The Week has raised its rate base by 25,000 and created two new executive editor positions as part of its ongoing expansion.
With this rate base increase, effective January 2009, The Week will have a circulation of 500,000 — double its 2004 rate. The increase is the magazine’s third within a year.
“Over the past four years, The Week has seen really rapid circulation growth,” said Steven Kotok, GM of The Week. “We’ve been raising prices because we saw circulation heading towards a million and wanted to be more selective. But we still see growth, and we have so many positive lifetime value circulation sources it makes sense to continue to let organic growth happen.”
Kotok said there are no plans to seek new readers outside The Week‘s core demographics, noting, “We don’t want to be the magazine for everybody.” The magazine, however, is seeking to grow its brand through its Web site.
Francis Wilkinson, the former blog editor at The Huffington Post, will fill one of the new executive editor positions at The Week. Eric Effron, formerly managing editor at The Week, has also been promoted to executive editor. Both men will report to William Falk, editor-in-chief of The Week.
“We wanted some more senior-level people to support Bill Falk,” Kotok explained. “More than half of our money comes from subscriptions, and fully half of new subscriptions come from gifts made by current subscribers or passing along an insert card — essentially word of mouth. Editorial is everything, so keeping that as high quality as possible is a big part.”
Thanks to his Huffington Post experience, Wilkinson will act as the editorial “point man” for theweek.com. He and Effron will also help write and edit the print edition.
