Highlighting the continued strength of the grocery industry, a new business-to-business magazine for buyers and sellers of frozen and dairy products will launch this summer.
Frozen and Dairy Buyer, slated to debut in August, will target buyers of frozen and dairy foods at the supermarket HQ level and those involved with the sale of such products to consumers, as well as some manufacturers. It will publish monthly, with a controlled circulation of around 9000.
The magazine will compete directly with BNP Media‘s Refrigerated and Frozen Foods Retailer, where the new title’s founders, Warren Thayer and Paul Chapa, worked as associate publishers until resigning to manage the launch of Frozen and Dairy Buyer.
“We are going to compete directly, and it’s a healthy market,” said Warren Thayer, co-founder and editor of Frozen and Dairy Buyer. “They’re still doing well at BNP, but there were factors that have led me to believe that going out on my own is a wise idea. I’ve covered frozen foods for 20-odd years and built some fairly unique expertise in the industry, so, without sounding like an egomaniac, I believe I can do a superior job [covering the market], given my background.”
Thayer added that he is using his long-time connections in the industry to acquire some of his mailing lists and is buying others for merge-purge purposes. The magazine is putting together some traditional marketing to promote its first issue. A brochure about the new brand is being direct mailed and e-mailed out to prospective readers this month.
Online and new media offshoots of the brand are also in the works. Thayer was not ready to reveal all of the magazine’s online plans, but said he was exploring a variety of online tools, including social media and video.
“Our focus will be on bringing buyers and sellers together any way we can,” he said. “The challenge will be in trying to get up to speed on new media. I have to get the print side done first because, frankly, I still believe that most of our revenue in the first year or two will come off of print, but the challenge is getting my arms around electronic media and making most intelligent, strategic use of it.”
