Bloomberg Markets Gets a Makeover

The global financial magazine attempts to break its trade magazine stigma with redesign, price increases.

By Bill Mickey
Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Now that Bloomberg Businessweek has settled into its new ownership, sister publication Bloomberg Markets is getting its chance for a makeover. With the upcoming November issue, the monthly aims to shed its b-to-b stigma and win broader b-to-c appeal with a new design, rate base boost and cover and subscription price hikes.

"This is an attempt to change perceptions, both in the ad community and among readers and potential subscribers," says publisher Mike Dukmejian, who has his sights set on Forbes, Fortune and The Economist. "The perception has been it's a financial trade magazine in the b-to-b space. The content actually couldn't be any farther away from that."

Likewise, Dukmejian is polishing up the magazine's audience, basing much of the marketing off of the theme of a global financial elite. "We've never positioned the audience in any kind of clear way," he says. "So, a big part of this marketing effort and change is around this notion that advertisers have to recognize the global financial elite are an important target market."

According Dukmejian, more than half of the magazine's circulation is outside of the U.S. The wealthy, international financial set, he says, will be leveraged to attract more non-endemic advertising categories such as automotive, luxury and corporate image. Efforts to communicate that appear to be working—according to the company, ad pages are up 25 percent in 2010 through the September issue.

Tactically, the magazine has gone through a redesign led by Robert Priest and Grace Lee of Priest and Grace, which also had a hand in Condé Nast's Portfolio launch. The look and feel of the magazine (that's the pre-redesign October issue pictured) has been spruced up to communicate the sophistication and wealth of the audience. Edit has remained largely intact, with some new editions in personal wealth and career management. The extra edit is not that significant, says Dukmejian, and will be limited to 2-3 pages. "We're not going to become Money magazine, but you want to listen to your readership and adjust accordingly."

The magazine's rate base will be increased from 315,000 to 355,000 starting with the new year. Circulation has been growing thanks to the efforts of a consumer marketing director hired late last year and a record year for Bloomberg Terminal sales—the $20,000 terminals come bundled with a subscription to the magazine.

The magazine's cover price was bumped up by a dollar to $5.99, and subscriptions are also $10 more expensive at $29.95.

A marketing campaign will hit the trades next month and the November issue will have significant bonus distribution, about 100,000 issues, to market its new look.

The sweet spot, says Dukmejian, will be a circulation of about 450,000, with a newsstand goal of 15,000, which would be up from the 7,000 copies Bloomberg Markets does now.