The Small Publisher’s Guide to International Distribution

Tips for getting your print brands into foreign markets.

By Chandra Johnson-Greene
Monday, November 9, 2009

While larger consumer publishers find it fairly easy to enter the international distribution market by negotiating licensing deals and offering digital editions to their readers overseas, smaller publishers may think that the same opportunities are out of their reach, at least monetarily. That may not be the case, however. There are a few small publishers out there that are currently operating successful international distribution programs and three of them shared some of their tactics with AD on how they accomplished it.

1. Keep a close eye on costs and content.
Beginning with the September 2009 issue, Dallas, Texas-based media marketing and communications company VideoPlus began distributing 5,000 copies of its U.S. edition of Success on the newsstand at select WHSmith book and retail stores across the United Kingdom. It seemed as if the 118-year-old personal development magazine, which publishes roughly 200,000 copies monthly in the U.S. and Canada, had found a following across the pond.

“We have several international subscribers who pay an international sub rate that have wondered where and how to get it in the U.K.,” Success editor-in-chief Deborah Heisz told AD’s sister publication FOLIO: back in August. “Also, the parent company has several European clients who would like the publication available for their teams.”

The deal was negotiated on Success’ behalf by Curtis Circulation and marketed primarily through the Web, and although the results aren’t in yet, publisher and editorial director Darren Hardy warns that international distribution can be pricey. “The cost of shipping is expensive,” he told AD. “Make sure you do a thorough cost analysis before expanding internationally to make sure there is a sufficient return on investment.”

Hardy also stresses the importance of content when it comes to pulling international subscribers in. “Content must not be country specific,” he says. “Publishers with content covering U.S. trends or fads are not good candidates for overseas distribution.”

2. Try to accommodate the preferences of your international audience.
When Ogden Publications wanted to improve the single copy sales of Motorcycle Classics in international markets, it started doing some research on its readers and found some interesting trends. “We found that their mindset was different from our American readers,” Bob Cucciniello, production and circulation newsstand manager, told AD. “We found that when we increased the cover price, we got better sales. International readers expected to pay more because they felt that the higher the price was, the more value they were getting.”

About five months ago, Ogden raised the cover price for the international version of Motorcycle Classics, switched to perfect bound and increased its size. (According to Cucciniello, European readers like taller and thinner books than American readers.) As a result of the changes, the title’s newsstand distribution doubled.

Motorcycle Classics is now distributed in the U.K., the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand. Despite the changes, however, it still only sells less than 20,000 copies each year. That’s why Ogden is looking to expand the title digitally. At press time, Cucciniello and his team were preparing to convert all of the necessary files to have Motorcycle Classics appear on Zinio’s virtual newsstand.

3. Find a distributor to negotiate on your behalf.
New York Review of Books has been published in the U.S. for the past 45 years with about 16 percent of its subscriptions being sold internationally, primarily in the U.K. About a year ago, the company switched to Curtis Circulation and Comag in the U.K. as its main international distributors.

“Before that, we had a system where we had direct accounts with local wholesalers and distributors,” according to circulation marketing director Janice Fellegara. “We even had direct accounts with a few bookstores overseas, but it was very costly to manage it that way. So our goal was to look for a situation where we could expand our distribution and push the draw through targeted promotions.”

Those promotions have included a small international direct mail campaign (about 65,000 pieces), which has helped them secure some new business, as well as a small gift promotion.
With a $69-a-year subscription rate, Fellegara says she’s aware that New York Review of Books is at an advantage because of its high sub rate and built-in international readership, but suggests that going to larger distributors like Curtis might be able to help.