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Beatrice Hanks, Circulation Director
Getting the magazine on airlines. The magazine pays a service
fee, so it is expensive. Concerned that not enough people are
seeing the magazine there, based in part on response to the blow-in
cards. They are moving away from that program.
"We're trying to sell the magazine," not give it
away. They sell a lot of copies in airports, which works against
giving it away on flights.
In order to meet the rate base, some magazines give copies
away by distributing them in public places, such as airlines,
some newsstands. Even though this costs something, it can be
less expensive than additional direct mail.
Circulation is 475,000. 35,000 is newsstand sales (a rate
typical of consumer magazines). Growing around 25,000 per year.Pass-along
rate: 6 or 7 people.
The day after the stock market crash, every financial magazine's
April issue sank. Nobody wanted to read about their investments.
Some dropped to 40% of the previous months.
BE, however, is still selling as much as it did before the
bust. BE went up during the boom of the '90s, but did not come
creashing down.
The magazine is not just about stocks; it is a more rounded
magazine about finances, business life, career in general, plus
a certain amount of motivational quality.
Renewal rates have remained good, much bertter than others
in the category.
Demographics:
Older and richer; for people who are serious about money; 50-50
m/f.
"The best thing we did is not lose our shirts on very
expensive promotions on the internet." Sending emails to
subscribers. Cross promoting with books. Gift promotions once
a year.
Colleges are the worst places to develop subscriptions.
"Students do not have a fixed address; they don't have
any money; and if they do, they don't spend it on magazines.
The best you can hope for is that students are aware of your
title, so they will subscribe when they graduate and have a job."
Alfred Edmond, Jr. Executive Editor,
Black Enterprise
In his 16th year. Sr VP in the company, responsible for all
aspects of editorial, including web site, book series. '
First editor in the history of the magazine who has had to
be a multimedia editor.
Everything is driven by the magazine. The credibility of the
magazineis what enables us to do other things.
Founded 1970. Foundation is black entrepreneurship.
In the '90s, BE became the magazine of choice for understanding
investment opportunities. African Americans who did not care
what a stock or bond was in the '80s, in the '90s, had to know.
BE guide to starting a business; investing; black business
owners profiles; profiles of corporate African Americans.
Black Enterprise carries out several large events that
help them keep in close touch with their readers. The events
are also money-making functions for the company.
BE sponsors the world's largest non-professional business
golf tournament, BE Pepsi Gold and Tennis Challenge (1200 participants
last year). Very competitive. It is a major networking event.
Major corporate executives come. Also held at major spas, for
people who do not golf.
National Entrepreneurship Conference-- Just held in
Nashville-- around 1400 attendees. "These events bring our
audience to life for our advertisers: Here's a thousand of them,
right here.' It brings credibility to what our advertisers are
paying for."
Kidpreneur program. Allied w National Foundation for
Teaching Entrepreneurship.
What started as a babysitting service turned into a new business.
It sells out quickly.
BE produces a quarterly magazine, Teenpreneur. The
magazine sponsored its first summer camp for youth entrepreneurs
in 2003. "The earlier we can expose people to the brand,
the less we will have to chase them when they grow into our market."
4-6 year olds are the youngest participants. They make things,
price the components, and sell it in the end (often to their
parents), and understand from age 4-5 how to create or buy something
and sell it for a profit. (The concept of kidpreneurs originated
with an intern at BE.)
BE gives four small business awards per year, at end
of Entrepreneurship conference. Most popular is the kid/teenpreneur
award. The latest one went to a 14 year old who has her own magazine
that brings in $25K per year. Teenpreneur writes about such kids.
We didn't throw a lot of money at our website. Take it slow
and see what happens.
"The vast majority of people will not pay you for content
on the internet."
"But if you provide them with valuable information, they
will give you important information about themselves that you
can now use."
Editorial policies
Serious separation of church and state. Will write negative
stories about some of their advertisers.
