• by Michael Shields , October 7, 2004

Recently, the Magazine Publishers of America announced the launch of a three-year, $40-million-dollar initiative aimed at promoting the print medium as a whole to media buyers on Madison Avenue.

That is a great thing--and something that is long overdue. Magazines are much loved by consumers, and by nature have always offered unique, one-on-one targeting for advertisers.

However, all the advertising in the world can't change print's biggest handicap: speed, or the lack of it. The magazine industry is continually hampered by the fact that it simply moves too slowly.

In a marketing climate that continually stresses accountability, and one that is increasingly reactive in nature, speed to market is of the utmost importance for advertisers. More and more, ad budgets are laid out as simple placeholders, and dollars are shifted--cut back and increased--constantly, based on sales reports, market conditions, emerging competitors, etc.

As a former media planner, I cannot count the number of times that clients came to agencies saying "we just found some dollars," or "Another department just freed up a budget that they cannot use, and we have to spend X dollars by the end of the quarter."

In the vast majority of these cases, magazines never even make it to the table for consideration. The fact that many magazine closing dates are still three and four months prior to issue date prohibits them from even being in the mix for any opportunistic windfalls in media spending.

All the promotion in the world can't change that. Magazines have to be able to print faster, and to accept ads later, or they will keep missing out.

Trader Monthly--Good Life

If the staff at soon-to-be-launched Trader Monthly are able to live vicariously through their editorial targets, they are likely to be having a pretty good time these days.

The new title is going after some of the wealthiest--and some might say, most conspicuous--consumers in America: Stock traders. As the staff puts the finishing touches this week on the debut November issue, they are sifting through pieces on how to rent a private jet or select a $300 bottle of whiskey. For another piece, they were required to test drive $300,000-dollar Porsches.

It's "not a job, it's a lifestyle," Randall Lane, president and editor in chief of the new mag, says of the traders.

These traders appear to be an advertiser's dream: young, with money to burn. "They make a lot of money, and they spend it all," said Lane, the former editor of P.O.V. "They are like kids in a candy store. This is an extremely advertiser-friendly demographic."

Luxury advertisers are likely to be drawn to the wealthy demographics, as well as regular columns on products like fine watches.

"Watches are a big indulgence for this group," said Lane. "These guys lust after watches."

The first issue also includes a fun feature on the Bull Run, a Cannonball Run style, questionably legal car race with a $12,000 per driver entry fee (part of which is used to pay for speeding tickets or even bail).

"That encapsulates the lifestyle," Lane said. "Work hard--play hard. It speaks to what these guys are about."

To communicate this lifestyle, the magazine has gathered together an impressive array of atypical experts:

* Poker legend Johnny Chan will pen the "Card Shark" column, dispensing advice on using poker skills for successful winning trades.

* Alan Schwarz, author of the best-selling book, "The Numbers Game--Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics," who will write about using Las Vegas odds-making strategies in trading.

* Jonathan Hoenig, weekly panelist on Fox News Channel's "Cashin' In" and the author of the book "Greed is Good: The Capitalist Pig Guide to Investing," will provide financial tips.

* Lauren Lawrence, who is a renowned "Dream Doctor," will analyze traders' dreams. "These guys sleep with one eye open," explains Lane.

The magazine will launch using controlled circulation, with its readers drawn directly from lists provided by various stock exchanges.

There will be some aspiring readers, acknowledges Lane. Roughly 10,000 copies will be distributed on newsstands at $10 a piece. But mostly, the magazine will be finely targeted to the estimated 300,000 traders nationwide, 97 percent of whom are male.

25 Years Behind Bars

Bartender Magazine celebrates its 25th Anniversary this month. Throughout the years, Bartender has been known for employing famous illustrators to produce its cover images. Among those who have created covers in the past are LeRoy Neiman, best known for his brilliantly colored images of sporting events; prolific American playwright, screenwriter, and author Irwin Shaw; and "Hagar the Horrible" cartoonist Dik Brown.

Started by bartender Ray Foley and his wife Jackie, Bartender has grown from a 7,000-copy quarterly to a glossy, five-times-yearly magazine that reaches over 150,000 professionals around the country.

New Look For PS2M

PSM: 100% Independent PlayStation 2 Magazine has undergone an editorial and graphic redesign starting with its November issue.

The issue will include a DVD featuring a dozen anticipated game trailers.

Supermarket Spin-off

Supermarket News will launch a spin-off, called SN's Whole Health, which will be poly-bagged Monday with the regular edition of Supermarket News. The new quarterly will attempt to blanket the exploding natural and organic market industry, which is projected to reach $29 billion by 2007.