http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2006/08/07/focus1.html?b=1154923200%5e1325843&surround=etf

August 4, 2006

How do they stack up

Local luxury magazines mark their first birthdays. Here's a look at what's worth celebrating and who's toddling along.

Washington Business Journal - by Jennifer Nycz-Conner Staff Writer

They're slick. They're glossy. They're fabulous -- just ask them. They're heavy. Their publishers throw great parties. Their covers feature beautiful movie stars married to race car drivers.

And a year or so after they landed with an Ashley-Judded thud on the doorsteps and salon waiting room tables of D.C., the region's three new luxury magazines -- Capitol File, D.C. and D.C. Style -- are still stylishly sweating the details, making sure no Washingtonian wonders where to purchase a rhinestone-studded collar for her pug or where to find a zen garden architect.

And they've managed to find enough Jimmy Choos among the Hush Puppies and enough of those shiny beautiful people you never see at the Baileys Crossroads Target to fill more than a dozen total issues of all three for the whole year.

But the fabulous life is not without the rumors that always plague the new rich and beautiful. Are they living beyond their means? Can they pay bills? And are they making more money than we are?

Good questions. And hard ones to answer. Putting numbers to their nebulous buzz is not easy. None is audited yet, and a couple don't busy themselves with nagging subscription and circulation issues. Instead they just give 'em away.

So we sat down and pored through the pages, cursing all the parties we missed and art galleries opened without us.

What did we learn -- other than we need to get out more?

Well, they're still glossy and pretty. But not as fat as before. And in the publishing business, that is not a good thing. Page counts have dropped at two out of three, but the mood at each of the three D.C. offices is still upbeat.

Perhaps their biggest victory is their collective success in nudging the cool meter up just a bit. Or at least their collective effort.

Of course, the folks at Washingtonian magazine think the cool meter is doing just fine. The established city magazine reports that the young upstarts have had little impact on newsstand sales or circulation.

The only change, if anything, is, "more venues talking about what a wonderful city Washington is," says Garrett Graff, Washingtonian's editor-at-large. "And from our perspective, that's never a bad thing."

The ad agencies that feed those magazines also have noticed the changes.

"Ten years ago, you couldn't find a place like IndeBleu," says David Nellis, owner of Annandale-based marketing and advertising agency Return on Investment. "It's coming to life. And I think those magazines reflect that."

Mike August, principal of advertising firm August, Lang & Husak in Bethesda, has also noticed the cool quotient nudging northward at Capitol File's parties, including an "unbelievable" launch fest at the Four Seasons.

Another fete at an Adams Morgan club "seemed right out of an episode of 'Sex in the City,'" August says. It "appealed to those Washingtonians who wanted to feel hip and almost part of a New York scene."

Although we missed the party, we caught up with those making the guest lists. Here's what the pages and publishers have to show for themselves after a year. We followed the "what you see is what you get" approach to page and ad counts.

Do remember that it's summer in D.C., when everyone's page count suffers. (And, we know, you may need a paperweight for this less-than-plump August edition of Washington Business Journal.)

Capitol File

• Published by: Niche Media
• Executives: Jason Binn, CEO and chairman; Paige Bishop, publisher; Kate Gibbs, editor
• Debut: September 2005
• Debut page count: 344
• Summer 2006 page count: 232
• Ad pages, premiere: 156.75, plus two house
• Ad pages, latest issue: 109.25 plus 3.25 house; eight-sided insert
• Staff: Eight full-time in Washington office
• The weigh-in:

Then: 3 pounds even

Now: 1 pound, 15.7 ounces

• Slick sisters: Aspen Peak, Boston Common, Gotham, Hamptons, Los Angeles Confidential
• Biggest stretch for a local story: The cover girls. Sure, we know stars come to town. But placing them on every cover gives you the idea that you're likely to bump into them on Metro.
• Circulation: 70,000
• Where it's found: More than half are delivered to homes valued at more than $1 million. The rest are at events, embassies, airports, hotels and stores. Newsstands and subscriptions are 8 percent of the base.
• Audit info: Applied for ABC audit
• Frequency: Five times annually
• Advertising rate for one-time full page: $18,900
• Typical: Watches, watches and more watches, luxury homes, jewelry and high-end clothing
• Newsstand price: $6.95
• First cover: Ashley Judd
• Current cover: Petra Nemcova
• Party: People still talk about the launch party. It recently held a big soiree celebrating its latest release and the 87 D.C. singles on its black-book list.
• Party line: "The market's very healthy right now," Bishop says. "The area's really popping as far as the luxury lifestyle goes." It made the biggest public relations push at the outset. That won Capitol File both positive, and less-than-positive coverage.
• Gossip: CEO and Chairman Jason Binn took some heat in the media for listing some celebs as "contributing editors."

