First came Monkey,
now comes Gizmo
Dennis is about to launch its second e-zine for men
By Heidi Dawley
Feb 20, 2008
When laddy shop Dennis Publishing launched a new kind of magazine 18 months ago, an e-zine called Monkey, doubts abounded. A lot of people had tried e-zines, none with any great success, and besides, the men's category was already overcrowded.
These months later, Dennis claims that the free weekly digital magazine is doing well, and the best evidence of that may be Gizmo, a new e-zine very much like Monkey that Dennis aims to launch on March 11.
That's Gizmo as in boy toys.
Dennis is not saying much about Gizmo at this point beyond this: It will be 26 pages, six of which will be advertising. It will target men 25 to 45, and to build readership Dennis will aggressively target that demographic from its databases of about 3.5 million men aged 18 to 45, some number of those gathered from its print circulation lists. It will come out every two weeks.
Gizmo will be just like a print magazine, with numbered pages that turn, and with all the design elements that distinguish print magazines, but it will be on the web and downloadable.
Dennis's Ben Raworth calls Gizmo something from electronic heaven. “The marriage of consumer technology with this medium (e-zine) seems perfect,” says Raworth, editor in chief of new product development for Dennis.
It will work like this. Readers will receive an mail notifying them the latest edition of the magazine is out and available. They can then click through to see the magazine. The pages, though looking like magazine pages, will contain embedded video and other rich media.
Gizmo will not be a web site but a real magazine that happens to be available on the web, and it’s a distinction Raworth thinks is important to make. “We will act as a filter for all the stuff out there, and the reader gets it in a neat package each fortnight,” he says.
Media people believe Gizmo could have legs. “I think it is quite a nice idea. A magazine like that seems to really fit with the format of the e-magazine,” says Dan Pimm, head of print media at Universal McCann.
But that said, they don't necessarily see a rush of online magazines in its wake, should it prove itself. Pimm sees e-zines as a niche area, something most attractive to young men.
Steve Goodman thinks much the same. He's managing director of print trading at Group M. Says Goodman: “So far I can’t say they have madly taken off in the consumer sector.”
Media people note that another e-zine, called Jellyfish from NatMag that targeted young teens, closed.
Says Tony Evans, investment director for digital at media network MindShare: “Twelve-to 18-year-old girls didn’t want it with Jellyfish. They didn’t want a static experience. They wanted something more lifelike.”
But there were other problems as well. Jellyfish's young target audience made finding databases of email addresses difficult, and the magazine was reportedly often blocked by spam filters at hotmail, a popular server for that age group.
But in any case, these problems aside, the e-zine format has one big plus for publishers, notes Evans.
In the case of Monkey, ad rates have been based on the number of people who open the e-zine, rather than the more complicated metrics that web sites sell by. Evans believes this works out more favorably for the publisher.
As for Dennis, more e-zines are likely to follow, and the company is also looking at the possibilities of licensing Monkey overseas.
Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended Feb. 10, according to Nielsen Online, Google claimed the top spot among parent companies, followed by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online. The top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, Microsoft and AOL Media Network.
NexTag was the No. 1 advertiser with 7.1 million impressions, followed by No. 2 Experian Group Limited at 6 million. With 31.7 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, well ahead of No. 2 MySpace at 4.3 million.
Sessions per person per week were even to the previous week at 17, and domains visited per person were even at 41. PC time per person was even compared with the previous week, at 18 hours and 24 minutes.
|
Top 25 parent companies
Through Feb. 10 |
|
#
|
Parent
|
Unique Audience (000)
|
Reach %
|
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
|
|
1
|
Google
|
88,824
|
64.3
|
0:34:56
|
|
2
|
Microsoft
|
87,023
|
63.0
|
0:46:44
|
|
3
|
Yahoo!
