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

DAVIDBRADLEY

This industry outsider's mission intrigues: Make a major financial of magazines in the thought-leader category, which has traditionally left Madison Avenue underwhelmed.

DALE BUSS

David Bradley's strongest suit as he nears a year and a half of ownership of The Atlantic Monthly may be that he is long-suffering. The highbrow journal of opinion was consistently in the red before Mort Zuckerman sold it to Bradley in 1999 for $10 million, and Bradley says the title remains "a deck on fire," as far as economics are concerned. But, he adds, "I've got the confidence of patience. I will stay the watch."

Bradley may need a lot of patience. The magazine has lost about 100 ad pages over the last four years (it generated 535 pages last year), and its ad revenue has been flat at about $17.7 million, according to PIB. The National Journal, meanwhile, which Bradley bought in 1997, has grown significantly in four years, from $3.6 million in ad revenue in 1997 to $5.9 million last year.

In any case, Bradley, by his own acknowledgment, is pumping millions into both publications. But beyond saying that he is investing "millions" each year into his two-magazine company, he declined to state specifically how much he'll spend or how his top line needs to perform before he declares success. Investments have been made mostly in editorial and production improvements, but also in beefing up the circulation. In fact, renewal rates for the Journal have risen to 86 percent from 80 percent since Bradley bought it in 1997. And "advertising is up dramatically," says John Fox Sullivan, longtime president of the Journal.

Meanwhile, The Atlantic's February issue is the most tangible sign yet of the money that Bradley is spending to revamp the title: There's an expansion of content and a graphic redesign that minimizes visual elements so as to highlight the written word. He's even spent more than $1 million a year in publishing the 143-year-old mainstay on better paper.

In any event, trying to nudge The Atlantic into viability now is a difficult proposition. Says Valerie Muller, director of print services for Mediacom, "It's part of an intelligentsia that we've stopped addressing as a group.

Bradley admits that it's "a Versailles-scale problem (and occasion). We'll just keep turning doorknobs until we find some treasure room of a great magazine."

JOHNPAPANEK

DALE BUSS

He built a sports title that not only rivals the mighty SI, but also holds its own in the ESPN empire.

The dramatic death of NASCAR king Dale Earnhardt at the Daytona Speedway on a Sunday afternoon in February had the kind of magnitude that instantly commandeers the focus of sports-magazine editors. ESPN The Magazine happened to be closing an issue that night. But John Papanek, editor in chief and senior vice president, didn't push back deadlines to squeeze staff coverage of the disaster into its pages. He knew the story would be covered around the clock for weeks.

"By the time the magazine that I was closing that day reaches readers, they're not going to be looking for much about Dale Earnhardt from me, says the 49-year-old Papanek, who has edited ESPN since it was launched in 1998. "They're going to be more interested in what his death means for the future."