Hearst tries an entrepreneurial touch - Hearst Magazines

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Nov 15, 1994 by Lorne Manly

October was certainly a good month for the Kremlinologists of the magazine publishing world. Aside from the rushing stream of speculation over the imminent sale of Ziff Communications, there were also the recent goings-on at Hearst Magazines to consider.

John Mack Carter's move from editor in chief of company flagship Good Housekeeping to a new corporate post is being viewed by most cognoscenti as a gracious send-off for a man who has made a lot of money for, and has strong ties to, the Hearst family--but who has also lately clashed with Hearst Magazines president D. Claeys Bahrenburg.

Carter's new post, as head of Hearst Magazine Enterprises, is thought to be one with a modicum of real power. The new division will house magazine development, and will also offer fee-based services to independent publishers--which allows Hearst to mine the same entrepreneurial ground that's already attracted companies like Time Inc. (Time Inc. runs the publishing division of American Express for a management fee and a cut of incremental profits; Time Inc. Ventures is funding the testing of Mouth2Mouth and may take an equity interest if the launch is successful.)

According to Hearst sources, Carter has already received several faxes from parties who are interested in utilizing the resources of Hearst Magazine Enterprises. But some industry observers question just how marketable the new division will be. Will an outside publisher trust its research, demographics and marketing intelligence to a company that could easily start up a competing title?

Sister successors

A major aspect of the Carter appointment is that it cleared the way for Redbook editor Ellen Levine to climb the Hearst ladder as his successor at Good Housekeeping. Levine and her replacement, McCall's editor in chief Kate White, will face new challenges of their own in the very competitive seven-sister field. (Gruner Jahr USA, which acquired McCall's this past summer when it purchased The New York Times Women's Magazines, had not yet decided on a successor to White at press time.)

For White, the task is to ensure that whatever changes she brings to Redbook won't alienate advertisers and readers who have warmed to the redirection engineered by Levine when she took over in late 1991. Under Levine, Redbook was repositioned as a bridge book between the women's service arena and the fashion/beauty field--playing up sex and relationships while targeting the married thirtysomething woman. The changes led to an increase in ad pages (from 1,104 in 1991 to 1,310 last year--with a higher total expected for '94) and an 11 percent jump in newsstand sales (from 666,228 for the first half of 1991 to 740,858 for the same period this year). Most important, the reader's median age has come down from 40-plus to just over 38.

No men in underwear

Levine's mission at Good Housekeeping is not as radical as it was when she arrived at Redbook from Woman's Day. But she will have to revivify a cultural icon viewed as stodgy and suffering from declines in advertising and newsstand sales. Levine says her task is to move Good Housekeeping into the next millennium without allowing it to lose its voice of authority.

While declining to outline her plans just yet, Levine has offered up at least one reassurance that she'll follow a slightly different recipe for spicing up the pages of GH: "I will not have men in underwear, and I won't be doing six new sex techniques."