• by Ken Liebeskind , February 7, 2002

Dennis Publishing, the British magazine publisher, scored big in America with Maxim. It's now trying for another success with The Week, a completely different magazine, but one that's turning some heads in the magazine world.

"It's not a fluffy magazine and a strong publishing company is backing it," says Serena Duff, media director at TBWA/Chiat/Day, the agency for Absolut, one of The Week's premiere American advertisers.

The Week, launched in England in 1996 and brought to America last May, is nothing like Maxim, a glossy men's lifestyle magazine. It's a slim news magazine on newpaper like newsprint. The selling point is the content, shortened versions of stories from hundreds of international newspapers and magazines that give readers a compact but comprehensive view of the world. There are pages devoted to news, business, arts and leisure.

It's only 40 pages a week, which doesn't leave much room for advertising. In fact, there are only six positions per issue, four single pages and a spread. "We have the highest edit to advertising ratio in the industry," says publisher Justin Smith. "The magazine is about briefing busy people quickly on the issues, so we limit the advertising to avoid clutter."

"We like the limited number of ads in it," Duff says, noting that the ads stand out better that way.

Because of the limits, Smith says the magazine is sold out for most of Q2. Other early advertisers are AT&T, the U.S. Postal Service and Scudder Investments.

It costs $10,000 for a full page ad and $20,000 for a spread, a $100 CPM that Smith admits is high. CPMs for other news magazines like Time and Newsweek are three times lower, he says. But Duff is unconcerned. "It's like comparing apples with oranges," she says, since the circulation of The Week is so much lower.

Smith justifies the high rate with the quality of the audience, saying it's upscale since the subscription cost is $75 a year, more than double the other news weeklies. He compares the advertisers with those in other upscale magazines like The New Yorker, Harpers and Atlantic Monthly.

U.S. circulation is currently 100,000, with 90,000 subscribers and 10,000 newsstand.

Duff says Absolut has bought a schedule of full page ads for 2002, but doesn't run every week.

Samir Husni, professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi, who's called Mr. Magazine, named The Week the most notable magazine launch of last year.