Looking to reach an upscale suburban market in a magazine distributed free to newspaper readers around the country? Try Cachet.
The monthly magazine, published by Our Times Communications in New
York, debuts in October and will reach homes Sept. 28. A sales staff is out selling space now. Full color ads are currently available at charter rates--$54,600 per page. The ads will reach 1,275,000
households.
The rate is somewhat of a bargain, according to marketing director Babette Lazarus, who notes that other magazines distributed by newspapers, including Parade, USA Weekend and Access,
are mass-market publications with much higher rates. Cachet will be distributed in only 70 newspapers, mostly small market papers that reach a suburban audience. And it will only be distributed to
upscale subscribers of those papers, 35 to 54 year olds with a median household income of $120,000. "We're different because of the demographic targeting we're able to do," Lazarus says, noting that
none of the other newspaper-distributed magazines do it.
Among the papers slated to distribute Cachet are Long Island's Newsday, The Record in Bergen County, NJ, the Chicago Daily Herald, The
Orange County (CA) Register and The Dallas Morning News. These papers participated in a test run last year and are slated to distribute the magazine when it begins publication, but details are still
being worked out, according to Lazarus. She says mostly small market papers will be used in an effort to target suburbanites. Small percentages of large city papers will be used to reach their
suburban markets, including 12% of Morning News subscribers.
The company has contracted with newspapers to insert it on a monthly basis, with some annual agreements reached, Lazarus says.
"Newspapers want it because it gives added value to their product."
The lifestyle magazine will report on travel, entertaining, fine dining, pets, home decor and gardening, with advertising likely
to come from automotive, travel, financial services and home furnishings categories, Lazarus says.
While most newspaper magazines are distributed on Sundays, Cachet will come on Fridays. "We
don't want the clutter of the Sunday paper and Friday is the second most read newspaper day," Lazarus says. Friday advertising promotes weekend shopping, another good reason to distribute it then.
The company has hired Seiter & Miller, a New York ad agency, to create a campaign to promote ad sales. Advertising, beginning later this month, will appear in print and online. Esther Goda, a
management partner, says The New York Times and Medialife.com will be used, but was unsure of other publications and Web sites, because the buys haven't been made yet. She says the campaign will be
"small space and lots of frequency."