• by October 8, 2002

You won’t hear this kind of prediction much around the magazine business these days. Biography magazine, according to publisher Tom McCluskey, just might be looking at its best year ever.

McCluskey reports that compared to last year, his September issue is up substantially over last year, and the December issue may be up as much as 40 percent. Being a quasi-independent publisher has helped (Biography is part-owned by Hearst.) Having a cable TV channel (A&E) as a corporate ally doesn’t hurt either. But McCluskey said the magazine’s second-half success has been achieved by focusing on closing sales.

“We did a lot of work with the sales staff on getting tactically focused,” McCluskey said. “We went back to a lot of clients with very compelling reasons to get in the magazine whether it was an editorial adjacency, merchandising programs or some other value added tactic, we did a great job closing.”

The magazine is also finding success on the subscription side. According to Capell & Associates CircTrack 2002, Biography's subscription renewal rate is 22 percent above the industry average. In its first year of publication (1997) the subscription renewal rate was 45 percent, compared with an industry average of 40 percent. With an 82 percent renewal rate in its 2nd and subsequent years, Biography finishes far ahead of the industry's average of 60 percent.

McCluskey is expecting tough ad conditions to continue next year. The title is not myopically focused on the women’s audience, but it competes in that space for ads. With Lifetime launching a monthly in March, there will be one more competitor tied in with a TV channel on the newsstands.

“I’m not sure whether the amount of titles will cause a glut, or if the amount of titles will pare back,” he said. “I can tell you this. Competition is always fierce.”