Transcript
BOB GARFIELD: If the prospects for a magazine's success are daunting, the rewards from a big score are no less attractive than ever, and publishers from Time, Inc to Conde Nast to no one you've ever heard of launch new titles year after year. Among the startups in 2005, Tango, the magazine for relationships, which debuts February 1st. Media consultant and my old friend Eva Seave is general manager of this project, and she joins me now. Eva, welcome to the show.
EVA SEAVE: Thanks, Bob. Glad to be here.
BOB GARFIELD: Well, Eva, let's see. Magazines had a horrible 2002. They had a horrible 2003. They had a bad 2004. First quarter 2005, looking not so great, and-- you're starting a magazine. First question: what the hell is the matter with you?
EVA SEAVE: I'm an optimist, and if there's an illness with being an optimist, I suppose that's what I've got. But also, when you say magazines have had a horrible period -- you're looking at the entire category of magazines, and that is an inappropriate analysis of what magazines are. Magazines have individual niches which are quite small, and depending on who they're selling to, how they're selling and what they're cost structure is, they may or may not be very successful, and you have to really look at individual categories as well as individual titles.
BOB GARFIELD: Let's talk about Tango and what it's all about. It is a relationships magazine. But women's service magazines also are heavily about relationships and constant talk about the male-female dynamic. How is Tango different?
EVA SEAVE: Tango magazine -- the magazine about relationships -- is different from other women's lifestyle publications -- we're not really a service magazine. Tango looks at everything that a regular women's publication would look at through the filter of relationships - because, as we like to say at our office, what sex is to men, relationships are to women. We just think about them all the time -- married women, women who are dating, women who are living with guys -- we see relationship as a filter of a lot of stuff. So, for example, when we did a piece on hair conditioners, we actually gave the hair conditioners to four couples, and we asked them to try it -- both men and women -- and they wrote about that. It was interesting, and it was different from the usual product standup, product shot and so forth.
BOB GARFIELD: Tango is a very clever name, cause after all, it takes two to-- you know. But another name for the magazine, had you asked me, might have been Men's Ultimate Nightmare Magazine, [LAUGHS] because if there's one thing that men don't want to do is discuss relationships in any way, shape or form. [LAUGHTER] Is there any male audience anywhere in your business plan?
EVA SEAVE: Yes. We think that people who are in a current relationship sometimes will find an article interesting enough. They'll show the man they're living with or their husband, because it's going to be easier to have the fellow read it than to have that conversation. So actually it may help men who really hate to talk about stuff, cause they can read it.
BOB GARFIELD: For some years now, at magazine meetings, the leaders of the industry have been wringing their hands and beating their breasts about the model being broken. Tell me, please, what the model is and what about it isn't working right.
EVA SEAVE: A typical consumer magazine gets money from two different ways -- for the subscription, the actual copy sold -- and also gets money from advertisers. So even if you only pay 50 cents a copy for a magazine, an advertiser will pay the magazine company 7, 8, 20 dollars for each individual copy to be in the hands of the readers. When advertising revenue started dropping away, suddenly the magazine companies found that they had very little money coming in from subscriptions and for newsstand, and very little money coming in for advertising. And so, some publications really found out that their cost structure was not working for them. Tango's cost structure is very low - by design. One big thing is direct mail costs a lot of money. As a consequence, we aren't doing any. And we are very creative about how we get our circulation.
BOB GARFIELD: If you're not going to do direct mail to get your subscribers, what is your secret new plan for low cost circulation promotion?
EVA SEAVE: It's not a secret. One of the success stories which did alternative circulation without direct mail is a publication called Budget Living, which has gotten a lot of good press, and the web has become an incredibly successful way for smaller publications to launch their circulation subscriptions. We're using that to the fullest. We have a relationship with a website called Perfect Match which has millions of people who actually pay money to get fixed up on line, and we really deliver the kind of content and make people feel good about relationships and so forth, and so we have a relationship with them, so to speak.
BOB GARFIELD: Just curious -- do you find yourself calling the website to talk about your relationship?
EVA SEAVE: No, not generally. [LAUGHTER]
BOB GARFIELD: Thank you, Eva.
EVA SEAVE: You're welcome.
BOB GARFIELD: Magazine consultant Eva Seave is a partner in Quantum Media and also the general manager of the soon to be unveiled Tango magazine. [MUSIC]