After a difficult period Sanoma-Hearst Romania is on the right track. Weekly women’s magazine Femeia de azi is breaking one circulation record after another. The latest launches Esquire and Harper’s BAZAAR are well-received. And the company is quickly building an online presence through launches and carefully selected acquisitions. Els Loesberg, responsible for Sanoma Magazines International South East Europe and based in Bucharest, explains what they are doing right.

“We were experiencing bad weather in Romania. When I started here in 2005, we didn’t make any money. We were the market’s number five, although all international publishers were almost equal in size. Of course we wanted to become the market leader. Therefore we changed the key people and started to fight the competition like hell. We scrutinized our existing portfolio and changed, restyled, and (re)launched a lot of titles and specials. We set up a new media department, solved part of our distribution issues and put much effort in our sales force. Mid 2007 it started to pay-off.

The success of Femeia
A good example of how we did it is our women’s title Femeia. Our existing women’s weekly was called Bine. In 2006 we were able to buy the brand name Femeia (Woman), the name of Romania’s oldest women’s magazine. Femeia (established in 1876!) was the only available women’s magazine in the communist era. Everybody thought we were crazy: what could we do with a dusty name like that? We certainly showed them…

First we launched a monthly semi-glossy and a women’s portal both called Femeia. Then we renamed Bine into Femeia de azi (Woman Today). Immediately the circulation started to rise, and after a first marketing campaign it rose even further.

To save some money we also changed our printing contract. However, the new printing machine forced us to change the magazine to a smaller, squared size. We communicated this as a great innovation: this was the future size for all weekly magazines! The new machine also limited us to 40 pages for each issue. We didn’t really mind, because we hardly sold any advertising in the magazine. If we sold two to three pages per issue, we were happy. And 38 to 40 pages of editorial content is alright for a magazine that costs approximately €0.35.

But due to all our changes Femeia de azi’s circulation continued to grow. From 40,000 we grew to 130,000. In December 2007 we even sold 220,000 copies a week. The magazine is the biggest weekly in the country now! This means that everybody wants to advertise in it. Our advertising space is sold out quickly, because we are limited to an issue-size of 40 and we have to keep the ratio advertising : editorial content into account. So that’s why we now add sponsored fold-out posters (advent calendars for instance) to the magazine when we carry a lot of advertising. Our readers like that they get something extra, and we get some sponsorship income as well!

The time is also right to introduce Femeia brand extensions. We have spun off several specials to test the market. Up till now three monthlies were born out of this: a parenting magazine (Mamica de azi), a culinary magazine (Bucateria de azi) and a health title (Sanatate de azi). They are very successful and have a much higher cover price than Femeia de azi.

Femeia is not the only success
Next to Femeia we have build our international portfolio by launching Harper’s BAZAAR and Esquire. In April we will also launch Marie Claire. Then we will have all international glossies except Elle. As a result advertisers now perceive us as the strongest player on the market: with our portfolio you can reach all women.

At the same time we are building an online portfolio too. Next to the Femeia women’s portal we have launched a news site, and we have recently acquired a bridal and a parenting community. To reach synergy we are even planning to launch a Femeia de azi magazine special named after the bridal portal. From a business perspective the online activities may still be relatively small, but we know from other countries how quickly that can change. Since our skies are clear blue here in Bucharest, we thought we’d better seize the moment, work hard and succeed online as well.”