How Runner’s World won the circulation war against EMAP; Profiting through Internet promotions; Headlines: using quotes to capture attention; Creating great testimonials; Why marketing must come from the top down

Dear Colleague,

Designing your product for profit first and people second will probably leave you with neither.

 The most successful publications I have worked with were launched to bring together a community. That was their primary motivation. It also happened that there were businesses who wanted to reach that community and were willing to pay for advertisements and sponsorships.

 And so the money rolled in.

 Runner’s World is a magazine that serves a close and dynamic community. The men and women run together, they think in similar ways, they socialise in groups, compete against each other, and spend lots of money on running shoes, gear and charity sponsorships. Runner’s World is the glue that holds that community together, through its print edition and the Internet.

 Runner’s World is managed by NatMags in the UK and, believe it or not, the company has on its team one of the best subs marketers around – he ensures Runner’s World stays ahead of all other athletics magazines.

 The magazine has a fine heritage: it was launched as Running magazine in 1982 by the UK’s foremost subscriptions marketing expert Sylvester Stein, then chairman of Stonehart Publications. That was before the market for running gear had opened – and the magazine struggled for a while until advertisers such as Nike and Adidas caught up. So the title existed mainly on subscription revenue. Personal delivery through the mail seemed to suite the typical runner.

 In this issue of Subscriptions Strategy, we look at some vital marketing fundamentals. Sadly, some of our biggest and most active publishing companies overlook the most important one: the momentum for marketing must come from the top.

Peter Hobday