• by Michael Shields , January 24, 2005

George Jones and Barbara Mandrell once sang, "I was country when country wasn't cool."

You might say that Country Weekly was a red state medium before the red states were cool (at least, cool to Madison Avenue). The magazine's staffers proudly state that they are strong in C&D, or rural counties, and point out facts like the magazine ranks No. 1 in delivering shoppers who go to Wal-Mart at least five times a month, based on syndicated research.

But Publisher Tori Hughes has bigger plans for what she calls "the Us Weekly of Middle America, including growth beyond its red state base of mostly middle-income women.

As of this fall, readership among 18- to 34-year-olds had increased 21 percent, according to Hughes. "We are starting to appeal more to that group," she said. "We have been making changes at the newsstand."

Newsstand sales were down 14 percent through June 2004, yet overall the magazine has been experiencing significant growth of late: subscriptions were up a whopping 70 percent through the first half of '04, with total circulation soaring by 26 percent.

Hughes is hoping that the current rate base of 450,000 will eventually reach the half-a-million range, although she acknowledges that "there is an expense that goes with that."

To help with this ambitious growth plan, particularly at the newsstand, in December Hughes hired Editor in Chief Bill Gubbins, who plans to build upon what is working. "There are a lot of things [the readers] already love," he said. "Our task is to bring them more of them. The reader wants to get as intimate and unique as possible. They want exclusives. We are really dialing that up."

According to Hughes, the Country Weekly audience expects a certain friendly intimacy.

"These people like reading everything they can about these artists. We are like the Us Weekly of country. But they don't want gossip so much--but they want to know what kind of shampoo they use, what they read about. They don't want to know anything bad."

Speaking of shampoo, Hughes hopes that 2005 will lead to a boom in ads of that sort (ad pages increased just 4 percent in 2004).

"We are trying to get away from relying on endemic advertising--focused on packaged goods," she said. The magazine has landed Gillette, Kmart, Levi's, and several Procter & Gamble brands in the past year.

What might help Country Weekly are the recent Presidential election results, which opened the eyes of many to the differences in attitudes and preferences in the middle section of the country. "We have always been in the red states," Hughes said. "I think it would be an excellent thing for the book [if marketers reexamined their thinking]."

"These people are loyal to the core," added Gubbins. "They are very loyal to brands."

Hughes has also pushed for Country Weekly to establish New York sales presence, and is excited over the exposure that will undoubtedly come to the country music business when the Country Music Awards are held in New York this coming November.

Plus, Hughes is anticipating a new wave of interest in the genre, as several new stars are expected to emerge.

"The next year is going to be an awesome one to watch," she said. "The nurturing of several young stars in the business has been so calculated. Each one has a unique sound. Music Row [the industry's center in Nashville] is going to be a pleasant place to be."