Magazine getting off to a healthy start

A focus on health and nutrition has won a new magazine a big marketing advantage when it hits the shelves next week.

The producers of Healthy Food Guide have the magazine world's equivalent of prime real estate sewn up, after convincing supermarket giant Progressive Enterprises that their fledgling publication should sit next to the checkout counter.

Healthy Food Guide's founders hope the compact monthly, which is just a little larger than A5 in size, will appeal because of its focus on healthy eating and a $4.95 price tag.

The first issue looks at how to use the glycaemic index and takes a look inside the fridge of Olympic gold medallist Hamish Carter. Regular fixtures include "Was mum right" and the "Grown-up lunch box".

"We're aiming this title at the mass ... it has already been guaranteed the checkout at all Woolworths, Countdown and Foodtown from day one," said Kim Mundell, who has launched the publication with NetGuide founder Phil Ryan.

The magazine's initial planned print run of 25,000 has been bumped up to 30,000, after a fortnightly newspaper for doctors agreed to deliver the first copy into surgeries.

But it is the supermarket positioning that may help push the Healthy Food Guide towards its founders' goal of a paid circulation of 25,000 and a print run of 50,000 by the end of the year.

Progressive merchandise general manager Mark Brosnan said it was the fit with the company's own approach to health and wellness that swung the decision. "Every supplier is wanting to get the best launch for their product in our stores ... if we think it will go, if we think it will work, we'll put it up front," he said.

Only 10 of the 200-plus magazines stocked by Progressive's supermarkets were sold by the counter. Each month, the Healthy Food Guide will have two weeks in that space and it has a three-month trial to prove itself.

"After that, it stands on its own merit," said Brosnan.

Mundell said she and Ryan had been waiting for more than two years for a critical mass of middle New Zealanders to become aware of nutrition issues, before launching the guide.

"A couple of years ago, it was still all about the latest fad diet, the latest way of losing weight ... now everyone seems to be seeing someone about their nutritional requirements," said Mundell.

She said the first issue had been well supported by advertisers. Companies such as tea-makers Dilmah and Twinings, and soy milk company Vitasoy have backed the debut and Mundell said the magazine had advertising contracts in the "double digits" that would run until the end of the year. Advertising costs $3500 for a full page.

For any such fledgling, it will be continuous support that makes the difference - but advertising buyers said the omens were positive.

"I think it certainly has a market from an advertising support point of view," Starcom general manager Alistair Jamison said.

"As with any new magazine, it will take time to find its niche and audience, but no one else is delivering what they're talking about." Jamison said the Healthy Food Guide had achieved good distribution from the beginning and Ryan had a proven track record of identifying trends and producing material that fitted them.

"I think it will do well," he said.

Mediacom strategist Michael Carney said the magazine's success would depend on its approach.

"From the Atkins diet books through to Weightwatchers and fitness magazines - there is a huge market for a publication with the right approach," he said.

"It's all part of the trend towards wanting to eat healthier, a movement happening all around the world, and there is legislative pressure to provide healthier eating."

But Carney said first issues were always well supported and the real issue was how the magazine was doing in a year's time.

While a couple of media buyers believed the first issue's cover had an overly clinical appearance for a food magazine, they said the content was appealing.

"In a saturated magazine market, this is creating itself a little niche," said Media Directions media manager Jan Clark.

TVNZ had advertised its Eat Yourself Whole show in the first issue and Clark said that kind of mainstream media attention would grow the market.

She also liked the "credible" line up of expert writers and dietitians.

The magazine is edited by former Cuisine website editor and writer Niki Bezzant. Contributors include cook book author Garth Hokianga and former advertising executive Paul Jeffreys, who wrote a bestseller called Diary of a Fat Man after losing 64kg.

"The present climate is one of growing awareness of what we eat," said Clark.

The first issue of The Healthy Food Guide will hit the shelves on March 29.