Client:
Primedia
Project:
1997 Annual Report
My Role:
Demonstrate the breadth of this large media company by profiling key people from 11 different areas of the business. This turned out to be one of the company's most popular annual reports and led to a repeat assignment for me the following year.

MARKETING

Janice Grossman, Executive Vice President, President of Advertising and Marketing, Primedia Consumer Magazines

Great marketing, according to Janice Grossman, is part psychology, part entertainment, and more than a little adventure. “Primedia lets us dream up the ideas,” she says, “and it gives us the room to execute them.”

To expand Seventeen's readership to college-age women, Grossman's marketing mavens created Seventeen On Campus -- a traveling expo, which gave students an opportunity to show off their talents, check out the latest in cosmetics and fashion, and explore options for post-college life. Advertisers were eager to participate, and students (10,000 of them, at 10 universities) flocked to the booths.

Seventeen's circulation has risen 32% in the last five years and ad pages are up 33%. Today, Seventeen is the largest circulation teen and the largest circulation fashion and beauty magazine in America. Ad pages have also increased at such Primedia magazines as Modern Bride, which topped its category for the first time in nearly twenty years, Chicago, and Soap Opera Digest. Along with great editorial, innovative marketing plays a vital role in this success.

EDITORIAL EXCELLENCE

Terry Cole, Editor Super Chevy Magazine, division of Primedia's McMullen Argus

An eighteen-year-old fixing cars in his parents' garage might seem an unlikely candidate to become a magazine editor. But that's how Terry Cole began his business career. A couple of years later, he began taking pictures and writing about the races at one of California's foremost drag strips. Eventually, his love of cars led him to Super Chevy. “I haven't taken a real vacation in about seven years,” he says. “Every time I go out to do an assignment, I look at it as a vacation. I just have a passion for what I do.”

That passion has made Super Chevy one of the premier magazines in its category -- and has helped to increase circulation by nearly 50% in the last three years. It's a magazine for enthusiasts written and edited by enthusiasts; one of the 36 reasons Primedia's automotive group is “King of the Road.”

EDITORIAL VALUE

Tonoccus McClain, Reporter, Channel One

Before was an anchor/reporter, he was a viewer, so Tonoccus McClain knows Channel One from the inside out. “I came to Channel One through its Student-Produced Week. Students from around the country audition for all the positions required to produce the program.” It's just one of the ways that the daily 12-minute news program, Channel One News, provides an interactive learning experience to 8.1 million students each day in 12,000 secondary schools. News is presented from the point of view of teenagers and is related by reporters barely out of their teens.

Channel One's ability to teach today's students places it squarely in the tradition of another Primedia publication, Weekly Reader. One reader's mother noted in an op-ed essay: “If your youngster surprises you at the dinner table with an erudite comment on the daily news... think back to your own days with the Weekly Reader and remember how important you felt to get your own little newspaper.”

Primedia's commitment to education also includes Films for the Humanities and Sciences, a library of 6,500 educational videos; and Primedia Workplace Learning, which trains professionals around the world.

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ELAINE BENNETT
Bennett Ink LLC

Box 213 Maplewood, NJ 07040
Phone: 973.763.1932

elaine@bennettink.com