This June when F+W Publications was sold to private equity firm Abry Partners for a sum in excess of $500 million, more than a few eyebrows were raised. Aside from the price tag, there was the fact that the company was transferred from one private equity firm (Providence Equity) to another, even though it had been mainly marketed to magazine companies looking to expand. More important, the sale highlighted the effectiveness (and desirability) of a multi-platform publisher whose divisions — magazines, books, book clubs, trade shows, websites, and education programs — work together in synergy, cross-marketing, cross-selling, and cross-developing content to cut costs while enhancing its consumer base. At the time, it was said in the press that F+W’s sales were expected to hit over $280 million this year (although this number is being currently questioned in court) — with more than half of the revenue reportedly coming not from F+W’s 3,000 books, but from their nearly 60 special interest magazines and other non-book business. Many hadn’t even heard the name F+W before the sale — nor did they realize that the publisher of Writer’s Digest and Deer & Deer Hunting were one and the same, and that the company also owned the International Gift & Collectible Expo, as well as graphic design powerhouses ID and Print magazines. Even with legal proceedings afoot, most would agree that Bill Riley created a model of synergy that few publishers have yet to mimic – although many are in the process of elaborating on their models in order to try (see chart on page 6).
A License to Print Money
There are as many models of synergy as there are multi-platform publishers. Some companies embrace full integration (Rodale, and Meredith on the large side, Cook’s Illustrated and AARP on the more focused side), while others operate under a partial integration model that keeps magazines and books close, but more or less separate from other corporate arms (Time Inc., Hearst). Others, such as Morris Communications, heretofore one operation in name only, have made recent strides to integrate their publishing group, Globe Pequot, with the rest of the company.
Like F+W, Morris defines itself in terms of niche category groups rather than by platform — The Outdoor Group, for example, publishes Gray’s Sporting Journal. There’s also a “Gray’s Sporting Journal, Television” on the Outdoor Life Network, and Globe Pequot and Lyons are known for their outdoor and sporting titles.
With holdings in newspapers, magazines and books, radio stations, and computer services, Morris’ latest move is into visitor guide publications. (Morris purchased Globe Pequot in 1998 and has since continued their expansion into travel and visitor guides including Guest Informant – hardcover city guides that are delivered in-room at hundreds of hotels across the country, and Where Magazine.)
Having made this massive entrée into the hotel travel market, Morris is now poised to actively cross-promote between its book, magazine and visitor guide divisions, utilizing these cross- divisional resources to place magazines and books in targeted locations for maximum exposure and sales. Morris has positioned itself as a dominant player in the regional travel and outdoor recreation (fishing, hunting, rock climbing) arena, and with roughly one-quarter of their book sales coming from their book distribution lines (Mobil, Woodall, Bradt, Thomas Cook, etc.), their status is only reinforced.
Linda Kennedy, President and Publisher of Globe Pequot said, “We’re looking forward to reaching travelers from hotel rooms as well as bookstores, thanks to partnering possibilities with our Morris sister divisions.”
At Meredith, book and magazine involvement “ranges from 0 to 100%,” according to Linda Cunningham, Editorial Director of Meredith’s book group. “Some books, like the Better Homes & Gardens recipe book, are taken straight from the magazine, while others are completely original.” Cunningham said that cooking, decorating, and gardening books tend to come straight from the magazines, while with others, like the BH&G DIY plumbing book “we just take the brand and run – they don’t tell you how to fix your plumbing in Better Homes & Gardens,” she said.
Better Homes & Gardens, Meredith’s oldest and most identifiable brand, just published the 75th anniversary edition of the BH&G cookbook. “We tend to sell anywhere from 400,000 to 1 million copies a year,” Cunningham said. “It’s the second bestselling book next to the Bible. Every time we print a new edition, it’s basically a license to print money.”
For Jacqueline Deval, Publisher of Hearst Books, “Books are a natural extension of magazine brands and content. There are lots of advantages for a book publisher working with a magazine publisher, but the business relationship only works well when the book and magazine people work closely together in planning new book concepts and in planning their launch.” Hearst Books is a division of Sterling through a licensing arrangement: Hearst approves publication of the books (proposed by Hearst magazine, Hearst Books, and/or Sterling editors) which are subsequently produced, published and distributed by Sterling.
The bottom line, Deval says, is this: “Magazines are a terrific source of content — of photography and of ideas — and offer a tremendous platform to launch a book, through exposure in the magazine and also by the lift that the familiarity of the brand name delivers in the marketplace.”
Elizabeth Carduff, M.E. of Cook’s Illustrated books, talked about the “instant credibility” her books receive when people see the Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen logos. America’s Test Kitchen, the overarching company and actual kitchen in Boston that tests the recipes for the books, runs two magazines — Cook’s Illustrated and the less-than-a-year-old Cook’s Country — as well as a cooking show on PBS, also known as America’s Test Kitchen.
“Our book and magazine programs are very integrated,” Carduff said. “We run editorial separately and distinctly, but the assets of each entity come together in certain products in certain ways. We draw from years of archives, and there are numerous different ways that the material is carved up and used.” Up until now, Cook’s Illustrated has been doing 4-6 books a year, but Carduff said that going forward they ultimately plan on producing 15-20. Although many of the books are collections of recipes that have appeared in the magazines that year (or, like Cook’s Illustrated Annual, simply bound editions of the magazine) others, like the Best Recipes series have new recipes that were created entirely for the book division.