|
78,526
|
56.9
|
1:07:51
|
|
4
|
Time Warner
|
68,624
|
49.7
|
1:24:30
|
|
5
|
News Corp. Online
|
45,471
|
32.9
|
0:47:01
|
|
6
|
eBay
|
34,460
|
25.0
|
0:53:38
|
|
7
|
InterActiveCorp
|
29,139
|
21.1
|
0:12:27
|
|
8
|
Amazon
|
26,443
|
19.2
|
0:14:25
|
|
9
|
Wikimedia Foundation
|
24,272
|
17.6
|
0:09:24
|
|
10
|
Apple Computer
|
24,258
|
17.6
|
0:29:33
|
|
11
|
Walt Disney Internet Group
|
22,687
|
16.4
|
0:23:17
|
|
12
|
New York Times Company
|
21,314
|
15.4
|
0:09:38
|
|
13
|
Landmark Communications
|
21,229
|
15.4
|
0:10:00
|
|
14
|
AT&T Inc.
|
17,287
|
12.5
|
0:25:40
|
|
15
|
E.W. Scripps Company
|
14,920
|
10.8
|
0:06:33
|
|
16
|
RealNetworks, Inc.
|
14,791
|
10.7
|
0:17:50
|
|
17
|
Comcast Corp.
|
13,480
|
9.8
|
0:27:56
|
|
18
|
CNET Networks
|
13,167
|
9.5
|
0:05:36
|
|
19
|
Bank of America
|
12,794
|
9.3
|
0:22:24
|
|
20
|
Verizon Communications
|
12,018
|
8.7
|
0:21:14
|
|
21
|
Viacom Digital
|
11,700
|
8.5
|
0:25:59
|
|
22
|
Gannett
|
11,499
|
8.3
|
0:11:30
|
|
23
|
CBS Corporation
|
11,005
|
8.0
|
0:12:54
|
|
24
|
General Electric
|
10,795
|
7.8
|
0:07:56
|
|
25
|
CraigsList
|
10,712
|
7.8
|
0:41:57
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online
|
|
Top 25 brands
Through Feb. 10 |
|
|
Parent
|
Unique Audience (000)
|
Reach %
|
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
|
|
1 |
Google
|
81,742
|
59.2
|
0:26:55
|
|
2 |
Yahoo!
|
77,641
|
56.2
|
1:08:14
|
|
3 |
MSN/Windows Live
|
63,929
|
46.3
|
0:47:51
|
|
4 |
Microsoft
|
57,083
|
41.3
|
0:17:30
|
|
5 |
AOL Media Network
|
54,267
|
39.3
|
1:33:53
|
|
6 |
Fox Interactive Media
|
38,306
|
27.7
|
0:51:30
|
|
7 |
YouTube
|
33,290
|
24.1
|
0:22:23
|
|
8 |
eBay
|
28,500
|
20.6
|
0:58:38
|
|
9 |
Apple
|
24,258
|
17.6
|
0:29:33
|
|
10 |
Wikipedia
|
24,030
|
17.4
|
0:09:26
|
|
11 |
Amazon
|
22,044
|
16.0
|
0:14:16
|
|
12 |
CNN Digital Network
|
19,716
|
14.3
|
0:22:04
|
|
13 |
Weather Channel
|
18,607
|
13.5
|
0:09:53
|
|
14 |
Blogger
|
16,440
|
11.9
|
0:06:39
|
|
15 |
Ask Search Network
|
16,209
|
11.7
|
0:14:06
|
|
16 |
Real Network
|
14,785
|
10.7
|
0:17:49
|
|
17 |
About.com
|
13,338
|
9.7
|
0:02:56
|
|
18 |
AT&T
|
12,805
|
9.3
|
0:31:08
|
|
19 |
Bank of America
|
12,380
|
9.0
|
0:22:30
|
|
20 |
Craigslist
|
10,712
|
7.8
|
0:41:57
|
|
21 |
Disney Online
|
10,577
|
7.7
|
0:23:01
|
|
22 |
Comcast
|
10,245
|
7.4
|
0:34:32
|
|
23 |
Facebook
|
10,024
|
7.3
|
0:33:46
|
|
24 |
Chase
|
9,435
|
6.8
|
0:14:46
|
|
25 |
PayPal
|
9,083
|
6.6
|
0:11:21
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online |
|
Top 25 advertisers
(excludes house ads)
Through Feb. 10 |
|
#
|
Company
|
Impressions (000)
|
|
1 |
NexTag, Inc.
