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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
Passion Play: Kalmbach’s 75 Years of Enthusiast Media These magazines, some with audiences that have subscribed for decades, are experiencing strain at the newsstands and in ad pages like everyone else. The modeling books are holding up fairly well, says Keefe but books like Astronomy hosts advertisers of expensive optics and peripherals who are themselves feeling the pinch. Nevertheless, these are the times when Kalmbach’s reader-driven circulation model shows its greatest resilience. Most of the pubs rely more on subscriber fees than advertising, and in rough economic times people tend to thrive on their inexpensive but satisfying hobbies. Following the reader-driven model, the chief challenge for Keefe and Kalmbach’s 65 editors is keeping the base satisfied. “It has to be a great product,” says Keefe. “People sign up for long periods of time. We can’t let up at all on the dedication.” While the company has a rapidly growing online presence, print has a singular value in the hobby segment. The magazines’ how-to instructions with large, detailed illustrations is a critical part of the experience. Relationships with readers are just as important. The company spends exhaustive amounts of time with customer service and aims for 100% satisfaction with replacement copy requests and distribution problems. “We still have people who bought lifetime subscriptions for $50 in the in the ’40s and ’50s and are still receiving them,” he says. For all of the tradition and heartland values this Waukesha, Wis.-based company represents, it still contends with the challenges of modern distribution and expansion. In large mass-market venues, smaller circulation books need to achieve higher sell-throughs to stay on stands. “It is easy to get lost in mass circulation,” says Keefe. The company’s prime real estate, however, is in the specialty shops and hobby stores, where Kalmbach also serves as the major distributor of hobby books for other publishers as well. But, of course, this is one tradition that is starting to fade. How many hobby shops are there in your town? While the print side has a special resilience in the hobby category, Kalmbach has an aggressive digital push as well. Every title has its own Web site, which is maintained by the enthusiast editors at the print pub. Astonomy.com is the leading site for the company; in aggregate Kalmbach has 754,000 unique visitors a month and generates 9.2 million page views. Registered users are up 29% in 2008 versus 2007, and email newsletter opt-ins are up 42%. Kalmbach is a niche publisher that is anything but satisfied to stick to its own knitting…or beading…or model building. “The company strategy is to grow,” says Keefe. Kalmbach is looking for markets that are driven by core passions and loyalists, not just fads. “We aren’t interested in temporary things, but things that people dedicate their lives to like bird watching or model railroading or making complex jewelry,” he says. “This is for the most avid readers, not just dabblers.” If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com COMMENTS
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