CANADIAN billionaire Jimmy Pattison‘s magazine-wholesale chain The News Group yesterday said it will not press for a 7-cent-per-copy surcharge that two rivals are trying to extract from magazine publishers starting Feb. 1.
While News Group President Glen Clark agreed that all wholesalers need help, he pledged his company won’t impose a price hike similar to ones proposed by Anderson News and Source Interlink Cos.
“The wholesalers need help, there is a serious issue,” said Clark, as he touched down in Vancouver after huddling with publishing executives and magazine distributors in New York yesterday.
“Charlie Anderson [CEO of Anderson News] is basically right, but we feel we’d like a negotiated solution,” said Clark, who noted that while he won’t impose a hike on Feb. 1, he can’t rule it out down the road.
Magazine publishers were rocked last week after Anderson News said it would begin on Feb. 1 imposing a 7-cent surcharge on each magazine it distributes to retailers. Source Interlink, which is owned by billionaire Ron Burkle, followed suit this week.
However, publishers won a bit of a reprieve when Anderson, after meeting with national distributors, said he would delay the price hikes for the issues that ship on Feb. 3 and go on sale Feb. 5 or Feb. 6.
With each company estimated to account for 25 percent of the market nationally, publishers feared that if all three imposed the surcharge, it would cost publishers close to $1 billion extra.
Anderson News and Source Interlink want the extra money to help them make up for what they call a money-losing business.
Magazine publishers, for their part, argue that the surcharge comes at a time when most can’t afford it, given the sharp downturn in advertising and shrinking circulation.
“We understand that publishers have very serious economic issues,” said Clark.
But some publishers are infuriated by the wholesalers’ demands.
“This is a giant Ponzi scheme,” complained one publishing source, who said the only way the surviving wholesalers have stayed in business is by “stealing each other’s customers to increase their cash flow.”
Too thin
Fashion magazines have closed their all important March issues, and the picture is not pretty.
While Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and Publisher Tom Florio kept their magazine atop the fashion world, the tally shows that being No. 1 doesn’t automatically make a title immune to the industry-wide advertising famine.
The March Vogue racked up only 375 ad pages, compared with 499 last year – a 25 percent drop, according to early estimates obtained by Media Ink. For the first quarter, the magazine is down 28.5 percent to 562 ad pages.
In Style, which yesterday saw its Publisher Lynette Harrison resign, had a disastrous March issue, with only 190 ad pages, down 34 percent from 286 a year ago. For the quarter, the title is down 29 percent to 436 ad pages, from 612 a year earlier.
On the subject of Harrison’s departure, an In Style spokeswoman said no replacement has yet been named. She stressed Harrison did not leave because of the ad-page slide.
Elle, which defied the odds last year with an ad-page gain, came down to earth this year.
March is down 26 percent to 258 ad pages, compared with 350 last year. For the quarter, the mag is down 26 percent to 434 pages, compared with 584 a year ago.
Harper’s Bazaar dropped 15 percent to 257 pages in March. In the quarter, it’s off 21 per cent to 396.
No teens
Hearst shut down Teen magazine, a smaller, newsstand-driven title it inherited when it purchased Seventeen magazine from Primedia.
It will now only publish the annual Teen Prom issue.
It marks the fourth magazine shut this year by Hearst Magazines President Cathleen Black.
Earlier shutdowns include the weekly Quick & Simple, another teen title, Cosmo Girl, and the quarterly O at Home, which had been spun out of O, the Oprah Magazine.
Mouster
Disney Publishing, which axed 600 people across the company, is also rapidly shrinking its magazine division, shutting down its parenthood title Wondertime.
“Yes, I’m afraid it’s true,” said Editorial Director Ann Hallock, who is now left overseeing Family Fun.
Wondertime launched in 2006 with 10-times-a-year frequency and had reached 650,000 circulation, but the ad market didn’t keep pace.
Editor Lisa Stiepock is out of a job along with about two dozen editorial staff.