Which two magazines attract the most adspend? If you took an educated guess and answered Huisgenoot (R111.4 million, AIS/AdEx Jan-Nov 2003) or You (R83.8 million), you’d be right. Who comes in third? Unless you’re in the habit of closely tracking AIS/AdEx, you might be surprised to learn it’s not a general magazine. Or a woman’s magazine. But a niched title – travel magazine Getaway, raking in R48 million spend from January to November last year. Tourism’s not just making money for the hotels and restaurants.
Not everyone in the travel publishing segment pulls in the big bucks though. Wildlife conservation/travel mag Africa Geographic clocked up R3.6 million for the same period, lifestyle/travel mag SA Country Life R2.5 million, and the Sunday Times‘ Travel & food supplement pulled in R1.2 million (AIS/AdEx does not split out the adspend of other newspaper travel supplements from the main body, hence figures are not available). But as SA Country Life‘s editor Margaret Wasserfal comments, the travel publishing business is nonetheless “enough to make a living out of”, with the sector supporting three major consumer magazines, as well as a seemingly endless array of portfolios and guides, booklets and free publications, together with the mainstream newspapers’ sections.
Carol Lazar, editor of The Star‘s Travel supplement, explains that the tourism industry is growing in leaps and bounds, thanks to South Africans’ increased interest in travel (“though they’ve always been vigorous travellers”). The world’s more welcoming stance towards South Africans, and the growing tendency of upwardly mobile black people to get the suitcases down from the cupboard are also factors – “the black market is a sleeping giant which will have a huge impact on the industry,” says Lazar.
Increased foreign interest in SA as a destination has also contributed to the enormous development that has occurred in the local tourism industry over the past decade. “Travel is a vibrant industry, with far more growth still to come,” says Lazar. “I predict we’ll see more titles starting up, fuelled by a growth in adspend in this sector,” she says.
Competition is going to heat up. “About five years ago, travel publishing was a pretty empty pond. Publishers didn’t have that much competition over spend,” says Wasserfal. “Now, with the growing flood of little publications and brochures lining up for their bite of the pie, we’re going to have to work a lot smarter.”
Especially when another heavy-weight takes its place in the pond. The much-anticipated Afrikaans outdoor newcomer, Wegbreek, a 160-page glossy, will be launched in April by Media24 and New Media Publishing. And if anyone’s going to feel the pinch, it’ll be the reigning Getaway (which, incidentally, is printed and distributed by Media24).
“Frankly, I’m surprised that it’s taken so long for another competitor to take us on,” says Getaway editor, David Bristow, who suspects Wegbreek will aim to win over the older title’s 46% Afrikaans readership.
Will Wegbreek turn out to be an Afrikaans version of Getaway? Editor Bun Booyens says readers won’t buy it simply out of loyalty to die taal. An ‘Afrikaans Getaway‘ won’t cut it. “Afrikaans people have distinct travelling habits, doing things differently when going away,” he says. With its “unique character”, Booyens is confident that Wegbreek will attract travel-hungry Afrikaans readers in droves. “Wealthy Afrikaans males especially, who have no leisure magazine catering for them, are likely to come on board,” he says.
Getaway is understandably gearing up to weather a short-term dip in copy sales, as Afrikaans readers fragment across the titles. But Booyens thinks readers will just add the new title to their existing repertoire. “Anyone who owns a 4×4 and has the means to travel, for example, would probably be willing and able to spend a bit extra on another travel magazine.”
It’s not what the research would suggest. For the past five years, magazine readership, as measured by AMPS, has remained doggedly stable, despite new entries to the market.
But maybe well-heeled travel readers can buck the trend, at least within the travel sector. For sure, many have the means to do so.
Armchair travellers aside, travel mags and newspaper sections boast large groups of readers with ample disposable cash. Africa Geographic publisher, Peter Borchert, says at least half of Africa Geographic‘s readers go on a game reserve or private lodge holiday once a year. SA Country Life readers have the disposable income to go out at least one weekend a month, even every second weekend. More than half of Naweek Beeld‘s Plus and Reis readers, are in LSM 9-10, and 11% pull in more than R20,000 a month. It’s readership bases like this which hold such appeal for advertisers.
But it’s not just a high-end demographic that this sector of publishing delivers to advertisers – it’s a mindset. “Travel readers are the kind of people who want to get out there and explore, they’re doers, not passive bystanders,” says Wasserfal. “Marry that to their financial means, and you get a really valuable consumer who answers calls to action.”
Problem is, as the market expands it becomes harder to pin down these readers across the various offerings. Bristow feels the travel industry isn’t big enough to support much fragmentation. Getaway for instance, covers travel across the board, from caravanning to luxury lodges to overseas travel, and yet pure travel advertising fills but a small percentage of its ad pages. “You can’t get too specialised in this business – the tourism industry can’t support it,” he says. “If you want to grow in this sector, you have to pursue markets outside of travel, as Getaway does with its lifestyle advertisers.”
