In Search of NEW FRONTIERS

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, June 1, 2003 by Karen Jenkins Holt

Byline: Karen Jenkins Holt

If you're a publisher hunting for a way to profit from readers' appetite for science mags, Paula Apsell, senior executive producer of the PBS science program "Nova," will be happy - make that delighted - to take your call.

"'Nova' would love to have a magazine," says Apsell. "We would make a fantastic magazine. But that's a complex and costly venture. We have to find someone who kind of wants to adopt us."

As in any competitive magazine market, newcomers to consumer publishing will better their odds if they hook up with an established name. And admirers from the world of print and television say that "Nova" is the brand they think would translate best.

"I don't know why it hasn't happened. It seems sort of obvious," says John Angier, who produces the "Scientific American Frontiers" segments for PBS. Other television brands with print potential include the Discovery Channel, TechTV, CNN, and the BBC's "U.K. Horizons."

Of course, science publishing's next big idea may not be discovered on TV.

Though a Caltech spokesperson confirmed that the university is in the final stages of deciding whether to develop a consumer science magazine, the school refuses to talk about it yet. Such a move would put Caltech in competition for subscribers with its chief rival for students, MIT, which licenses its name for Technology Review.

The idea of a spin-off focusing exclusively on science gets kicked around at National Geographic, reports John Q. Griffin, president of the magazine group. NG already covers science and it has had success extending its brand in the past, with NG Traveler, NG Explorer, and NG Kids. But Griffin says it comes down to whether the market could support a large-circulation - at least 500,000 - title devoted to science.

Former Red Herring editor Jason Pontin sees the magazine he launched in May, Acumen Journal of Sciences, as just the first in a string of five or six new pubs. "I'd be interested in nanotechnology next - and after nanotechnology, energy," says Pontin. He envisions his titles appealing to a modest but enthusiastic sub base of 25,000 to 80,000 readers. What does he like for a more mass-appeal book? "I think 'Nova' would make an excellent print brand," he says.

"Nova" nearly did make it into print about five years ago, says Aspell. But after lots of meetings with reps from Scientific American, the deal fell through. Still, the experience hasn't jaded her. "We're on the block for an enterprising publisher," she says.