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Affluent Black Mag 'Uptown' Expands

  • Mediaweek, Tuesday, December 18, 2007 11:16 AM

Hoping to see the same success of upscale city magazine publishers like Modern Luxury and Niche Media, the founders of Uptown are looking to expand their affluent black consumer-targeted franchise. Now published in four cities, including New York and Chicago, the mag hopes to launch in seven more, among them Los Angeles and Miami, in the next three years. The project is backed by Leo Hindery-led InterMedia Partners.

The group has applied for Audit Bureau of Circulations membership with a 125,000 rate base -- a figure they hope to better than double to 300,000 by 2011. Their model sees about 70 percent of content to be the same across the board, with the balance market-specific. And they hope for advertising revenue to be 85 percent national and 15 percent local. The goal is to convince luxury-goods marketers, like auto, jewelry and travel firms, that Uptown is a way to target the urban black consumers recognized as trendsetters.

There's an affluent African-American audience that no one is speaking to. But one media buyer with luxury notes that even if the titles get a loyal audience, they could have a tough time drawing clients that don't feature African Americans in ads and are apt to weigh magazine environment over race as a buy criteria.

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