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by Gill Moodie (@grubstreetSA) Media24 announced recently that it is launching a new fortnightly women’s magazine called mine! – a move which tells us as much about the state of the magazine industry as it does about the clever team behind this new title.

The English-language magazine, which is aimed at LSM 6-8 women and launched at the start  of August, is coming from the same people who do the Afrikaans-language fortnightly, Kuier.

Led by editor Kay Karriem, Kuier is something of a publishing phenomenon in this country.

While many magazines are suffering circulation decline, Kuier has bucked the trend in a spectacular fashion. After launching in 2009, it has been the star performer in almost every ABC circulation release in the past three years as it keeps picking up readers in its expansion across South Africa from its Western Cape heartland. Aimed chiefly at coloured middle-class Afrikaans-speaking women, the magazine boasted 106 335 circulation in the most recent ABCs – for the first quarter of this year – compared with 95 846 a year earlier.

The real genius of Kuier has not been snapping up the gap in the coloured women’s market but to offer something of value in these tough economic times – something that is little bit cheaper (R10 cover price) and more real (no supermodels) and with lots of useful information such as recipes, health advice and human-interest stories born out of the reader community.

There are few consumer-magazine publishers in South Africa today who are not feeling the effects of a reduction in consumers’ discretionary spending. People are cutting back on buying magazines, they say, and more people are sharing copies. Coupled with advertisers holding back on spending and the ever-rising costs of printing and distribution, times are tough for magazines right now.

However, just like Kuier, mine! is setting out to talk to the consumers who are feeling the pinch.

The thinking behind the new mag, Karriem told Grubstreet, is to “have a genuine offering catering to the needs of middle-class South African women from all walks of life, who feel a little neglected. Most glossies are aimed too high and are beyond her reach – very aspirational – but rarely attainable. mine! aims to be practical and relevant, at the right price point, offering incredible value for money.”

mine! will sell for R12.50 and is targeting women between the ages of 35 and 45.

“Content will be easy to read and realistic on every level, offering plenty of practical advice,” a company press release said last week. “There will be excellent health, relationship and lifestyle advice, top tips to make your life easier, delicious yet affordable food, plenty of décor and craft ideas, a bumper games and entertainment section and much more – all delivered in an upbeat, informal tone every woman will be able to relate to.”

With Kuier’s successful sister publication, Move (135 611 circulation), aimed mostly as black women, is mine! aimed mostly at white women?

Karriem, who will edit both Kuier and mine!, says it is “more of an inclusive affair as the common thread will be their economic reality more than a specific cultural identity”. It will differentiate itself from Media24’s existing weekly title, You, by being “totally female focused – not family – and no celebrity; only real woman and real issues”.

Doubtless Karriem is going to find the English-language market very different to the Afrikaans one but the way she has taken Kuier out of the Western Cape to the rest of the country demands respect.

“The Western Cape was a natural fit and it was so needed,” she told Grubstreet, “but the fact that the brand is now growing legs in the rest of the country is, for me, something that took a long time and a lot of work went into it.

“Gauteng is going very well for us now. It’s growing at a slower pace than when we first started but this is where our main expansion is coming from… It’s also LSM 5-7 because that’s the gap we fill and it’s this group that’s falling off from the bigger brands because there is a question of affordability and relevance in content. Value for money, the advice that we give and engagement with the community with our real-life stories are the cornerstones of the brand.”

Kuier’s growth in the country’s northern provinces, where Afrikaans readers are loyal to the biggest existing brands, has been slower than in the Western Cape but Karriem believes because so many people in LSM 5-7 are taking financial strain, it will still find more readers.

“We see it especially in the Combo (an annual brand extension with mostly recipes),” she says. “It’s the only extension that’s over 100 000 (sales) in the country. It’s priced at R18 and we find that especially in the non-core market, if they don’t know Kuier that’s the one they pick up. That’s how they get introduced to the brand.”

This year the Combo will be expanded into two editions – a summer and winter Combo.

The main challenge for Karriem with Kuier has been advertising. “Our content is different and the way that we present it – even the language we use – is particular to us and we serve a particular reader. When it comes to advertisers, it’s still a job to convince them that there’s a need to speak to this market separately. And it’s not like we’re selling a niche market in LSM 9 and 10.

“But our advertising income is growing. We are winning – too slow for my liking – but we are getting there.”

Karriem says she judges engagement with the product by letters, chat on social networks such as the magazine’s Facebook page and Kuier’s events such as the Mother’s Day and Women’s Day events, which sell out within an hour of tickets going on sale.

“It’s not R500 a ticket but in this LSM (group), R200 a ticket is still quite a lot,” she says. “And they sell out so I know the readers want to be seen at our events.

“Our big annual event is Women’s Day in August. This year we’re going to have about 700 women for the event and the ladies dress up like you wouldn’t believe. We sit down and eat and the mayor, Patricia de Lille, normally speaks. It’s one helluva party.

“With the content, I keep coming back to the recipes,” says Karriem. “The readers don’t just look at them; they make the recipes and comment on whether it was a flop or fantastic.

“We’re not just a glossy, coffee-table title. The women are actually making our food and I find this very encouraging.”

South Africa’s leading media commentator, Gill Moodie (@grubstreetSA) offers intelligence on media, old and new. Reprinted from her site Grubstreet. This piece was published first on Journalism.co.za, the website of Wits University’s journalism school.

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