This week in magazines: Fantasy colouring offers sales boost
Fantasy Colouring offers creative sales boost for stores.
Newspapers & Magazines
Launch of the week
Make Time for Yourself
On sale 18 June
Frequency every five weeks
Price £6.99
Distributor Seymour
Display with Zen Colouring
Make Time For Yourself is the latest addition to the expanding GMC portfolio of titles. The independent publisher is at the forefront of this burgeoning category, using its knowledge of this area as well as a keen instinct for new titles and ideas.
This knack for finding the right product, and its ability to innovate, stands it in good stead when it comes to new launches, which gives Make Time For Yourself something of a head start.
It builds on the mindfulness market, with each title focusing on a different theme or craft aimed at calming the mind and boosting mental well-being. The first is devoted to fantasy colouring.
TV Years
On sale out now
Frequency bimonthly
Price £4.50
Distributor Frontline
Display with TV Choice, Radio Times
– This nostalgic publication heavily branded from the makers of TV Choice is now up to its fourth issue.
– This issue looks at Classic Children’s Television from the ’60s and ’70s onwards, giving it guaranteed appeal to a wide audience.
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Menace Of Mysterio
On sale out now
Frequency one shot
Price £9.99
Distributor Frontline
Display with Spider-Man magazine, Astonishing Spider-Man
– With the mighty Marvel machine still rolling on post-Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man is the next to return to the big screen.
– This bookazine features three adventures where he takes on the film’s baddie, Mysterio.
Liverpool FC: Let’s Talk About Six, Baby
On sale out now
Frequency one shot
Price £5.99
Distributor Marketforce
Display with FourFourTwo, Match
– This is an officially sanctioned Liverpool FC publication looking back over the club’s historic Champions League victory.
– It includes key writers and photographers, coverage of the final itself and every game leading up to it.
Eclipse Tear ’N’ Share Kids’ Activity Pad
On sale out now
Frequency one shot
Price £2.95
Distributor Frontline
Display with Puzzler
– Two earlier issues of this puzzles-and-more pad for children have delivered an extra £38,000 in revenue to stores.
– A further two, including this one, and another out on 25 July, will add a further £50,000 in revenue throughout the summer holidays
Gibson Les Paul Handbook
On sale out now
Frequency one shot
Price £9.99
Distributor Marketforce
Display with Guitarist
– This bookazine is devoted entirely to one of the world’s most famous guitars, with a look at its history and key figures who’ve played it.
– It also offers a look at how to maintain the axe and more.
Empire
On sale out now
Frequency monthly
Price £5.99
Distributor Frontline
Display with Total Film, Little White Lies
– With his next film due to land shortly, movie mag Empire features Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood on its front cover.
– As well as an interview with Tarantino, this edition comes with a free issue of Empire’s TV-focused spin-off, Pilot TV.
Suitcase
On sale out now
Frequency quarterly
Price £9
Distributor Seymour
Who buys it?
It’s a culture and travel magazine for customers who want to sit in coffee shops flicking through something that looks good.
How do you display it?
You’ve got to make sure people can see it, can pick it up and see what’s in it.
Specialist choice
Mark Dudden,
Albany news, Plasnewydd, Cardiff
Who buys it?
It’s a culture and travel magazine for customers who want to sit in coffee shops flicking through something that looks good.
How do you display it?
You’ve got to make sure people can see it, can pick it up and see what’s in it.
My week in magazines
Tatler’s shades shine light on power of gifts
“Who,” someone asked me the other day, “is going to buy that Tatler with the free sunglasses?” They were commenting on the RN This Week in Magazines entry for the high-society publication, with its free shades offer in the current issue.
While it may not appeal to Tatler’s traditional readership – many of whom will undoubtedly already own expensive summer eyewear – it’s still one of the magazine’s biggest issues of the year.
Its purpose is to bring potential new readers to the publication, offering them a chance to sample the magazine while getting a bonus pair of sunnies.
Ditto Condé Nast’s similar current price promotion on GQ – it’s good to see more of the magazine world’s more upmarket publishers going down a value-based route to try to woo new customers.
The Tatler initiative has also highlighted the potential benefits of adding cover-mounted gifts to grown-up magazines, beyond the scores of free stuff with children’s publications.
Since we covered it, I’ve seen Tatler displayed in retailers’ windows, at the forefront of stores, in displays and laid out in prominent positions.
It’s been the same in airports – I’ve travelled abroad a couple of times over the past month – and the free-gift magazines really do stand out from their rivals.
Offering sunglasses to an upmarket readership may seem counterintuitive, but it works in terms of sales and, crucially, profile for magazines. From what I’ve seen, it adds to the whole category, too, adding a welcome dash of excitement to the racks.
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