Borchert explains that most of the top end properties prefer to invest their marketing budgets into ‘marketing brochures’ such as the Portfolio Collection, rather than local, editorially-driven mainstream magazines and papers. The bigger groups dependent on the overseas market also tend to look to the larger overseas magazines for coverage.
And there aren’t that many “bigger groups” to bank on anyway. “We’re not dealing with 20,000 Southern Suns, but with 20 000 B&Bs, which, if you’re lucky, put aside the revenue of a couple of bed nights for marketing,” says Wasserfal.
She believes that while the travel pie has grown from medium to large, it is not going to grow any more. The continuing growth of the travel publishing fraternity means that everyone is simply going to have to settle for a slightly smaller portion. There aren’t that many first-class tickets up for grabs, but by carefully planning for the increased competition in the travel publishing sector, there’s still a chance at business-class.
Travel Appeal
What’s the attraction with travel publications? Wegbreek editor Bun Booyens says, in a nutshell, people love these titles because they go to the heart of their aspirations, and South Africans are certainly big on aspiration. “They offer that wishful thinking, escapist, vicarious element, giving people something to aspire to,” says Africa Geographic publisher, Peter Borchert.
“But on top of a good, inspirational read, travel readers also want a lot of down-to-earth information – how to get there, where to stay, what it will cost,” says Charmain Naidoo, editor of the Sunday Times‘ Travel & food.
“You have to temper the fantasy with real substance for when people want to get out and about,” agrees Getaway editor, David Bristow.
And when they do get out and about, where are they going? Naweek Beeld‘s travel writer responsible for destination read Reis, Janine Morris, says South America (Buenos Aires and Peru), Croatia, Spain and Portugal, Greece and the islands in the Indian Ocean are always dream destinations for South Africans, and go down well editorially. Borchert points out that the improved rand is pushing overseas travel now, where before inter-Africa travel was the focus. Bristow has seen the same trend with his readers, who finally, after much resistance to anything dollar-based, are keen to read about and travel outside the borders.
But local still has a big pull. SA Country Life editor, Margaret Wasserfal, says there are the places just hours from SA’s metropoles, which are positively buzzing on weekends. Places like the Overberg, the Swartland, Dullstroom and Wakkerstroom, Clarens, the Midlands, Ballito and the Elephant Coast. “More so than ever before, South Africans are exploring their own country,” she says. “The trend seems to be for people to take many short breaks, and the week-away trips are the most popular. They’re not all hopping on overseas-bound planes.”
Editorial for Sale?
Does advertising buy travel copy? Editors and publishers of the bigger travel titles answer unequivocally, “Yes”, but are quick to say it doesn’t happen in their titles. “Most newspaper travel sections are dependent on advertising, to the point that if you want copy in the section, you have to take an ad,” says Carol Lazar, editor of The Star‘s Travel, adding that this travel section is totally independent of advertising.
And many advertisers think that taking an ad guarantees them some kind of editorial coverage. “This practice affects the credibility of both the title and the establishment,” says Peter Borchert, Africa Geographic‘s publisher. “I think advertisers often miss the point, and confuse advertising, editorial and advertorial. Maybe it works at some levels, but any sophisticated readership will see through it in an instant.”
To avoid such credibility issues, Getaway won’t even publish advertorials. “Agencies are looking for ways to add value to their clients’ campaigns, and advertorial is the way to do it, so our policy does sometimes count against us,” says editor David Bristow. “But editorial is king, and our clients are our readers. Advertisers must advertise if they like the platform and the readers delivered.”
But what about getting a free trip or accommodation in return for copy? This too is rife in the industry, according to Borchert, who says it has become a sort of culture.
“This is an expensive sector to play in,” points out Janine Morris, from Naweek Beeld‘s destination read Reis. “We simply don’t have the money to send journalists all over the world. When we’re invited to go somewhere though, we would usually say that we went on invitation.”
Charmain Naidoo, editor of the Sunday Times‘ Travel & food, agrees that you can’t be a travel title without going on the occasional freebie. “The problem only comes in when you promise to write nice things, and lose your objectivity,” she says. “So while we might agree to go on a trip, or stay somewhere, what we finally publish is our prerogative.” Lazar says Travel accepts invitations but will not sign any barter agreements. If a journalist’s trip is hosted and paid for, this is stated in the article.
SA Country Life editor Margaret Wasserfal points out that it is a bit of a back-scratch, but if the title was planning on featuring the venue anyway, because it will provide a great story and visuals for readers, the scrapping of the bill is fine. “If it’s a lousy place, no amount of free accommodation could tempt a self-respecting title.”