Magazine Advertising - How much does it cost?

Yes, they do spend that much on advertising.

I'm quite sure that a huge % of their budget goes to advertising. They have to. If they don't, the only people who know about certain niche brands (Lobb, for example) will be those who do a lot of research, like those here on SF

Most of those companies don't pay that price. I'm sure they all work deals.

Yes, the 12x means a minimum of 12 times (magazines often require the issues to be consecutive or within a certain period of time to get that rate) to get that rate per ad. For the market penetration/reach/frequency that you can probably get with a publication like GQ, I don't think those rates are completely outrageous... just simply on the expensive side. You can pay a couple thousand for a single-issue full page ad in a local publication with a limited circulation, so extrapolate that to a national or international publication with a broad circulation and the rates don't seem so outlandish. Don't forget to tack on an additional 15% of the ad's cost if it bleeds (and as you'll notice, probably 80-90% of the full page ads bleed, or in other words, have printing which runs right up to the edge of the paper with no whitespace border). But yes -- sometimes deals are worked out and rates are almost always negotiated. "Hey, if you contract to buy 24 consecutive months at the full-page level, I'll give you the 48x rate" Conde Nast might also package advertising deals with their other publications (such as "Hey, buy 6 months of full page ads in GQ and we'll give you the same ad space at 50% off in Details, or a free 1 month full page in Details..." etc.

Advertising is really expensive but almost no one pays those numbers.

One of the hardest things I find as a retailer is finding the correct place to advertise for the correct amount which is usually a crapshoot and then when it doesnt work they tell you that the name of the game is repetition.

Ive worked at placing ads in much smaller mags, but yea, thats right.

The listed rates are simply the companies starting point. They will always bring it down. Its really all about negotiating. you really have to see the whole rate card to get a feel for their pricing strategy but you can easily get 15-20% off the listed rate. Plus you can always get other freebies: Preferred product listing, free placement in a buyers guide, PR blurbs, etc...

The magazines make their money off advertising. You piddly $20 subscription a year means nothing. I knew a guy who would send in a random check amounts ($3.82,for example) just to keep his subscription going and the companies still honored it.

When a client examines a magazine you want to see A) PAID subscriptions and B) NON PAID subscriptions. If GQ has 100k more paid subscribers than esquire that means a greater market penetration for qualified buyers, not just hand outs at a trade show.

I always thought that would be the case. When I get some magazine offer with a "preferred customer" rate of somewhere around 80% off of the newstand price, the only explanation is that subscription income is next to nothing.

I filled out some market research survey once and they gave me a free 6 month subscription to some lame computer magazine (I hate computers, so I wasn't real happy with the reward for the survey). I never returned any of the subscription cards, never paid a cent, never gave anyone a credit card number or anything, and I still get that damn magazine.

I get free magazines all the time. Some of them are even readable.

Agree with the foregoing comments that a lot of magazines sell below rate card, just as you don't customarily pay full sticker price for a car.

Anybody know what the paid circulation of GQ is to demand $82.5K for 12X/4C? If their CPM (cost per thousand) is similar to ours at Gun World, it must be somewhere in the vicinity of 800,000.

Esquire's total circulation is about 700,000, and I got the impression that GQ is more than that.

Looks like TOTAL (paid and unpaid) GQ is about 770,000 copies in the US, another 30K in canada. (listed on separate tab on that webpage)

Nobody pays "rack" (full) rates except in unusual circumstances. 15-20% off just for asking. Up to 50% off if you are willing to take what space remains at the last minute.

Zegna is an enormous company.

Those prices are right look at the ELLE rates http://www.ellemediakit.com/hotdata/publishers/ellemk/advertiser/8231534/2809559/.pdf