Enemies List: Colvin vs Bercovici

We hear that the following letter was just messengered over from Dennis Publishing president & CEO Stephen Colvin to WWD editor James Fallon with copies sent to CEO Mary Berner and chairman Patrick McCarthy as well. March 23, 2005 Mr. Jim Fallon WWD 7 West 34th Street New York, NY 10001 Dear Mr. Fallon: Jeff Bercovici's March 4th article on the men's lifestyle magazine category is another chapter in what is apparently his journalistic vendetta against Dennis Publishing, Inc. In December, citing unnamed ex-employees, Bercovici wrongly reported that Stuff magazine was for sale. In fact, I told Bercovici a few days earlier in a telephone interview that it was absolutely untrue. Two weeks later, when it was painfully clear that there were no reputable sources or evidence for the story, Bercovici issued a retraction. It is humiliating for WWD's March 4th issue to include an article where the overwhelming majority of the quotes and cited sources used to derogate Maxim and Stuff are "one long-time employee who lost his job [at Dennis Publishing]," "one former Dennis employee," "one source," "a Dennis source," "former Maxim... editors," and "one former editor." In this article, Bercovici uses misleading standards and statistics to favor Emap's FHM (and, by implication, Advance Publications' own GQ and Cargo) at the expense of DPI's Maxim and Stuff. All of the circulation numbers that Bercovici cites individually for FHM are from first half 2004 while the numbers for Maxim and Stuff are from the second half 2004. In fact, Bercovici's argument would have collapsed if he had compared apples to apples since in the second half 2004 FHM's reliance on agents was 37.3%, not 17.6%, and FHM's newsstand sales were 31%, not 35%. Of course, Bercovici's focus on newsstand sales as a percentage of overall sales ignores the more salient point that in terms of absolute units sold per issue, Maxim leads the way with an average of 601,998, followed by FHM's 383,420 and Stuff's 291,305. Bercovici wholly swallows FHM's insistence that it is in a "growth mode," without reviewing FHM's pink sheets to see exactly how that "growth" has been generated: FHM is now servicing over 25,000 expired subscriptions, that 11.7% of FHM's subscription file (around 100,000) is "public place bulk" (e.g., dentists' offices, etc.), and that over 33% of FHM's second half subscriptions (184,526) were sold with a premium incentive (up from 15% a year earlier), as compared with fewer than 2,500 such subscriptions sold for Maxim and Stuff. Nor does Bercovici mention anything about average subscription price, a clear and preferred measure of the strength of reader interest. For December 2004, the average reported prices for the three titles were: Maxim, $14.73 per annualized subscription, $1.23 per copy; Stuff, $13.26 per annualized subscription, $1.10 per copy; and FHM, $12.00 per annualized subscription, $1.00 per copy. In conclusion, Bercovici's article makes loaded comparisons and innuendoes that disparage Maxim and Stuff while conveniently ignoring real industry-accepted circulation yardsticks and basic journalism tenets. Stripped of these distortions, the facts confirm a rather different story: Maxim and Stuff magazines are phenomenally successful businesses with tremendous circulation and vitality, two of the biggest men's brands in the world, with name recognition and brand extensions that are the envy of the industry. I am requesting this letter be reprinted in its entirety in WWD no later than Wednesday March 30th. Sincerely Stephen Colvin President and CEO cc: Mary Berner, President and CEO Patrick McCarthy, Chairman and Editorial Director

Fishbowl

Enemies List: Colvin vs Bercovici

Enemies List: Colvin vs Bercovici

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth