Media Kit Study

8/11/2019 Media Kit Study

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/media-kit-study 1/21

Jake Mlnarik

Principles of Print Advertising

Newspaper Description

The Boston Globe brands itself to advertisers as being the strongest link to Bostonians, and I

think their numbers support this claim. Their media kit claims that full-run advertising reaches half of all

adults in Boston, and that no other media vehicle can even hold a match to this exposure. The Boston

globe claims unmatched targeting power with numerous sections that deliver to audiences by appealing

to common interests. The Boston Globe has a long history to say the least. According to their About Us

page, (not included in their media kit) the publication was started in 1872 by six businessmen from

Boston and led by one Eben Jordan. It is now published by John Henry.

The Boston Globe is home to numerous different sections and features, which I found out are all

of different value for ad sales when I got to the long-reaching tree of rates for each section in the rates

portion of this study below. The Boston Globe’s daily sections and features include main news, metro, g,

(a branded section which incorporates everything from arts & entertainment to places to stay in the

city) Sports, Opinion and Editorial, Business & Money, Money & Markets, Thursday Regional Editions,

and various inserts. The Globe’s Sunday sections and features are a bit different, they include Main

News, Metro, Arts & Entertainment, Movies Sunday, Books/Ideas, Money & Careers, Comics Sunday,

Inserts, Regional Editions, Sports, Travel, Real Estate, and Automotive sections. The Boston Globe also

publishes two monthly magazines; Design New England, and The Boston Globe Magazine.

Audience Profile

The Boston Globe boasts an audience of about 1.3 million weekly readers. Among these readers,

51% are female and 49% are male. The median age of readers is 51.8 years old. The Boston Globe’s

media kit breaks readership into four separate age groups. Readers ages 18-29 make up 18% of



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readership, while readers 30-44 also account for 18%, 45-59 make up 31% and readers 60 years or older

make up a majority 34%. Median household income (HHI) in the Boston designated market area (DMA)

is $70,786 and globally HHI is $87,907. Of The Boston Globe’s readers, 61% are employed, 20% are

retired, and 11% are working moms. I am curious as to where the other 8% of the employment summary

lies, but I realize these analytics probably get quite confusing and are not perfect. The full audience

information is attached to this paper. This information is from a 2012 release by Scarborough Research

Group.

Basically what I derived from the audience information given is that Boston Globe readers are

generally older; 65% being over the age of 45. A majority of this audience is employed and makes well

over the United States median income ($51,371 in 2012 according to the US Census Bureau). The Boston

Globe cites 5 different targeting methods it can offer to advertisers for reaching the audience described

above. These methods include contextual targeting, geographic targeting, demographic targeting,

behavioral targeting, and mass targeting.

Contextual: This is how the Globe describes advertisements placed in an environment related to

the same category of the advertiser. For example, cars advertised in the Auto section, or hotel

advertisements in the Travel section.

Geographic: This is how the Globe describes its method of placing ads in papers available to

various Boston markets whether it be specific zipcode, sub-zipcodes, or neighborhoods.

Demographic: This is a method used to deliver certain messages to ideal target types evaluated

by demographic information such as age, gender, HHI, education, or family size.

Behavioral: This delivers ads to people based on online behavior and can be delivered to a

prospect who demonstrated a particular interest while online, even after that prospect has left the site.

For the sake of my study in print, this method is not quite as relevant.



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Mass Targeting: This is simply the Globe’s method of reaching as many people as possible with

an advertisement in the most efficient manner.

Circulation Details

The Boston Globe’s daily circulation totals 215,712 and its Sunday circulation, 362,849 according

to information in this newspaper’s media kit from the Audit Bureau of Circulation circa March 2012.

Newer data from the Alliance for Audited Media places the Boston Globe in the top 25 US newspapers

for March 2013. The Boston Globe squeaks by on this list at #24 with some different and more in-depth

data than appeared in the publication’s media kit. AAM puts the Globe’s average circulation at 245,572,

an 8.9% increase from data collected one year prior. This same 2013 AAM release placed the Boston

Globe at #21 when it came to Sunday circulation; with 309,771 in print and an average circulation of

382,452, a 4.6% increase from 2012.

Rates

The Boston Globe lumps its ad rate sections into three major groups, and many subgroups

thereafter. These include various rates for General, Retail, and Classifieds. I will preface this section of

my study by stating my genuine frustration with the Boston Globe’s rate section of their media kit. I

followed a seemingly endless number of links to find straight numbers for certain sections, but every

time I thought I was getting close to something simple and easy, I was usually hit with, “Please call your

Sales Representative for more information.” What’s more, another recurring phrase I kept seeing in

bold, red type was “All rates are subject to change.” Business, right? Yeesh. Just as a speculation, these

rates pages are out of control for this novice student. I feel like these buys would require an absolute

professional to keep track of every little stipulation in additional charges and specifications without

getting smacked with between-the-lines additional charges.

