How Niche Can They Get?

In a generation that is obsessed with getting the most out of their time, money and investments, magazines have been cutting out the fat. This is also known as “niche narrowcasting”. In doing a little research I found dozens of super niche publications. These are magazines which are tightly targeted to very specific readers. It made me wonder how niche is too niche? How narrowly can a publication market to a specific demographic and still be a financial success? In 2005 alone nearly 400 niche magazines were started.

One of the titles I found was called Seed, and its mission is displaying “science as pop culture, and getting hip young readers talking about science”. Even 24 Hour Fitness has their own magazine. A publication called Modern Dog made its debut in 2002 and features celebrities and their dogs on the cover. This magazine is meant to be “The lifestyle magazine for urban dogs and their companions”. Crappie World is a magazine for sport fisherman who only fish for crappie (a type of fish).

Convenience Store is a magazine that reports on news for convenience stores. Some other titles include: Potato Grower, Church Solutions, Garage, Lady-Like, American Cemetery, New Beauty, Sunflower, and Sushi & Tofu. The list could go on. There are magazines for sheep, tea, goats, prison life, knives, bear hunting, candy, spicy food, beverages, concrete, beads, ferrets, and of course everyone’s favorite…American Window Cleaner.

The continued success of these magazines proves that if there is a market for it or a reader with a hobby, it has money-making potential and definite potential for success. As long as there is a need or desire, there is potential for profit and maybe that is all that is necessary in a society where people don't want to read about something that does not interest or concern them. A serious crappie fisherman may not want to pick up a magazine because it has just one article about fishing; instead he can subscribe to Crappie World and read about everything crappie. Consumers want what they want and nothing more. Don't waste their time, they want it now.

New Magazine Coming To Wall Street

The Wall Street Journal announced this week it will be publishing a Wall Street Journal Magazine, Pursuits, which is expected to make its debut in September of 2008. This new magazine will cater to The Journal’s wealthy audience through a new highly visual, “glossy” approach. According to the press release issued Monday the magazine will explore the affluent lives of its readers, including lifestyle, travel, food, art and investing.


It will also be available for free online, unlike The Wall Street Journal. Pursuits will encourage more consumer advertisers and help to expand the audience of the publication.

“Pursuits will extend the Wall Street Journal's highly successful business of life franchise that began with the Weekend Journal and Personal Journal sections of the newspaper by offering unique access and insight through lifestyle reporting that only the Journal can provide,'' said L. Gordon Crovitz, executive vice president, Dow Jones & Company and publisher, The Wall Street Journal according to the press release.

This magazine is a perfect example of niche publishing. The Wall Street Journal is targeting the audience and expanding on the topics that might interest them. By knowing the audience The Wall Street Journal can give its wealthy readers more of what they want: information about how to make the most with what they have.

There are endless magazines that attempt to find the best travel deals or good food for an even better price. But what about those who don’t have to worry about money, those people want to know about the top quality places to eat, shop, travel etc. They also want to know about investing: what to invest in, where and when to do it.

The place for the wealthy to find these things will be in the Wall Street Journal, the paper that they already read everyday. Talk about knowing your audience and capitalizing on it. The magazine will make money from the advertisers that will want to use these pages for endless consumer ads. And the website they use, which is already the largest paid subscription on the web ($99/year for subscribers who don’t get the print edition) is going to get much more traffic, therefore making investors more money.

The creation of the Wall Street Magazine is publishing at its best. You find an audience and give them what they want to read about and then keep what you have and make it grow. The Journal is growing a new magazine and that magazine is going to make their money grow as well.