Men’s Vogue has added a new editorial section and will increase its rate base to 400,000 as it asserts itself in the men’s magazine market.
The young sibling publication of Condé Nast’s Vogue launched as a test issue with 150,000 copies in 2005, followed by an official April 2006 launch at a rate base of 300,000. Its rate base has steadily increased since then, resting most recently at 350,000. According to the magazine’s spring 2008 subscriber study, by Mediamark Research & Intelligence, readers’ median household income is $119,700, and 80% of readers are 35 years of age or older. Also, when compared with the US population, Men’s Vogue readers are 14 times more likely than the average US population to own investment collections of antiques, books and other goods and are 20 times more likely to have spent $2,000 on apparel in the past year.
“I think we’ve tapped into a readership that hadn’t been served in the way they were yearning to be,” said Jay Fielden, editor in chief of Men’s Vogue. “The men’s magazines that were out there were very young, very fashion-forward, had a kind of off-color sense of humor and were more similar than dissimilar. We thought, let’s aim at the guy who is further along in his development and expectations from life and the ambition he has for those things.”
In its November issue, Men’s Vogue will introduce the “MV Scorecard,” a new editorial section that offers the magazine’s rankings of consumer products, such as wine, tech gadgets and clothes. The section fits with Men’s Vogue‘s approach to marketing itself as a lifestyle supplement; the magazine offers a variety of events as part of its consumer outreach, including concerts, cocktail parties and Q&A sessions with various notables.
“We always knew that we would need a series of different rocket boosts to catapult into the next stratosphere,” Fielden said of the editorial addition. “It reached 350,000 and a subscription renewal rate of 60%, which is fantastic, but we always want to be able to adapt to things that are going on in our readers’ lives and make the magazine’s personality even stronger.
“The scorecard, which gives context to what, in our highly subjective opinion, is the most excellent, goes to one of our core traits, which is being a magazine that is selective and has the knowledge to be selective,” he continued.
The magazine also has added a new tagline, “Style is how you live,” which, Fielden explained, “says the magazine is for real guys and speaks to broad interests across the board.”
He added that he would love to stabilize the monthly’s newsstand sales while maintaining its select audience. Further development of the Web site is also in the works.
