Listings magazines make a comeback

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 15, 1993 by Debbie Patz

Listings, once a staple but now a small consideration for city and regional magazines, are proving fertile ground for a new crop of smaller titles. Based primarily in larger cities, these self-termed "pocket-size" magazines are serving niche markets that the more mainstream competition--newspapers, cable guides and traditional city magazines--often tend to ignore. The key? Their size, frequency and distribution.

Homo Xtra, a New York City-based gay listings weekly with a circulation of 30,000, was one of the first to enter the market, launching in 1991. Its success spawned an imitator on the West Coast, the 20,000 circulation, L.A.-based Planet Homo. In May, Homo Xtra publisher Matthew Bank introduced It, a 25,000-circulation weekly guide to New York's straight nightclub scene. And this fall marks the arrival of Museums New York--a title that shares some key characteristics with the others, despite its bimonthly frequency and larger budget.

"The listings publications provide a very real need, filling different niches in different markets," says Ken Neill, president of the City and Regional Magazine Association and publisher of Memphis.

It, HX and Planet Homo are distributed free in clubs, bars and restaurants. The small formats (8 x 9 inches for Planet Homo, 7-1/4 x 8-1/2 inches for It and HX) make them easy to carry, and hold printing and paper costs down.

Planet Homo is essentially a three-person operation, while It and HX share an ad and production staff of seven. Ads in HX and Planet Homo are mostly for local, gay-targeted enterprises. It, which faces more competition from alternative weeklies because of its broader appeal, is in the process of finalizing contracts with Absolut, Tanqueray, Miller Brewing Co. and several national record labels.

Museums New York, with a rate base of 70,000, targets a wealthier crowd, with ads from Cartier, Louis Vuitton and Moet Champagne. Publisher Larry Warsh has invested about $1.4 million in the title. But like the others, the start-up will be digest-size and have a largely place-based distribution approach, available in museum gift shops for $2.95 and mailed on a controlled basis to donors and members of select museums.