The Folio: 40

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 15, 2001 by Jillian Ambroz, Dale Buss, Terry Fisher, Cindy Gillis, Sarah Gonser, Caroline Jenkins, Michael Kaplan, Mark J. Miller, Bob Moseley, Susan Thea Posnock, Lee Steele, Geoff Van Dyke

OUR ANNUAL LOOK AT PEOPLE IN PUBLISHING WHO INNOVATE, SHOW GREAT ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT, HAVE TRANSFORMED THE INDUSTRY OR ARE JUST PLAIN WORTH WATCHING.

GLENNHANSEN

He pushed to scrap circulation's age-old 50 percent rule, helped redefine paid circulation and revamped audit reports.

When the Toronto Star first approached BPA International about dropping the 50-percent-of-basic rule for newspapers in the spring of 1998, Glenn Hansen knew that revising the definition of paid circulation was a tremendous opportunity. "we recognized that this was big for the industry," Hansen says. "It was innovative."

With the 115-year-old rule out of the way, circulators would gain marketing flexibility. And that had become critical in today's upside-down world of circulation economics. Marketing partnerships, bundling (selling subscriptions as part of a package with other products and services) and pricing flexibility were areas that many circulators wanted to explore, but it had been difficult, if not impossible, under the old rules.

Not everyone saw these same opportunities. After the audit firm decided to discuss taking the half-of-basic rule off the books for magazines in the fall of 1998, it found that committee members were indifferent. "There was no groundswell of support for--or against--changing the rule," says Hansen.

Still, Hansen was convinced that this could fundamentally change the way magazines are marketed. He worked hard with all customers--circulators and advertisers--to get them to look at a new definition for paid circulation, says Becca Hoblin, senior consumer marketing director at Ziff Davis Media, who was part of BPA's paid circulation task force.

Hansen also formed a task force to hash out the details of the revised reporting format that would accompany the rule change. He opened debate on all sides, discussing the issue with vendors, circulators and media buyers. "Glenn understood what needed to happen," says Nick Cavnar, vice president of circulation for Intertec Publishing, also part of BPA's paid circulation task force. And now, "a lot of opportunities are opening up," he says.

After the new reporting rules went into effect January 1, 2001, Hansen, along with other BPA staffers, began taking his cause on the road, crossing the country to host "Town Hall" meetings with members. Most members are aware of the changes, says Hansen. But there's work to be done to show magazine members how they can use the new rules to their advantage. As Hansen says, without the 50 percent rule, "the handcuffs are off' for consumer marketers.

MONIKAWINN

GEOFF VAN DYKE

She's Time Inc .s--and the industry's--watchdog for continuous-service issues.

The next "savior" of magazine publishing? It could be continuous service, says Monika Winn, vice president for customer marketing for Time Consumer Marketing Inc. In that role, she consolidates and disseminates continuous-service data among Time Inc. titles.

Because of Time Inc.'s work in continuous service, or automatic renewals, Winn has become an industry sounding board. "People from other companies call here regularly and want to bounce ideas off people," Winn says. "It's an area where we'd like the entire industry to move forward with the speed that we can. That means the public's perception is going to change--and that's ultimately going to benefit us all."

Time Inc. has been at the forefront of the industry's move toward continuous service. "They've gone a lot further with it than any other publishing company," says Chip Block, publishing strategist for Ziff Davis. According to Winn, full-year subscriptions sold on a continuous-service basis have increased from 9 percent in 1998 to 30 percent in 2000. Half the 500,000 subscriptions Time Inc. and AOL garnered through an online trial last year were continuous service, and 95 percent of those were credit-card subscriptions, according to Robert Pittman, AOL Time Warner co-COO.

Credit cards are the key to making continuous service really work for the industry, Winn says. "Bill-me continuous service is nice, but it doesn't get you the sort of landscape-changing savings and net-renewal gains that credit-card continuous service does," she says.

But there are myriad challenges; one of the biggest is that "people have not yet gotten into the mindset of placing smaller-ticket items on their credit cards," says Winn. She is working with Time Inc. titles to make sure that any promotions are clear and upfront about potential offers. "I attempt to make sure that what we're doing will pass any legal muster and that we have the fulfillment capabilities required to support the users at our fulfillment house," Winn says.

And while she's working with her own titles, she's also addressing industry executives at conferences and trade shows about the latest in continuous service. Says Winn, "I get on my soapbox about what I think people should and should not be doing."

ANDERSONNEWS COMPANY

GEOFF VAN DYKE

The wholesaler's two-tiered distribution system fundamentally shifted single-copy sales.