| New Mag Targets Readers Worth $10 million |
|
Thurs 23 Apr 09 Sometimes the worst of times are the best of times for starting a new business. But a hyper-luxury magazine in 2009? Good luck. Jane Leong, a Singaporean publishing magnate, is rolling out Prestige New Yorkthe Gotham version of her glossy, lux magazine, that is popular in Asia. Prestige is filled ads for watches, jets, diamonds and mansions, sprinkled with the occasional feature story about watches, jets, diamonds and mansions. It also has loads of socialites with names like Vanderbilt, Hearst and Trump. This is for people who want to celebrate best in life, Ms. Leong told me. Fine, but now? When every bling-filled luxury magazine in the country is tanking and advertisers are vanishing? When even the word Prestige is politically incorrect? Ms. Leong and Prestige Publisher Ray Cheltowski say they have a secret formulaa list of 50,000 subscribers in the New York tristate area who all have a net worth of $10 million or more. The list was developed by Larkspur and tags people from public filings on stock transfers and other data. As for whether those people still have the money, Mr. Cheltowski says they ran the data this year, so it included the effects of 2008. Prestige says that while other high-end magazines pull their subscriber lists from zip codes or addresses, thereby including too many aspirational readers, their list is more purely rich. The Prestige list, they say, is the Holy Grail for luxury advertisers. We know these are people worth at least $10 million, with many worth a lot more. In other words, people who dont ask about prices. Our biggest nightmare is to host an event for an advertisers and have a reader ask how much does it cost? Mr. Cheltowski says the superrich are still buying, pointing to strong Ferrari sales in Florida and an uptick in jet advertising. They add that the magazine is far more global than Gotham, Robb, Forbes Life or other competitors. Ms. Leong also says that even though the magazine is loaded with jets and jewelry, its not about flaunting your wealth. In which case, perhaps they should consider a different title. For more details please refer to the following link:- http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2009/04/23/new-mag-targets-readers-worth-10-million/ |