NEW YORK – ADWEEK Magazines’ eagerly anticipated HOT LIST, which recognizes business success in the consumer magazine industry, appears on newsstands today. Fortune is ranked as the number one magazine.
Time Inc. Chairman and CEO Don Logan is named Executive of the Year. Marie
Claire Editor-in-Chief Glenda Bailey is named Editor of the Year. O: The
Oprah Magazine is named Startup of the Year. Details magazine is named
Creative Team of the Year.
Top 10 Magazines 2001
Fortune is ranked number one on the HOT LIST 2001, which marks the sixth consecutive year that Time Inc. holds the top magazine spot, and the third year in a row that Fortune makes the HOT LIST (#4 in 2000 and #7 in 1999). In 2000, Fortune’s advertising revenues rose 46.6% to $476,848,553, with ad pages
up 37.5% to 6259, and circulation climbed 4.2% to 853,267.
The complete ADWEEK HOT LIST Top 10 Magazines 2001 includes:
1) Fortune — Time Inc.
2) In Style — Time Inc.
3) Vanity Fair — Conde Nast Publications
4) Maxim — Dennis Publishing
5) Fast Company — Gruner + Jahr USA
6) ESPN: The Magazine — Disney Magazine Publishing and Hearst Corp.
7) Martha Stewart Living — Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
8) Marie Claire — Hearst Magazines
9) Yahoo! Internet Life — Ziff Davis Media Inc.
10) Teen People — Time Inc.
The HOT LIST is based on several factors. In order of importance, the
determining factors are: ad page and revenue gains, as tracked by Competitive
Media Reporting for Publishers Information Bureau (PIB); performance within a
magazine’s competitive category; circulation gains; interviews with media
buyers and consultants; and ADWEEK editors’ judgment. Performance is tracked
over three years with the greatest weight given to the most recent years.
Only magazines with at least ten issues last year and $40 million in PIB ad
revenue were considered.
“For more than 20 years the ADWEEK HOT LIST has been a magazine industry
touchstone,” said ADWEEK Editor-in-Chief Sid Holt. He adds, “Given the rapid
changes that have taken place in the marketplace in the last months, this was
an especially challenging time to put together the 2001 Hot List, but I am
confident that based on their track records — not just in 2000 but also 1999
and 1998 — the magazines that made the list will be overachievers once again
this year.”
Executive of the Year
As head of Time Warner’s publishing division, and chairman and CEO of Time
Inc., Don Logan is the Executive of the Year for 2000. In 2000, advertising
revenue for Time Inc. grew 11 percent, to 2.8 billion, with Fortune, In Style
and Teen People on ADWEEK’s coveted HOT LIST. Time Inc. ended 2000 up
4 percent in earnings, hitting a new record of $747 million, and marking its
36th consecutive quarter of growth. Logan had an eventful year of launches,
notably Real Simple and eCompany Now. Time Inc. also acquired Times Mirror
Magazines, which includes two titles in the ADWEEK Top 10 under 40 List,
Transworld Skateboarding and Yachting.
Editor of the Year
Marie Claire Editor-in-Chief Glenda Bailey is this year’s Editor of the
Year. After her highly successful launch of Marie Claire’s U.K edition in
1988, Bailey took the helm of the U.S. edition in January 1996. Under her
guidance, the magazine’s circulation rose a whopping 80 percent to nearly
950,000 by the end of 2000. Of that, 70 percent comes from newsstand, where
Marie Claire is the number one fashion title. Ad revenue also soared nearly
39 percent in 2000, to $88.8 million, on 1,662 pages, a 19 percent jump.
Startup of the Year
O: The Oprah Magazine, a joint venture between Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo
Entertainment and Hearst, is undoubtedly the Startup of the Year. With little
advance marketing, the initial newsstand issue of 1.6 million nearly sold out.
Soon thereafter, more than 2 million subscribers signed up. Advertisers
bought in to O as well, with the book carrying an astounding 905 ad pages in
its six issues for 2000. The initial conservative rate base of 500,000 was
quickly raised to 1.3 million and, with the July 2000 issue, it will increase
to 1.9 million. In the last half of 2000, O averaged more than 1.2 million
single copy sales.
Creative Team of the Year
The design team of Details is this year’s Creative Team of the Year.
Under the direction of Fairchild Publications’ chairman and editorial director
Patrick McCarthy, Details’ design team of Dennis Freedman, Edward Leida,
Rockwell Harwood and Alice Rose George succeeded in creating a visual package
that was sophisticated, original and intelligent.
