Video title to compete on newsstand; but will $5 price tag deter impulse buys?

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept, 1989 by Ellen Tulin

Video title to compete on newsstand

Culver City, Calif.--Persona Video--what's said to be the first mass-market general interest magazine on videocassette--will make its debut this month at check-outs in Indiana and Colorado. But some observers say that the entertainment "magazine"'s high price tag may not pull off the impulse buys essential to other newsstand titles.

The two-hour videocassette from Majestic Video Publishing Inc. will be sold at 100,000 or more supermarket check-out stands and at selected discount, drug, book and video retail outlets. National distribution will be 600,000 copies. The pirce is $4.95, and consumers can reuse the cassette as a blank tape after viewing the program.

Billed by its creators as a combination of People, Us, Entertainment Tonight and the Barbara Walters interviews, Persona will feature in-depth celebrity interviews, film previews and coverage of industry events. The 90-minute monthly program also includes 20 minutes of commercial air time. The production budget for each show will be $200,000.

"We want to combine the intimacy of print journalism with the seduction of video," says Karen G. Jackovich, president. Jackovich is a former special correspondent for People Weekly and West Coast editor for the Star.

Personal will target consumers between the ages of 18 and 49, reaching approximately 2.1 million viewers. A 30-second spot costs $2,500. An ad on the back "cover" of the video box costs $40,000. At press time, the names of the program advertisers were not available; however, 3M was scheduled to run a coupon insert in the video box.

With VCR penetration now approaching nearly 70 percent of all U.S. homes, Majestic CEO Charles-Terry Goldstein says the time is right for video magazines. "If we had tried this five years ago, it wouldn't have made much sense. The number of homes then would have been too small."

Will it fly?

"If it's current and trendy and done well, I think people will flock to it," says Andy Cohen, president and creative director of Direct Resources, Inc., a New York City-based firm that specializes in direct response television for magazines. But, he adds, "Pricing may be a problem. My sense is that magazines are bought more on impulse and by habit. A person may say, 'What's a dollar ninety-five?' but to pay five dollars, that's a different story."

"It's interesting frontiersmanship, but I don't know if iths going to work," says Spin publisher Bob Guccione Jr., who once considered producing Spin topics on video. "the immediacy of a magazine is not easily translatable to video."

Currently, many existing video magazines are targeted to very specific readers, such as skin divers.

Impact Video Publishing, Inc., for example, together with Response Communications, Inc., Cherry Hill, New Jersey, recently launched Impact, a sales training magazine in video format. Each issue of the monthly--a cross between a sales magazine and training aid--is approximately 30-45 minutes long. Impact features a talk show-style format with short segments, and costs $699 for an annual subscription. The title, however, will not be distributed by newsstand, and has not yet accepted advertising.

Automobile, too, is considering producing products on video, says publihser Terry Russell. "We've had some people contact us about doing videos of road tests that could be sold in video stores or car stores," he says.

Unlike other videos produced by publishers, however, Persona will be distributed like a traditional magazine. The initial response to Persona from wholesalers and retailers has been tremendous, Goldstein says. "Initially, we thought we'd be in 25,000 locations. Now it looks like we'll be in 100,000."

Goldstein is also considering launching international editions of Persona, and within two years plans to launch the first of five additional video magazines, most likely covering the fields of fashion, sports and science.