News Magazines will launch its men's sports title, Alpha, into an already crowded men's magazine market in mid-July. Ralph, FHM, Inside Sport and Men's Health all experienced significant declines in readership in the past year, even before the launch of Alpha. News Magazines is targeting $9 million in advertising revenue in Alpha's first year, representing almost 50% of the $20 million sector (assuming the sector doesn't grow). This begs the question: HOW BIG AN IMPACT WILL ALPHA HAVE ON THE MEN'S MAGAZINE MARKET?
Simon Davies, head of print OMD
Alpha will add a mass reach magazine to the men's market and I believe the impact of this will be to grow the overall segment, both in terms of circulation and advertising revenue. Alpha has a clearly different market position to Ralph, FHM and Men's Health and so will draw advertising from a broader range of other media. Ralph and FHM will continue to deliver a younger audience, while Men's Health adds an AB, active skew to the mix. Overall, the new launch will add to the viability of using broad circulation magazines as a way to target Australian males.
Paul Korch, executive director Total Advertising
I don't agree with the assumption that the men's magazine market will be contained in a market that can't grow. Clearly, Alpha wants to grow the market, but I think aiming for $9 million in pretty gutsy. I've always been surprised that Time hasn't been as aggressive with Sports Illustrated here, given they've been kicking the tyres of the Australian market for many years. It's quite extraordinary when you consider that Australians have such a passion for sport that a significant men's magazine hasn't emerged, so maybe it will be Alpha. If you pitch it right and have the right content, then people will buy it, but whether it will make money is another question.
Phil Scott, men's lifestyle & specialist group publisher ACP
If the claims are delivered then Alpha will be the most successful newspaper magazine launch of all time. News Limited has plenty of resources and commands respect, but I'm not sure if Alpha is about growing ad revenue or boosting circ. It brings focus to the men's market, which can't be a bad thing, but inserted mags don't seem to have spiked circulation for other newspaper publishers. But good on them for having a go. From what I have read, Alpha is guaranteeing a circulation of 200,000. Given that it carries a separate cover price, the delivery on that promise you'd expect could only be substantiated via an ABC audit number. Alpha is a paid magazine, same as our men's titles, so we'll be looking for the same level of substantiation. From an advertising perspective, Alpha is on another level of rate structure to most men's interest titles and, as a result, will probably take money away from mass-market media, like newspapers and TV. I'd also hazard a guess that the current group of men's magazines provides a good concentration of male demographics without much wastage for clients. We're not seeing any evidence yet of cannibalisation. That said, at first glance client's will like the look of Alpha's numbers but the jury will be out until the guarantees are supported by an ABC audit.
Geoff Campbell, executive publishing director Emap
Anything that makes targeting young men easier for advertisers is a good thing. FHM leads the market in Australia doing just that - making it easier for advertisers to target young men. The world in which young men live is getting more and more complex and their interests and horizons are constantly expanding. FHM's success has derived from understanding the many things that interest, entertain, excite and amuse young men. Our research on this is clear: sport is an important one, but is just one of these. We expect advertisers to experiment with Alpha and we wish them and News [Magazines] luck. Meanwhile, we will continue to innovate and evolve FHM into an ever-more entertaining, exciting and effective package, for young men and for the advertisers who want to reach them alike.
Mark O'Brien, director of buying mediaedge:cia
This is certainly an exciting, and very different magazine launch in terms of the distribution model. In terms of its effect on the men's magazine market, I feel there will be a positive effect as it allows advertisers more opportunity to reach this male audience via print on a broadcast scale. However, because of the page costs, it is more likely to take money from newspaper and to a lesser extent, TV. The men's market needs another player, a big one preferably, in the current landscape. Yet I feel the page rates will scare off the smaller clients who feel more comfortable with the smaller capital costs per page in the current set of FHM, Ralph, Inside Sport and Men's Health.
Terry Fitzpatrick, group sales and marketing director Horwitz
At the end of the day, you've got to say to yourself that given 45% of newspaper readers are female, who is this trying to appeal to? This is a way to counteract falling readership and sales, and it's hardly a new model. They're talking about 70% of purchasers dropping off after the launch issue, so they don't seem to have much faith in the product. We can all sell $10 notes on the street for $5 - it doesn't take a marketing genius to do that. At $2, it's chip wrapper, and advertisers and agencies will have to consider the motives behind the purchaser - which is absolutely based on price. Ask someone to pay $8 for a magazine and suddenly purchasers are committed to the product and have developed an association with it.
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