Shape + Parents = Healthy Family

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, May 1, 2004

Byline: GEOFF LEWIS

Who wouldn't want a healthy family? That's a pretty simple idea and it's the premise of - you guessed it - Healthy Family magazine.

The positioning, says founder and publisher Richard Bulman, is somewhere between a parents' magazine and a women's health and fitness book. Neither category, however, currently hits the target - the mother who wants to ensure that her family is physically active, eating well and getting the best medical care. "What's really emerging is that healthy living is a lifestyle choice," says Bulman. "It's everything from the car you drive to the food you eat to the vacations you take."

MAG STATS

Healthy Family, which hits newsstands in May with a 220,000 rate base, is targeting the estimated 7 million U.S. households of mothers with children who have expressed an interest in health. Think of it as a subset of the massive LOHAS (lifestyle of health and sustainability) demographic - those moms in Volvos who stop at Whole Foods between yoga class and soccer practice.

"There hasn't been a book like this," says Bulman. "Parenting books do a good job, but they become less relevant when kids are six or seven. Women's service books address health, but only in a peripheral way. Books like Shape, Health and Self address women as individuals, not as the gatekeepers of family health."

Bulman says he dreamed up the idea after selling a software company called Kideo, which produces custom videos that place children on-screen with TV characters like Barney. Earlier in his career, the 39-year-old entrepreneur sold space for Spy and repped for Seven Days.

"I did a lot of research and saw that health and fitness had remained strong through the advertising downturn," he says. "My read was that a lot of national advertisers had to catch up with this trend and a magazine aimed at mothers would be a very compelling sell."

Just as he was finishing his business plan in 2002 and getting ready to make the rounds of major publishers, Bulman hooked up with Navigator Publishing in Portland, Maine. Navigator, a 20-year-old publisher of marine titles Ocean Navigator and Professional Mariner, was looking for new growth opportunities.

SEEKING A PARTNER

Six years ago, co-founder Alex Agnew refinanced Navigator with some high-powered equity investors and ambitions to grow the company. Navigator had already launched Smart Homeowner, a 40,000-circ do-it-yourselfer, in 2001 and was searching for more launches and publishing talent.

Bulman bought into the Navigator partnership and brought Healthy Family to Portland. He declines to discuss his budget (although he projects break even in year three or four), but says that Navigator's economies of scale will give Healthy Family a healthy start. "If you have to build a launch from scratch, it's just that much harder," he says.

Bulman aims to reach 500,000 readers in four years, but he says, "Clearly there is potential to go north of 1 million." That's assuming the product clicks and he's right about the healthy lifestyle trend.

Tiny Navigator knows it can't take Healthy Family to that million mark alone, says managing director Michael Payson, so, the company is looking for partners among the top magazine publishers. "Several major publishers have already expressed interest in Healthy Family, and we're currently engaged in discussions regarding possible partnerships," he says.

To shape the editorial, Bulman called in Sarah Mahoney, a former editor of Ladies' Home Journal, as a consultant. The editor-in-chief is Christie Mattheson, a former editor of Boston Magazine's Concierge, a tourist publication. Her goal, she says, is "not to be super fluffy or super preachy." The inaugural issue features stories by health writers Hallie Levine and Nicci Micco. The mix is weighted toward health and nutrition, but the cover focuses on active family vacations, and there is a fashion feature too.

The first issue sports ads from Ford, Aventis, Dannon Yogurt, Kraft and Disney Travel, Bulman says. The quoted full-page rate is $18,000 and the magazine weighs in at 96 pages, about one-third of which is advertising. In addition to the magazine, which will publish on a six-issue schedule this year and go to 10 issues in 2005, the franchise will include a Website and book publishing. For Bulman and Navigator, Healthy Family could be the start of a wealthy corporate family.