Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 31, 1990 TAG: 9007310081
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DEIRDRE CARMODY THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The revamped magazine, to be published six times a year, will contain 96 pages of articles and photographs - but no advertising.
The rebirth of Ms. this week without advertising may be as much of a gamble as its birth was in 1973 when the idea of a militantly feminist mass-market magazine was not exactly a sure-fire business proposition.
After nearly 17 years of losing money, Ms. suspended publication in November. But at the time, Gloria Steinem, one of the magazine's founders, convinced Dale W. Lang, chairman of Lang Communications, which publishes Ms., that there were enough hard-core readers willing to pay $40 a year to assure its survival. Lang agreed to give it a try.
"He is committed to making this work financially," said Andrea Kaplan, a company spokeswoman. "There is no time frame, but we are going forward optimistically hoping that we will be able to support this magazine on the passion of the reader.
However, Mr. Lang is not going to keep it going if it loses money."
She said he would not disclose how much money was being invested in Ms.'s rebirth.
Kaplan said Ms. could survive with fewer than 100,000 subscribers, but declined to say what the magazine's actual circulation target was. Its circulation was 543,000 in 1989 when it suspended publication.
Subscriptions to the revived magazine will be solicited at colleges and through women's organizations. Ms. will also be sold, with a $4.50 cover price, at Waldenbooks and B. Dalton, the nation's largest book chains.
Last year, Ms. carried 343 advertising pages, down from 382 pages in 1988. It had advertising revenues of about $5 million a year, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.
There are several other large advertising-free magazines, including Consumer Reports, which boasts a circulation of 3.8 million, and Guideposts, a nondenominational publication with a circulation of 4.2 million.
The first issue of Ms. includes news, analysis, fiction, poetry, book reviews and profiles. Features include what Ms. calls Ecofeminism ("the state of our fragile blue planet"), Inner Space ("soup for the soul"), Feminist Theory ("the personal is political") and six pages of Sisterhood Is Global International News.
The lead article, by Steinem, is entitled "Sex, Lies & Advertising" and details her frustrations with advertisers. Steinem said she was previously unable to write this article for fear of alienating advertisers.
Specifically, she cites the magazine's 10-year battle to convince American car makers that women actually do buy cars (ultimately, car ads became a chief source of advertising revenue), the eight years it took for Ms. to get its first beer ad and the four years needed to convince airlines that women do go on business trips and make travel choices.
Steinem tells how a cover article on women in Afghanistan in 1980 kept Ms. from getting a long-term advertising contract with Revlon Inc., because, she said, the Soviet women portrayed on the cover were not wearing makeup.
Daniel Moriarty, a senior vice president of Revlon, said he could not check out Steinem's assertion because the top advertising management of the company had changed since 1980.
As for Steinem, "It was a great relief to be able to write the article," she said last week.
by CNB