All Aboard?

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 1, 2003 by Michael Learmonth

However, most magazine publishers don't have a cable-news operation and a movie studio in their backyard, a la AOL Time Warner. The number of companies able to pull off a true multiplatform package in-house can be counted on one hand. And that's giving those behemoths a real edge. "When I open the magazine, I see a lot of ads that no one else gets because of our cross-media deals," crows Ed Erhardt, sales chief for Disney. His company offers advertisers packages via its sports media properties, which include ABC Sports, ESPN, and ESPN The Magazine. Erhardt says 10 to 25 percent of the ads (think beer) in the magazine come from cross-platform deals with the TV, cable, and Internet properties. Most recently, Mazda plopped down $15 million on a Disney sports-media combo.

To compete, a growing number of publishers that haven't been blessed with natural allies in other media are brokering short-term alliances in the name of multimedia packaging. Newsweek has been particularly active, forging deals with NBC, MSN, and the A&E channel so that it can sell its ad pages along with Internet, cable, and network TV. In fact, $10 million, or about 2.5 percent, of the magazine's revenue was earned that way in 2002, says a Newsweek spokesman.

These types of arrangements demand that magazine ad-sales staffers acquire media knowledge outside of the print arena. "You're never going to be an expert in all media," says Sabatier, "but you need to learn to sell other channels." And they demand that staffers spend countless hours dreaming up these packages, coordinating components across divisions, and negotiating deals with outside companies. There are hundreds of moving pieces to a proposal that, in the end, may or may not woo the client.

As FOLIO: went to press, Chrysler's Stewart was reviewing more than 50 multimedia proposals for the Pacifica, set to debut in just a few weeks. Chrysler has plenty of cash to spend in 2003, but it has already decided that the biggest buys will go to companies able to assemble a broad portfolio of media bundled neatly into a synergistic package. Is it worth the hassle? At this point, it hardly matters. The cross-platform train has left the station.

2002 Was a Year of Big Deals

Advertiser: Mazda

Media: Disney (ESPN/ABC Sports/ESPN The Magazine)

The Package: Introduction of the Mazda 6 sedan

Monday Night football (ABC); Sunday Night Football (ESPN); events at ESPN Zone restaurants; 500 co-branded promo spots on ESPN and ESPN2; contest on ESPN.com; sponsorship of 52-week ESPN "The Truck Tour"; ESPN Radio spots; ads and cover wraps in ESPN The Magazine

Advertiser: Microsoft

Media: Newsweek/MSNBC

The Package: Microsoft "Agility" campaign

Sponsorship of "Companies of the Future" cover package; gatefold magazine ad; co-branded promotion on MSNBC.com; sponsorship of Web alerts and online chat with Newsweek editors

Advertiser: DaimlerChrysler

Media: Conde Nast

The Package: Chrysler's "Line on Design" campaign

12-page insert in nine magazines; network TV show sponsorship; design-related events and symposiums; access to the Conde Nast database