Turning the ultra-successful Taste.com.au website into a magazine is a gamble that seems to have paid off for Nicole Sheffield and the team at NewsLifeMedia. More than a week out from print all advertising inventory had been accounted for and interest, according to NewsLifeMedia, is still strong.
It’s not leaving anything to chance, though. In April this year the publisher decided to reverse-engineer the general media trend by creating a magazine spin-off of its recipe website, despite already publishing a solid library of food titles including Donna Hay and Delicious. But adding another food magazine to the mix has not diluted advertiser interest and NewsLifeMedia is capitalising on the good vibes with a major marketing campaign.
“The feedback was really positive, particularly when we showed advertisers the research,” said Fiona Nilsson, NewsLifeMedia group publisher of food brands. “We have been looking at this for a couple of years. We had already flagged it with some of our advertisers because Taste is such as big brand.
“When we did apps and one-shots there was a really big appetite for them. Our research showed 84% of readers said they would buy a Taste.com.au magazine. Some initially questioned it although it wasn’t really about the idea of reverse publishing it but rather releasing a magazine in this environment. Issue one advertising sold out at least a week before we went to print.”
Strong advertising support could also be a result of NewsLifeMedia investing heavily in the launch of the print title with a seven-figure campaign and national ranging that includes both Coles and Woolworths front-of-store positions, TVCs and thousands of point-of-sale displays.
“We’ve had unprecedented retail support, so much so that we had to increase our print run from a budgeted 160,000 to 200,000 – it has more ranging in supermarkets than any other launch and we have national ranging in over 7,000 outlets,”
Nilsson said. “We are putting out 28,000 point-ofsale pieces including 2,000 display bins and 750 counter stands. The marketing campaign is a $3 million campaign with heavy retail but also TVCs and support across the News Limited network. We will be reaching 15 million eyeballs with the campaign our media agency has come back with.”
The first issue of Taste.com.au magazine will go on sale on 9 September for a special one-off price of $2.99 before increasing to $4.99.
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