• by Michael Shields , December 2, 2004

WonderBoys, And Girls Disney Publishing Worldwide, publisher of Family Fun and Disney Adventures, is preparing to launch a new quarterly title in 2006 named Wondertime. The magazine will be targeted to Moms with children ages 0 to 6, focusing on early childhood learning. While still in development, insiders say they hope the launch's will have a similar effect on the category as did Real Simple on the shelter category--going after an existing audience with a markedly different editorial approach.

Setting the Pace in the Air

A curious line item has snuck into the latest MRI magazine research data: "Pace Airline Media (Gr)." While that title might not ring a bell for advertisers, the fact that this grouping reaches a circulation of 1.1 million and an audience of nearly 7 million readers is likely to open some eyes.

This new group represents the cumulative audience of three in-flight magazines published by custom publishing giant Pace Communications. Over the past few months, Pace has been bundling these somewhat under-appreciated titles, while pitching them to the ad community under the leadership of Chief Marketing and Sales Officer Craig Waller.

Waller, who has worked for custom publishers and agencies both in the United States and the U.K., says that he initially encountered some resistance from the competing staffs at Delta Airline's Sky, United Airlines' Hemispheres, and US Air's Attaché. But in the end, the promise of increased revenue seems to have won them over.

"We decided to implement this strategy in early fall when the 2005 planning season started," said Waller. "We wanted to have as much impact as possible on 2005 by having this initiative in place when agencies and accounts were creating new advertising plans and strategies of their own."

Waller admits that some media planners are still surprised by these magazines' size and audience quality.

"Not only is the reach of 6.9 million monthly readers impressive, it's virtually an unduplicated audience across the three titles," he said. "When you consider travel patterns, city-specific dominance, and airline affinity programs, most travelers stick to one or two airlines."

"Secondly...our titles--Hemispheres, Sky, and Attaché--rank first, 6th, and 7th respectively, among all MRI measured media for Median Household Income."

Waller is eager to point out that each magazine maintains its own editorial mission and design, with unique staffs. "No editorial is common to any of these three titles," he said. "They are unequivocally unique."

So far, Waller says that his team's new effort, coupled with a commitment from each airline to promote these magazines continuously as "award-winning titles," has allowed Pace to set record revenue goals for 2005.

The Rich Get More Attention

According to a new study from magazine database company MediaFinder (Produced by Oxbridge Communications, Inc.), more publishers want to get rich.

Rich readers, that is. MediaFinder says that the number of magazines targeting the rich is skyrocketing, from 159 titles two years ago to 225 today. To ensure a sense of exclusivity, many are actually trimming circulation and increasing ad rates.

"Publishers found that they could cut production costs by cutting circulation, and at the same time increase advertising rates by guaranteeing a concentrated market. Both the cachet and the market density appeal to advertisers."

Notes:

-Cooking Light is co-sponsoring Colavita USA's women's cycling program in 2005. As part of this partnership, Cooking Light and Colavita will be co-hosting a bike safety and nutrition fair in Maplewood, N.J. this spring and a bike trip through the Colavita region of Italy during next fall's olive harvest season.

-American Express Publishing Corporation is touting a 5 percent year-end ad page growth across all four of its magazines: Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Departures, and Travel + Leisure Golf. Food & Wine finished 2004 with the highest ad page count in its 26-year history, while Departures' ad pages are up +11 percent in 2004.

-Teen People has published a special newsstand-only issue focusing on winter beauty.

-Environmental-enthusiast-directed Plenty has its first issue on newsstands.

-Premiere's December issue represents the magazine's largest ever in terms of ad pages--94 in total--in its 17-year history.