Special promotions boost local newsstand sales - Update

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 1, 1993 by Susan Hovey

After more than 40 years as an independent distributor in Wilmington, Delaware, Stanley Budner knows a thing or two about promoting magazines on the local level. He's also seen a lot of publishers lose sales by failing to hype regional-interest stories.

"There were so many times when I was embarrassed to find out about a local story after the fact," Budner says. "The demand is always so much greater."

Having sold his Delmar News Agency a year ago, Budner now heads a project that may help publishers improve communications with local wholesalers. The concept underscores the increasingly important role of local-level marketing in bolstering newsstand sales.

In recent months, Budner has signed on such big-name players as Time Distribution Services, ICD/Hearst and Murdoch Magazines. While local-level promotions aren't new to these companies, the hope is that Budner can point out opportunities that may otherwise go unnoticed. "I'm excited about this," says Richard Lawton, vice president and director of marketing for TDS. "If it catches on, it will build in a network of communications."

Special covers boost sales

The impact of a well-promoted local-interest story is something Lawton can attest to, especially after the success Sports Illustrated enjoyed with its coverage of the University of Alabama's championship 1992 football season. At the urging of local distributors, SI ran a special printing of 130,000 copies of its January 11 issue with the Crimson Tide on the cover. (The rest of the nation got basketball analyst and former coach Jim Valvano.)

When the 'Bama allotment sold out in a day, SI printed 230,000 more copies with six extra pages of Sugar Bowl coverage and a cover shot of Alabama running back Derrick Lassie. The second printing sold for $3.95--$1 above the usual newsstand price--and proved so popular that SI followed it up with 360,000 copies of a 96-page special issue for $4.95. According to Lawton, both specials marked a first for SI.

Obviously, not every local-angle article will start a stampede. But there are other ways to boost sales, says Phillip Bagnell, vice president and director of sales for Periodical Management Group, a San Antonio-based distributor. "When publishers get behind wholesalers on promotions, sales are unbelievable."

One tactic is the tip-on, a small paper square affixed to the cover that highlights an article of interest to readers in that area. Although various publishers have been experimenting with tip-ons for the past five years or so, the device has become a favorite of Conde Nast.

Last May, for example, Details put tip-ons on Dallas copies to draw attention to a feature about a local nightclub. Sales jumped by 650 copies over average, according to Bagnell. Sales rose by almost 400 copies in San Antonio when a tip-on appeared on Gourmet's June issue.

"You might have a fabulous cover and great cover lines, but it's the |tip-on~ that could give you a 50 to 250 percent lift," says Michael Garavalia, newsstand sales director for Conde Nast. And tip-ons can help sales in following months. "They bring people back to the magazine and attract those who haven't bought it before."

Although the tip-ons' production process is relatively inexpensive, coordination with the editorial department is required to make sure that the local-angle article is really going to run. "They're a lot of work," Garavalia says. "But they give you exceptional results."