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cocoon, cocoon
Family Handyman's wider reach to all fixer-uppers
By Jeff Bercovici
One of the terms that you hear getting tossed around a lot these days, besides "dirty bomb" and "kangaroo court," is "cocooning."
The idea goes like this: During periods of peace and prosperity, people are extroverts, buying cars, taking expensive vacations, and pulling late nights at the office to make the most of it.
But in times of economic and political turmoil, what people want is security and comfort, not excitement. They’re more inclined to stay home, order in, and make it a Blockbuster night.
On an intuitive level, the idea that people would cocoon makes sense. But is there actually anything to it?
Jim Schiekofer thinks there is.
Schiekofer is publisher of The Family Handyman, the 1.1 million-circulation home improvement title from the Readers Digest Association.
"If you look at what's happening in the economy right now, it bodes very well for all home magazines," he says. "Everything you read about the marketplace right now points to people being homeward bound."
As an example of this, Schiekofer points to the success of home improvement chains like Home Depot and Lowe’s.
Despite the downturn that started late last year and promises to continue well into next year, Lowe’s opened 115 new stores in 2001 and plans to open 125 more in 2002, he says.
True, new home sales are going to be down this year from 2000. But sales were on par with 1998, which at the time was a record year, notes Schiekofer. "The indicators tell you this sector is hot."
Before coming to Readers Digest in June, he served as publisher of men's magazine Gear.
Schiekofer's hiring was part of an effort on the part of the company to reposition Family Handyman in the minds of advertisers as a title with an appeal that reaches beyond hard-core toolheads, and thus attract mainstream consumer advertising along with all the paint, hardware and home goods that are already in the book.
"All our strength really lies within the endemic category," says Schiekofer. "We own that mountaintop. But you have to look at the health of the franchise and ask, 'How do I expand this?'"
His strategy is to play up the segment of Family Handyman's audience that consists of homeowners who, though not necessarily do-it-yourselfers, nevertheless want to be expert enough to oversee the repairs or renovations they commission.
"The emphasis at the core of the magazine is obviously home improvement, but that encompasses the buy-it-yourself marketplace--in other words, hiring a contractor," he says.
"These people know their limitations. They know when the size of the project is past their capability."
It's a pitch that worked for Advil, which recently signed on as one of Family Handyman's first non-endemic advertisers.
Schiekofer says he is also eager to crack the auto aftermarket, comprising advertising for such products as sparkplugs, shocks, waxes and motor oils.
To do that, the magazine is resurrecting an editorial section that was discontinued several years ago. The Auto Fast Fix section will premiere in April and appear in the magazine twice a year.
Also in April, Readers Digest will publish a special edition called Family Handyman New Homeowner, which will be distributed by realty companies and owned by Cendant Corporation, whose agencies include Century 21 and ERA.
Home buyers--a group that tends to be younger, more affluent and more heavily female than the audience of Family Handyman itself, says Schiekofer--will be given the magazine as they take possession of their new houses.
Through November, advertising pages in The Family Handyman, which publishes 10 issues a year, were down 19.6 percent to 513 year-to-date, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.
Ad revenue was down 11.8 percent to $31.6 million. The magazine has been doing somewhat better, though still down from last year, since Schiekofer joined in June.
December 17, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
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