Hearst executives are moving closer to launching a new self-help magazine with Dr. Mehmet Oz, according to reports from ad-agency honchos who have discussed the matter with the publisher.
If the plans — now in the final talking stage — come to pass, the new title will debut with a January/February issue that will be one of the biggest launches in magazine history.
One source said that the company is predicting a rate base of 800,000, with 350,000 from newsstand sales and the rest to selected subscribers.
Madison Avenue sources say that corporate Executive Vice President of Sales Jeff Hamill has been talking to prospective media buyers. The project on the edit side is being overseen by Hearst Editorial Director Ellen Levine.
“There was no creative or anything to look at, but a lifestyle approach different from the field,” said one source who was involved in the discussions. Oz will only give final approval if he is convinced the project will be a huge hit.
Oz’s highly rated talk show is already carried by many Hearst- owned television stations.
A joint venture with Hearst is expected to be constructed, similar to the deal the publishing house has with Oprah Winfrey and her Harpo Productions to publish O, the Oprah Magazine.
Hearst has big hits with its last two joint ventures — HGTV magazine and the Food Network Magazine, both with Scripps.
But it could use another success to help offset the big ad and circulation slide that occurred on O after Winfrey dropped her top-rated talk show for her own OWN network.
That’s rich
Modern Luxury, which is already invading the Hamptons this weekend with the Cristina Cuomo-edited Beach magazine, is also planning to expand its national footprint by relaunching Scottsdale Magazine this fall.
Michael Dickey, president of Modern Luxury, said the company recently purchased the name and trademarks from owner Michael Kong.
The magazine, which has been dark since Kong was forced into foreclosure on his old Modern Luxury company, will be relaunched in November.
The company is owned by radio kingpins Michael and Lou
Dickey, who run the publicly traded Cumulus Media. The family purchased Modern Luxury in September 2010, but the Scottsdale title was left out of the deal.
“We’re excited to give birth to it again,” Michael Dickey said. He expects the 35,000-circulation, every- other-month magazine to be a mixture of controlled and paid circulation.
The company, which is backed by McQuarie Capital, also closed a deal to buy Aspen Magazine in December 2012 — and Dickey said in the next 18 months he hopes to expand into Boston, Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Seattle.
That would put it even more in a head-to-head battle with Niche Media, headquartered in Las Vegas, where it is controlled by the locally connected Greenspun family.
“We welcome competition in any market,” said Katherine Nicholls, COO of Niche. “It keeps making us stronger, and giving the community choice is always a good thing.”
In the battle for the East End of Long Island, Niche’s Hamptons title still has a commanding lead with 240 ad pages in its first issue of the summer, compared with 75 ad pages for the brand-new Beach.
Store point
Last Thursday, Maria Rodale, who describes herself as “CEO and cyber poet,” said on her Facebook page, “I’m kind of done.”
What could that mean?
Many wondered if the third-generation CEO was growing tired of running the family business.
A Rodale spokeswoman insisted it was all the result of the long hours leading to the big announcement last Monday that the company was moving on launching an eco-luxury online retail store — to be known as Rodale’s — that will feature about 500 items from about 100 vendors.
The company is calling it “the first online shopping destination specializing in handpicked luxury and sustainably sourced goods.”
Rodale hopes it brings in several million dollars of revenue a year for the company that publishes Men’s Health, Prevention and Runners World.
Men’s healthy
Competition is definitely heating up in the men’s market, where David Zinczenko, who was forced out of Rodale by Maria Rodale late last year as his contract was expiring, has now teamed up with American Media and rcdesigned smaller rival Men’s Fitness.
“In four weeks, he totally redesigned the issue,” said AMI CEO David Pecker of his new consulting editorial director’s work on the magazine.
Pecker said the June issue is “the largest issue in the history of the magazine,” with 82 ad pages in a 172-page issue.
Among the first time advertisers are Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Ford.