Did advertisers spur Insight switch? Magazine ends four years of controlled circulation

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, May, 1989 by Liza Frenette

Did advertisers spur Insight switch?

Washington, D.C.--At a time when controlled or targeted circulation is the darling of many media buyers, the publisher of Insight claims his newsweekly's recent conversion to all-paid is at the insistence of advertisers. And so, after nearly four years of controlled circulation, Insight switched on April 1 to all-paid, dropping from one million circulation to 500,000.

The magazine's original plan was not to become all-paid, claims publisher Robert Dillingham. Advertisers and agencies, he asserts, kept insisting that people care more about a magazine if they pay for it.

"We believed in controlled circulation. We wanted to pick our readers and guarantee our advertisers demographics," Dillingham says. "We tried to explain that to the marketing community." The original controlled-circulation base had been created from purchased lists of influential, high-income professionals.

Although Dillingham could not yet claim any new advertisers because of the switch to paid, he believes that if Insight had not converted, "the potential for growth would have been curtailed." Current ad rates for a full-page, four-color ad are $15,000, about 25 percent less than before the conversion. But, says associate publisher Jack Mandable, "we are going to pick up additional advertisers."

Launched in September 1985 with a 50,000 circulation, the magazine grew to one million in about 18 months. The conversion to paid began in 1987, after readers were questioned to see if, and how much, they would pay for the magazine.

How was the switch completed? First of all, says circulation director Mike Sewell, Insight needed to "change that mentality" of customers who resisted paying for a product they had received free. "We just wanted to make sure it was done right," says Sewell. Results of the conversion, Sewell notes, show that "the longer the person had received the magazine for free, the more likely they were to pay for it. About 13 weeks was the best time."

No gimmicks

Direct mail and card inserts in the magazine were used for the conversion. The company chose not to offer premiums after research disclosed that their readers were not impressed with them. The Insight direct mail in fact, promises "no gimmicks," and is addressed "Dear Bargain Hunter."

Insight offers 20 issues for $10, comparing itself to U.S. News and World Report and Newsweek, which offer 13 weeks for that price, and Time, which offers nine weeks.

Publisher Dillingham adds, however, that the magazine does not put itself in the same category as the established newsweeklies. "We don't fit into an existing niche. We're really issue-oriented," he says.

Now that his title made the switch to paid, Sewell points out that other consumer magazines, like European Travel and Life, are reconsidering controlled circulation for enlarging existing circulation.

"I think controlled circulation is a hot topic to expand the rate base," says Sewell. "It's like the new toy that's out there. It's one new way consumer books are looking at increasing the rate base."