A lot of magazine companies are trying to put their houses in order, says Kliger. In the case of Premiere, we had to figure out just what the core readership was and how we could get more money from them. Its solution was to raise the cover price from $3.50 to $3.99, and increase its introductory subscription price by 20%. As part of a new nine-point strategy, Premiere will also return to its larger trim size and it will get a more contemporary saddle stitched binding, along with eight more edit pages.
Hachette predicts the changes will likely mean the lost of a nearly a fifth of its readers, so it is decreasing its rate base by 100,000 to 500,000. We got tired of trying to attract marginal readers, explains Kliger. This also allows us to set our long-term circulation strategy in a way that doesnt make a priority the propping-up of a circulation level that is higher than it should be.
