I-5 Takes the Web-to-Print Path
Special interest publisher I-5 Publishing is launching print versions of its Catster and Dogster digital properties. The two sites were acquired from Say Media in July in a deal that foreshadowed Say Media’s planned exit from the content business.
Dogster and Catster magazines will launch as bimonthlies in February and March 2015, respectively. Both started out as websites 10 years ago.
The publisher is betting big that the digital and social roots that Dogster and Catster have put down over the last 10 years out-weigh the brand equity of the much older print brands Cat Fancy and Dog Fancy.
Concurrently, Cat Fancy and Dog Fancy—monthlies on the eve of their 50th and 45th anniversaries—will be shuttered and existing subscribers will be transitioned to the new titles. The Fancy titles were acquired by I-5 in early 2013.
According to I-5, the launch-year circulation goal for Dogster and Catster is 200,000. Annual subscriptions are $19.95.
The company is projecting 58 ad pages in Catster and 77 in Dogster. Both will be perfect bound and on heavier stock.
I-5’s shift in focus to the newer brands takes advantage of their digital legacy and a younger audience—you’d have to be living under a rock not to notice the proliferation of dog and cat-related animated gifs, Instagram selfies and YouTube videos.
“The [Fancy titles] were created before any of that,” says Kim Huey-Steiner, I-5 Publishing’s chief sales officer. “That audience is more interested in longer-form content. Those magazines didn’t have sources of information on the web in the same way and were not designed to meet the content need of pet enthusiast now. We feel that the tone, content and frequency of the new titles are a better fit for the contemporary pet owner and how they consume their pet-related information.”