Alan Press
Senior VP, marketing, the Americas, The Economist
The Economist is one of the few bright spots on the newsstand, achieving enviable growth in one of the toughest categories in an already-beleaguered market.
It’s not one of the small group of magazines that carry the newsstand on its back, and its newsstand circ represents a relatively small, 10 percent of its total paid circ, yet The Economist has been one of very few magazines that has been consistently posting positive single-copy numbers. Most shocking is that it’s doing this in the midst of the hardest hit category—newsweeklies—and a channel that’s down overall. Add two $1 cover price increases in the last two years with no impact other than a ten percent lift in unit sales and a 15 percent jump in revenue, according to newsstand analyst John Harrington, and you have the making of a true newsstand success story.
Alan Press, senior vice president, marketing, the Americas, has been leading a major marketing push for the magazine over the last few years, and not just for new subscriber acquisition. The team examines and segments its newsstand opportunities very carefully, using subscriber data overlays to determine which retail chains and regions have the most potential for single-copy pickup.
The Economist is now in every Barnes and Noble and Boarders store and is ranked number two, behind People, in dollar sales at both chains. “We charge a lot, and to be second behind a magazine as popular and mainstream as People underscores that we’re doing this well,” he says.
Press calls his marketing approach to newsstand sales “novel” and a recent example highlights that description: Sales data revealed that people who buy The Economist at airport newsstands also tend to buy water. Press launched a promotion that appeared on boarding pass printouts for a free bottle of water with the purchase of an issue of The Economist. “It’s about thinking about things differently,” he says, “and not just sticking a magazine on a rack and hoping it sells.”
Going forward, Press thinks pop-up concepts at retail are going to be more important. And he’s going to begin testing SMS text messaging promotions at the newsstand in April in an effort to capture elusive newsstand buyer demographics. He’s also going to be more aggressive in creating more of his “novel touchpoints” on a multiplatform level. “The concept of allowing our single-copy readers to find novel touchpoints whether they’re on the Internet or somewhere else to get a copy into they’re hands is very important. This is not to circumvent retailers, but my job is to match up consumer desire to reach us.”
VITAL STATS
The Economist has achieved 10 percent single-copy growth despite two $1 price increases in the last two years. It’s number two in dollar sales behind People in Barnes and Noble and Boarders chains.
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