BSJ Finds Home In TELL Magazine

The management of TELL Communications recently announced that Broad Street Journal (BSJ), one of its publications will be published as an insertion in TELL magazine after it disappeared from the newsstands in December 2009. Here, Buki Oyedemi looks at the marketing possibilities of the new 2-in-1 TELL magazine.

Broad Street Journal (BSJ), a business oriented magazine from the stable of TELL Communications Limited, first hit the newsstands in February 2006 and owing to harsh economic realities, it stopped publishing the hard copy of the magazine in December 2009, while retaining the online version. This decision was not to last for a long time as the management of the magazine recently announced the resurrection of BSJ, albeit in another format. The new BSJ will, starting from Monday 21st of June, be published as a 20 page insertion in the mother magazine, TELL.
Describing the move as a well planned come back for BSJ, Ademola Oladosu, advert manager for Tell Communications says the publishers are poised to deliver more value to the readers. “When we halted the publication for BSJ, we asked our readers to hold on for a while so we could effectively develop another strategy that will appeal to them and that is what we have done.”
He explains the format the new BSJ will take; “the truth is that when BSJ was a magazine on its own, the stories we had were always more voluminous than what we had in TELL. Therefore we decided that like every other segment in TELL which includes sports, business and property, BSJ will replace the business desk.”
Highlighting the benefits readers will derive from the new 2-in-1 TELL, Oladosu emphasized that the introduction of BSJ will widen the scope of the magazine. “TELL is a general interest magazine with emphasis on politics. By this, we will be merging politics with business which cannot be separated. That way, readers will be getting much more value than their money’s worth.” We will be “giving them the best.”
Talking about getting their money’s worth, the new innovation is not without cost implication. TELL will now be selling for N400 as opposed to its initial N300 cover price. Being a price sensitive economy where loyalties change whenever there is an increase in pricing, the magazine is not moved as the management believes the magazine is offering a good bargain. “We are merging two publications and instead of asking people to pay N600- as BSJ and TELL were sold for N300 each, they have to pay just N400. I’m sure that is good enough. You would not expect that we still offer it at the same price as when it was just TELL.”
According to him other factors such as logistics, printing, distribution, sourcing for information, maintaining offices, paying staff and sundry economic reasons contribute to the increase in cover price. “We believe we have ardent and considerate readers so the increase in price will not discourage them from buying” he posits.
Folamiju Asoba, a reader attests to this; “I have been reading TELL for some years now and this new development is a good thing. For me I prefer that I don’t have to buy BSJ and TELL separately, it saves my money and I can read my business and political stories in the same publication.”
Dissuading what some industry critics have referred to as inconsistency on the part of TELL Communications Ltd, Oladosu points out that the restructuring which is the first since the magazine first hit the news stands is part of efforts to cope with the changes pervading the industry. “Since April 1991, there has never been a week that TELL has not been on the newsstands also for BSJ, since we hit the news stands in February 2006 till Dec 2009, there was never a week we didn’t publish. It was a decision to help us go back to the drawing board to develop a concept which we have done.”
TELL magazine has over the years been one of the most widely read news oriented magazines and is obviously seeking ways to better market itself. Though some industry watchers think that the magazine is not as ‘strong’ as it used to be, some others believe that the new 2-in-1 TELL is a welcome initiative. Though one cannot adequately predict the future of the magazine, what will determine the success is its sticking to the brand promise of delivering well researched and up-to-date political and business oriented news. How well this will be achieved, only time will tell!