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Newspapers all over the country are entering the magazine business. I wrote in an earlier post about some of these. The trend goes on. USA Today just announced plans to launch Open Air, an Outside-ish magazine.
The NY Times now publishes magazines on sports, style and real estate in addition to its own weekly general interest magazine.
Our own Oregonian has launched three so far: Mix on food, Ultimate Northwest on the good life and now Homes + Gardens Northwest.

But let’s back up a moment.

Is free, unrequested distribution good enough for advertisers?
I should change the wording in the first sentence from “…are entering the magazine business” to “…are launching magazines.” As publisher and blogger Rex Hammock points out, a magazine is just a format. Now publishers employ all kinds of business plans involving the magazine format. Back in the old days, ten years ago, the term “magazine business” implied, among other things, that paid, requested, or affinity circulation (as in association magazines or custom publications) were elements of the plan. Sure, the glossy format was and remains an attractive showcase for advertising. But more than that, advertisers once prized magazines’ ability to attract and hold on to an engaged readership. Engagement was measured using subscriber surveys and subscription renewal rates.

These days, in regional regional and newspaper-published magazines, publishers and advertisers seem to prize the format over the reader relationship. X number of copies are distributed, unrequested, to outlets and homes in selected locations. Probably, the reasoning goes, a good number of desirable readers wait at the other end. Renewal rates are not relevant because the recipients have no choice about receiving it or not.

One extreme example of this approach is what I call porch bombing. Early in it’s business life, the Portland Tribune employed this method. A lot of unread copies ended up in the shrubs.

Certainly free distribution is easier for publishers. And advertisers don’t seem to mind that they are not hitting the bullseye; they can shoot a whole quiver of arrows in the general direction of the target.

Is this kind of circulation sustainable as advertisers find much more efficient media? Who knows. On the other hand, magazines such Martha Stewart Living, say, or Vanity Fair, can plan on delivering an engaged readership into the future, as long as readers vote with their wallets by subscribing, renewing, or buying at the checkout. In the case of the NY Times, it’s a good bet that subscribers and Sunday buyers have come to expect the new magazines as part of what they pay for.

[Aside: Business plans built around free content are not bad per se as anyone who spends time on the web knows. Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, is writing a book about free content, titled Free, to be published in 2008. Meanwhile, for anyone interested in this stuff, check out some of the posts on his blog. This promises to be an important idea for publishers to consider as we develop strategies for the future.]

OK. As I was saying, our hometown paper is launching magazines.

The latest, Northwest Homes+Gardens, jumps into what is now a crowded field.

Here are some thoughts on the first issue:

Homes+Gardens Northwest (HGNW) debuts with a 116-page issue including 43 pages of ads. About ten advertisers appear twice in the issue. It appears from promotional materials a former (successful) Oregon Home sales person is spearheading sales efforts.
Ad rates are low, at roughly $2000 a page (depending on discounts) for roughly 40,000 claimed circulation.

The magazine is airy and nice-looking. Pictures and white space appear to take up more space on the pages than the writing. Like its sister publication, Mix, HGNW employs an over-sized, perfect-bound format.

5,000 copies will be distributed for sale at retail locations around the state — the HGNW media kit calls these extra copies. My local Fred Meyer had 10 copies on display with hundreds of other titles on the main magazine rack (mainline, in magazine talk) deep in the middle of the store. (Aside: It may not fit in a standard checkout rack, should the publishers ever decide to pursue checkout stand sales.)

According to promotional materials, 40,000 copies will be delivered (as inserts in papers? tossed on the porch?) to “upper income families and some couples, who own homes in suburbs and small communities near Portland.” It’s unclear whether Portland residents are on the list.

The cover includes the catch phrase “Real Homes, Real People, Real Solutions.” There is no mention of the Oregonian anywhere on the cover, although there is a tag in small type on the spine.

