• by Larry Dobrow , January 1, 2004

Asked about the origins of Mass Appeal, the magazine he co-founded with longtime friend Patrick Elasik, Adrian Moeller says simply: "We were really into doing graffiti and there weren't a lot of graffiti magazines out there." He pauses for a second, then adds, "That was pretty much it." Sounds vaguely similar to the conversations that rang through the halls of Hearst during the nascent days of Talk, no?

And yet nearly ten years later, Mass Appeal has actually grown into its name. "The title was supposed be a joke," says Moeller, who lists his title as "co-founder, publisher, editor, whatever" (in the masthead, he is billed as art director). Attempting to chronicle the urban lifestyle as authentically as possible, Mass Appeal is something of a publishing rarity: a magazine that has retained its core readership even as it has evolved from an underground fanzine to a 100,000-circ publication supported by advertisers like Toyota.

The mag's growth can be attributed almost exclusively to the drive and relative brazenness of its co-founders. When the magazine's first few issues struck a chord beyond their circle of friends, Moeller and Elasik took it to Tower Records, which immediately signed on as its first major-league distributor. Given that they were just out of high school, neither pretended to be a magazine magnate. "The way it worked back then was that we'd get the issues to Tower. Six months later, they'd pay us and we'd make another one," Moeller recalls. "Slowly we started learning about advertising - you know, that people would actually pay money to be in the magazine."

He concedes that Mass Appeal heard a few cries of "sellout!" when it ran its first ad (for Echo, in 1997), but by then the pair had become considerably more savvy about the publishing business. "People cried about that first ad and there are always haters out there, but come on. It's not realistic that you have a magazine without advertising," Moeller says.

Mass Appeal's upward mobility has started to present its share of challenges. "We have such bigger advertisers now - they'll say 'oh, we don't like this,' and we have to consider that when making our editorial decisions," he acknowledges. Most of the complaints have stemmed from violent stories or images, such as a recent cover that featured the scratched-out serial number on one of rapper 50 Cent's guns. "We've had people pull ads," Moeller shrugs. "It's a fine line you have to walk."

Marketers who are desperately eager to associate themselves with Mass Appeal's urban sensibility line the mag's pages, with companies like Toyota (an insert touting its new Scion) and Right Guard (the much-maligned Xtreme Sport Power Stripe ad featuring Method Man and Redman) recently having come on board; other big-name supporters include Colgate, Adidas, and Nike.

"They're smart," Moeller says admiringly. "What's cool is that the same artists contributing to the mag are the ones doing the ads now." Of course, the contrast between mass marketers and urban fashion companies can sometimes be jarring: a recent issue included a hipper-than-thou ad from American Apparel featuring topless women as well as a shiny, GQ-ready spot for Maxim Haircolor For Men.

Although Moeller isn't actively trolling for investors, he concedes that Mass Appeal will eventually have to find backers to underwrite its ambitious growth plans. A clothing line has already been launched, with an outdoor media company ("hand-painted wall billboards, like what you see with Absolut," Moeller says) and a DVD series soon to follow. Encouraged by the response to the mag's unique layout, Moeller and Elasik are bouncing around the idea of starting a design firm as well.

"The best-case scenario is that we get the big money and make Mass Appeal mass," Moeller laughs. "Worst case, we're still here to stay. We've survived this long with nothing. What's another few years, right?"