• by Larry Dobrow , June 5, 2003

When asked why their editorial offerings seemed to hold up relatively well during the economic slump of the last few years, execs at bridal magazines have no shortage of answers. Some talk about the unique appeal of the bride-to-be to purveyors of luxury goods, while others hype the ultra-attentive and demographically desirable reader of such publications. Still others sentimentally note the place that every man, woman and child holds in his or her heart for a picturesque wedding ceremony.

The real answer, of course, is while people tend to put off big purchases (think luxe dinette sets) or vacations (Maui's not going anywhere) during difficult economic times, few forestall the act of marriage. In good times or bad, for better or for worse, weddings remain the highest of priorities. Thus the bridal-magazine category may not be recession-proof - as any publisher who has had to claw for ad dollars over the last two years will gladly tell you - but it's relatively close.

Right now, the category is dominated by a few major players. Condé Nast's Bridal Group (which purchased Modern Bride in February 2002 and paired it with category mainstay Bride's) is the 800-pound gorilla, with Bridal Guide and Martha Stewart Weddings considered the two other premier print properties. The Knot, with its dominant Internet presence, Oxygen network television tie-in and twice-annual print offering, is the flashy new kid on the block.

"If you went to the newsstand at Grand Central Station 20 years ago, you could purchase two [bridal] magazines," recalls Bridal Guide publisher Tom Curtain. "Now there's 18 and the quality is so much higher."

Clearly, there's money to be made by those publishers that provide the most compelling products and services for blushing brides-to-be. 2.4 million people get married every year, and they spend more money in the six months before and after their wedding than during any other 12-month period in their lives. $72 billion a year is spent annually on weddings in the U.S., with an additional $19 billion on wedding gift registries and $8 billion more on honeymoons.

Additionally, demographic research suggests that a boom in the number of weddings - and thus the potential audience for bridal mags - may not be too far off. According to the Condé Nast Bridal Infobank, births per year increased nearly every year between 1976 and 1991. This means that there's a sizable female population just about to reach 27, the average age for brides in the U.S.

And clearly, this is a demographic that's willing to spend. "With these titles, you're talking to people who are in the market - you're talking to the drunken sailor who has money to spend," quips Condé Nast Bridal Group president Peter King Hunsinger. "People who are planning their wedding are looking to make it the best day of their lives. You don't scrimp on something like that."

For publishers of bridal magazines, there's been both bad news and good in recent months. On one hand, through April the 2003 year-to-date Publishers Information Bureau figures for Bride's and Modern Bride pale in terms of both ad pages (down, respectively, 12.5 and 5.9 percent) and ad revenue (down 40.1 and 8.5 percent) next to 2002 levels. Similarly, just this week Pace Communications cast the future of Elegant Bride into doubt by confirming long-standing rumors that the magazine will be sold; given the flux at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, nobody is willing to venture a guess as to where the highly respected Martha Stewart Weddings will be several months from now.

On the other hand, Bridal Guide surged in both ad pages (up 19.5 percent) and ad revenue (up 9.5) in the year-to-date period through April, according to PIB. And the most recent MRI data reveals that the bridal-mag readers remains keenly attentive, with the two Condé Nast titles increasing their per-copy adult readership over 2002 levels (Bridal Guide was relatively flat).

Most tellingly, several of the bridal mags have extended their brand by either buying or launching regional publications. Modern Bride has 17 local-market titles that bear its imprint, while The Knot has WeddingPages directories in 30 regions (with a total circulation of 1.2 million). And several mainstream publications have taken tentative first dips in the bridal waters as well: Town & Country, New York, Shape and Elle have all recently produced bride-friendly features or supplements.

Whether these publications accomplished much with their one-off ventures is another story - "To me, they came in more to get ads than to provide something useful," shrugs Hunsinger. The bottom line is that everybody wants a piece of today's bride - metaphorically speaking, of course.

Needless to say, advertisers are paying attention, especially those in the luxury goods, cosmetics and fashion sectors. And soon-to-be-weds helped shepherd the jewelry and travel categories through the difficult times of the last two years. "Some of our sponsors and partners looked at the wedding industry as a kind of safety blanket," notes The Knot's chief executive officer and co-founder David Liu. "[The] jewelry [category] was saved by engagement rings. In travel, honeymooners kept things from getting even worse."

Hunsinger points to retail as one of the hottest categories for bridal-mag advertisers. "[Bridal is] young, it's viral and it's full-priced," he quips. "I think they look at [the category] in a customer-now, customer-for-life way. A bride isn't just walking into a store and buying something; it's her Oscar moment. She's telling everybody 'you go down to Macy's and buy that cake server and those champagne flutes for me.' Retailers love that - it's about loyalty." Indeed, one fragrance supplier conducted a study which revealed that 67 percent of women are still wearing the same fragrance they wore on their wedding day.

As for the future, publishing-industry consultant Rebecca McPheters, president of McPheters and Co., expects the bridal mags to remain solid performers. "I don't think this is a time for a rational person to rush to start a new title, of course, but clearly there is money being spent out there," she says. "Sucking in the gut and waiting out the bad economy is probably the way for them to go."