"The only thing that allows us to compete with top magazines
is that our content is seen to have integrity. We measure ourselves
against Forbes, Fortune, and Money. Awards: 3 out
of the past 7 years, BE was one of the top financial magazines
accfording to Folio awards."
"Our goal is not to be the best black magazine, but the
best business magazine."
This is an editor-driven magazine.
60% is freelance.
"We develop all the stories internally and assign them
to regular freelancers around the country."
"Every editor of the magazine is like an editor of his
own magazine within the magazine."
"We're not a magazine per se; we're a consulting firm.
We can't have a half million people come to our offices ea month;
what we do is package the information and send it out to you.
We call our readers clients."
"Editors decide what our clients need and how to serve
those needs."
"Editors all write, but we have no staff writers."
"This is what I think our clients need to know this month
about technology (etc) to advance in their business."
"Our goal is to provide information that is actually
useful."
"We stopped asking whether they found articles interesting.
We ask what they found useful. What they found useful, we gave
them more of."
12 yrs ago, Folio commissioned Gallup to poll: If you had
to do without one form of media, what would you eliminate?
Conventional wisdom predicted it would be books. Answer came
back: magazines.
Another question: Would you give up YOUR magazine? The answer
was no.
While readers may not see magazines in general as important,
they see as important the magazines they read and use in their
daily lives.
Black magazines once thrived on the Johnson Ebony model: Nobody
is going to write about black people, so we will. But now black
people are covered by many media.
"Being the black version of a white magazinestopped being
enough about 20 years ago. Yes we are a black magazinein the
sense that our audience is black, but mainly we are a magazine."
Magazine management. Bottom-up model: section editors
are supposed to go to the readers, their clients, to conferences,
to find out what they are dealing with, what they care about,
what they need. "'Journalist's hubris' can't exist here;
editors can't tell readers what they need, they have to listen
to readers."
They try to hire people people, not journalism people.
Emphasis on REALLY serving readers. Looks for editors who
have run their own magazines and can do everything as a miniature
ed-in-chief.
"If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I've got 4 people on
my staff who know everything I know about running a magazine."
First rule of management: "Money is not a motivator;
it is a minimum requirement."
"Now, I'm turned on by the prospect of bringing together
a group of people with finite resources who have to compete with
publications with much greater resources. And you are only as
good as your last issue."
"I like people who don't like to be told what to do;
who are smarter than I am; who emotionally care about the audience;
who know more than I do."
"There is more diversity here than most places: [African
Americans on the staff are diverse; they] don't agree about anything.
They have different countries, backgrounds, ages.
Internships. They get 300 applications per year for
internships. They look for actual working journalists, who know
what to do to cover a press conference, interview, copyediting,
etc. They hire 4-6 interns in editorial.
This year, all the interns are women.
"We evaluate them like employees on the job. Last year
we had a terrible intern. Never finished a story. Never had an
explanation. Looked good on paper, interviewed well."
"Three of our interns from last year still write for
the magazine. Our goal with interns is to recruit people who
can write for the magazine."
"We look for attitude and someone we don't have to tell
what a lead is. Someone who has written for publications, covered
things."
Interns have stories to tell about their experiences doing
journalism already. They are already writers and journalists,
and they now want to do it in a professional environment.
Apply early. Resume. Clips. Recommendations. It helps if you
have been editing and writing.
(FAMU has an intern here summer 2003: Naeemah Khabir.)
Fact-Checking. 5 copy editors fact-check every story
in the magazine.
Pet peeve: The diff btn a journalist and journalism
student: "Journalists worked for the campus paper, radio
station, etc. There are students who are truly journalists, whether
or not they majored in journalism. We are looking for people
who are not studying to be journalists, but who ARE journalists."
He is aghast that students don't automatically read the paper
every day.
Edmond's Background. He was in a head-start program
at age 4, when he learned he could draw. Spent his youth reading
and drawing and writing, an introvert.
