When asked why he launched a freesheet after a career spanning more than 20 years working on some of the biggest titles in the men’s market, Mike Soutar, managing director of ShortList, said the business model of a magazine freesheet was low risk and had already proven to work.

Soutar said: “The model is low risk to advertisers and the magazine is reaching the hands of the market directly. People want to be entertained and if they get free content they will read it and pass it on because they’ve not paid for it they are happy to do so once they’ve read it.”

In a competitive environment publishers are seeking every distribution advantage possible and as long as newsstands continue to be at the core of magazine distribution, publishers of freesheet magazines such as Sport and ShortList need to make sure their titles are reaching their promised audience in order to be successful.

Struggle

For freesheets to work, the distribution strategy has to be watertight, however, there has already been criticisms.  

Just one month after its launch last September, ShortList was criticised by media agencies as commuters struggled to find the magazine in the early morning. The main concern for advertisers was whether or not the magazine would meet its promised circulation figure of 500,000.

At the time Soutar rubbished the claims saying he had received very good feedback from its distributors. The freesheet has now smartly teamed up with Eurostar, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa to distribute to passengers soon after its September launch.

It also distributes in Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow within the next six months Liverpool. Sport, distributed on Thursday mornings, is London centric. 

Vanessa Clifford, head of press at Mindshare, suggests that perhaps men, who have previously been served with the glamour girls and lad’s content, are growing tired of it and turning towards the more sophisticated content of Sport and ShortList.

She said: “Men’s magazines are very much more interest based, which is why we’re seeing a decline across the market. People are growing out of the titles such as Nuts and Zoo and are looking for more sophisticated material.”

Fragile

However, media planner buyers remain sceptical about the business model of freesheets and question the value of advertising in them.

“They don’t make money,” says one media planner buyer, “they will find it hard to turn a profit because they spend so much money on distribution and people shy away from picking them up because they know that to make money, these freesheets are having to sell half of their pages to advertisers.”

Eric Fuller, publishing director at IPC Ignite, owner of lad’s magazines Nuts and Loaded, agrees: “This is an extremely high risk venture with a very fragile business model. When you look at the circulation figure of these magazines its important to realise that this is no real reflection of actual consumer demand, but the result of paid distributors thrusting copies into peoples hands.”

“Freesheets have a tough job convincing advertisers to go with them because they can’t guarantee their audience and if they don’t get the advertising revenue they have no other source of income,” Fuller said.

Dan Pimm, head of press at Universal McCann, agrees: “People are happy to accept that freesheets are going to be apart of the media landscape and more and more are becoming available, especially in Europe. However, while they are accepted by advertisers, there is still much doubt over their circulation and many advertisers remain sceptical.

“Freesheet publishers have to realise there will always be advertiser uncertainty until the can give readership figures and guarantee a controlled circulation where they are only reaching the readership it sets out to reach.”

However, Greg Miall, publishing director at Sport, argues that his focus is getting the magazines into the right hands and targeted the right areas.

“We have specifically targeted specific areas to send our distributors to and have researched these areas and residents extensively. The idea is about delivering a particular audience to advertisers not the other way around and we’re doing that at a cost which is sensible.”

Miall added he was not concerned that people were picking up the magazine only to throw it out, a concern which is rife amoung advertisers.

“It’s not like we’ve gone out and thrust copies in peoples’ faces making them take something they know nothing about. If consumers are handed something and they don’t like it, come the next week they won’t pick it up.”  

Battlefield

If publishers are having some success in targeting men and introducing new material, what appeal does the free model have to the women’s publishing sector?

Publishers including IPC and NatMags have said that introducing a free model wouldn’t create enough interest in a sector that is already saturated by well performing paid for magazines.

It is also feared that women readers are more discerning and would be sceptical about picking up a free magazine, as the general assumption is that they are full of advertising and are of much less quality.

Publisher’s already struggle to pay for ‘exclusive’ pictures and a free model may not be able to afford exclusive celebrity pictures and stories and therefore not bring anything new to the market.

Equally important on the battlefield of the women’s sector is the fact that the Sunday papers, including News of the World (NoW) and The Sunday Times, already offer free magazine supplements to women every week, and any free sheet would compete with those.

The NoW has just launched Fabulous, which has been well received, rivalling Bauer’s Grazia and More.

Clifford said: “Apart from Dare, the market is hard for women’s magazines. There’s a common theme that runs through the women’s press which includes fashion and beauty, celebrities, real life and relationships. It’d be hard to break that mould and while it’s easy to replicate, any new magazine would have to offer something different and of more value.”  

Superdrug in-store magazine, Dare, launched less than a year ago as a paid for title available in its high street stores. It had a circulation of 350,000 and the decision to make it free and increase its distribution to 750,000 will increase advertiser appeal.

Clifford said: “Dare could be a good idea, but it is first and foremost a store magazine. Having said that, it is very different from other customer magazines and it has had a good circulation.

“However, it is just another women’s magazine but lesser quality compared to the paid for titles it compares itself to (Grazia and Closer) in the market.”

Changing Dare’s model so much and increasing its print run could be a good thing for its publisher Riverwood, however, the title is competing in a huge market and whether the title is free or not, the perception by consumers will be that the title will be of less quality, Clifford added.

Simon Kippen, publisher director of Condé Nast’s Glamour magazine, agress: “My initial reaction about Dare’s relaunch as a free title was that the magazine was good enough to already have a good circulation figure, but as a free model it won’t have the same brand power as paid for magazines.”

He added in terms of quality monthly publishing it won’t have same value to consumers saying that while the brand and its ambitions were perfectly legitimate, the free magazine model lacks value, depth and investment in editorial quality and that readers will see the obvious difference between the free and paid for titles.

Sceptical

The argument made by the publishers of free magazines is a strong one, whether they are targeting the male or female market. Magazine’s entire income are based on advertising, and with ABC figures in excess of 400,000, exposure is almost guaranteed.

The general consensus of media planner buyers is that freesheets as a business model do work and they do sell advertising but advertisers will always be sceptical about what audience they are reaching and how many people actually read them despite some 400,000 – 500,000 people picking them up.

On the other hand, the brands in these magazines, which include Adidas, Philips and Debenhams just to name a few, are testament to the fact that some advertisers are willing to embrace new titles and an expanding freesheet market. 

General opinion in the industry is that the free magazine model will not generate a profit for their publishers until after three years. Perhaps once these magazines have been around long enough it will be evident if they are successful. Furthermore, once the ABC auditing rules are changed this August to include both distribution of magazines and how many are returned, will the industry have a better understanding of whether these freesheets are worth the advertising spend.