Time of Year for New Launches, Milestones

It’s a bittersweet season for magazines. Although consumers’ holiday feeding frenzy is peaking, magazines already are in the dark months of midwinter, when advertising goes limp and glossies come thinner than a British fashion model. Yet despite the thick competition and sometimes slim profits, the industry keeps coming up with fresh ideas and buoyant standbys.

The turn of the year is, in fact, anniversary time for several magazines. January’s “50 Years of Hot Rod,” on the newsstands now, celebrates car culture’s main medium. Enthusiast Robert Peterson started the glossy in the thick of the often-illicit Southern California street-racing scene. The youth zine with the controversial title (“hot rod” was a bad word back then) became the seed for one of the largest publishing empires around, the Peterson Publishing Co., which today produces 75 magazines for more than 50 million readers. The anniversary Hot Rod is a keeper for car buffs as it recounts, decade-by-decade, the history of the culture. Also included is a reprint of issue No. 1.

Celebrating 10 years on the newsstand is Hispanic magazine, which is based in Texas. This one started as a humble attempt to showcase some good news about America’s Latino population and has ended up as the most prominent glossy in a growing market. The anniversary issue reviews the last 10 years in Latino life and declares California’s Gov. Pete Wilson “gringo of the decade” for using “the hardest working, most-eager-to-be-American group of people to scapegoat for all the economic problems in [his] state . . . in order to save [his] reelection campaign.”

Esquire’s annual “Dubious Achievement” awards issue is out; its targets include John F. Kennedy Jr., Tiger Woods and just about everyone else who made news in 1997. The issue welcomes Dave Eggers, new senior editor, who has had plenty of experience skewering celebs in his now-defunct but much-missed Might magazine.

Launching Pad: As the new year approaches, it’s launch time for several more magazines. An edition of Men’s Health has hit the streets of Russia, where men drink more and die younger than in any other developed country. But, hey, there’s 71 million of them--and that’s a market. The Russian-language glossy is debuting with a circulation of 50,000 at a newsstand cost of 22,000 rubles, or about $4.

We’re in the midst of another run of golden years for the wealthy, and several magazines have been born to tap into the insatiable market for luxury goods. Luxe is a launch from the makers of Adweek that will be circulated to the creme de la creme of global wealth--the chiefs and marketers who run the luxury goods business itself. But who would advertise to these advertisers? Easy! The companies looking for advertisers--magazines and newspapers that claim their publications show the way to elite markets.

Westchester Media Co. of Dallas recently bought and remade Polo magazine. The longtime journal of the equine sport has been transformed into a fat journal of popular culture and shopping for the wealthy. Polo, the sport, has been de-emphasized in favor of “adventure” and “elegance.” The magazine, with a $6 cover price, will be circulated for free, on and off, to 1 million people in the Neiman Marcus charge-card database. The first issue, featuring Claudia Schiffer on the cover, is out in a whopping edition of 500,000 copies.

Down the scale, BPM Culture magazine, out of San Diego, is raising the bar in the increasingly crowded sea of dance music media. The free zine (BPM stands for beats per minute--the deejays’ term for measuring the tempo of a record) has Southern California’s up-all-night rave scene down to a science and features plenty of vinyl record reviews, a regular deejay tips column and critical reviews of dance events. The holiday issue features America’s original techno star, Moby, on the cover.

It’s also snowboarding season, and Fresh & Tasty magazine from Cambridge, Mass., has the women’s snowboarding scene covered. The quarterly glossy always features articles on some facet of women’s snowboarding history, riding tips and pro rider profiles. This month’s cover features legendary pro Shannon Dunn.

In the news: It was a short season for Reg Murphy, who resigned this month as president of the National Geographic Society, publisher of one of the world’s most widely read magazines. The 63-year-old stayed only 18 months at the helm of National Geographic, despite expectations that he would stay until retirement at age 65. Murphy’s time at the top was tumultuous; he presided over cost cutting while at the same time launching foreign language and online editions. He has said he will write books. Last week, John M. Fahey Jr., a 45-year-old vice president at the society, was named to replace Murphy. . . . The annual Utne Reader “Alternative Press Awards” have been announced. Winners include DoubleTake magazine of Durham, N.C., for its general excellence and design; Hope magazine of Brooklin, Maine, which took “best new title”; Blind Spot of New York, for design; the Nation, for “reporting excellence”; and Hip Mama of Oakland for “lifestyle coverage.”

* D. James Romero surveys magazines every four weeks. Next week: Book reviews by Times readers.