We gave Rolling Stone extra space and attention last month and sold two of sixteen copies. This sell through of 12.5% kills cash-flow. Hopefully, the new attention from ACP Magazines for Rolling Stone will be able to lift this title out of the doldrums. The music category needs a beacon brand pulling eyeballs.
I’m not so sure how music magazines will fare in the future, now that most content is available online and the typical reader probably can’t afford to spend money on something so disposable.
Just a thought…
I read the Australian Rolling Stone last month, one of my reporters had a copy in the office and I like to keep in eye on what other’s read (it’s my job).
In my view, the Australian version doesn’t add enough value to the US material. Last month’s cover story about an Australian TV show (that doesn’t air here in New Zealand) was particularly poor. It’s not hard to see why it didn’t sell.
In my view, licenced publications must deliver on the localisation if they are to survive.
Incidentally, a sell-through of 12.5 percent is a death sentence for a publisher (as well as for a newsagent).
Rolling Stone didn’t meet our KPI on pocket turn fo some time so we cut it from our range early this year. Having seen some strong growth in our music category over the past six months we decided to give it another shot.
We sold only one copy. So once again Rolling Stone gets cut.
On the note of a becon brand, we’ve turned to J-Mag for that pupose. We find it reasonably well known to those interseted in the category and sales have seen strong growth in our store.