Bridal Mag''s - none at the Newstand?

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I went into a local suburban newsagent the other day and counted +30 wedding focused Mag''s (including wedding diary''s, wedding flower mag''s etc). Around 15 were regular wedding mag''s.

I was stunned

Are there that many in USA?

I expect anyone can produce a magazine these days with a home computer - but how many of the publishers are making money [$$)]? How many will be around next year?

I guess the Vanity Fair and other large publishers versions would be doing OK - but if they are anything like the quality of the big ones here in Australia - then they could just as easily reprint the mag''s from the last 5 years with new advertisments and no-one would be any the wiser.

What are the better more interesting bridal mag''s in US?

 

[XChick03]

The only ones I get are Bridal Guide, Modern Bride, Weddings InStyle, and Brides.

 

[dani13]

I really like The Knot magazine too!

 

[chickflick]

I only bought one and I bought the InStyle Weddings one. It''s like the old Sears "Wish Book" - you can flip through them again and again and just dream...

 

[lmurden]

I just went through my stack of wedding magazines and there are tones.

Wedding Channel
Modern Bride
Maryland Modern Bride
The Knot
Elegant Bride
Brides
Martha Stewart

I can''t get enough!!!

 

[selflove]

I''m an addict. I have subscriptions to Modern Bride and Bridal Guide.

I love The Knot but it''s usually huge and extrememly heavy.

Elegant Bride and Wedding Channel never seem to have anything terribly new or useful to me.

I have some old Martha Stewart issues from a friend but if I hadn''t gotten those, I might have gotten a subscription. I love all the DIY stuff in MS Weddings.

 

[bling*diva*]

Date: 4/9/2006 10:13:22 AM
Author: lmurden
I just went through my stack of wedding magazines and there are tones.


Wedding Channel

Modern Bride

Maryland Modern Bride

The Knot

Elegant Bride

Brides

Martha Stewart


I can''t get enough!!!

~~These pretty much nail it!! I have also seen Town & Country Weddings, and Inside Weddings.

 

[moon river]

I''m sure there are at least 30. There are some that are for the area you live in. Like we have an ''East Tennessee Bride'' magazine in addition to the others.

 

[Blenheim]

Not knowing much about marketing or business, I still suspect that wedding magazines make pretty good profits and that many of them will be around for a while. As there are probability a pretty consistent number of engagements and weddings year-to-year, there will probably be fairly consistant demand. I''m not sure if you looked at the prices or the inside of the magazines, Garry, but they''re often priced a couple of dollars more than you would expect to pay for a relatively similar, non-wedding magazine, and they have a ton of advertisements. Both of those theoretically should lead to relatively high profits, although they could just be making up for the lower quantity sold as compared to many other magazines.

I kind of doubt that they''d reprint ones from several years ago. A lot of brides probably want fresh twists on traditional ideas. Popular colors, styles of invitations, styles of dresses, etc. seem to change a little each couple of years. At the same time, though, I''ve stopped buying certain magazines because I noticed a lot of repetition after a while. Not to single any one out, but I swear that I read almost the same article in about three different issues of Cosmo.

I have a small pile of Martha Stewart Weddings in my room, all of which were given to me. One of them is the issue with all of the rings on the cover.

 

[E B]

Date: 4/9/2006 9:34:17 AM
Author: XChick03
The only ones I get are Bridal Guide, Modern Bride, Weddings InStyle, and Brides.

The only ones, eh?

I love InStyle Weddings. It''s my first (and only, so far) bridal mag and it''s wonderful. I found our wedding cake in this Spring''s issue!

 

[moon river]

I love InStyle Weddings. I especiallly love their tv specials.

 

[Faerievert]

I like Modern Bride. I don''t have a subscription or anything though. I bought one, but there wasn''t enough time left before my wedding to bother with a year''s subscription. My hairdresser gave me the latest issue though to look for hair/make-up ideas so it''s nice to have a new one to read!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Thanks ladies.

How many of those mag''s are US wide and smaller creative publisers? Anyone know?

Most cpommon names are Conde Nast and Vanity Fair huge publishers who have a global reach - and are not much interested in what i have in mind.

Hypothetically - if you wanted to advertise Pricescope in a National USA (possibly Canadian too) bridal mag - which one would you choose?

The big companies would probably think Pricescope was a threat to their regular jewel maul and designer advertisers.

 

[JulieN]

Bride's and Modern Bride are probably the two biggest in the US? Both Conde Nast publications, as well as Elegant Bride (never seen this one)

I don't think a PS advertisement would work, but they usually have an article talking about rings, mostly new designers, trends, with some basic 4 C's type of education. A diamond education article would probably be the best way to advertise PS in a bridal magazine.

Also, since a lot of PS talk is technical and gadgety, and most women just want something that performs well, maybe a diamond education article that targets 20s/30s men with disposable income, men's style, and new tech gear would work (like GQ? another Conde Nast publication.) Like, they did a comparison on MP3 players...breaks it down for which one has the best sound, best on a budget, best style, blah blah blah. Some men really get into performance, like computers and cars, so why not diamond performance?

I would definitely consider Forbes...I think they have a "Lifestyle" section. Forbes has covered online diamond biz already, though, so I don't know when they'd be interested in doing a diamond article again.

 

[sydneycasandra]

I try to stay away from bridal magazines... all that dreaming and wishing tends to make me feel less-than-happy with what we''re doing for our wedding, I guess it''s sort of the wedding equivalent of "shrinkage". So if I just don''t look and I focus on what we have I feel great! But it sometimes is fun to dream!

 

[XChick03]

Date: 4/9/2006 3:29:45 PM
Author: EBree

Date: 4/9/2006 9:34:17 AM

Author: XChick03

The only ones I get are Bridal Guide, Modern Bride, Weddings InStyle, and Brides.

The only ones, eh?

I love InStyle Weddings. It''s my first (and only, so far) bridal mag and it''s wonderful. I found our wedding cake in this Spring''s issue!

What can I say? I''m addicted.

InStyle is my favorite also. It just has the most useful stuff, plus I think it comes out more often.

 

[Blenheim]

Julie, those are some interesting, good ideas!

There was an issue of InStyle Weddings earlier this year that had an article on custom rings, so it seems like some bridal magazine articles on rings and diamonds are geared towards more than just basic diamond education. Does anyone know if guys ever buy bridal magazines to research engagement rings though? It seems like something that most wouldn''t really do.