Clearly, Hearst Magazines still believes in celebrity-driven print.
“The Pioneer Woman magazine debuts today with 150,000 copies in 4,000 Walmart stores across the country at a cover price of $3.99,” writes Caysey Welton in Folio. “Two issues, including this one, are planned for 2017.”
The new titles come among speculation that the brand was getting a little gun shy about celebrity titles, after cutting frequency and staff for Dr. Oz the Good Life. That’s really not so, as Welton explains.
“Hearst’s call to scale back Dr. Oz the Good Life from 10 issues to four was surprising to outsiders because the title was purportedly growing its advertising business in new categories and was aggressively increasing its rate base,” Welton explains. “Still, the company has a sound record building out magazines from previously established brands. Food Network Magazine, HGTV Magazine, and O, The Oprah Magazine, are the gold standard archetypes in that regard. All three are also bright spots within the company’s print portfolio.”
The Pioneer Woman features Ree Drummond, blogger turned FoodNetwork host and owner of a brick and mortar mercantile, who has a line of housewares products selling exclusively through Walmart. At present, Walmart also has exclusive rights to the print distribution…although that may change in the future.
“Make no mistake though, there’s a traditional business model at play with this magazine inside the book,” Welton continues. “It’s not merely a thinly veiled a content marketing tool. It features 124 total pages, with a solid number of 35 ad pages — major advertisers include American Standard, Dr. Pepper, Ikea, Land O’Lakes, Sherwin-Williams, and exclusive beauty sponsor, L’Oreal.”
Hearst isn’t the only publisher realizing the incredibly opportunities in print for celebrity brands. Just last month, Meredith announced they’d be upping the print run for their fall issue of the wildly-popular Magnolia Journal.
That brand’s audience, much like The Pioneer Woman’s, leans toward millennials, which we all know by now are embracing print magazines with a passion. We expect this one will also be a big hit.