Time Inc. on Friday launches All You, a unique newsstand-only monthly magazine for distribution initially where the target audience shops nationwide — Wal-Mart stores.
Priced at $1.47 per copy, the magazine has charter advertisers like L'Oreal Paris, Toyota Motor, GlaxoSmithKline, ConAgra, RangeKleen, Johnson & Johnson and Unilever. It bucks a trend for Time Inc., a proponent of building magazines via a subscription model.
“It's essentially because we're trying to do things differently, and therefore we looked at a newsstand-driven model,” said Diane Oshin, publisher of All You, New York.
The magazine's guaranteed rate base is 500,000, and trim size is 8 1/2 by 10 inches. Aimed at the mainstream American woman, each issue will offer tips and ideas for people with realistic budgets.
For example, the premiere September issue has stories on surviving a layoff, a debate on whether low-carb foods make people fat, five easy meals for a week, being one's own decorator and digital photography. That issue has 152 pages, 40 percent of them ads.
“All of our research indicated that women felt that the magazines they were currently reading said it was not OK to be who they were, just the way they were,” Oshin said. “They were made to feel [they should] be doing more and always looking better. Women want to be accepted … a magazine that accepts them for who they are is going to be welcomed.”
Since the magazine does not carry a subscription card, reader feedback will be sought through surveys included in the issue. Copies with the survey will be distributed geographically to gain a fair national sample.
The subject of Wal-Mart, however, has to be handled with care.
“This is definitely not a partnership,” Oshin said. “This is definitely a Time Inc. initiative. Wal-Mart has no editorial involvement or financial involvement. So essentially this is not a partnership in the traditional sense. It is a Time Inc. title being distributed at a sole retailer.
“It was not that we chose Wal-Mart,” she added. “It was that Wal-Mart was the largest distributor of magazines. An ongoing dialogue with them suggested that this was the first time a Time Inc. magazine would address their market.”
A full-page, four-color ad in All You costs $13,470 — gross and non-negotiable.
“You can call all 60 advertisers in this [premiere] issue, and they all paid the same rate, including Wal-Mart,” Oshin said.