[Aside: For years, Oregon Home used the phrase “Real Homes, Real People” in its promotions. Hmm. What’s that about? Related: Just one article featured a real, visible home-owning family. Designers and architects are featured more prominently than homeowners and artisans. Real Homes, Real Tradespeople?]

It’s nice to see a whole section related to regional gardening. Now there’s an under-served editorial niche in this region. Although the ad market is a tough one.

Lots of magazines “repurpose” their editorial as web features or in print anthologies. The O runs some articles simultaneously in both the magazine and its HGNW newspaper section. This Thursday’s section repeated a books feature and decorating feature. Saves money, for sure. There are a few other rationales that I can think of:

1. Totally different audiences: few read both the O and the magazine
2. Readers read both but won’t notice/mind the duplication
3. Shared editorial staff is stretched too thin

I’m baffled.

Separated at birth:

Actually, come to think of it, it might be a positive thing for the magazine if the newspaper article prominently identified the magazine as the original source and told readers where to get a copy. I couldn’t find a promotion for the magazine in the newspaper section.

As for the crowded field I referred to earlier (and have blogged about before)…

Oregon Home is doing well in the “shelter” space.
Current issue is 116 pages with more than 40 pages of ads.

The issue comes bagged with a 100-page buying guide for household goods and services. Dubbed The Get Guide, it includes another 30-40 pages of ads.

Ad competition
Very few advertisers bought ads in both OH and HGNW. Looking back at last year’s November OH, only two or three regular advertisers appear to have “jumped” from OH to HGNW magazine’s premier issue.

Portland Monthly’s new Portland Spaces jumps into the fray next month. Last we heard, Oregon Home’s former sales manager is spearheading sales efforts at Spaces, making competition interesting all around.

Also meanwhile, Portland Monthly seems to be thriving. The current issue is 228 pages, with more than 100 pages of ads.

All of our local magazines seem to be overlooking some very basic interactive opportunities on the web, but that’s another story, and there are rumors of new sites in the works.

HGNW has a simple website showing some content, but it is surprisingly hard to find unless you already have the magazine and spot the address on the bottom of the masthead. Try searching for it on OregonLive. (maybe they’ve fixed that by now) Portland Monthly has a tired-but-utilitarian city directory site. Oregon Home has no site as of this writing.

(Disclosure: I was a part of the original Oregon Home publishing team.)

According to a recent post on the Oregonian Editor’s Blog, the paper’s new magazine celebrated its debut last Friday. The blog describes MIX as… “the company’s second move into slick magazines, following ULTIMATE NORTHWEST with more titles to come.” MIX, the blog continues, “...is full of classy content and elegant ads.” (Say no more!) The magazine would be “…delivered to 40,000 young adults in the area who are interested in the kind of content Mix features.” Well, I’m not a young adult and I’m not usually interested in anything that calls itself classy. But I am interested in the local food scene and I am almost unreasonably interested in local media; enough to know that the blogging editor was probably speaking more of the confusing ULTIMATE NORTHWEST than of Mix. The blog said that copies would be sold at magazine stands, so I headed to Rich’s to buy a copy. Turned out it was not in stock. It had not shipped on time to make its Friday on-sale date, according to the guy behind the counter.

On Wednesday, I checked Fred Meyer (no copies yet) and eventually bought a copy at Rich’s.

The magazine, it turns out, is very nicely done. Editor Martha Holmberg and company have produced an unusual, great looking and enjoyable magazine. Kat Topaz, a talented Portland based publication designer, is credited as Creative Director.

Mix is unusual for at least a couple of reasons. It is printed in a large format - more than 20% larger than most magazines. Despite all this real estate, the magazine follows the modern media trend towards content presented in nuggets with lots of big graphics. Mix contains few, if any, feature-length articles, and dramatically fewer words per page than published in other Portland magazines and papers. Not that it’s lacking in editorial quality; it’s not. This is good stuff, well organized and well written. Even the longer pieces are just a few pages, presented in small bites, practically inviting you to skip around and enjoy the ride rather than tuck into an article or two. Still, it’s a good read. The design is generally clean and well executed. Much of the photography is really good, although some food images are close-up clichés and a couple of them even looked a little scary. A photo essay on upcoming chefs is particularly nice.

