MEDIA: Infant Aussie firm targets tweens

SYDNEY: Infant Australian media outfit Deckchair Publishing has launched its first title, Krash, pitched at the fickle but lucrative 'tween' market.

Targeted predominantly at boys, the monthly title is part guide (news will include updates on the latest television programmes, movies and computer games), part instructional manual with basic building tips, and part light entertainment with comics and stories.

It will also pitch to 'active' girls. The first issue hit newsstands as a 100-page A5-sized magazine with little advertising content and a A$3.90 (US$3) cover price.

The second issue, due out this month, will carry 132 pages, with a circulation of around 60,000.

Deckchair planted its first seeds for Krash just four months ago, when it launched.

John Motion, the former CEO of Pacific Publications, one of Australia's largest magazine publishers, and cashed-up Ozemail founder Sean Howard, founded Deckchair.

Motion said Krash was pitched to a slightly older market than readers of K Zone - another major tween magazine that he launched while at Pacific.

He said Deckchair had also taken a lesson from That's Life magazine - also established during his reign at Pacific - by opting to "turn the magazine over to the readers" for the first few issues.

"Initially we weren't chasing advertising," Motion said.

"But from the third and fourth magazines onwards we'll be chasing the FMCG market. It's a magazine that's largely driven by its circulation."

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