An elementary lesson in school marketing

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 15, 1997 by Eric Freedman

Remember being in school, looking forward to Weekly Reader and Scholastic publications delivered to your classroom? The older titles are still around, but some relative newcomers to the school market are also competing for classroom space, attention and, of course, revenue.

It can be a tough market to crack, even for established publications. A one-year experiment at Natural History, for example, fell short of its goals, according to Cary Castle, director of consumer marketing for the 450,000-circulation title. The solicitation didn't cost much, but the response was too low. "We got some subscriptions, but it wasn't worth it. We were looking for thousands, not a hundred," Castle says.

Time Inc.'s Time for Kids, for fourth through sixth grades, has had a much better experience since its launch in September 1995, growing from a circulation of 750,000 to 1.3 million this fall, says general manager Lisa Quiroz. In fact, buoyed by that record, Time Inc. is launching a primary edition of Time for Kids for second- and third-graders, and also testing InTime, a high school version.

Stephen Bernard and Art Stupar believe the potential rewards are significant for a magazine that can get in the $100 million-a-year classroom market. The two are partners in School Market Sales Management of Edison, New Jersey, a company that works with publishers eager to go to school. One advantage they point to is the reduced distribution costs of selling and delivering to the same location. And renewing a classroom keeps the age and interest of your revolving-door readership fairly stable.

They also believe that now is a good time to test the waters, given the trends in education. "There's a changing emphasis from skill-and-drill learning to more problem solving," Bernard says. "The teacher is less a lecturer and more of a coach and facilitator." Also, more districts are letting teachers make purchasing decisions, and more teachers are using outside materials instead of standardized lesson plans.

Bernard and Stupar emphasize that it's not enough to offer your existing title to schools and hope that teachers will bite. Instead, the magazine must be positioned to fill a need, to make it easier for the teacher to teach, and to offer information not easily available in textbooks.

"One thing we bring to the ball game for a non-educational publisher is help in building a curriculum supplement around the product," Stupar explains. For example, they developed a kit for National Geographic World that offers instructors things like teaching plans and discussion questions. For the April 1996 issue, the teaching guide included a lesson plan centered on a pull-out map of Africa, with a geography game and a take-home "name that river" assignment.

There are several practical considerations, however. First, you must identify your audience early. "Some publishers tend to have the idea first and then question whether there's a market for it, rather than the other way around," Stupar observes. Publishers need to do their homework before spending a lot of money on promotion. He recommends packaging the publication for classrooms and then testing it at no charge to gauge the market. To reach teachers, School Market clients rely on direct mail, telemarketing and bind-in cards in trade magazines.

When New York City-based Artnews for Students debuted in September 1995, there was only one competitor, according to executive editor Bonnie Barrett Stretch: "We were certainly meeting a need for art news in the classroom." Although the magazine was suspended in June 1996 after the death of its major financial backer, "it was doing well," Stretch says. "It was providing information on the history of art and artists, as well as a lot of images that weren't easily available."

A second consideration is the budget of your target market, schools. Many districts now face financial constraints. If the district is to pay for group subscriptions, there will be competing demands for the same money -- and not just from other publications. A related concern is the cost to families if students must pay for their own subscriptions, even at a discounted group rate.

Beyond the success of any one title or company, though, the industry has a stake in getting more magazines into schools, especially ones that students can take home and keep rather than simply borrow from the school library or teacher. As Natural History circulation manager Ramon Alvarez puts it, "You want to generate interest in young people. You get them hooked young and maybe they'll stay."