EatingWell Raises Rate Base to 1 Million

While many consumer magazines are struggling in print, some titles are doing quite nicely, thank you. Meredith Corp. announced that it is raising the guaranteed circulation for EatingWell magazine, acquired in June 2011, from 850,000 to an even million, for an 18% bump. The increase will take effect with the July-August issue.

This is the fifth big rate base increase since Meredith bought EatingWell Media four years ago.

In early 2011, the rate base was just 350,000, but Meredith raised it to 500,000 in the latter half of 2011, then 600,000 in 2012, 750,000 in 2013, and again to 850,000 in 2014. With the latest bump, that works out to guaranteed circulation growth of 185% in just four years -- a remarkable performance, considering that overall U.S. magazine circs have declined consistently over the same period, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

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Meredith noted that EatingWell has attracted a number of new advertising clients, including retailers like Whole Foods, Walmart and Walgreens, as well as pharmaceutical manufacturers Pfizer, Astra Zeneca and Takeda. In the home category, it has also struck deals with Sub-Zero and KitchenAid.

Digital readership is also growing, with 4.3 million monthly unique visitors to Eatingwell.com, up over 50% from last year, per comScore. The mobile audience more than doubled over the last year, to 2.4 million unique visitors per month.

Meredith’s other food titles are also growing fast. In February, the women’s interest publisher raised the guaranteed circ for Allrecipes, the print title based on the popular Web site of the same name, by 22% from 900,000 to 1.1 million. The magazine launched in November 2013 with a rate base of 500,000.

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