Newsstand Sales Soar for U.S. News, Time
U.S. News & World Report and Time magazine reported heavy newsstand sales of editions covering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.Both publications printed at least three times as many copies as normal for this week's issue in reaction to sales of these editions.
The companies think subscription requests will rise following the newsstand surge during the next two months because public interest in terrorism news likely will stay steady or grow from this point.
"We certainly don't want to make it seem like we are capitalizing on this horrific event," said Brian Wolfe, vice president of consumer marketing for Time, New York. "At the same time, we offer a great news perspective on events like this. There exists an opportunity to extend the brand and reach new customers because of the nature of the business that we are in."
Wolfe said that Time.com also has seen a jump in traffic.
Meanwhile, U.S. News & World Report expects poor results from a mail campaign dropped last week just before the terrorist attacks. Susan Blattman, senior vice president of consumer marketing at U.S. News & World Report, New York, wouldn't divulge the extent or nature of the campaign.
"We are not hopeful, obviously, because of the timing," she said.
