'Relish' Will Up Circ and Rate Base, With 100 Papers Added

By: Lucia Moses, Mediaweek Relish, the monthly food magazine insert that launched in February, will raise its rate base to 9 million from 6 million in January. That?s when an additional 100 newspapers will begin distributing the monthly, making for a total of about 400, with a combined paid circulation of 9 million.

Dick Porter, CEO of Relish parent Publishing Group of America, attributed the insert?s growth to a post-9/11 interest in nesting and community: ?I think Relish is your next-door neighbor who knows a lot about food. It?s not about celebrities from New York and Los Angeles who live fancier than your family.?

Most of Relish?s carrier papers are small to midsized dailies, but Porter said new clients include the Baton Rouge, La., Advocate (average weekday circ 101,505) and Chattanooga, Tenn., Times Free Press (total paid circ 97,907)?evidence that the trend isn?t limited to small communities.

Building on the growth of Relish and American Profile, its six-year-old weekly newspaper supplement, Publishing Group of America also plans to launch new titles by October 2007. Said Porter, ?A number of publishers are telling us they want us to fill weeks two, three and four with special-interest publications.?