Launching new magazines to boost readership

Challenge

With a lull in magazine sales for my publisher's line of home decorating magazines, I realized there was an opportunity to broaden the company's set of titles and our subscriber base. As Editorial Director for All American Publishing's four how-to magazines, I determined that we could expand our readership to include more men.

Solution

I researched the sports publications field and tapped a niche for special-interest magazines. I reccommended we create new publications to cover pro baseball and football. As part of a four-part approach, I managed to: 1) retain distributors to promote our debut; 2) use direct-mail programs to reach millions of potential new subscribers; 3) partner with PR directors of MLB and NFL teams to obtain content and images; and 4) retain top syndicated sports journalists.

Success

In two years of publishing eight sports specials, I boosted the company's reader base by nearly 50%, provided publishing options in four additional demographic markets, and expanded ad sales by more than two-dozen pages per publication.