Keith J. Kelly

Keith J. Kelly

Media

Hearst moves forward with two new test launches

Despite its bumpy ride with Dr. Oz The Good Life, Hearst is plunging ahead with two new test launches.

The latest on tap is Ree Drummond’s new magazine, Pioneer Woman, debuting June 6.

It will be sold only in Walmart stores.

The publisher hopes that Drummond’s popular cooking show and her blog — which snags 23 million page views per month — translates into a magazine success story.

It is the second test issue to launch from Hearst in recent weeks. The test launch of the travel title Airbnbmag hit this week.

Joint ventures hold down launch costs, but TV success is not an automatic pass to success.

Dr. Oz The Good Life moved to 950,000 circulation at 10 times a year at the start of the year, but poor ad support caused the company to cut back to a quarterly “bookazine” earlier this month.

Vicki Wellington, who is also publisher of Food Network Magazine as well as Pioneer Woman, says of Drummond: “She never wrote a business plan on how to be a success. She’s basically been operating from the heart.”

In her first meeting at the Hearst Tower in September, Drummond wore cowboy boots, Wellington said.

Drummond married Ladd Drummond and moved to his sprawling Oklahoma ranch when she began doing a mom blog on cooking, country life and family in 2006 that soon gained a national following.

Her blog eventually turned into a guest appearance on Bobby Flay’s cooking show and eventually her own Food Network show and a bestselling cook book.

Wellington said the first test issue has 35 ad pages.

“It sold out very quickly,” she said. “I had to turn people away.”

The company is only distributing 150,000 copies of the first issue. The second test issue, scheduled for September, will broaden out beyond the Walmart chain, said Wellington.