With Weider, Pecker puffs his pecs

With Weider,
Pecker puffs his pecs

What's next, we ask, after buy up of body titles?

By Jeff Bercovici

    Anyone who doubted the seriousness of David Pecker's intention to remake American Media now has cause to reconsider.
   Pecker's $350 million acquisition of Weider Publications -- home of workout magazines including Shape and Men's Fitness -- is significant in its own right, coming at a time when most media companies are too strapped or cautious for such a splurge.
   It's even more notable, though, for the opportunity it affords Pecker to advance his agenda of converting American Media from a lowly publisher of supermarket tabloids to a diversified and respectable magazine company.
   Pecker took over American Media in 1999 after serving as CEO at Hachette Filipacchi Magazines. At the time, its roster of magazines included the National Enquirer, Star, Weekly World News and Country Weekly.
   He quickly added to that by acquiring American Media's chief rival, Globe Communications Corp., which published the Globe, National Examiner and Sun.
   Within a year, Pecker had implemented a major shift in strategy, claiming that the company's top line tabloids -- the Enquirer, Star and Globe -- would henceforth feature only honest, reliable reporting. Delivery trucks for the Enquirer were emblazoned with the slogan "No Elvis. No aliens. No UFOs."
The image overhaul was partly an attempt to shore up circulation by pulling the tabloids out of a dwindling sector (the Enquirer's circulation has fallen by more than two-thirds from its late-1970s peak) and introducing them into the burgeoning celebrity/entertainment sector.
   It was also seen as a way to attract national advertisers who were put off by the tabloids’ seedy reputation. Ad pages in the Enquirer were up 17.1 percent year-to-date through October, and revenue climbed 26.4 percent to $40.7 million.
   Pecker has touted the Weider acquisition as a way to tip the revenue equation even further to the advertising side. Amid an industry-wide ad downturn, Weider's titles are doing quite well. Pages in Shape and Men's Fitness were up 12 percent and 12.6 percent through October, respectively. By packaging them with the Enquirer, he may be able to accelerate the latter's ad growth.
   One potential speed bump is mounting pressure by the Federal Trade Commission to stop carrying ads for diet drugs that make dubious claims. Weight loss products regularly advertise in both companies' titles.
   With Weider in the bag, the question now becomes: where will Pecker look next?
   American Media has tried to acquire several major magazine groups since Pecker took charge, losing out in the bidding for Times Mirror Magazines and Emap USA. With the magazine industry expected to face another very tough year in 2003, more titles and even whole magazine groups are likely to go on the market.
   Assuming the Weider purchase hasn’t satisfied his growth ambitions, one area to watch will be Spanish-language publications. Pecker has said he wants American Media to be the Univision of magazine publishers, and under his watch the company has launched Mira, a Spanish-language tabloid, and is developing a variety of other titles aimed at Hispanic readers.

-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.

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