Quote:
As for Bray's strategies to procure advertising, when Fish & Game picked up
competitor Texas Fisherman it also picked up the magazine's advertising,
including a handful of non-endemic advertisers such as Toyota Trucks, Chevy
Suburban and Budweiser. Fish & Game's 1991 ad page total was 568.34, up 166
percent from 1990, says Bray
|
Roy Neves is the Publisher here in Houston. I'm going to start with him and the above advertisors to start. This is dated so I''ll look for more current data. Neves is the only officer listed so its NOT a big enterprise.
1745 GREENS RD
HOUSTON, TX 77032-1119
Status: IN GOOD STANDING NOT FOR DISSOLUTION OR WITHDRAWAL through November 15, 2007
Registered Agent: ROY NEVES
2350 NORTH BELT EAST, SUITE 240
HOUSTON, TX 77032
Registered Agent Resignation Date:
State of Incorporation: NV
File Number: 0702440523
Charter/COA Date: March 7, 1997
Charter/COA Type: COA
Taxpayer Number: 30119390216
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Texans reel 'em in - Texas Fish & Game periodical - Magazine Strategies
Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 1992 by Heidi Dawley
Texas Fish & Game bagged the competition; now it's stalking national
advertisers.
Back in 1985 when newspaperman Bill Bray decided to start Texas Fish & Game, he
didn't know much about the magazine business.
Some six years later, though, Bray, who is chairman of Highland Publishing Co.
Inc., is putting out profitable issues and, with a paid circulation of more than
100,800, his magazine ranks as the third largest regional in Texas, according to
Audit Bureau of Circulations' (ABC) December 31, 1991, figures.
To date the key strategy has been one of low-cost circulation budding and
retention. However, with the 1991 acquisition of his major competitor,
18-year-old Texas Fisherman, Bray has shifted his focus to securing a larger
pool of advertisers.
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Success with compiled lists
After starting in Marble Falls, Texas, with an ABC-audited circulation of 9,439
in July 1985, Texas Fish & Game now weighs in as the biggest circulation gainer
of all city, state and regional magazines audited by ABC for the last five
years, with an increase of 149.2 percent, according to "Capell's Circulation
Report."
Although Bray relinquished day-today control of the magazine to president and
long-time employee Roy Neves in June, the strategy will remain the same.
To build circulation, Bray has relied heavily on direct-mail drops with lists
made up of Texas fishing- and hunting-license holders, licensed boat owners,
outdoor catalog recipients and outdoor magazine subscribers. The response rate
has been high.
Advertisement
The most recent drop of 900,000 came in at a gross rate of 2.9 percent, the paid
rate at 2.3 percent, reports Bray. The December 1990 drop had a gross response
rate of 2.8 percent and a paid rate of 2.4 percent. Dan Capell, editor of
"Capell's Circulation Report" and president of Compu-Name, says: "To get a 2.8
percent gross response with a 2.4 percent pay up is fantastic. That's an 85
percent pay-up rate. Most are in the 50 to 60 percent pay-up range."
While many compiled lists (those composed of unproven buyers) don't yield
competitive results, Bray has had success with the Texas hunting and fishing
licenses and the Texas boat-licenses lists, with response rates averaging
between 2.2 and 2.5 percent. Again Capell is impressed: "If they did 1 percent,
they'd be doing pretty well." And the price is right, Bray says, at just $5 per
1,000 names, compared to $75 and up per 1,000 for a list from other magazines.
"We lose on procurement, when the dust settles, about $3.05 per [new]
subscriber," says Bray in his slow West Texas drawl. Fulfillment cost is $8 to
$9, making the cost of a new subscriber $11 to $12.
In addition to the fact that there are some four million hunters and fishers in
Texas, Bray has another reason to believe that there is still plenty of untapped
potential out there. "Normally, as a title grows in a finite universe, your cost
of acquisition starts going up on you," he says. For Texas Fish & Game,
subscription-acquisition costs are dropping. (The subscription price is $15 per
year.)
Building up to the current renewal rate of 62 percent, including conversions,
took some doing, says Bray, who admits that it was a disconcerting eye-opener
when his renewal rate came in at 43 percent in 1986.
To boost renewals, the staff scrambled to create a premium that would be
complementary to the magazine. They came up with two annuals, a guide to fishing
in Texas called Texas Lakes and Bays and one for hunting called Texas Deer
Hunting. The premiums, says Bray, carry advertising and are used both to "get
folks to renew and to encourage folks on the circulation drops to subscribe and
pay in advance." The most successful premium, Texas Lakes and Bays, is now sold
as a stand-alone publication on newsstands for $3.95. Last year, some 14,000
copies were sold at a sell-through rate of 64 percent, says Bray.
Hunting bigger advertisers
Happy as Bray is with his renewal rate, he still falls short of regional ad-page
giant Florida Sportsman, which has a 75 percent renewal rate, and for eight
years has carried more ad pages than any other major outdoors book, national or
otherwise, according to Bob Mitchell, marketing director for Florida Sportsman.
He says that Florida Sportsman, whose circulation sits at 100,109 for six months
ended December 31, 1991, does not use any premiums or price-cutting offers in
its sub efforts.
As for Bray's strategies to procure advertising, when Fish & Game picked up
competitor Texas Fisherman it also picked up the magazine's advertising,
including a handful of non-endemic advertisers such as Toyota Trucks, Chevy
Suburban and Budweiser. Fish & Game's 1991 ad page total was 568.34, up 166
percent from 1990, says Bray.
Bray hopes to compete with other regional magazines like D, Houston Metropolitan
and Texas Monthly for this national advertising. And he hopes that, with a 97
percent male readership, his cost-effective male CPM will help.
Despite Bray's claim that regional publications are taking advertising from
national publications, Field & Stream and Outdoor Life's advertising general
manager, Robert C. Hanna, says, "A national advertiser is generally looking for
national media, and we feel very little competition from the many, many local or
regional magazines out there."
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