Famous, the new weekly magazine from Pacific Magazines, has been on sale four days and it’s time to check in with performance. Taking a look at data from my newsagency and several others the title seems to be getting good traction. Sales can be misleading so I have looked at sales for Famous compared to sales of WHO, New Idea, Woman’s Day and Star in those stores. Famous is selling well with New Idea and Woman’s Day. There are some instances where it is sold alone but not many. While it is unfair to compare the titles, I’d note that Famous is selling better than Star is (even now) in several stores.
The Famous cover does not have quite the cut through a new title needs. In the magazine rack, between all the weeklies, it does not sufficiently stand out. That will change. Look at the tweaking of New Idea, Woman’s Day and NW. They have all benefited from cover design adjustments.
I compared Famous to ZOO, the other launch this week (last week’s ZOO was free). In the stores I have seen data from Famous is doing better than ZOO. ZOO is extending the reach of a category whereas Famous fits within a well established category so the ZOO road in pursuit of an audience will be longer. It’s worth noting that ZOO is more often sold with a newspaper.