WHY MAGAZINES THRIVE IN EUROPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300480059-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2004
• Sequence Number: 59
• Publication Date: January 21, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

13EVJ YORK TICS
Approved For Release 2004/0&)8 ~CLZ 2R 88-O1314ROOO3
Thy Magazines
,i hj~ive in L~urope
HAMBURG, Germany --
Among the many formulas for
survival tried by the maga-
zines of Europe, those in
West Germany seem to be
.the surest; the competition
from television is so limited
that the advertisers have no
place else to go.
In )taly the magazines are
hanging on to their readers
by serving up generous por-
tions of sex and scandal that
are not available on tele-
vision or in the newspapers.
The better French magazines
have avoided the bad luck
of American magazines by
making thriftier use of per-
sonnel. and pnotograpils, and
by keeping the quality of
printing high.
British magazines are stru,g.-
gling out of a had couple of
years, mainly by searching
out the speciali.,t trends and
selected readerships.
The West German magazines
do all these things. Some use
it printing quality fit to ad-
vertise sparkling diamonds
and the most exquisite per-
fumes.
They are doing well, but
the real reason for their suc-
cess is to be seen less in
how they cope with their
problems than how an adver-
tising man copes with his.
Advertiishlg Is Key -
"Very often I have no place
to go but to a magazine," ex-
plained Heinz Bcecken, a
partner in the Markenplan
Advertising Agency in Dus-
seldorf. "The magazines have
no real competition here."
Two German television
channels are allowed com-
mercials under their charters
but they are limited to a daily
total of 20 minutes to he
broadcast between 6 P.M.
and 8 P.M. on weekdays, anri
not at all on Sundays and
holidays.
As a result, there is just
not enough room for all the
advertisers to squeeze in.
One of Mr. Beecken's
clients asked him to introduce
it Scotch whisky,-an inexpen-
sive brand with tjre unlikely
name ":Prince of Wales."
For four weeks before
Christmas, in the glossy week-
lies Quick and Neue Revue
and in the television journal
TV-Hdren and Sehen, the
whisky was advertised, offer-
ing to give each customer
who applied a special label
with each bottle, with his
name printed on it, and the
note that it had been im-
ported especially for him.
More than 20,000 Germans
responded to the offer.
The booming clays of 20
years ago are gone. There
were II glossy weekly maga-
zines of general interest in
West Germany in 1950 and
now there are four. All arc
healthy: none sells fev, (,I- than
1.5 million copies. All of them
lean toward lightly clad and
pretty girls on their covers,
Thc'rr are still 250 mave-
zines published here, not
counting the technical maga-
zines. Most of the publishing
is clone in Hamburg and Mu-
nich.
There are still 53 magazine
publishers, but only four
giants: ilcinrich Bauer in Mu-
nich and Hamburg, Gruncr
and Jahr in Hamburg, Burda
in Offenburg and Axel Spring-
er in Hamburg.
The magazines are improv-
ing steadily. The quality of
printing in Gruncr and Jahr's
Stern exceeds that of Paris
Match.
The rates for advertising
are high, too. A full page,
black and white, in Stern
costs 30,000 marks (about
$9,310). In four colors it
costs 57,000 marks ($17,650).
HOr Zu Top Seller
A full page in black and
white in Mr. Springer's Ildr
Zu, a television journal that
sells 3.5-million copies a
week, more than any other
magazine in West Germany,
costs 55,000 marks ($17,050).
A page of four colors costs
88,000 marks ($27,300).
Thirty seconds on the first
television channel costs 38,-
000 marks ($11,800); on the
second channel it costs 25,000
marks ($7,760).
In Britain, the magazines
are still searching for the
right degree of specialization.
Nova was directed at "the
new kind of woman," but has
not been having an easy time
of it. Yet Queen was merged
with Harpers and has been
fairly successful as a glossy
monthly. A British edition of
Cosmopolitan is being brought
out in February.
In France, production costs
have added to the suffering
the magazines feel from tele-
vision's competition.
Staff Cuts Help
Jean Prouvost, the owner of
Paris Match, has skimmed
some of the surplus staff and
feature material from that
magazine and Put them into
Ambrc, which he founded on
the model of the German
magazine Jasmin, aimed at
trendy, sex-conscious young
couples.
Trendy magazines run a
special risk of falling victim
to the next trend that puts
thr-m out of date. Jasmin, for
.sample, carried only half as
many ads last year as it had
the year before.
But Mr. Prouvost is fast-
moving and resourceful. Paris
Match had itself been founded
because of the excess of pic-
tures that piled tip at Paris-
Soir before the war, then a
Prouvost daily.
The Italian magazines have'
a couple of things going for
then. Television is sexless,
unlike the magazines. And al-
though -Italians have a high'
illiteracy rate, it is of little
consequence to magazines
that are famous for their bull-
dog photographers, good art
work and first-rate scandals.
STAT
Approved For Release 2004/09/28 : CIA-RDP88-01314ROO0300480059-7