Houstonia Magazine is part of Sagacity Media along with Portland Monthly and Seattle Met. Nicole Vogel, the President of Sagacity Media, is a very newsstand sales demanding publisher.
Nicole knows checkout placement is key to achieving reader and advertising awareness and her focus on newsstand sales has helped create her brands, which are among the strongest in the industry. She retained the Centofante Group to help achieve her very high newsstand sales goals.
Each of Sagacity’s title launches were overwhelming success stories.
Portland Monthly’s launch in 2003 was the biggest magazine launch ever in Portland. That record was held by Oprah magazine before Portland Monthly. Portland went on to sell over 17,000 copies with a 70% sales efficiency for their launch issue.
Seattle Met’s launch in 2006 was equally spectacular. Seattle Met outsold its competitor, a long established regional magazine already in the market by 3 to 1. The debut issue of Seattle Met sold over 18,000 copies.
When it came time to launch Houstonia, the gauntlet was laid down. Sagacity’s existing magazines were already the #1 best selling magazines in their cities, so the bar for success was very high.
It was a hugely challenging launch largely due to the changing landscape of the newsstand business. In the end, with the Centofante Group’s help, Houstonia was able to achieve tremendous exposure to the advertising community and it sold over 15,000 copies.