It would be an understatement to say that the way we’re supposed to raise our children has changed dramatically since I was born, nearly three decades ago: I was reared using then-groundbreaking Dr. Spock. My parents were young (my mother was just 22), far away from home, and even further removed from their own parents. My mother also smoked through both of her pregnancies, as did many women at the time.
Today, the average age of new mothers in a similar market has risen substantially (to the mid- even late-twenties); smoking during pregnancy is no longer acceptable; and there seem to be more articles on women having difficulties falling pregnant than advisories on which contraception is best for you. Most importantly, new (and prospective) mothers are being exposed to more information than ever before.
In addition to tens of best-selling books, there are literally tens of thousands of internet sites devoted to everything from preconception to coping with each stage of your child’s development after birth. Not surprisingly, there are a growing number of pregnancy, baby and child-rearing magazine titles.
In South Africa, these titles include: Your Pregnancy, Healthy Pregnancy, Living & Loving, Baba & Kleuter, Your Baby, Baby & Me (now bound bi-monthly with Femina), and the recently-launched standalone Shape spinoff, Fit Pregnancy. The current ABC report also tells me there’s a magazine called Parents which – despite the fact that I’m very much in the market, and the title boasts sales of close to 50 000 copies — I must confess I’ve never seen, and wasn’t able to find.
In addition to these, Edgars produces a bimonthly supplement called Growing, which it bags with existing parenting titles; Cape Media produces Baby Gro, given free of charge to mothers who deliver their babies at Afrox hospitals across South Africa; and True Love carries an annual Mother Love supplement. South Africa’s La Leche League (an international breastfeeding action group) also supplies quarterly copies of its international mothering mag to members. You’d be hard-pressed to find another niche with so many entrants.
It’s not just readers’ choice that’s growing: a glance at revenue figures indicates advertisers are spending more money too. “Because purchasing patterns and brand decisions are usually established during the first pregnancy and early childhood of the first child,” explains Your Baby editor Kate Sidley, “this is also the prime target market for advertisers who wish to reach parents.” The majority of this magazine-buying market is made up of first-time parents.
Your Baby is part of Alchemy Publishing’s parenting triptych, which also includes Your Pregnancy and Baba & Kleuter. Combined sales of these three titles are in excess of 70 000 copies, making Alchemy (part of Media24’s stable) the de facto market leader. This number closely mirrors the annual number of births in private hospitals, which, says Sidley, “means we effectively reach our available target market.”
Well, yes and no: Your Baby‘s focus is 0-3 years, while Baba & Kleuter deals with issues from pregnancy to Grade 1. This, effectively, gives these two titles an even greater potential reach than currently realised; that’s assuming the same reader wants to stay with the titles from pregnancy through to the time her (first) toddler reaches the respective ages of three or seven. Which, it seems, she doesn’t. Yet.
Of course, there are several other significant pregnancy and parenting magazines accounting for some of the market gap, but the rest of the massive market (and, by focusing on private hospital births, the assumption is that they are in a position to afford such magazines) is either uninterested, unaware or simply unserved by the existing titles.
It’s the latter notion that tempts newcomers to enter an already heavily-traded market; but the former possibilities, I believe, indicate that existing titles could do a great deal more to cater for the needs of their potential readers – and could do more to expand the longevity of their relationships in doing so.
For Kerese Thom, editor of Living & Loving, the assumption that her magazine’s audience will “be with us for a few years” is key to the development of editorial content (which “covers the full spectrum of parenting, from pregnancy to toddler”). Kerese, the only non-mom among these editors, believes her magazine management skills (rather than just life experiences) add different but necessary value to the title’s formula — which is borne out by Living & Loving‘s relatively higher circulation and share of adspend.
Despite the unexplored potential, it’s not necessarily an easy market to break into. Existing titles are strong (although not without flaws; see sidebar), and correctly identifying a niche-within-a-niche takes solid business and content management. Changes in the market, such as Baby & Me‘s run-of-paper inclusion with Femina (a clever strategy that should allow the glossiest of the mommy mags to retain ad revenue and withstand falling circulation), and the launch of Fit Pregnancy, will make the existing competition even stronger. Fit Pregnancy’s target reader is “the Shape woman [who’s] having a different experience,” explains editor Robyn von Geusau.
Fit Pregnancy will capitalise on the value of the reader’s long-term relationship with the parent brand, while the magazine’s unique editorial offerings (i.e. specially-developed exercise routines, and strong health focus) will also offer information to mothers-to-be that they’re not likely to find repeated in other titles.
As the internet becomes a more accessible source of more specialised knowledge for parents and mothers-to-be, the challenge to print titles wanting to grow in this market will be how they can offer added value — providing inspiration versus just information.
Room for Improvement
Attention to detail: Almost without exception, local pregnancy and parenting magazines carry a relatively heavy weight of production-related errors in each issue; this includes poor copy editing (never mind non-sequiturs… we’re talking unintelligible stream-of-consciousness prose); appalling subbing (like misspelling the word “Caesarian” in a heading); and small, sometimes unintentional (but important) lapses — like a fashion shoot without supplier credits on the page.
Pandering to advertisers: South African magazines’ reliance on advertising as a primary source of income (rather than sales or subscriptions) means local titles (in all sectors) are usually reluctant to issue critical, potentially negative, information about products. But choosing the right lipstick isn’t, sad to say, as important as choosing the safest car seat, or knowing which brand of nappy really keeps your baby driest. US and UK parenting titles regularly feature reviews where such products are tested by moms (and their babies), and honest evaluations (including value-for-money comparisons) are printed without worrying they’ll result in a major brand withdrawing funding.
Repetition of content: Buy pregnancy and parenting magazines for long enough (more than three months should do it) and you’ll note the striking resemblance to the back section of an inflight magazine — you know, the part that takes you through the ankle and neck exercises. The high churn rate in this market means it is important to regularly repeat basic information, but there are existing examples (in overseas publications) of far more exciting ways to present it to regular readers.
Circulation
Baba&Kleuter 23 759 [24 273]
Healthy Pregnancy 11 305 (+3 710 CFD) [7 337 + 8 413]
Living&Loving 37 544
Parents 48 688 [48 290]
Your Baby 22 327 [22 402]
Your Pregnancy 24 790 [23 610]
(Source: ABC Jan-June 2004; Jul-Dec 2003)
Adspend Jan – Dec 2003
Baba & Kleuter R5,37m [R4,5m]
Living&Loving R6,7m [R5,8m]
Your Baby R6,27m [R6,5m]
Your Pregnancy R3,16m [2,7m]
(Source: Nielsen Media Research; 2002)