TV Guide plans revamp of format, content
TV Guide, an iconic title for two generations of Americans, is radically remaking itself into a magazine with a larger, full-color format, fewer listings and more stories about TV shows and stars.
The magazine has struggled to stay relevant in an era where more people look up TV listings online or through on-screen programming guides from their cable and satellite TV providers.
TV Guide’s parent company, Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc., is also a major provider of those guides and the technology they use.
In the revamp, announced Tuesday, TV Guide will ditch its digest-sized format in favor of a full-size, full-color format with more stories about TV shows than listings. The new magazine will have 75 percent stories and 25 percent listings, the reverse of the ratio it has now.
It also will eliminate its 140 localized editions in favor of a national edition, with either an Eastern or Pacific time zone designation.
The changes will go into effect with the magazine’s Oct. 17 issue.
The new plan calls for the magazine to slash the circulation it guarantees advertisers by nearly two-thirds, from 9 million to 3.2 million.
Eric Blankfein, senior vice president at Horizon Media Inc., a media and advertising buying company, said TV Guide had been considered “old, staid and stodgy” among advertisers.
“The magazine was an aging property that didn’t have the freshness that a lot of the competition has, and I think this move addresses that concern,” Blankfein said.
Gemstar’s CEO Rich Battista said the company’s research found its readers would be more interested in a magazine with fewer listings and more stories about TV shows and their stars.
“We didn’t believe in its old form that the digest-size magazine was sustainable,” Battista said. “Any brand has to evolve in a dynamic marketplace where consumer tastes are changing rapidly.”
TV Guide will lower its cover price to $1.99 from $2.49 as part of an effort to build up newsstand sales, which are more profitable than subscription sales.