I noticed that the pages that weren’t telling me what I wanted were usually the full-run and

basic Boston DMA sections. My guess for this was that the Boston Globe wants sales to talk to serious





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Boston Globe’s media kit, there are 14 agate lines per column inch. The media kit asks advertisers to

“Measure the depth of your ad in inches and divide by 14 to determine how many agate lines deep your

ad will run.” I suppose confusion is the base price you pay when you wish to insert a non-modular ad.

Modular insertions are a little easier to understand. These insertions range from half page,

which measure 11.625 by 10.5 inches and cost $20,100, to box insertions that measure 2.23 by 2 inches

and cost $1,300. There is a 15% additional charge for color, except for eighth through half page ads

which offer free color along with varying percentage discounts on insertion charge. And now it’s time to

reel off only some of the extras to know before advertising here: minimum ad size is 5 lines, all print ads

are automatically posted online at the print-to-online rate, the box charge for any ad is $200, and there

is an additional 25% charge for any ads placed by job fair companies.

Can I research a magazine now?!



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Description:

Men’s Health magazine prides itself in being “the #1 source of information for and about men.”

Their mission statement brands the magazine as the premier publication for active and successful men

who seek greater control over their physical appearance and overall lifestyle. They claim to do this

through in-depth reporting on everything from fashion and grooming, to the latest entertainment and

timely features in between. This magazine includes 10 issues annually, lumping together

January/February, and July/August.

To support the variety of content in the magazine, Men’s Health offered a breakdown of the

different sections featured in the publication. Home & Auto make up 2%, Self Help & Relationships 13%,

Fitness 21%, Sports & Recreation/Hobby 3%, Technology 2%, Travel & Transportation 1%,

Entertainment/Celebrity 8%, Food & Nutrition 14%, Beauty & Grooming 16%, Fashion 10%, General

Interest & Culture 4%, and Business/Personal Finance 6%.

Another tool for advertisers is this magazine’s editorial calendar. January/February’s issue is the

“Get back in shape!” issue, with a “new year, new you” slant, and including an article on the best and

worst cities for men. March is the “Defining moments issue and guide to style,” including a survey on the

state of marriage, and the ultimate guide to protein. April is the “Big-Money Issue,” including 25 manly

projects, and the Men’s Health guide to March Madness. May is the “Motivation Issue,” including a

guide to adventure travel, and an article on the 2014 fitness awards. June is the “Food Issue and

Grooming Awards,” with content on how to eat like a man, and coverage of the 10th annual grooming

awards. July/August is the “Summer Shape-Up Issue,” including content such as the 10 greatest guy



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trips, and a triathalon special article. September is the “Adrenaline Issue and Guide To Style,” including

another style guide, and adventure sports challenges. October is “the Sports Issue,” with an NFL-Kickoff

special, and the 7th annual denim guide for guys. November is “the Reader Issue,” including an article

featuring Men’s Health heroes, and the 125 best foods for men. Finally, December will be the

“Techlust!” issue, featuring the 12th annual tech guide, as well as the manliest restaurants in America

and the 50th best watches for men. Man that is a lot to take in, but I understand why this is necessary

information for attracting advertisers. If I were planning media buys for say, Seiko, I would look at this

editorial calendar and say, “We need insertions in December’s issue of Men’s Health!”

Audience Profile:

The first thing a potential advertiser sees when pulling up Men’s Health’s media kit is big copy

reading “#1 men’s magazine on newsstands.”

Total audience is 13,187,000. Median age is 39.9. Median HHI is $81,942. Median Individual

Employment Income (IEI, which I had to look up) is $48,739. To no surprise, the majority gender

audience for this publication is men, at 83.1%. Women make up 16.9% of readers, which is honestly

higher than I would have thought. Married readers make up 52.9% of readership, and single readers

make up 47.1%. Readers who have graduated from college or beyond total 36.2%. Readers who work

full-time make up 62.8%. Professional or managerial readers total 29%, and 61.8% of readers are home-

owners.

Men’s Health breaks down their age of readership into three main groups, and they do it a little

differently than what I had seen before. Readers ages 18-24 total 14.8%, 18-34 represented 37%, and

ages 35+ made up 63%. Three more groups then elaborate upon the three aforementioned; age 18-49

total 72.4%, 25-49 total 57.6%, and age 25-54 total 66.7%. I found it interesting that Men’s Health would

offer age ranges that overlapped one another.



