Women's Magazines Tune In to QVC

When viewers tune into TV shopping network QVC, they’re usually looking for a stellar deal on a flatscreen television or a Veg-o-Matic food processor. But recently, West Chester, Pa.-based QVC, the country’s largest TV retailer that in 2004 boasted $5.7 billion in sales, has become a new channel by which publishers are trying to sell magazine subscriptions.

First to test the waters was Condé Nast’s Lucky Magazine, which began its QVC partnership two years ago. More recently, sister title Allure Magazine and Time Inc.’s People Magazine have worked with QVC. The QVC foray is the latest effort by publishers to come up with creative ways to lure new readers as the newsstand becomes increasingly crowded and the cost of direct-mail campaigns steadily climbs.

“Direct mail is becoming a far less effective tool; people are so inundated with things in their mailbox,” said Coleen Kuehn, executive vp, chief strategist for MPG. “Direct mail is a push strategy, whereas QVC is more of a pull strategy, drawing in people who are looking to buy something. It’s a more welcomed offer than it would be in the mailbox.”

Print partnerships with QVC, which declined comment on this story, tend to range from experimental to long-term.

Lucky lends its editors to the network for segments for fashion trends; when Lucky-endorsed items are purchased by callers, QVC ships them a special edition of the magazine with customized network listings. QVC also offers $12 Lucky subs on its Web site.

Lucky reached 100,000 readers through the program last year, confirmed a Condé Nast spokesperson. “Our editors regularly appear on TV to be experts in their fields,” noted the CN rep. “QVC is one more example of this. In keeping with the format of QVC, we have also been given the opportunity to offer subscriptions during these appearances.”

Allure Magazine this month began featuring its editors on QVC to discuss beauty trends and now sells its subscriptions on the QVC site.

People Magazine in February opted to directly sell subscriptions during a two-minute segment. A People representative called the offer “experimental” and said “a decision to move forward on QVC has not been determined.” The rep declined to provide any sales figures.

In addition to magazines getting face time in 87 million QVC homes, the network’s demos mostly mesh with the magazines’ target audiences. Fashion-forward women comprise 75 percent of QVC’s audience, according to Mediamark Research Inc. And its median household income is well over $75,000, according to Kuehn.

That said, the median age of QVC viewers is 50, closer to People’s median age of 43, and much older than Allure’s and Lucky’s median ages of 32 and 33, respectfully. “Mothers could be buying the magazines for their daughters,” opined Kuehn.

Nevertheless, QVC’s female-heavy audience could be beneficial for older titles such as Meredith Corp.’s Ladies’ Home Journal.

Despite the promise of a new avenue to sell magazine subscriptions, “there’s probably a point where there’s overkill,” cautions Dan Capell, editor of Capell’s Circulation Report. “How many of these magazines can you have on in the course of a day?”