Publisher Briefs

Dead and Loving It: Vampire-Themed Paperbacks Flying Off Shelves     

Charlaine Harris’s series chronicling cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse’s close encounters with vampire society in New Orleans (published by Ace) held seven of the top 20 positions on the New York Times best-selling mass-market fiction paperback list for the week ending October 12. The already hugely popular series is getting a new transfusion of fans from the hit HBO series True Blood, based on the books.

Not surprisingly, various publishers have vampire-themed paperback releases in the pipeline for upcoming months. A partial list includes December releases of Single White Vampire (Lynsay Sands, Dorchester Leisure) and Zen & the Art of Vampires (Katie McAlister, Signet A Special) and 2009 releases of The Vampire’s Bride (Gena Showalter, HQN, March) and Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang (Katie McAlister, Signet A Special, May).

Further, Dutton recently acquired the rights to Dracula: The Un-Dead, by Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew, and historian Ian Holt. This is the first Dracula project to be authorized by the Stoker family since the orginal 1931 Dracula movie, and a movie of the new book is also in development. The book will be published next October.

Macrovision Sells TV Guide Magazine to Investment Firm for Under $1

Macrovision, which acquired Gemstar-TV Guide International in May for $2.8 billion in cash and stock, has announced that it is selling TV Guide magazine to OpenGate Capital, an investment firm based in Beverly Hills, Calif.

SEC filings revealed that OpenGate is paying under $1 for the property and will in addition receive up to $9.5 million in loans from Macrovision, at a 3% interest rate, reported Folio: magazine.

In a reply statement to Folio:, OpenGate managing partner Andrew Nikou stressed that TV Guide has an "exceptionally strong foundation" (including total weekly readership of more than 21 million), and that its  reinvention from a listings guide to a contemporary television entertainment magazine has been "highly promising and successful to date." However, the transformation has also been costly: The title lost more than $20 million last year, is expected to show losses again this year, and has "significant deferred subscription and other operational liabilities," Nikou reported.

OpenGate "is stepping in with the commitment to successfully complete the magazine's turnaround, which targets restored profitability by the end of 2009, and to reestablish TV Guide as the premiere television entertainment magazine in the country," Nikou stated.

The deal is expected to close on December 1.

Macrovision, which is retaining ownership of TVGuide.com, said the magazine was “not aligned” with its core corporate strategy of consolidating key technology assets, including its interactive program guides, connected services and the device connectivity needed to provide consumers with “a uniquely simple digital home entertainment experience.”

US Weekly to Lauch Style/Fashion Spin-Off in March

Wenner Media announced that it will launch US Style, a fashion-focused spin-off of US Weekly, next spring. The title, to be published four times in 2009, will have an initial rate base of 450,000 and a newsstand distribution of about 250,000 for its first issue in March.

Wenner executives said the launch will offer more concentrated fashion/shopping content—a core interest for US’s young, female readership, in a celebrity-oriented context similar to that of the flagship publication.

The launch will be promoted through ads in US Weekly, its Web site and its 500,000-circulation e-newsletter. If successful with readers and advertisers, the title would jump to monthly frequency in 2010, Wenner CMO Gary Armstrong told DM News . Armstrong also confirmed that Wenner is exploring other US spin-off concepts.

Atlantic and Economist Promotions Build On Elections Momentum

Seeking to maximize exposure to readers and advertisers during the build-up to the national elections, The Atlantic and The Economist have rolled out innovative promotions employing point-of-sale, event and Web components.

The Atlantic’s $1.5-million “Think. Again.” campaign centers on posing provocative questions related to issues’ content. The questions are being posted in locations ranging from drugstore shelves and retaurant menu boards to muffin displays in bodegas, and also turned into neon signs that are then pictured in print ads and signage at Atlantic events being staged in key locations, according to Stuart Elliott writing in The New York Times . In addition, the magazine is posing the questions to people on the street and posting videos of their responses on an area of its Web site devoted to the campaign.

The campaign has lifted newsstand sales for some issues, such as July/August, which featured an article asking, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Atlantic Media Company consumer media president Justin Smith reported. The issue sold about 82,000 copies, which is nearly double its per-issue average of 43,250 for first-half 2008. (That was up about 1% from average per-issue newsstand sales in first-half 2007.) 

Meanwhile, The Economist’s $5-million “Get a World View” campaign, which plays off the party game Twister, is being featured in ads and on pizza boxes and was also promoted through events in key cities featuring performances by the Second City political satire troupe. 

The Economist, which is also seeing increased demand as a result of the current economic crisis, saw average single-copy sales rise by nearly 10%, to 66,888, in this year’s first half versus first-half 2007.