Before you venture abroad: what you need to know about international markets

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Oct 1, 1992 by Lee B. Hall

To many American publishers of consumer and trade magazines, "international publishing" means picking up a few million yen, marks or even zlotys in licensing fees, giving your title a worldwide image, and flying the Concorde to meetings in romantic settings. How splendid it all sounds to the American publisher wrestling with advertising revenue slumps and tough circulation battles. But the great majority of these present-day explorers are chasing a will-o'-the-wisp, an illusion they follow through foreign climes and cultures, pouring out money every step of the way, until they return home--perhaps wiser, but certainly poorer.

Launching a foreign edition of an American magazine is actually harder than launching the original U.S. edition, with the odds against success 200 to one. Of the 17,000 publications in the United States today, only 150, at most, can hope to realize elusive profits and prestige abroad. The rest should bear in mind the legend that decorated the edges of medieval maps: "There Be Monsters Here."

Reasons for failure

There are three major reasons for the failure of most U.S. publishers who try to "go global":

* They do not know enough about foreign markets and cultures to launch successful editions of their magazines on their own.

* When they do find a foreign partner who knows his market, they don't take the time to get to understand or trust him or her.

* Once a foreign edition is launched, the U.S. publisher turns over the project to underlings who merely maintain, rather than nurture and grow, the title.

But let's say that through naivete, nerviness or even desperation you are, as an American trade or consumer publisher, determined to expand abroad. You now have a new problem: cultural backlash. In the three major markets for international expansion--Europe, Asia and Latin America--the determination of the various nations to retain their own languages and cultures is frustrating multinational efforts to increase economic unity.

Nowhere is this backlash stronger than in Europe, with its 20-odd languages in 24 nations and 450-million-plus population. Each European culture, forced into economic homogeneity, is straining to retain its identity through its language and customs and is resisting almost every aspect of foreign culture. As John Naisbitt, author of Megatrends 2000, said: "Superficially, people are all beginning to resemble each other. We wear the same clothes, eat the same foods and drive the same cars. But at the same time, and on a far deeper level, we all have a need to cling to the traditions that are uniquely ours--our language, religion and culture."

In spite of all these caveats, most internationally minded U.S. publishers will plunge ahead--usually into Europe because of the common cultural background, and because they've heard that if they don't get a foot into Europe before it becomes "Festung Europa," Fortress Europe, with the launching of the European Community in 1993, their chances to exploit the European market will be lost. They tend to forget that magazines are so much a matter of style, and style such a strong element of culture and language, that unless their foreign editions combine intimate knowledge of reader tastes and backgrounds with a smattering of American zest, copies will simply sit on newsstands until ruined by rain, or head directly from office desks to wastebaskets.

Although 1993 will not make the French more German or the Spanish more English, the nascent international publisher can still succeed in Europe if he is willing to take considerable risks, and if he can think long-term. (In Germany, for example, publishers customarily project breakeven in 10 years.)

Most likely to succeed

Let's look at the categories of publications that have been most successful in foreign editions and that hold the most potential. The categories of American magazines most likely to succeed are simply those in the fields where the United States leads the world--which means they have something to show and tell and teach. Here is a short list you might want to check against your international publishing plans:

* Business. Despite the failure of Fortune in France and Italy, Business Week has launched successful Russian and Hungarian language editions, and has experimented in China. Forbes is doing well in Germany, and L'Expansion, the French group, is setting up a world network of business publications with various partners, including Dow Jones. Any business magazine publisher would do well to explore its foreign publishing chances--especially in Spain, Southeast Asia and Australia.

* Science. Both trade and consumer magazines should fare well abroad in this field. Example: Scientific American is busily spanning the globe with (so far) 11 foreign-language editions under its German ownership.

* Celebrities. This topic is an international favorite, with a wide-open market in Asia. People is now testing an Australian edition, with other Asian editions possibly to follow.

* Lifestyle. As television has made clear, American lifestyles have enormous worldwide appeal. Metropolitan Home is verifying this in South Korea with a local partner, while other major U.S. publishers in this field search for joint venturers.