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I was glad to see that Men’s Health offered plenty of insight into the psychographic detail of

their readers than was not even really hinted at in the media kit of a newspaper publication. Core

readers of Men’s Health read who read or looked into at least three out of four issues totaled 77.6%. Of

Men’s Health core readers, 36.9% read the magazine in their home. This tells me that a majority of their

readers are not home to read this magazine, as they are probably too busy off being healthy, successful,

professional men (and sometimes women). Readers who said Men’s Health was “one of their favorites”

totaled 57.4%. This tells me that readers are loyal and interested consumers over half of the time.

The main Psychographic section of this media kit includes several large headed brackets with

more specific descriptions below that I assume were gathered from surveys given to regular Men’s

Health subscribers. An asterisk at the bottom of this portion of the media kit notes that this information

is based on both studies by Mediamark Research & Intelligence (or MRI; I had to look this up) and VALS

questionnaires. VALS stands for values, attitudes, and lifestyles; aha! I already knew what this meant

because I have taken VALS surveys before. Anyway, these brackets detail the following qualities of their

readers, indexed on the right: Tech savvy – tech mobile men, natural leaders, adventure seekers – risk

takers – explorers, driven and ambitious, and trendsetters- style conscious. An example of one

parameter, specifically listed under the Driven and Ambitious header reads, “I strive to achieve a high

social status,” and received an indexed value of 190. My guess is someone who is looking at this kit for

professional media buys would understand the representational value of this index before making it this

far into analyzing audience psychographics.

Overall, I feel that I have researched this publication and its readership enough to come to a few

conclusions. Men’s Health readers are interested in staying on the up-and-up. They want to appear well-

read, well-groomed, and in-the-know of all things that depict the successful and professional male

figure. They are mostly married, and earn an income at or above the national average.



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Circulation Details:

Lucky for me, Men’s Health incorporated the Alliance for Audited Media’s information right in

their media kit. The information presented in this study is based on figures published by AAM on

December 31st, 2013. Men’s Health publishes 10 issues annually, and has a total paid and verified

circulation of 1,818,127. AAM lists this rate base as 1,800,000. This circulation is made by 84%

subscriptions, and 16% newsstands. This media kit makes doubly sure to brand Men’s Health as the best

seller on newsstands at $4.99 per issue. Men’s health sells an average of 281,872 copies on the

newsstand, and makes up 40% of percentage market share sales on the newsstand when compared to

GQ, Men’s Fitness, Esquire, Men’s Journal, and Details magazines.

The AAM also released some information on Men’s Health’s numbers listing it as the 16 th top

selling magazine in single-copy-sales. In an AAM release pertaining to the first half of the 2014 year,

Men’s Health sold only 302,652 single copies of their magazine, down by 12.9% from June of 2013.

These figures tell me that Men’s Health is in fact quite popular on newsstands and for single-use

readers, but this could be a decreasing trend. Interestingly enough, Women’s health beat Men’s Health

by two spots on this list, with 310,768 single-copy sales.

Rates: The print advertising rates for Men’s Health Magazine are as follows:

2014

Inside

Full page $215,850

2/3rd page $168,365

½ page $133,830

1/3rd page $92,820

Covers

2nd cover $259,020

3rd cover $250,390

4th cover $282,765



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2015

Inside

Full Page $226,645

2/3rd page $176,785

½ page $140,520

1/3rd page $97,460

Covers

2nd cover $271,975

3rd cover $262,910

4th cover $296,905

At first, I was a little disappointed to see that the only information on Men’s Health advertising

rates were two images of tables representing the data above. This page did not specify whether these

rates were for full color, 4 color, black and white, or anything. I downloaded the media kit as a PDF file

and ran searches for the terms “full color,” “four color,” “4/C,” “black and white,” “B/W,” etc. Nothing.

Because of this, I have to assume there is no price difference for color profiles. After all, this is a big-

name magazine; and I started to think, “When’s the last time you saw a black and white ad in a

magazine?”

Additionally, this was the first time I got a real feel for how early advertisers have to plan ahead

in the world of print. For example, the January/February issue’s ad deadline for buys was October 23rd of

last year, and print ad materials were due only a week later on November 1st. Inserts were due just two

weeks later on November 15th. This insight into the print world makes me really appreciate the swiftness

of digital advertising; one that comes to mind is Oreo’s tweet during last year’s Super Bowl power

outage. Print simply has its chronological limitations. It’s becoming more and more clear to me how

important it is to understand print advertising to also appreciate online and digital formats, which is

probably why we keep discussing them in a class about print. Imagine that!



