Young adult Sunday magazine sets launch p. 27

By: Dorothy Giobbe Tilt is scheduled in April to debut its distribution
via newspapers in seven major metro markets sp.

A NEW SUNDAY magazine targeted to young adults, aged 15 to 28 years old, will be distributed through Sunday newspapers and is scheduled for an April 2, 1995, launch.
Tilt magazine, offered by Tilt Publishing, intends to capture the "MTV-oriented audience," said publisher Ken Scrudato, 27.
Despite the glut of recently formed magazines that all purport to be the definitive mouthpiece for "Generation X," Scrudato said most of them don't offer readers the "authentic" voice of the target age group.
"We're very conscious of not making Tilt a schlocky, Hollywood-type magazine like some of the others coming on the market," the publisher said. "As a part of this generation, I can say it's not what readers want."
Scrudato has magazine experience as a writer and ad director for Splatter Effect, and as a co-publisher for Yeah Whatever. He also has worked for Forbes Newspapers as an account executive.
Tilt will strive to be "entertaining and serious at the same time," Scrudato said. "We're going to give the readers something that relates to their everyday lives ? it's more culturally and socially about the readers' lives than it is about celebrity lives."
Editorial for Tilt will consist of music, entertainment, films and video, fashion and personal issues, written by freelance writers, who have contributed to such publications as Rolling Stone, Spin, High Times and Maximum Rock & Roll.
"The writers are people who have been a part of the whole surge of a more alternative counterculture uprising, and they know what's going on," Scrudato said. "They're driven by their own instincts rather than by the desires of publicists trying to get press for their clients."
The sales staff for Tilt consists of three people in New York and independent reps in San Francisco and, eventually, Chicago.
A prototype is being shown to advertisers, and it includes full editorial and color boards. The sales staff has pitched ad agencies for Levi-Strauss, Suzuki and Columbia House, as well as for record and film companies.
Tilt guarantees a minimum two million rate base for the premi?re issue. Initially planned as a monthly, the magazine will run the first Sunday of each month in carrier newspapers.
Newspapers in Boston, Hartford, Providence, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami are scheduled to carry the magazine, said Scrudato, but he wouldn't name them, citing competitive concerns.
In addition to being distributed among newspapers, Tilt will be made available to "select" college and high school campuses in a given market, Scrudato said, as well as to Internet.
Advertisers can buy nationally or in regional markets, and carrier newspapers will have the opportunity to sell regional space in their own markets as well.
"The important thing is that the newspapers have a guaranteed circulation," Scrudato said. "They also have established the ability to promote things in their respective markets.
"We're not asking the readers for money. It's free, and it's as easy to pull out as the comics page."
Plans call for newspapers to sponsor promotional events in record stores and on campuses, and trade promotional space with radio stations in each market. Each newspaper is to promote Tilt in the entertainment and comics sections, and a blurb will run on the front page of the newspaper on each publication date.
Each issue will include free concert and movie ticket promotions, as well as CDs, T-shirts and posters.
Tilt Publishing was formed by Scrudato, Melissa Park, who will act as ad director, and John D'uaria, head of operations and production. Park and D'uaria own Metromarketing Resources Inc., a free-standing insert company.