Luxury Institute Survey: Wealthy Consumers Rank Wine Spectator, Saveur and National Geographic Traveler Top Consumer Publications of 2006

According to the Luxury Institute's 2006 annual Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI) survey of Consumer Publications, Wine Spectator is the publication that is rated best in the category, followed by Saveur, and National Geographic Traveler. Bon Appetit, Veranda, Architectural Digest and Scientific American complete the "A" list of consumer publications rated best by America's wealthy.

Wine Spectator won, not by necessarily being first in any one key metric, but by executing the fundamentals of subject matter expertise, content relevance and helpfulness, appropriateness of advertising, and superior production quality extraordinarily well. Scientific American is the publication rated first for subject matter expertise. Saveur ranks first for content relevance and helpfulness and appropriateness of advertising. It is also the publication that is growing fastest in stature.

Architectural Digest has the highest perceived production quality, followed distantly by Departures and Veranda. Wealthy consumers are also most willing to say Architectural Digest is worthy of a significant price premium, followed by Wine Spectator and Scientific American. When it comes to referrals, the publications most likely to be recommended to others are National Geographic Traveler, Scientific American, Wine Spectator and Bon Appetit.

Thirty-five leading publications were rated including: Architectural Digest, Boating, Bon Appetit, Cigar Aficionado, Conde Nast Traveler, Departures, Elle Décor, Esquire, Food and Wine, Golf Digest, Golf Magazine, Islands, Men's Journal, Metropolitan Home, Motor Boating, National Geographic Traveler, New York Magazine, Outside, Robb Report, Saveur, Scientific American, Ski, Sky, Southern Accents, Tennis, The New Yorker, Town and Country, Traditional Home, Travel and Leisure, Travel and Leisure Golf, Vanity Fair, Veranda, W, Wine Spectator, and Yachting.

"The wealthy consumer is the most coveted prospect by advertisers and leading consumer publications," said Milton F. Pedraza, CEO of The Luxury Institute. "Marketing and advertising executives demand conflict-free, impartial ratings from wealthy consumers themselves by an institution they can trust. At the Luxury Institute, we fund our own research, use independent panels and statisticians, among other impartiality safeguards, as part of our effort to facilitate an honest dialogue between consumers and luxury goods and services firms, their agencies and respected publications."

A nationally representative sample of 1,000 wealthy consumers was surveyed online. Respondents had an average household income of $355k and average net worth of $4.2m. Survey results are weighted to match the demographic and net worth profile of the same audience according to the latest Survey of Consumer Finances from the Federal Reserve. The list for the high-income consumer publications reviewed in this survey was developed primarily from input from industry executives as well as publicly available data from Monroe Mendelsohn Research.

About the Luxury Institute

The Luxury Institute is the uniquely independent and objective ratings and research institution that is the trusted and respected voice of the high net worth consumer. The Institute provides a portfolio of proprietary publications and research that guides and educates high net worth individuals and the companies that cater to them on leading edge trends, high net worth consumer rankings and ratings of luxury brands, and best practices. Publications include the monthly Wealth Report, the Luxury Brand Status Index surveys, the Luxury Best Practices surveys and the Luxury Consumer Experience Index surveys. To reach the Luxury institute, please call 646-792-2669, or go to www.luxuryinstitute.com .

Contact: Martin Swanson Vice President, Business Development The Luxury Institute (Office) 914-909-6350 (Cell) 914-715-3357 Email Contact www.luxuryinstitute.com