2 | DMNEWS | February 23, 2009 | www.dmnews.com
LEGISLATION
FTC STILL BACKING SELF-REGULATION p3
AGENCIES
ENFATICO WORKS TO BREAK THROUGH SILOS BETWEEN DISCIPLINES p11
MOBILE
RDA debuts shelter, health pubs By Lauren Bell
: Reader’s Digest Association (RDA) is
launching two new lifestyle titles in an effort to grab market share while other publishers are shrinking. Best You, a healthy living glossy aimed at middle-aged women, and Fresh Home, a more budget-driven quarterly aimed at younger couples and women, hit newsstands this month. Sales on both titles will be newsstand-driven for now. “Best You and Fresh Home are… coming to market in the recession because we believe they are both well-positioned to succeed, even in the poor economy,” said William Adler, VP of global communications for Reader’s Digest Association. Fresh Home will have a circulation of 300,000 – the same number put forth when word of the launch leaked last year. Home Depot and Lowe’s will stock the title, promoting it with special displays designed to appeal to do-it-yourselfers. Displays will offer home improvement ideas and some additional guidance.
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We believe Best You and Fresh Home are both well-positioned to succeed, even in the poor economy. William Adler, VP of global comms., Reader’s Digest Association
Wal-Mart, CVS, Borders and Barnes & Noble also will provide major newsstand promotions for the first three issues. If it is successful on newsstands, RDA plans to transition Fresh Home to a subscription model in the future.
Adler said RDA is not worried by the recent demises of home magazines from other publishers. Condé Nast’s own D IY home mag azine, Domino, is publishing its last issue in March, going out with a rate base of 800,000, and Meredith’s 1.27-million-circulation Country Home also will be shuttered next month. “Fresh Home is positioned very differently than Domino, which was aimed at high-concept design and supported by luxury advertisers,” Adler explained. “Fresh Home is aimed at younger consumers, couples or women, who are looking at DIY in a totally different way. Fresh Home is really a lifestyle magazine that’s about how people live today and how they take care of the space where they live and celebrate it and enjoy it. “The shelter magazines that have closed or struggled, they don’t resemble that at all; they tend to be high-end and very dependent on expensive luxury advertisers,” Adler continued. “Our advertisers are Ikea, Benjamin Moore − [companies that represent the] way real people live.” Other success stories in the market may prove Adler’s point. Rodale’s Organic Gardening, for instance, just raised its rate base from 235,000 to 260,000, and it credited its simple-living approach for taking it there. RDA’s own Taste of Home and Healthy Cooking also are raising their rate bases this year. Fresh Home was heavily tested in the market during the year before its launch, and RDA decided there was need in the market for a magazine that gave advice to people who loved their homes. Adler pointed out that many of RDA’s magazines specialize in advice and guidance.
Best You is entering a slightly friendlier launch market. Health magazines, although grappling with the same basic difficulties as other publications, seem to hold consumer attention pretty well. The magazine also has a successful precursor: a Canadian title, Best Health, which launched early last year.
Alyce Alston, president of RDA’s Home & Garden and Health & Wellness affinities, is helming both launches, along with the release of RDA’s Rick Warren-backed magazine/social media group, Purpose Driven Connection. Another magazine also could be in the works for the busy company. DollarSavvy, which had a one-issue soft launch in fall 2008, may be spun out later this year. Reader’s Digest Association’s other publications include 50 versions of its namesake, as well as Every Day with Rachael Ray and Taste of Home. The company is headquartered in Pleasantville, NY. l
AXE RELEASES IPHONE APPLICATION p8
Hartford Direct prepares to close By Chantal Todé
: Marketing services firm Hartford Direct
will close entirely within the next several weeks, as the loss of a big client and the recession have taken a toll on the privately held company’s finances. The Berlin, CT-based company was founded in 1988, with a focus on direct mail production and fulfillment. Over the past few years, it had started to move into digital printing with the goal of being able to offer more one-to-one marketing services. The digital strategy “was definitely beginning to fall into place and give us an opportunity to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace,” said company president Francis Barkyoumb. These efforts, however, weren’t enough to combat market forces. The company’s first big hit came from the recession that followed the terrorist attacks in 2001. “Our high point was right before 9/11, when we had 228 employees,” Barkyoumb said. While the company eventually started to recover, continuing cost increases and growing price competition meant it “never reached the same peak,” he said. Then in late 2007, Hartford Direct lost “a very large client,” who he declined to name, that wanted to take its business to a national organization with geographically dispersed production and fulfillment facilities. The recession was the final straw. “By late 2008, all of our clients’ sales were off by 20% to 40%,” Barkyoumb said. The bank didn’t want to work out a deal with the company because of the losses it was showing, even after a state development group came up with a loan guarantee. When the work continued to drop off, “we knew we wouldn’t make it,” said Bark youmb. Now the executives’ focus is on “going out gracefully” and in a position that it can help its employees as much as possible, he added. l
NEWSBRIEFS Short takes on the industry First National Bank of Omaha has extended its agreement with Acxiom for a prospect marketing database solution for the bank’s credit card division, First National Credit Card Center Inc. First National has been an Acxiom client for two years.
Source Interlink Cos. has settled a dispute in which it accused Time Inc. and others of conspiring to drive it out of business. The suit was filed after Source and the now-defunct Anderson News attempted to raise rates by seven cents per issue.
SourceTool.com owner TradeComet.com has filed a lawsuit against Google alleging the search giant violates antitrust laws by eliminating choice and competition in the marketplace. The company says Google blocked search traffic by imposing unjustified price increases resulting in 90% less traffic to SearchTool. Valassis Communication Inc., a media and marketing services company, reported a fourth quarter revenue of $626.3 million, down 5.3% from $661.5 million for the prior year, which it attributed to the economy. For the full year 2008, Valassis saw a net loss of $207.5 million, or $4.32 per share, as compared to full year 2007 net earnings of $58 million.
OgilvyOne has teamed up with Mobixell to deliver end-to-end mobile advertising services for mobile operators. The services being offered under the new partnership will include advertising, brand management, consumer profiling, campaign planning and execution, ad serving and rich media delivery. Innovation Interactive, the parent company of digital marketing agency 360i, search software provider SearchIgnite and behavioral targeting firm Netmining, has opened a London office. Its goal is to increase the number of its international clients as well as the overseas reach of its domestic clients. Pace University has established the Laura Smith Fund for its Interactive and Direct Marketing Studies Program at Pace University. Smith, a former VP and director of list management at RMI Direct Marketing Inc, died in April 2008 at age 43. The fund will be used to develop labs and provide equipment, materials and educational
tools to help prepare students to become professionals in the interactive and direct market industry. Didit, a search engine marketer, has been named AOR for DollarDays International, an online wholesaler and closeout company. DollarDays cited Didit’s emphasis on driving efficiencies. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has announced plans to reassess its standards for banner ads by the summer. The organization has invited creative agencies to participate in the conversation around industry standards for the first time in its history. To aid its dealings with agencies, the IAB has set up an agency advisory board with both media and creative members. Wolfe.com LLC, which owns GiftCards. com, has acquired Swapagift.com. Founded in 2003 as a gift card trading exchange, Swapagift.com allowed customers to buy, sell and trade unwanted gift cards.