• by Michael Shields , September 11, 2004

Costco and Price Club are hurting Woman's Day, as is a still slow economic recovery.

Now comes Time Inc.'s All You, which is playing in the same editorial space while leveraging the power of Wal-Mart, as the challenges mount for the venerable women's service title.

Woman's DayVice President and Publisher Laura Klein doesn't deny that this year has been tough. According to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations report, newsstand sales were down 18 percent. While subscriptions were actually up a healthy 7 percent, the magazine was one of a few titles that missed its rate base.

Superstores--or club shopping venues like Price Club--are threatening Woman's Day's newsstand prominence, says Klein. "What we think is happening is a change in people's buying habits," she says. "With club shopping, people are making fewer trips to the supermarket."

Also, these club stores sometimes close particular aisles during the day, and even allow people to self-scan at the checkout counter--making it more difficult for magazines to take advantage of impulse shoppers. "It's a universal challenge for all magazines," she says.

As for the rate base, Klein says that number is deceiving. Woman's Day sold 4,060,619 copies through June, just missing the 4.1 million dollar rate base. However, according to Klein, the magazine had long maintained two sets of rate bases, one for the first two-thirds of the year and one for the last few months (supermarkets used to ask for more copies in the fourth quarter, she says).

The magazine settled on a single number this year, which was slightly higher than before. "We are actually up from last year [through June]," Klein says.

"We are still the tenth largest magazine [out there]," she says. "I am really proud of that."

Klein says that the current advertising recovery has been slow to boost women's service titles. "I have not seen the lift yet," she says.

She says that Woman's Dayhas actually fared better than most, as they are down just 2.4 percent in ad pages through July of this year--while other books, like Ladies' Home Journal (-7.1 percent) and Redbook (-15.1 percent), are taking a bigger hit.

"It keeps us all at the top of our game," she says. "It's a share game. There are only so many pages to go around. Some are faring better than others."

A major redesign in March of 2003--during which the magazine invested in better paper stock, among other things--has allowed the book to fare well. Klein says that readers in particular have responded, resulting in a strong boost in Spring MRI numbers. (According to MRI, Women's Day reaches over 20 million women).

Time Inc. appears to be going after a few of those women with the similarly themed and presented All You, which launched last month. Klein welcomes their entry.

"I am thrilled to see more interest and more commitment to this woman," she says. "It is something we have been doing for 67 years."

As for the magazine's exclusive distribution with Wal-Mart, Klein is holding off on judgment. "It's a clever idea," she says. "It's too soon to tell."