Spanish Magazine Publisher Bets Against the Crisis

MADRID — Andrés Rodríguez, the publisher and founder of SpainMedia, has the most at stake in the debut this month of a Spanish-language edition of Forbes, the U.S. business magazine, in crisis-hit Spain.

For Forbes Inc., the New York-based publisher of Forbes Magazine and his partner in the Spanish licensing venture, “their only risk is if the magazine really proves a failure, because that could hurt their image,” Mr. Rodríguez said Thursday during an interview in his office, inside what had been an abandoned printing-equipment plant. “I’m also betting my image, as well as my money and my work.”

SpainMedia is swimming against a tide that has driven many other Spanish media entrepreneurs out of business amid a recession and credit squeeze. Since the start of the financial crisis, dozens of Spanish publications have shut down and more than 8,000 journalists have lost their jobs, according to the Federation of Spanish Journalist Associations.

In this climate, SpainMedia is adding its incarnation of Forbes to a roster that includes Spanish editions of three other well-known periodicals: Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar — both owned by Hearst — and Robb Report, which is owned by CurtCo Media Labs in Malibu, California. SpainMedia also publishes its own travel magazine, Orizon.

Mr. Rodríguez’s outlook on the future of magazines in Spain goes beyond being merely optimistic. “I’m a publisher who believes that paper as a product is more alive than ever,” he said.

He also sees the sector returning to its “golden era” of 50 years ago when advertising mushroomed and magazines set the benchmark for photojournalism.

“Magazines have their own language and we need to return to the origins of that language,” he added. “It’s also about walking into a bar and sending a very clear message by the way you’re holding the magazine under your arm – and that’s an experience that anything digital will never give you.”

Yet no matter how much Mr. Rodríguez values paper, the transition from print to digital magazines “is now happening, even if it is slower than for daily newspapers,” according to the journalist Pedro Cifuentes, director of a master’s degree program in digital journalism at the IE Business School in Madrid. Mr. Cifuentes said early estimates suggested that circulation for digital magazines had risen 15 percent in Spain last year, compared with a 5 percent decline in printed copies, in line with what happened in markets like Britain. Meanwhile, advertising has fallen about 40 percent overall since the start of the global economic crisis in 2008.

Forbes already published 26 other licensed editions of its magazine, including several in East European countries like Poland and Romania. Spain is the first foray by the family-controlled Forbes into Western Europe.

Asked about the timing of its Spanish entry, Miguel Forbes, a family member who is in charge of the publisher’s worldwide development, said by telephone recently that “the time to launch is when a market is in the process of recovery.”

The Spanish edition of Forbes, a monthly released March 6, had a print run of 65,000 copies. Neither Mr. Forbes nor Mr. Rodríguez would disclose financial details about their venture, which involves SpainMedia paying a licensing fee to Forbes based on its magazine sales and advertising revenues.

“Andrés has shown that he’s able to put out very strong titles with a very lean staff,” Mr. Forbes said of Mr. Rodríguez. “A lot of publishers have a big staff, but it’s hard to make money when you have a large headcount.”

SpainMedia, which has annual sales of about €10 million, or $13 million, operates out of the former printing facility, which Mr. Rodríguez bought two years ago “in the midst of the property collapse” and then renovated. The company has only 30 employees, with an average age of 28. Half the staff members are journalists.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/business/media/spanish-magazine-publisher-bets-against-the-crisis.html?partner=rss&emc=rss