By: Joe Strupp Is the latest
New York Post promotion, a string of 10 glossy magazines about the New York Yankees that began distribution Monday and will continue through next week, the most expensive newspaper giveaway ever? With more than $2 million in production costs, and another $1 million in promotion,
Post executives think so.
"I don't think a project of this size has been undertaken by a newspaper in this country," said Geoff Booth, general manager of the
Post, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. "It is an entire editorial product and it was months in the planning."
He denied that the campaign, which he said had been in the works since January and celebrates the Bronx Bombers' 100th anniversary, was a response to an ongoing New York
Daily News Sunday paper Yankees promotion, which has given readers a different team photograph each week from the 26 Yankees World Series championship teams.
The
Post launched its campaign with the first magazine, a 24-page, ad-free publication distributed in each copy of the
Post on Monday. Titled "Babe and the Bombers," the collection included articles on Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Roger Maris, and Reggie Jackson. The pieces ranged from classic writeups by famed Ruth biographer Robert Creamer to newer stories from
Post sportswriters of today. EBay auctions for the publications have already appeared, soliciting bids of $1 to $2 each.
Future editions in the magazine series will include a look at Mickey Mantle, famed Yankee pitchers, World Series moments, and Yankee Stadium itself. "It is the Yankees' 100th year, and it is a way to drive circulation," Booth said. "We decided we would provide this to help with circulation."
Matt Romanoski, co-editor of the project, said the paper purposely designed the magazines as an editorial-only product, with no advertising and no outside sponsorship. The Yankees helped with some organizational material, but had no financial contribution and provided no advertising. "We looked at it editorially for who we were trying to sell it to, first," Romanoski said about the mix of past and present writers. "The older guys want to see Mickey Mantle and [Joe] DiMaggio, the kids want [Jason] Giambi and [Derek] Jeter."
In addition, the
Post will give away 25,000 commemorative binders specially designed to hold the magazines during Wednesday night's Yankee game against the Detroit Tigers. The binders are also available through the
Post Store online at
www.nypoststore.com.
The paper did not use its own printing press for the mammoth project, contracting with a Connecticut-based firm to print 700,000 copies of each magazine, which means some 7 million will be in print when the promotion is ended. Booth said no firm circulation statistics from Monday's and Tuesday's sales were available, but believed the single-copy boost would be substantial.
Other News Corp. newspapers in Britain have produced similar magazine campaigns in recent years, according to Booth, who cited a 1997 five-part magazine series following the death of Princess Diana as an example. "It resulted in an enormous circulation increase at the time," Booth said, declining to say how much of a sales jump occurred. "They hit upon something that has really taken on."
Circulation increases have been at the heart of the
Post's business strategy for several years, starting with the launch of a 50-cent Sunday paper in the late 1990s and a single-copy weekday price cut, to 25 cents from 50 cents, in 2000. Such moves have resulted in double-digit circulation increases in the last few Audit Bureau of Circulations Fas-Fax reports, including a 10.2% hike in the most recent report covering the six months ending March 31, 2003.
The Yankees magazine promotion comes just days after the
Post launched a new Saturday real estate section, as well as a new, color-coded daily TV listing grid, which began on Monday.
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