Fitness, Men's Journal Team For Ad Sales
Magazine publishers package their own titles together for ad sales all the
time, but it’s much less common to see titles owned by two different publishers
collaborating.
That's what's happening with a new ad sales partnership between Fitness, owned by Meredith Corp., and Men's Journal, owned by Wenner Media. The
partnership covers the titles’ print and digital assets.The ad sales alliance, announced earlier this week, will allow Fitness and Men's Journal to offer a bigger circulation footprint to advertisers that cuts across gender lines, making them more competitive with big health and fitness publishers like Rodale. The two magazines together have an average circulation of 2.24 million, according to the Alliance for Audited Media (Fitness, 1.53 million, Men's Journal, 714,000), putting them in the same league as titles like Men's Health, with 1.9 million; Women’s Health, with 1.58 million; and Shape, with 1.63 million.
The first advertisers to tap the Fitness-Men's Journal tie-up include outdoor recreational apparel and equipment brand Marmot, which is placing ads in both titles for its “Lead Now” initiative, promoting a one-year global climbing expedition by Paige Claassen. The program, which will run through June 30, 2014, includes a series of Webisodes, editorial coverage of Paige's journey, and online and social media promotion.Another advertiser, The Beef Checkoff, is running a four-page ad unit focused on summer grilling in both magazines, along with two other Meredith titles.
Reader’s Digest Cuts Rate Base
Reader’s Digest Association is cutting the guaranteed circulation of its flagship magazine from 5.5 million to three million. The move comes as RDA undergoes its second bankruptcy reorganization with the approval of various creditors, including the sale of various properties, such as Everyday With Rachael Ray and Allrecipes.com, to focus on the core Reader’s Digest brand. The company expects to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by the end of the month.
And more...
