Battle at the alter?

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, June 1, 1991 by Lisa I. Fried

One new title may be more competition than the leading bridal titles realize. A wedding gown manufacturer, Ilissa Bridal's Demetrios, is betting on the cachet of the designer Demetrios' name, as well as its huge line of gowns, to lure readers-and certain advertisers-to its new newsstand title, For the Bride by Demetrios. Although ads for wedding gowns will be restricted to the Demetrios line, Jerry Magit, a rep who handles ad sales for the magazine, told FOLIO: he's stalking nonbridal categories, like tabletop, travel and cosmetics. Magit offered ads for free in the first issue, and he's hoping its low-ball four-color ad rate ($6,266) will convince bridal market advertisers to add the title to their schedules.

When For the Bride made its debut, many bridal magazine execs expected Demetrios, which spent more than $8 million in bridal magazine advertising last year, to cut spending in other titles. However, Demetrios, which ran 518 ad pages in Bride's last year, increased its first-half schedule this year, and is still the magazine's largest advertiser, says Marion of Bride's.

But Bridal Guide, whose newsstand success with a polybagged 180-page supplement of Demetrios gowns convinced the designer to jump into publishing, is already being squeezed. This year, Demetrios has not yet put the magazine on its media schedule. And the designer has also cut back slightly in Elegant Bride. When the honeymoon is over Married life as an editorial premise hasn't made other publishers rich, but that's not stopping Globe, publisher of Bridal Guide. Globe believes travel and tabletop advertisers that run in the bridal titles will want to reach newlyweds in its spin-off, Married Life. It is also targeting home-oriented products, automobile, cigarette and liquor ads. Advertising for both Globe titles are sold jointly.

Cahners Publishing, which publishes Modern Bride, is watching Married Life closely and is researching a similar move, says Friedberg. Cahners is also looking for possible added-value synergies between Modem Bride and Furniture Today, Interior Design and Home Textiles Today, three of its trade titles.

But Newlywed has had a lot of trouble winning over advertisers. And Whittle Communications, which tried twice to make a marriage-oriented title work, discontinued them because they were too expensive.

But after all, whoever said marriage was cheap?

...Planning a divorce?

This June, Mark Diamond celebrates his one-year wedding anniversary. But he's thinking about divorce. While consumers are marching down the (store) aisles with one bridal title after another, Diamond hopes to unveil a magazine devoted to a situation many of them will one day face: separation and divorce.

He's taking an upbeat approach with Embark, "The magazine for new beginnings."

There's still a stigma attached to being divorced and separated," says Diamond, a lawyer specializing in criminal defense and a former editor with CMP Publications. "We want people to look at it as an opportunity. We're taking a how-to angle. Not only how to survive, but how to thrive. These people are getting out of a lousy relationship and moving on to a better one."