Look around the magazine racks at the local Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble or Rite Aid and one may see some new titles amid the regulars.
Look around the magazine racks at the local
Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble or Rite Aid and one may see some new
titles amid the regulars.
For instance, Charisma is a magazine principally
aimed at Pentecostal Christians. However, this summer, magazine leaders
launched a concerted effort to cross over into the general market,
following in the footsteps of Christian music and books that have made
the leap from religious to secular shelves.
And the magazine is not alone.
Precious Times is a quarterly publication for
African-American Christian women. It entered Barnes & Noble in
April. About the same time, NavPress Periodicals started placing its
Pray! and Discipleship Journal magazines in stores like Borders.
“As a publisher, we would like to get our message
out to a broader and broader audience,” said Stephen Strang, publisher
of Charisma. “There’s a new receptivity.”
In September, Strang will launch two other titles
into the general market as well – Vida Cristiana, Charisma magazine’s
Spanish language-format; and New Man, a men’s magazine.
“We’ve been trying to encourage other Christian
magazines to give it a try because we think the more titles there are,
the better off we would be,” said Ron Sklon, a newsstand consultant who
advised the Florida-based Strang Communications group to move into the
general market.
So far, some are heeding the call to venture beyond
Christian retailers while others are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Still others have been there all along.
For instance, Christianity Today International has
nine of its 11 magazines on some general market newsstands, such as
Borders and Barnes & Noble, Vice President Carol Thompson said.
“We’re not out on the general newsstand as (it)
relates to supermarkets, the Wal-Marts,” she said. “(But) We’re back to
exploring that, actually … at the encouragement of Strang.”
Though their presence is “modest,” some Christianity
Today publications have been in the general market for at least 15
years, Thompson said.
“We’ve always carried religious periodicals, …”
said Mary Ellen Keating, a spokesperson for Barnes & Noble. “There
is interest, which is why we are selling them,” she said.
Wal-Mart spokesperson Karen Burk said the inclusion
of Charisma in about 250 of its more than 3,000 stores fits into her
company’s attempts to satisfy customers. Other inspirational magazines
carried by some Wal-Mart stores include Guideposts, Moment and Gospel
Today.
“What decides whether we’re going to carry it or not
is whether it’s something we think the majority of our customers in
that community are wanting us to have on our shelves,” she said.
NavPress Periodicals also is seeking to move more
into the general market, said Dave Wilson, director of operations.
He said the company’s presence in the secular market
is still fairly embryonic but growing. “I think there always has been
an interest in it,” he said. “I just don’t think that there’s been
access to it.”
Charisma delivered about 50,000 of each of its
summer issues to 197 general-market retail chains this year. However,
NavPress and Christianity Today officials say they are not ready to
make that kind of a commitment, which includes significant printing
costs and the risk that not all the publications will sell.
Christianity Today has about 60,000 copies of all of
its titles on newsstands – Christian and secular – at any given time.
Charisma’s efforts to tap the secular market are
fairly unusual, said Doug Trouten, executive director of the
Evangelical Press Association. “I would say it represents a significant
step for retailing of Christian magazines,” he said.
But the mainstream market appears ready, Trouten said.
“The general market success of products like the
‘Left Behind’ books (and) the Mel Gibson ‘Passion of the Christ’ movie,
have been enough to catch the attention of major market distributors
and to help them realize that this is a market sector worth doing
business with,” he said.
BigTop Newsstand Services has distributed
Discipleship Journal, Sojourners magazine and Christian Networks
Journal along with other independent magazines in the last couple of
years.
Spiritual publications comprise about 10 percent of
BigTop’s 80 accounts, spokesperson Andy Myers said. “From our point of
view, we’re having success with some of our Christian titles,” he said.
“There’s definitely interest out there.”
But the move to the general market is not for every religious publication.
For instance, World magazine discontinued its
placement on mainstream market newsstands last January after several
years, said Debra Meissner, director of marketing and circulation.
The magazine is published weekly, which is more
often than many of the other religious periodicals in the general
market. And it only sold about 1 percent of its average weekly
subscription circulation on newsstands, Meissner said.
She added that she personally does not see many
religious magazines on secular shelves but hopes it will be a
profitable option for her company someday.
Like Strang, she said the general market is a place
she wants her magazine to be. “We think it’s important for Christian
news to be right out there with secular magazines,” she said.
“Our hat’s off to (Charisma).” (RNS)