Voted outstanding writer and artist in his HS clsss. One of
4 children, divorced single mother, welfare. Longbranch NJ, did
not grow up around people who went to college. Grandparents took
him around to colleges.
"I lived at the public library. I did not know how starved
I was for culture until I left."
Rutgers College grad, '83. Majored in art. Drawn into editing
and writing for a student newspaper.
First job was edit asst at Asbury Park press. Got another
part time job as layout artist at what is now the NY Beacon.
3 hour commute to Brooklyn.
On that job, he kept asking: "If this was my paper, what
would I do with it?"
"I was one of the few people who knew how to put out
a paper" [thanks to his experience on college publications.]
Where his art background fits in:
Magazines are pieces of art as mucha s they are journalistic
institutions.
"I'm the only editor on staff with a Mac. I'm the only
one who can speak the language of the art director. I let him
do his job. All of our designers are journalists; your job is
to communicate information. I don't get into the art-editorial
wars that are common in magazines."
Responsible for editorial, art, production depts.. "I
don't know if I could be ed in chief without the art degree."
"Selling is an emotional response not an inellectual
response."
"When you understand art, that is helpful in choosing
the cover."
Cover: You've got 4 seconds max to communicate emotionally
with your reader.
If you use art appropriately, you can get the attention of
the audience. Then the intellectual part kicks in, with the cover
lines, headlines, captions.
Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman. Emotional response
is first; intellectual response follows a fraction later.
"Preview"-- They show the whole magazine
to a sample of their readership every time and ask them to take
it apart. I didn't get this article; this is not true; I was
offended; I don't like this, etc. "Editors have to get beyond
the hubris and listen to what readers say."
"How to succeeed in business without being white,"
by Earl Graves. This book required at BE, and explains the voice
of the magazine: a mission-oriented voice.
There used to be a sign in the editorial office that read,
"If we're not saying How To, we're not doing our jobs."
At times we got away from showing How To and started showing
how brilliant we are. Editors who write for other editors.
Our articles: How to solve a problem, how to take advantage
of an opportunity. Service voice.
"Interesting" vs "useful."
Celebrities in the magazine. Our readers are not slaves
to celebrity. We walk a fine line on how and when we use celebrity.
Story recently about how celebs manage their money, not knowing
any more about money than reader does. In addit to learning about
the celeb, article taught readers more about how to manage their
finances.
A recent cover on Shak did not work well.
Worst issue in terms of newsstand sales and evaluation. Every
story scored 80% usefulness, except the celeb story. Research
showed that the big cover story on celeb endorsement in that
issue had the least to do with readers' decision to buy it on
the newsstand.
Fortune sold well with a Michael Jordan cover, picking
up many readers who normally do not buy the mag, but it did not
lead to additional subscribers. "I can read about Shak anywhere.
I don't sub to BE for that. I can get that anywhere."
"We're a consulting firm and you're our clients."
"If you've been reading BE for 2 years and don't feel
you are doing better in your business because of it, don't subscribe
to it."
Chris Noel, Advertising Dept, in charge
of schools, universities, and franchises
$96,800 = av household income
67% of subscribers have MBAs
Niche publication for affluent AA market.
Amherst grad. Manager for OfficeMax store. Goal to be a high-ranking
executive in a corporation.
Dedicated audience. Very little duplication: few readers of
BE also read Money, Bus Week, Forbes, Fortune. Highest
duplication at Money with 20%;. Other bus pubs have as
much as 70% duplicate readership with another major business
magazine.
They are actively cultivating potential advertisers, against
the time when the economy turns around and they start to advertise
more.
Travel and tourism -- one of the biggest categories to decline
in advertising. A huge industry. Tech companies next in amount
of cutbacks. Consumer products in general.
Extensive schools and universities program. Biannual "top
colleges" issue (every other year). Many look to this issue
for what colleges are best for their children.
3X year, special university section: 300 words by the university
about its programs.
"Many executive readers in this economic slump are going
back for education that will help them in their careers later.
Universities benefit from such grads when they return to corporate
jobs."
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