Beyond the brand itself, other publishers fortify crossover success by highlighting columnists and editors from their magazines — nearly every Time Inc. book has “By the Editors of (People, Life, Essence…)” displayed prominently on the front page. At AARP Books, Managing Editor Allan Fallow said, “What we’re trying to do with the book division is build on the success of the magazine. We look toward the magazine to identify ideas, trends, proposals.” He offered the example of a piece Sid Kirchheimer did for AARP The Magazine entitled ‘17 Ways To Avoid Getting Ripped Off.’ Since Kirchheimer’s regular column for the AARP Bulletin, Scam Alert, generates the highest volume of mail from subscribers, and is immediately recognizable to AARP’s 35 million members (AARP Books’ target audience), Fallow — along with Hugh Delehanty, Publications Editor in Chief — decided to expand it into 300 or 400 tips for a book. They presented the idea to Kirchheimer who did all of the legwork himself. Fallow and AARP edited it, and then their publisher Sterling took on the production, manufacturing, distribution, and promotion. “That sort of integration is what we’re counting on for the success of the book program,” Fallow said.
What The Subscriber Base Wants
When conceiving of book ideas, Meredith Books’ editorial staff draws upon one of its parent company’s assets: one of the largest consumer databases in the country that offers them anywhere from 300-1,000 data points on 80 million homes or, as Cunningham pointed out, “2/3 of all American households.” Cunningham emphasized that the book group has its own marketing department that uses the research database to make decisions on everything from concepts to editorial choices, covers and cover lines to price points. Focus groups can be easily assembled, and the input plays a large role in tailoring the books to fit their target demographic. “We’re very good at getting the book at where the consumer is — special markets, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Linens ‘N’ Things, Auto Zone,” Cunningham said. “With American Chopper, for example, we got the book into Hot Topic. We know where America shops, and it isn’t on Madison Avenue.”
However, Cunningham said, “We don’t use magazine readers as stand-ins for book buyers. We only talk to book buyers about what they’d like.” The crossover from magazine readers to book readers depends on the subject matter, and is difficult to measure.
Cook’s Illustrated’s Carduff said, “We reach out to our subscriber base to do surveys about possible books since a good portion of our books are bought by subscribers to the magazine.” The surveys revolve mainly around questions of possible features, topics and titles for the books, and not around price point. “We have some software where we can bring in focus groups, and ask things like, ‘Are color photos important to you? Timelines? Grocery lists?’ We can get qualitative info about what the subscriber base wants.” Carduff noted that they don’t only contact magazine subscribers, they also reach out to people who subscribe to the website, and watch the television show.
At Rodale, the book group draws upon Rodale magazine research, as well as research from other divisions to make editorial decisions. Rodale’s Consumer Marketing Database contains 55 million consumer files, including more than 1 million e-mail addresses. Although the trade book group doesn’t conduct research through the magazines (surveys, etc.) they do query people who have already consented to be on editorial panels for other divisions.
Fallow said that AARP does run polls, as well as distribute questionnaires and surveys, “But for the most part, we have so much on-going, day to day contact with our readers – who are constantly calling, e-mailing and writing other branches of AARP — that we have a good idea of what their hot-button issues are,” Fallow said. “We don’t solicit. We just absorb.”
Active Cross-Promotion
Although, because of AARP’s non-profit status, AARP The Magazine and the AARP Bulletin can’t run ads for the books, every book is allowed one editorial mention. “But one mention means one mention in four separate publications,” according to Fallow, including AARP’s combined Spanish-English Segunda Juventud, and the National Retired Teacher’s Association publication Live and Learn. “When the AARP Crash Course in Estate Planning came out last January, we ran a mention on page 23 of the AARP Bulletin, and the book immediately jumped to number three on BN.com.” AARP offers a link to BN.com on its website.
Wenner Books recently had a two-page spread in Wenner-owned US Weekly to promote US Weekly branded books like Secrets of Celebrity Style: A Crash Course In Dressing Like the Stars, and also prominently displays book titles on their various magazine websites. TW’s Southern Living created a Tupperware-type party plan business, which sells some Oxmoor House books through its agents. Time Inc. sends e-mail blasts to all of Time Inc. owned magazines’ subscribers telling them about new book offers, and offering them discounts on the books, and opt-in opportunities in a three-books-a-year mini-continuity.
Meredith advertises their books in Meredith magazines in pay, remnant and editorial space. “It depends on how interested the editor in chief is,” Cunningham said. “We present the materials, and they’re more than predisposed to run an excerpt if they like.” In return, Meredith has put subscription cards for their magazines inside their books, along with questionnaires. “We’re an actively cross-promoting book group,” Cunningham said. “For example, we did a book with the Today’s Show kitchen, and there was an interview with Katie Couric in Ladies Home Journal, a reference to the book and a few recipes.”
Often magazines go to third parties for book deals, though expectations have to be managed says Parachute Publishing’s Susan Knopf, who worked on Seventeen Magazine’s branded books, published by HarperCollins. “A circulation of 4 million doesn’t translate into sales of 4 million or even 4 hundred thousand. The books need to find their own audience and prove themselves over time.” She added, “The cross-sell is much more difficult than cross-promotion.”
