Madison Ave. Finds Religion

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Feb 1, 2003

Byline: JOE MANDESE

During a period when many publishers have been praying for miracles, it appears that Heaven may have granted one. In the midst of the worst ad recession ever recorded, the inspirational monthly Guideposts has converted to an ad-supported business model - after existing for more than 50 years as a subscription-only magazine.

Founded in 1945 by religious leader Norman Vincent Peale, Guideposts has 2.6 million loyal followers, who, up until a few years ago, were the magazine's sole revenue source. But to continue publishing its spiritually uplifing first-person stories about battling cancer and overcoming drug addiction, Guideposts needed a larger bankroll.

Though the January issue, with a cover story about hepatitis C survivor Naomi Judd, carried just six ad pages, prior issues averaged more than a dozen. Not bad for a publication that only recently started pitching media buyers. Yet the title, its executives say, is just getting started. With 35 advertising pages in the 135-page March issue, Guideposts is getting closer to its goal of a 60/40 edit-to-ad ratio.

The magazine, whose articles often chronicle debilitating illnesses, hasn't had any trouble attracting pharmaceutical marketers. But now it's making inroads with a broader ad base, including packaged goods companies. Among the new advertisers in its March issue are Kraft and Nestle. "These are category breakers for us," says publisher Janine Scolpino. "We've always done tremendous in the pharmaceutical market, but until now we were not able to get the attention of the food category."

Scolpino managed to get that attention through a missionary-like campaign to raise Guideposts' profile. However, her Madison Avenue road show, featuring new and innovative magazine industry research, hasn't been easy.

"They certainly were not on my radar screen," admits Neil Ascher, senior vice president and director of communications services at Zenith Media. "As a kid who grew up in Brooklyn, I had no idea what Guideposts was." In fact, Ascher scoured his department, asking if anyone had heard of the title, until he found one group manager, originally from a rural area, who was familiar with it.

Guideposts' story is similar to other media with a religious and spiritual message. Most struggle with their low profiles in the advertising community. Ascher notes that it took years for cable's Family Channel - originally Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network - to get on base with major ad agencies, and that it was not until it was owned by Fox that it really broke major ground. (Family is now Disney-owned ABC Family.) Hallmark Channel - formerly Odyssey Network - also began as a spiritual network, and it, too, has had a difficult path.

However, Ascher believes Guideposts' base of believers is a plus for print advertisers. He also thinks some brands may even benefit from the association. "It's almost like an implied endorsement," he says, explaining that the readers of an inspirational magazine are more likely to be involved with its content and the advertising it carries.

While that may have been implicit, Scolpino has sought to make it explicit by investing in empirical research to demonstrate that Guideposts' readers are strongly committed to the magazine. The most powerful ammunition so far has been data from Mediamark Research, Inc.'s fall survey, the first to include the title in its database. In this survey, Guideposts ranks as America's "favorite" magazine, and the data also places it near the top of the Reader Involvement Index. The latter factors three variables - average reading time, whether a magazine is one of the reader's "favorites," and the number of issues read out of every four - to determine the level of involvement a title has with its audience. Based on those criteria, Guideposts ranks Number 1 among women and Number 2 among all readers.

Guideposts helped pioneer several print research developments, including serving as the beta test for the Audit Bureau of Circulations' new subscriber profile studies. It also signed on as an early underwriter of Kantar Media Research's MARS study of pharmaceutical products and media usage.

All of these initiatives have helped, but Zenith's Ascher says Guideposts still has some way to go: "They still face some challenges. For one thing, they are a digest, and that's a problem for a lot of advertisers." The magazine's biggest obstacle continues to be awareness, he says, noting, "A lot of people still don't know what they are about."

MEASURING READER INVOLVEMENT: WOMEN