"The market has reached a point where we must offer premiums, says Lisa Wu, chief executive officer of Nong Nong Intermedia Group (NNIG), publisher of the Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia editions of Citta Bella, Marie Claire, Mom Baby, Shape and other titles. "There is no loyalty. Focus groups tell us that readers don't see a big difference among the titles, and they switch from month to month."
Wu is talking about the publishing segment's top titles - the upscale fashion magazines, her own title Citta Bella and the Chinese language editions of Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Bazaar and newcomer Madame Figaro.
These retail above the NT$150 (US$4.40) mark, and are aimed at housewives and teenage girls.
"It's an added-value incentive because of the high cover price, says Homei Chen, president and editor-in-chief of Madame Figaro Taiwan. "If one magazine does it, everyone has to do it. But the big players can afford it because they are sitting on a gold mine of advertising for branded luxury goods that would make other publishers drool. While double-digit drops in ad income were the rule for general interest and business titles last year, fashion magazines proved virtually recession-proof. They are as thick as a brick and as glossy as ever.
Jean de Witt, managing director of Hachette Filapacchi Taiwan, which publishes Elle and local teenage title Oriental Beauty, estimates that fashion magazines command as much as NT$800 million (US$23 million) worth of advertising a year.
"2000 was the strongest year ever, says de Witt. "The upscale women's magazines grew by about 30 per cent (that year), but in the second quarter of 2001 there was some cutting back for the weakest titles. "Everyone wanted to see what would happen when Madame Figaro launched last year. Would there be room for a newcomer? The market was already crowded with big names that had been here for years."
Taiwanese women got their first taste of Western editorial with the arrival of the sexually explicit Chinese-language edition of Cosmopolitan in 1988.
The better mannered fashion titles quickly followed with local editions of Bazaar in 1989, Elle in 1991, Marie Claire in 1992, Vogue in 1996, and finally Madame Figaro last year. But the forerunner of this trend was local start-up Nong Nong, launched in 1984, and subsequently relaunched as Citta Bella.
"Nong Nong was a milestone for the industry, says NNIG's Wu. "It was the first large-format, glossy fashion title, and it was the first women's magazine with a clear position and target. Nong Nong focused on unmarried women, aged between 18 and 30, separating itself from the crowd of generic women's magazines. Unlike its contemporaries, which relied on Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and other 'homemaker' advertisers, Nong Nong was the right editorial fit for upscale brands then flooding the island.
Nong Nong inspired a handful of local imitators, but few survived after the major foreign titles showed up on Taiwan's shores in the 1990s. Together, they have created a print showcase for women's luxury products, the advertising of which has grown at least five-fold in the past decade, according to Wu's estimate.
"Female magazines in Taiwan are very much brand- and product-oriented - what can I buy? where can I buy it? says de Witt. "There is a short history of brands in Taiwan and local women are still at the stage of differentiating among them. In the West, women's magazines have more depth of reporting about society. There, it is more about attitudes towards life. In Asia, it is more consumption-oriented.
"In a trendy female magazine, it is the fashion and beauty content that appeals to readers. Fashion and beauty ads are, therefore, perceived as additional and useful.
"Our surveys show that women here are much more aware than men. They are on top of all the new trends. In this society, women are competitive and aggressive - they must be to establish themselves in a macho society - but they are also very open to foreign values that might help them to achieve a better, more balanced life."
Fashion magazines are here to stay, but there are some signs the segment has reached its peak. In the June issue of Brain Magazine, 2001 ad income for the top five women's titles were listed as Vogue (NT$120 million), Elle (NT$110 million), Citta Bella (NT$96 million), Marie Claire (NT$90 million) and Bazaar (NT$60 million).
The publishers are not keen to discuss those numbers, however, they do say that the stronger titles do better in an economic downturn. Bentham Liu, president and publisher of Conde Nast Taiwan, says: "The total ad pages for the industry has flattened but the business is shifting. In good times, everyone does well. But in bad times, it is the stronger titles that do well because advertisers play it safe."
None of the island's women's magazines are audited, however, one publisher estimates the combined print run of the top six titles is between 150,000 and 200,000 copies, with the subscription to retail sales split at about 50:50. But the two numbers that are shaping the future of Taiwan's women's magazines are the island's population - 22 million - and its low magazine readership. According to AC Nielsen Taiwan, only 25 per cent of respondents have read a monthly magazine in the recent month. The top title is Citta Bella (1.8 per cent), followed by other local titles, then Elle (one per cent), Vogue (0.8 per cent), Marie Claire (0.6 per cent) among the top 10.
For local publishers, the future is across the Taiwan Strait. "The reason that the Chinatimes Group split with Marie Claire after eight years was because the contract prohibited us from launching competitive women's titles, says Chen. "That was in 1999 and afterwards we were contacted by Madame Figaro. They are willing to let us publish women's magazines in China. Wu, of the NNIG, has a similar plan. "We are going to merge the editorial resources of Citta Bella's Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia offices and begin producing pan-regional reporting in our editions. Of course, afterwards, our next move will be a Citta Bella edition for the mainland."
