Circ for Startups

Audience-building tips for new print magazines.

By Bill Mickey
Monday, November 9, 2009

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Launching a print magazine these days is often regarded with a mix of shock and inspiration—and given a smartly executed budget, there’s still room for success. When it comes to building circulation for print startups, there are as many strategies for growth as there are magazines. Yet a pragmatic understanding of your target audience, your budget and an open mind to a creative source mix can help build the circulation that’s right for your publication.

They Need to See It to Believe It
Garden & Gun, Charleston, South Carolina-based lifestyle magazine chronicling the American South, launched with a 150,000 rate base, but knew it had a unique challenge in convincing readers what it was all about—its production quality, from edit to photos to paper, was best viewed in person. “The magazine was something we needed to literally get into the hands of people so they could see what it was,” said Rebecca Darwin, the magazine’s president and publisher.

A significant sample mailing strategy was developed: A first round of 90,000 issues were mailed to selected lists—pulled from demos based on household income, geographic location, and hunting, fishing and gourmet cooking interests—just to get a physical copy into the hands of reader prospects. The plan was “very expensive,” but reflected the title’s strategy of growing circ with a quality, direct-to-publisher base. The team backed off the 90,000 as the paid circulation grew, and used the prior lists as suppressions to make sure no one got a sample twice.

Be Weary of Rapid Growth
Darwin feels the current 200,000 rate base is a good benchmark to hover at for the time being. While she feels the magazine’s potential is 400,000, current economic conditions (direct mail has been scaled back) mixed with an emphasis on quality circulation puts the focus on organic growth for now. “If we used more agent production we could get up to 300,000 easily by the end of 2010, but we’re not sure that’s the right thing for long term health,” added Gary Michelson, circulation director with Circulation Specialists, Garden & Gun’s circulation provider.

Don’t Be Afraid to Charge More
With demand for the magazine at a premium, Darwin decided to leverage it with the introduction of The Garden & Gun Club, a three-tiered service that bundles subscriptions with event access, special offers and exclusive deals. The $35 Adventure Society gets readers a one-year subscription, advance event notice, merchandise discounts, and previews of a soon-to-launch auction service. The $100 Sporting Society adds a Garden & Gun book, a complimentary gift subscription and an annual member listing in the magazine. The $500 Secret Society, limited to 1,000 members, tacks on five gift subscriptions and access to annual gatherings with magazine staff and local artists, chefs and entertainers. “We’ve already doubled what we projected to bring in,” said Darwin. “There seems to be this willingness from our readers to pay more.”

A Basic Web Site, But Major Subscription Engine
ShopSmart, a shopping title for women launched in 2006 by Consumers Union, started as a newsstand title. At launch, the magazine had a 600,000 print run with a 25 percent to 30 percent efficiency. Two years later, after going from quarterly to bimonthly, the title began selling subscriptions. The primary subscription driver from the get-go was the Web site. One year after initiating a subscription model, the magazine has 100,000 subscribers.

Initial orders—about 6,000-10,000—began coming in organically through the site, without any major marketing push, and all were credit card auto-renewals. “As soon as we got permission to go forward—after we launched successfully on budget—the first thing we did was get online,” said Hillary Martin, director of print product development. “So, next out of the box was to create ShopSmartMag.org, that’s where we got our first subscribers.”

The auto-renew business is important, adds Kevin McKean, Consumers Union VP and editorial director, because the magazine built its subscribers early on this model, and renewal rates are much higher right off the bat. “The credit card orders start to renew at the equivalent of the 3 or 4-year benchmark for the bill-me orders. In the traditional model, the third year is when you begin to build your long-term audience.”

Attract, Engage, Sell
The ShopSmart team is the first to admit that ShopSmartMag.org is not the most dynamic digital experience. There’s a basic content sampling, a blog, and minimal social networking functionality—though more is planned. It still manages, however, to engage readers, primarily by inviting them to join the “advisory board,” currently 45,000 strong. The advisory board gave the team a good engagement reading of the audience and was critical in starting the subscription business. “It was helpful in being able to launch the subscription product because we understood what the engagement was like,” said Martin.

Outside or In-House Lists?
Once the team decided to launch a subscription plan for ShopSmart, it became the first Consumers Union publication to market to outside lists. “ShopSmart obviously is a startup in the context of an established media company,” said McKean. “Any media company that has been around for a while has its own list of people. Our question was should we sell into the existing list or buy new lists and sell outside the existing database?”

Outside lists now account for more than half of the magazine’s new business—subscribers who have never interacted with a Consumers Union product before.

This strategy has been coupled with aggressive use of internal email lists, which the company has found to be extremely loyal. The email lists perform on par with subscriptions ordered through the Web site. “Leveraging those in-house lists has helped keep costs down,” said Martin, “and allows us to be more aggressive with outside lists.”