L
ike a phoenix rising from the
ashes, magazines are being reborn
for the newsstands. As more
magazines go dark and become
digital-only, publishers are finding
ways to keep those outlets alive
in their original medium as special interest
publications.
The big magazine publishing houses have
been turning their shuttered print magazines
into special interest publications. Known as
SIPs, they are available on newsstands with
fewer advertisements than typical weekly or
monthly publications, but at up to triple the
cost to consumers.
Hearst has taken this route with Seventeen,
Condé Nast has plans to explore this with
Glamour, and Meredith—which has been in
this space for a while—has created SIPs for a
number of its brands, including Coastal Living.
As print ad dollars continue to decline and
publishers look to shift more of the cost to
consumers, SIPs serve as a way for the brand to
maintain relevancy.
While SIPs aren’t anything new conceptu-
ally, publishers are using the tactic to remind
consumers that their much-loved brands are
still alive—at a cost. It also helps direct them to
the brands’ websites, where a new take on the
content lives on.
Publishers “need to keep the brand alive.
They need to keep the name in the sight of
the audience. Once it’s out of sight, it’s out
of mind,” said Samir Husni, director of the
Magazine Innovation Center at the University
of Mississippi’s School of Journalism. “Histori-
cally speaking, almost all the other magazines
that have said they want to be digital go
through hospice, and 18 months later they are
dead.”
SIPs, therefore, serve as a visual and tactile
reminder that these brands still exist, one that
comes at a low editorial cost to its respective
publisher, Husni said, because most of the is-
sue’s content has already been produced and isPrint’s
Second
Coming
SPECIAL INTEREST
PUBLICATIONS KEEP
MAGAZINES ON NEWSSTANDS.
BY SARA JERDEMEDIA just repackaged to fit the SIP model.
“The reason they want to keep the brand
alive is much more than the ad dollars,” he
added.
The cost, instead, is passed on to consum-
ers. And in an environment in which consum-
ers seem to be recognizing that they have to
pay for their media, the model could prove
successful, experts told Adweek.
Meredith has long experimented with SIPs,
using them not only as a way to extend a brand
it has decided to wind down in print (like
Coastal Living), but to also launch new publi-
cations, including its dog-centric title Happy
Paws. Even The New York Times is entering
the space, committing to printing six SIPs in
partnership with Meredith, starting with an
issue about the summer of ’69.
The model has turned into a reliable rev-
enue stream for Meredith, which in the last
fiscal year sold 17.8 million copies of SIPs at a
cover price of $8.99 or more.
“We chose to keep them in print because
the consumer never gave up on those brands.
They love those brands, and they’re willing
to pay for it,” said Doug Olson, president of
Meredith Magazines and general manager of
National Media Group at Meredith Corp.
SIPs also show a staying power for physical
magazines. “Consumers still like magazines,
even if they’re not always buying them or pay-
ing for them in the same way,” said Medill’s
Helen Gurley Brown magazine professor
Patti Wolter.
Advertisers still like magazines, too, but
luring brands can be challenging for SIPs,
given their multimonth shelf life. “We don’t
assume we’re going to get $1 of advertising,”
Olson said. “Most of the specials we have at
newsstands are very limited from an adver-
tising perspective and are priced at what the
consumer is willing to pay for.”
However, that extended time on news-
stands can sometimes work to the advertiser’s
advantage, in instances like holidays and other
seasonally themed issues.
For example, Seventeen’s first special issue,
published after Hearst decided to forego print-
ing a regular magazine for subscribers, cen-
tered around going back to college. The special
issue magazine, priced at $5.95, was more
expensive than a regular Seventeen, which had
cost $3.99, but the 92-page SIP featured ads
from Maybelline and Fossil.
“As long as the brand is still relevant and
hasn’t gone away in 20 years, people still want
it and still miss it,” said John Wagner, group
director, published media at PHD. “If you give
the customers something they want, they’ll
pay a higher price for it.”SARA JERDE IS THE DIGITAL MEDIA REPORTER
AT ADWEEK, COVERING PUBLISHERS AND
PLATFORMS, INCLUDING THE OTT AND
STREAMING SPACE. @SARAJERDEThis SIP with Meredith marks
NYT’s first stand-alone
magazine on newsstands.Hearst Magazines’ first SIP
for Seventeen featured
two advertisers.Meredith combined EatingWell
and Cooking Light as it phased
out the latter title.6 AUGUST 26, 2019 |^ ADWEEK
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