But what's in it for T L? "We were able to roll other partners in and leverage other advertisers in the promotional venues," says vice president and publisher Ellen Asmodeo-Giglio. "We get a lot of splash from it - it's 20 pages in the book - and we make money on it." With the advertising market still soft, look for more and more publishers to offer blowout marketing opportunities that advertisers find too hard to refuse.

Schmooze School

ADVERTISING

Tired of the same old hotel bars, the business staff at Hearst's Popular Mechanics decided it needed a high-flying venue for client-bonding sessions. To keep media buyers in touch with PM's mission, the magazine enrolls them in Popular Mechanics University, a year-long series of events designed to teach the physics and mechanics of activities like sailing, rock-climbing, and, yes, skydiving. "We don't hand them the parachute until they give us an insertion order," jokes publisher Jay McGill. PM holds about 25 of these events each year in New York, Detroit, Dallas, and other major markets. It sure beats standing around with a drink in your hand. And as McGill says, "We took what we had budgeted for events in various ad markets, and we rolled it into smaller events for smaller groups of people rather than hold one large party where you end up having a lot of no-shows. The cost-effectiveness of these events is better. And we're probably reaching nearly as many people." Plus, PMU does more for bonding than any cocktail party ever could. "If you jump out of an airplane together," cracks McGill, "you've built a relationship."