pumped up by drug advertising
Mini fitness boom as consumers take better care
By Jeff Bercovici
Walk down the street and witness the GNCs and Vitamin Shoppes sprouting up like Starbucks.
Go into the local supermarket and stroll down the aisles of organic produce, free-range chicken, and hormone-free beef.
Try showing up for a spinning class without reservations--and watch yourself get turned away.
Health. It's everywhere you look these days.
"Five years ago if you asked someone for echinacea, they'd look at you like, 'What are you, crazy?' Now every drugstore has a whole shelf of echinacea," says Stacy Bettman, publisher of Hearst's two-year-old Healthy Living.
Bettman says that increased consumer interest is driving everything from the availability of herbal supplements to the way the FDA classifies health foods.
Jennifer Deans, advertising director for Time Inc.'s Health magazine, agrees, noting that health mania has even infiltrated the junk food market in the form of, yes, gingko potato chips.
Deans attributes the growing public appetite for all things salubrious to two trends: health care reform and the expansion of the internet.
Managed care, she says, "forces people to be much more involved in their own medical treatment." No longer do people have a family doctor to handle all the details of their treatments.
To navigate treacherous, HMO-infested waters on their own, people need to be well informed, especially mothers, who often must coordinate the healthcare for their entire families.
Accordingly, they're flocking to the information superhighway, to sites like WebMD.com, DrKoop.com, Selfcare.com, and Mothernature.com.
Though the public gobbles up online health facts like fat-free granola bars, the web alone isn't enough to satisfy its hunger.
People are turning to magazines as well. And advertisers are taking note.
Of the eight health/healthy lifestyle titles we looked at--Health, Prevention, Healthy Living, Fitness, Men's Fitness, Men's Health, Self, and Shape--seven saw increases in ad revenue in the first 11 months of 1999 as compared to the same period the previous year.
Only Self magazine took in less revenue, its $61.1 million reflecting an 8.5 percent decrease, according to the most recent figures from the Publishers Information Bureau.
Health magazine experienced the biggest dollar increase, growing its ad revenue by $8.3 million to a total of $32.8 in 1999, a 33.8 percent hike.
Though it had the smallest revenues, Healthy Living saw the biggest percent increase, boosting its sales 154.1 percent in 1999, to a total of $4.4 million. Healthy Living also had the biggest percent increase in ad pages, jumping by 139.9 percent for a total of 293.3 in Jan. through Nov. 1999.
Health also saw a large page increase, gaining 23.31 percent with 673.2 pages in 1999.
No other titles experienced large page fluctuations, but Self had the biggest decrease, dropping 11 percent from 1998's figure of 1,266.9 pages.
Taken as a category, these eight titles performed roughly on a par with the rest of the magazine industry. The health titles increased ad dollars by 12.9 percent in 1999 and ad pages by 3.0 percent, while ad dollars overall for all magazines increased by 12.1 percent in 1999 and ad pages increased by 4.5 percent.
Looked at without Self magazine, however, the category performed significantly better than the industry average.
The seven remaining titles collectively increased revenue by 19.3 percent in 1999 while boosting ad pages by 7.1 percent.
Self had a "soft year" for ad sales in 1999, acknowledges publisher Beth Brenner, though she points out it came on the heels of 5 years of strong growth. She chalks up the off year to a decrease in business from beauty advertisers, who comprise the bulk of Self's ad sales, and who reduced their spending across the board.
Toiletries & cosmetics advertisers spent $69 million less in the first 11 months of 1999 than in the same period the previous year, a drop of 6.1 percent.
The decrease didn't have as large an effect on magazines like Health and Healthy Living, which derive a greater proportion of their ad money from the booming drugs & remedies category.
Drugs & remedies spending was up nearly 18 percent in 1999. Pharmaceutical companies are goldmines for health magazines, says Brenner, because they are constantly rolling out new drugs, and because ad campaigns for drugs must be ongoing in order to be effective.
Brenner also notes that television commercials for drugs are required to refer readers to magazines running the same campaign, and advertisers must be sure their ad is in a given magazine when readers go looking for it.
Media & advertising ad spending was also way up in 1999--23.7 percent higher than the 1998 figure.
Fueling that growth in part was the oft talked-about explosion of dot.com advertising. Health-oriented new media advertisers such as Selfcare.com, Mothernature.com, and Vitamin.com have hit upon Health magazine, among others, as an effective way of channeling readers to their websites, says Health's Deans.
Of all the trends contributing to the prosperity of health magazines, however, the most important one could be the strong economy. This begs the question, are people willing to pay for organics, herbal supplements, and Pilates classes just because they can afford to while the economy thrives?
"I think there's an element to that," says Deans. "But I think we're also seeing people taking charge of their own health lives."
Health category |
||||||
| Titles | '99 pages |
'98 pages |
% change |
'99 dollars (millions) |
'98 dollars (millions) |
% change |
Health |
673.26 |
545.98 |
23.31 |
32.7 |
24.5 |
33.75 |
Healthy Living |
293.34 |
122.29 |
139.87 |
4.4 |
1.7 |
154.11 |
Prevention |
945.72 |
912.23 |
3.67 |
66.8 |
59.4 |
12.56 |
Fitness |
707.02 |
704.41 |
0.37 |
41.4 |
34.0 |
21.75 |
Men's Fitness |
618.19 |
571.98 |
8.08 |
15.8 |
11.0 |
44.03 |
Men's Health |
772.17 |
815.1 |
-5.27 |
63.3 |
58.5 |
8.25 |
Shape |
687.76 |
715.14 |
-3.83 |
42.6 |
34.8 |
22.48 |
Self |
1,127.54 |
1,266.85 |
-11.00 |
61.1 |
66.8 |
-8.54 |
Totals |
5,825 |
5,653.98 |
3.02 |
328.2 |
290.7 |
12.91 |
| Source:PIB |
||||||
Health Category Without Self |
||||||
| Title | '99 pages |
'98 pages |
% change |
'99 dollars (millions) |
'98 dollars (millions) |
% change |
Health |
673.26 |
545.98 |
23.31 |
32.7 |
24.5 |
33.75 |
Healthy Living |
293.34 |
122.29 |
139.87 |
4.4 |
1.7 |
154.11 |
Prevention |
945.72 |
912.23 |
3.67 |
66.8 |
59.4 |
12.56 |
Fitness |
707.02 |
704.41 |
0.37 |
41.4 |
34.0 |
21.75 |
Men's Fitness |
618.19 |
571.98 |
8.08 |
15.8 |
11.0 |
44.03 |
Men's Health |
772.17 |
815.1 |
-5.27 |
63.3 |
58.5 |
8.25 |
Shape |
687.76 |
715.14 |
-3.83 |
42.6 |
34.8 |
22.48 |
Totals |
4,697.46 |
4,387.13 |
7.07 |
267.1 |
223.9 |
19.31 |
| Source:PIB
|
||||||
-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.