A quote from the Topaz Design website:

“Readers have never been more savvy. They want what they want, and if you make them work for it, they will go elsewhere. It is very black and white.”

Seems to fit. Although some might substitute “have shorter attention spans than ever” in the first point. Savvy or not.

The Mix cover is, I’m guessing, a work in progress. It’s tough to nail a new magazine’s cover right out of the gate. This cover risks being lost in the confusion of the newsstand. I blogged earlier about the name challenge; the subhead could help, but it’s presented as part of a cover line mash-up that is confusing and hard to read. As is “Premiere Issue” — a potential attention-getter. The cover photo is pleasant enough in a warm, narrow-focal-plane-soft-focus Spanish food portrait kind of way, but it is not likely to catch a browser’s attention from a few feet away. The cover line messages/promises don’t jump out at you. To paraphrase the Topaz quote, you have to work for it. This time out, design subtleties do little for clarity, message and impact. OK enough, I’m getting technical here; although I’ve worked on many covers, I’m not a designer. Maybe readers will love it.

Speaking as a reader, I’ll probably read and appreciate Mix when it arrives every few months, just as I’ll read and appreciate the food coverage in Gourmet, Cooks Illustrated, the New York Times, Portland Monthly, Willamette Week, Northwest Palate, Edible Portland and (if the staff comes home) FoodDay. But I’m not going to drop one for another.

Speaking as a magazine vet and media observer, the O’s “move into slick magazines” and its investment in this crowded and tough ad niche should be interesting. But that’s another story.

Your thoughts…

MIX, the next attempt by the O to make a magazine, will venture into interesting territory: Portland’s food and drink scene. Launch is right around the corner, in early September. See a sample layout here, at the bottom of the page.

On the plus side, the O has built a strong FOODDAY staff. Editor Martha Holmberg, Leslie Cole and the team convey intelligence and enthusiasm in their work. Plus, the recipes are interesting and good without being wildly complicated or esoteric.

The local food magazine field is not wide open, nor is it an undiscovered goldmine. NORTHWEST PALATE serves the top end of the culinary niche very well, with a nice presentation, chef profiles, lots of wine coverage and features on high-end restaurants and getaways. EDIBLE PORTLAND is nicely done and will probably build a loyal readership in the local and sustainable food subcategory. WILLAMETTE WEEK and PORTLAND MONTHLY offer plenty of good restaurant listings and reviews in print and online. (Presumably, the O’s annual restaurant guides will be folded into the new enterprise in some way. )

Food-and-beverage is not a huge advertising category in local print (not counting supermarket pre-prints, perhaps.) Small restaurant ads can add up, as PM and the newspaper annuals have demonstrated, but that sector can be more volatile than many. From the sidelines, we guess that someone has run the projections and mapped out the growth path…

Then there’s the name. It does not pass the ok-you-have-five-seconds-to-tell-me-what-this-is-about test. It could be a magazine for audio engineers, like this, or a multi-cultural lifestyle magazine, like this. Perhaps the Portland/Food/Drink tag will be enough to squeak it in under five.

Will this be another tossed-on-the-porch freebie? A newspaper ride-along? The advance word is that newsstands will play a part in the scheme. We have to assume the O plans to buy its way (or pressure its way, assuming there is leverage there) onto checkout racks at Fred’s and elsewhere. If not, then the newsstand part of the plan will have more impact as a marketing tool than as a significant component of circulation.

Does the O, grappling with its identity like all major dailies, see this as a diversification opportunity, a preemptive necessity, or a magazine trial balloon? “Trust me boss, one of these is sure to fly. How hard can it be?”