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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
New local magazines
scratching for eyeballsA growing economic recovery does not a business success guarantee.
Still, there would be no business successes without risk-takers.
Business attorney Owen Iida was inspired to take a risk by the clients he was representing. Seeing no magazines geared toward young professionals, he decided to redirect his career by launching "Hawaii Next." Its first 15,000 copies are being distributed free at local bookstores and promotional events.
Jeff Wilmot, president of Media-HI Inc., publisher of pre- and post-arrival visitor publications, saw a niche among ever-growing repeat visitors. He decided they should take a hike, or an out-of-the-way drive not found on most visitor maps, and that they should need only one guide no matter how many islands they visit.
Media-HI launched the quarterly "The Aloha Maps of Hawaii" magazine in December with free distribution at all Hawaii airports and harbors. It encompasses the six major islands with 26 island- and area-detail-maps prepared by cartographer Manoa Mapworks.
COURTESY MEDIA-HI INC.
The drive-guide is designed to be useful on all the islands.
The two start-up publications have different audiences and purposes, but each faces similar challenges, most obviously the fight for advertising dollars.
"It's really hard to break in with a new publication," said Buck Laird, president of Laird Christianson Harris Advertising Inc.
"Number one, it takes a great product and a great concept and good marketing, but it takes some sticking to it, long enough to make believers."
There are good and bad examples in the market, he said.
Naming no titles, Laird said some publications have folded in spite of the blood, sweat and tears poured into them by their progenitors.
"It has to do with positioning and understanding exactly who it's for and how it's going to enhance your life, or your visit, or remodeling, or whatever it's going to be ... they really have to think lofty and stay focused on that and understand they're not going to be all things to all people."
Agencies are focused on finding the right environments for their clients' ads. Risk-taking with client dollars isn't done. Taking advertisers' concerns and agency operational guidelines into consideration, "if you take all that and exacerbate it by saying it's a brand new title, we're definitely going to take a wait-and-see," Laird said.
COURTESY OWEN IIDA Aloha Maps faces an array of entrenched competition such as the Drive Guides by Honolulu Publishing Co. Ltd., which are distributed at rental car counters on all islands.
"We're upstream of the Drive Guides," said Wilmot. "We're looking for the visitors as they arrive, before they've been to Kalakaua Avenue to get This Week, before they get to their rental car, before they've gotten to their Guest Informant in-room guide," he said.
Its edge, Wilmot believes, is the quality of the publication, printed on "better paper stock, the color reproduction is better and it looks and feels more like a magazine than a giveaway. Sometimes with higher production values people will perceive a higher value," and will be less likely to throw it away.
Hawaii Next is self-funded, Iida said, but he hopes to attract advertisers and additional subscribers. Since the magazine's launch last month, he has netted subscribers from Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California and New York. He is reviewing proposals from Web designers to set up HawaiiNextMagazine.com.
The bimonthly Hawaii Next profiles young business people, tips on personal finance, a style section and a section called "The Scene." The article in the inaugural issue discusses singles' difficulties in finding Mr. or Ms. Right. A page in the Leisure section highlights "Web sites your boss doesn't want you to know about," saying, "The Internet has taken procrastination to another level."
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com
