Urban agenda - Philadelphia Business Journal's ties with Philadelphia Magazine

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 15, 1993 by Jezra Kaye

Another new approach is a section of cultural features called "After Business." "We realized that people like to go to the theater, like to go to an art museum," says Kremer, who was delighted when a real estate broker told her he'd gone to a movie after reading about it in the new section. "He used to read us only for real estate," she says. "If he's now reading us for other things, that's moving him through the newspaper more, which means our advertisers are going to get better responses."

The Business Journal is also experimenting with a variety of other devices--some new, some proven--that they hope will accomplish the same goal. In February, the magazine held a stock challenge sponsored by one of Philly's largest brokerage companies. The reader who predicts which stocks will perform best over a six-month period wins a $20,000 zero coupon bond. Next month, the Business Journal will present its first annual Health Care Heroes Award to five corporate and individual providers in varied categories. "Some advertisers that traditionally would not want to talk to us because we're not a trade book are now interested in running ads with us," says Kremer. "Also, it's pre-emptive. If we're the ones doing it, nobody else is going to do it--we hope."

Special-projects director Michele Masarsky, who previously edited the Business Journal's now-defunct commercial and industrial real estate guide, sees the awards as a natural in a local economy heavily dominated by healthcare industries. "In the past, we did a lot of things where people came to us," she says. "Now, |we're~ very proactive."

Chalk it up to the new business environment, says Thomas Minnhagen, president and CEO of the Business Journal's parent company, MCP, Inc., a Minneapolis-based operation that owns nine other city business titles. "When commercial real estate development started to decline, these publications had to become much more diversified and depend on other advertising categories."

Just how crucial was that transformation for the Business Journal? During the fiscal year ending August 1991, the magazine's commercial real estate ad revenues plunged 36 percent. Last fiscal year, after the quarterly real estate listing was eliminated ("it was very labor intensive and we weren't getting the return," says Kremer), that same category was off another 30 percent.

Despite those losses, however, the Business Journal's overall ad revenue jumped 10 percent in fiscal '92, according to Kremer, as national advertising made a strong return. Through the first half of fiscal '93, overall revenue is about even with last year, but Kremer anticipates some second-half growth as revenue from the new programs kicks in.

She's also looking forward to future collaborations with Philadelphia. In spite of some occasional ego conflicts and two projected ad pages that went unsold, both magazines consider their first joint effort a success and have already scheduled another personal finance supplement for September. "We're willing, we're patient," says Lipson. "Show me a good idea that hits a home run the first time you do it--it doesn't happen that often."