|
7,083,323
|
|
2 |
Experian Group Limited
|
6,041,399
|
|
3 |
InterActiveCorp
|
3,330,948
|
|
4 |
Netflix, Inc.
|
2,877,601
|
|
5 |
Vonage Holdings Corp
|
2,295,984
|
|
6 |
Sprint Corporation
|
1,796,255
|
|
7 |
Bank of America Corporation
|
1,222,531
|
|
8 |
GiftFreebies.com
|
915,495
|
|
9 |
Apollo Group, Inc.
|
887,140
|
|
10 |
Lenovo Group
|
804,237
|
|
11 |
HSBC Holdings plc
|
797,323
|
|
12 |
Verizon Communications, Inc.
|
742,696
|
|
13 |
AT&T Corp.
|
742,495
|
|
14 |
Low.com
|
634,566
|
|
15 |
Scottrade, Inc.
|
565,185
|
|
16 |
Xadvantage
|
542,404
|
|
17 |
TaxACT
|
515,729
|
|
18 |
Course Advisor, Inc.
|
500,557
|
|
19 |
CoolSavings, Inc.
|
499,759
|
|
20 |
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp.
|
482,522
|
|
21 |
eBay, Inc.
|
459,150
|
|
22 |
Wachovia Corporation
|
444,364
|
|
23 |
General Motors Corporation
|
436,071
|
|
24 |
Citigroup Inc.
|
434,394
|
|
25 |
XM Satellite Radio, Inc.
|
393,842
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service. |
|
Top 25 advertising sites
(excludes house ads)
Through Feb. 10 |
|
|
Company
|
Impressions (000)
|
|
1 |
Yahoo!
|
31,710,984
|
|
2 |
MySpace
|
4,300,578
|
|
3 |
MSN
|
1,746,976
|
|
4 |
AOL.com
|
1,183,151
|
|
5 |
eBay
|
1,066,064
|
|
6 |
MSNBC
|
931,061
|
|
7 |
Comcast.net
|
632,354
|
|
8 |
CNN
|
609,780
|
|
9 |
FOXNEWS.COM
|
539,261
|
|
10 |
Facebook
|
510,776
|
|
11 |
New York Times
|
508,905
|
|
12 |
The Weather Channel
|
506,974
|
|
13 |
Home & Garden Television
|
475,717
|
|
14 |
Amazon
|
465,952
|
|
15 |
IMDb
|
436,348
|
|
16 |
Juno
|
403,058
|
|
17 |
NetZero
|
387,062
|
|
18 |
MyPoints
|
330,504
|
|
19 |
Photobucket
|
295,564
|
|
20 |
NeoPets
|
292,016
|
|
21 |
ESPN.com
|
249,092
|
|
22 |
FOX Sports on MSN
|
232,659
|
|
23 |
CNN Money
|
228,897
|
|
24 |
Excite
|
194,852
|
|
25 |
EarthLink
|
160,813
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service. |
|
Average use
Through Feb. 10 |
|
|
Current Week
|
Last Week
|
% Change
|
|
Sessions/Visits per Person
|
17
|
17
|
0
|
|
Domains Visited per Person
|
41
|
41
|
0
|
|
PC Time per Person
|
18:24:11
|
18:16:42
|
0.68
|
|
Active Digital Media Universe
|
138,098,855
|
139,233,913
|
-0.82
|
|
Current Digital Media Universe Estimate
|
220,618,467
|
220,170,499
|
0.2
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online |
|
|
|
