Golf market takes off like a Tiger

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 15, 1997 by Jeff Garigliano

Just when you thought the game of golf could not possibly drive any more magazines, along comes Tiger Woods--and publishers are falling all over themselves to capitalize on the sport's ever-growing popularity.

In April, Petersen Publishing relaunches Golfing, which suspended publication in January for a redesign and is now being touted by the Los Angeles-based company as the "new voice of the ancient game." The New York Times Co. recently tested the first issue of Golf Course Living, a lifestyle book polybagged with GolfDigest. Time Inc. just put out the first stand-alone season preview of Golf Plus, an insert selectively bound into Sports Illustrated for golfers on the SI subscriber file. (The preview was mailed separately.) And Turnstile Publishing launched the 150,000-circulation Golf & Travel as a quarterly in March. The Orlando-based company already publishes Golfweek.

There are a few reasons behind the latest push. The phenom Woods has electrified the sport, creating more interest at all levels and inspiring more adolescents to pick up the game. "I think his impact will be tremendous," says Bob Maxon, New York Times Company senior vice president and group publisher of Golf Digest and Golf World, both located in Trumbull, Connecticut. "I think he will do for kids and minorities what Arnold Palmer did for middle America 35 years ago." Woods, winning tournaments with flair at just 21, is half African American and half Thai.

Another factor is the aging population. Baby boomers will soon be retiring with more wealth and leisure time than previous generations. "The long-term growth potential for golf participation and spending is very encouraging," reads the most recent trends report from the National Golf Foundation, a Jupiter, Florida-based nonprofit group. "However, these favorable demographic shifts are not anticipated to significantly benefit the golf industry until after the year 2000."

Finally, golfers offer the kind of demographic profile that advertisers dream about. According to NGF market research, there are about 25 million golfers in the United States who spend some $15 billion a year on equipment and greens fees. The average household income of a golfer is $56,000, and 44 percent are college graduates. "Homeowners, multiple car owners with high income," Maxon says. "It's a great demographic."

And the new titles are lining up to get in on the action. The New York Times Co. polybagged 400,000 copies of Golf Course Living with Golf Digest in January, sending them to the high-income end of the subscriber list. "It was extremely well received in the 45-plus [age group]," says Maxon. The first issue ran 45 ad pages out of a total 108. The second issue is due out in August, and the frequency will jump to six or eight times next year.

Time Inc. is putting its substantial resources behind GolfPlus, a four-year-old insert that runs in SI 40 times a year for subscribers pegged as "avid core golfers" (meaning they play at least 26 rounds per year). Golf Plus now goes to 440,000 subscribers, and publishing director Dan Mahoney says identifying golf fanatics has been the key to the title's success. "It's an ideal audience for advertisers and for us," he notes. "These guys renew at a higher rate than the regular subscribers." With 500 ad pages in 1996, the franchise is now spreading to book ventures and a radio program. Mahoney says that despite speculation that Time Inc. will launch GolfPlus as a stand-alone, "it will not happen this year."

Women golfers represent another segment poised for growth. (About one in four players is female.) Golf Digest includes a bimonthly insert aimed at the 235,000 women on its subscriber list, and Meredith Corp. publishes Golf for Women, the only such stand-alone for women on the links. "Our heart and soul in the magazine is instruction, but we also cover golf as a lifestyle," says Golf for Women publisher Robin Domeniconi. With a circulation of 350,000, the title saw ad pages jump 9 percent in 1996, according to Publishers Information Bureau. Pages at the other major golf titles either remained level or dropped.

Petersen's new-look Golfing is due on the newsstands April 22, according to publisher Max Lane. The audience will be daily-fee golfers (those without membership in any private club) ages 25 to 49. "A new generation of golfers is coming into the game," Lane explains. "We're trying to take a fun, hip, dynamic approach to publishing." Instead of featuring a PGA Tour player, the first cover pays homage to The Presidents of the United States of America, a band whose three members are all golfers. The ratebase is 200,000, same as before; Lane says he's making a big push for nonendemic advertising.

That factor could be critical to the success of not only the new players in the category, but also the established ones. The golf equipment industry is dominated by six or seven major companies that spend a good deal of their marketing and advertising money on television. "It becomes kind of a marketing nightmare for a lot of people in the [equipment] business," Maxon says. "You only have so much money to work with, and along come six new golf magazines and you don't have the money to go around."