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Boston Globe: Audience

Audience

Reach millions of quality prospects for your products and services

Boston Globe

1.3 million weekly readers

Find out more about The Boston Globe

1 2012 Scarborough Release 2, Boston DMA

http://services.bostonglobe.com/advertiser/newspapers/properties.aspx?id=11700






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Boston Globe Rates: (some of them)

Boston Globe - General - Opinions & Editorials - Rates

Effective Date: 01/01/11

Commitment Gross Discount

One time $10,534 –

3 times $10,006 5%

6 times $9,007 15%

12 times $7,655 25%

SPECIFICATIONS Black & white, quarter-pagevertical ad only5.75 inches x 10.5 inches

Publication days — 5 days a weekMonday, Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday, and Friday

Reservation deadline7 days prior to publication date

Copy deadline

5 days prior to publication date

NOTE: No refunds or cancellations within 5 days before publication

All rates are subject to change.



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Boston Globe - Retail - Food - Rates

Boston Globe Food

RETAIL


Retail Food Rates

Rates Per

Column InchFull Run

Daily

Repeat

Open $186 $136

6 times $167 $136

$5,000 or 12 times $158 $136

$20,000 or 18 times $153 $128

$50,000 or 24 times $149 $124

$100,000 or 36 times $145 $122

$200,000 or 48 times $139 $118

$400,000 or 72 times $130 $115

$750,000 or 96 times $120 $115

These rates apply to retail advertising in the Wednesday Food Pages only.

Multiple insertions in one issue count as multiple insertions toward your contract.

Advertisers must sign a Globe umbrella contract, based either on dollar volume orfrequency, to earn other than the Open Food Pages rate. Each ad run in Food Pages iscreditable towards a Globe umbrella contract. All insertions submitted are subject to

the terms and conditions listed in the Boston Globe Contract Terms & MechanicalSpecifications Book.

Full Run Color ads available at the following rates:



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Full Run Color Premiums

Size of Advertisement Daily

90.25 col inches - 1 full page $4,400

63.25 col inches - 90 column inches $3,600

31.75 col inches - 63 column inches $3,000

Up to 31.75 col inches $1,300

Part Run Color ads will be charged an 18% Premium (min. $199)

Full Run Note: Double truck ads will be charged the appropriate color premium for each page.

Premium Positioning: Circulation "bonus days" may be charged at a premium rate.A 10% Premium will be charged for all advertisements run on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day(except when Christmas falls on Sunday),due to increased home delivery circulation.

Full Run Daily Repeat Rates: Combination Rates are available within 6 days of insertion and on insertion day (same day)excluding Sunday. No change in size or copy allowed at the combination rates. Combination rates are not availableon Thanksgiving or Christmas. The highest rate ad prevails. Combination rates are applied to thelower rate ad.

Notes: Rates apply to Restaurant advertisers.

Part Run Thursday Repeat Rates: Zoned combination rates are available (on Thursday) if you repeat your Food ad into one of theThursday Zoned Sections.

All Globe spending (i.e., ROP, combination ads, magazine, Sunday regional advertising, etc.) iscreditable towards a dollar-volume contract, except for Classified Recruitment Spending.GlobeDirect spending (excluding postage) and Boston.com spending is creditable but notrebatable towards a dollar-volume contract.Multiple insertions in one issue count as multiple insertion toward your contact.

Please call your Sales Representative for more information.

All rates are subject to change.



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Boston Globe - General Classifieds - SundayMoney & Careers - Rates


Non-Modular Insertion Price per agate line

Sunday $29.90

2nd & 3rd Sunday $14.50

Modular Lines Inches Pricing Discount

Half 10 X 147 11.625 X 10.5 $20,100 53% Free Color

Quarter 5 X 147 5.75 X 10.5 $12,100 45% Free Color

Sixth 5 X 98 5.75 X 7 $8,600 42% Free Color

Eighth 5 X 74 5.75 X 5.25 $6,600 39% Free Color

Tenth 3 X 98 3.4 X 7 $5,100 43%

1/20th 2 X 74 2.23 X 5.25 $2,600 46%

Box 2 X 28 2.23 X 2 $1,300 38%

All modular rates include online upsell

2nd Sunday repeat rates apply only to the same ad repeated from the prior Sunday

or the same issue

Minimum ad size is 5 lines

All print ads are automatically posted online at the print-to-online rate

Box charge for any ad is $200

Limited changes allowed for 2nd or 3rd Sunday ads

15% charge for color

25% charge for for ads placed by job fair companies to promote their fairs & for ads

placed by competitive job boards



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Sunday Money & Careers Section Premium Placement Includes free color

Section Front $16,300

All print ads are automatically posted online at the print-to-online rate

All ads are subject to management approvalAll rates are subject to change.



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Men’s Health Audience:



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Men’s Health Rates:



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Documents

Media Kit Study