Special issues bolster Life's bottom line - Update

Is it Life or is it custom publishing? That's the question dogging Life's special issues - the single-topic issues published about four times a year that are sent to subscribers or, as Collector's Editions, sold only on newsstands.

The editorial content rarely strays from upbeat, portraying an America that even Americans wished they lived in, with themes such as "The American Family," or Favorite Photographs from the monthly Life. "

One exception, the Collector's Edition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, wasn't very popular with advertisers, especially Japanese companies. "We couldn't find a [company willing to be the sole sponsor], but we went ahead and did it anyway," says Life's publisher and managing editor Jim Gaines.

In any event, special issues have become a staple in Life's editorial calendar since the first one was published in the winter of 1988, a "John F. Kennedy Memorial Edition, with 1st Nationwide Bank as the sole underwriter. Four special issues were published last year, and four are planned for this year.

And the special issues are often healthier than the monthly magazine itself. The summer 1990 issue, "America's Children," sponsored solely by McDonald's Corp., and last summer's 75th anniversary salute to the National Park Service, with several advertisers, each had a circulation of about 1.9 million copies - slightly better than Life's average monthly circulation of 1.7 million.

Does the once-powerful magazine now depend on its supplemental issues? "No, I wouldn't say that, although it may seem like we're doing more of them," says Gaines. "I sort of like the idea that advertisers are getting copies of the magazine into the hands of people who aren't subscribers."

Life's ad pages and revenues have dipped from 810 pages and $56 million in 1989 to 563 pages and $44 million in 1991, according to Publishers Information Bureau. So far this year, the trend is continuing. Through May, Life's ad pages were down 17.5 percent, to 187, and ad revenues were off 11 percent, at $18.6 million.

But the 1992 figures don't include two Collector's Editions published this spring, whose ad pages and revenues aren't reported because they are not sent to subscribers. While Gaines declines to reveal specific figures, he notes that "of every issue there are tens of thousands that are purchased by advertisers" through Life's bulksales program.

The latest and perhaps largest was June's "American Family" issue, with Washington, D.C.-based MCI Communications as the sole advertiser. Even before the issue hit the newsstands, MCI bought some six million copies - each wrapped with a personalized cover featuring an index to MCI'S ads - to mail to its "Friends and Family" customers.

With a hint of custom-publishing, the MCI version carried 16 fewer pages of editorial than the newsstand copies - for postage reasons, says Life spokeswoman Sandy Drayton. An MCI spokesperson says Life's editors decided what should be removed - in this case, one item that came out was a not-so-uplifting story about a divorced couple who share custody of their two children by alternately moving in and out of the house where the children live.

While insisting that editorial always has complete control, Gaines says that Time Inc.'s ad sales people are brought in "as soon as possible" on every project. "These things take a long time to sell," he adds; it took between six and eight months to get MCI to sign on. He declines to say how long it took to fashion the "Friends and Family" tie-in.

The previous 1992 Collector's Edition, titled "The Big Board," celebrated the bicentennial of the New York Stock Exchange and had 16 advertisers, including Ferrari and a corporate-image ad for parent Time Warner Inc. Even before the issue hit the newsstands, however, the stock exchange bought 980,000 copies for distribution to its employees, clients and member firms. NYSE spokeswoman Catherine Maroney says members Merrill Lynch, Paine Webber and Dean Witter put their own wrap-around covers on copies before sending them to clients.

Look for an upswing in Life's second-half ad pages and revenues: Two special issues, whose circulations and ad pages are reported to the Audit Bureau of Circulations and PIB, are planned this fall. "A History of Rock and Roll," on newsstands August 31, is sponsored by multiple advertisers, while October's issue, whose topic is still unannounced, will be sponsored solely by Chrysler Motors. And, says Gaines, "I have a drawer full of upcoming anniversaries, into 1995."

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