D.C.

• Published by: Modern Luxury
• Executives: Peter Abrahams, publisher; Ann McCarthy, editor in chief
• Debut: September-October 2005
• Debut page count: 304
• Page count July/August 2006: 160
• Ad pages, premiere: 160.83 plus two house
• Ad pages, latest issue: 66.7 plus one-half house
• Staff: 14 in Washington office
• The weigh-in:

Then: 2 pounds, 8 ounces

Now: 1 pound, 1.9 ounces

• Slick sisters: Modern Luxury pubs in Chicago, Los Angeles, Orange County, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, San Diego, San Francisco, New York
• Biggest stretch for a local story: In the latest issue, Robert Downey Jr. is featured, standing in front of a car with California plates.
• Circulation: 50,000
• Where it's found: The magazine is mailed to select neighborhoods, luxury high-rises, embassies, spas, golf clubs and hotels.
• Audit info: Applied for ABC audit
• Frequency: Opened with three bimonthly issues, then monthly March, April, May and June. Combined issue for July/August. D.C. will now be monthly.
• Advertising rate for one-time full-color page: $10,789.
• Typical advertising: The standard set of luxury jewelry, luxury residences, high-end furniture and spas.
• Newsstand price: Started at $4.95. Now $5.95.
• First cover: Glamorous brunette, hair up
• Current cover: Glamorous brunette, hair down
• Party line: "We really cover the gamut of everything that's lifestyle related," Abrahams says. "We have a pretty dominant market share of local advertising," he says.

D.C. Style

• Published by: DLG Media Holdings
• Executives: Dana Spain-Smith, owner/publisher; Sarah Schaffer, editor in chief.
• Debut: May 2005
• Debut page count: 132
• Page count, May/June 2006 issue: 144
• Ad pages, premiere: 33.5, plus three-quarter house
• Ad pages, latest issue: 36 plus one-quarter house
• Staff: Went through two publishers by August 2005, when owner Spain-Smith added publisher to her title; moved sales and marketing to Philadelphia. Three full-time editorial staffers work in D.C.
• The weigh-in:

Then: 14.9 ounces

Now: 11 ounces

• Slick sisters: Philadelphia Style, A.C. Confidential
• Biggest stretch for a local story: Current issue's "Atlantic City: 24 Hours in America's Playground."
• Circulation: 50,000
• Where it's found: More emphasis on subscription and newsstand sales than the others. About 20 percent are dropped in salons, hotels and coffee shops.
• Audit: Not audited in D.C. yet, but the magazine intends to apply in the latter half of 2007.
• Frequency: Six times annually. After the second issue, DLG Media decided to forgo the summer issue for financial and seasonal reasons. Spain-Smith's rationale: D.C. sleeps during the summer or vacations at destinations the editors say are just too far flung to cover in one publication.
• Advertising rate for one-time full-color page: $4,988.
• Typical advertising: D.C. Style targets a less-affluent but still hip audience than the other two.
• Newsstand price: $3.99
• First cover: Young brunette
• Current cover: Young brunette with hat
• Shared content: Some fashion and features are shared, although the magazine has local listings of places that sell those items. The front and back sections are local, as are the personality profiles.
• Party line: Spain-Smith set out to replicate the Philadelphia Style template in D.C. She soon discovered that D.C. had enough publications for ladies who lunch, men who sail (or dress like they do) and gala addicts. The city needed a hip, sexy little sister who goes out a lot and stays up late. So D.C. Style refocused on a younger demographic and eventually created a Web site to keep it satiated. The site is set to turn a profit by the end of this year. Philadelphia Style is now replicating that model for its own Web site. Spain-Smith reports that the magazine is breaking even on the print side, "which, in the first year, is pretty good."
• Gossip: The magazine has caught some flak for being a little too racy and showing superfluous skin. Spain-Smith says the edginess is intentional. "It's just a lifestyle choice," she says.