Rick’s Cabaret International Inc. will combine two of its trade titles into a single publication, named StorErotica Magazine.
StorErotica, a controlled circulation publication reaching 12,000 readers, will take the place of Teeze, an 8,000-average circulation magazine for the lingerie industry; and the 9,000-plus-circ Adult Store Buyer. The merger took place in large part, because the two magazines were seeing a large overlap in readers, as lingerie stores began stocking adult products and vice versa.
“We call it Sex and the City syndrome,” said Don Waitt, president of RCI Media Holdings, a division of Rick’s Cabaret that oversees publishing operations. “Women and couples are much more likely now to buy adult products, so lingerie stores started carrying adult products, and adult stores realized they needed to start incorporating sexy lingerie into their stores. We noticed that we were mailing both publications to the same manufacturers and distributors and about half the stores, so it made more sense to merge and cover the entire market.”
StorErotica will be distributed bi-monthly, beginning with the December issue. RCI Media will use its Teeze and ASB subscriber lists to populate the StorErotica database.
Targeted readers include owners and operators of lingerie and adult retail stores, manufacturers and distributors and other industry professionals.
Consolidating the two magazines will reduce production costs for Rick’s, which acquired Teeze and ASB in April. It also is expected to boost ad revenues by offering an expanded print and online audience to advertisers.
The StorErotica Web site, currently in launch mode, offers news feeds, daily updates, a vendor database and interactive forums.
“The Web site is a major component of what we’re doing because we’re aware that print needs to be augmented by the Internet or you’ll just die,” Waitt said. He added that the company plans to monetize the site through charging for premium membership in the database and selling banner ads.
Like its predecessors, StorErotica also will be distributed at industry conventions, including the StorErotica Annual Convention and Tradeshow, which enters its third year in 2009.
