TV Guide relaunching as a Larger Magazine

Wednesday - Jul 27, 2005
Televisionpoint.com Team
TV Guide is slashing the circulation it guarantees advertisers by about two-thirds and relaunching itself as a large format magazine with far fewer TV listings and more emphasis on lifestyle and entertainment, it was announced today by Rich Battista, chief executive officer of Gemstar-TV Guide International.

"We're boldly transforming TV Guide magazine into a weekly full-size, feature-rich TV entertainment and guidance magazine that will better serve the needs of today's readers and advertisers. TV Guide is the most trusted brand in television, and has been an integral, iconic part of American life for more than 50 years. With this transformation, we believe the magazine will be a more relevant and vital part of viewers' lives for years to come," said MR Battista.

MR Battista continued, "We believe that repositioning our flagship for today's TV audience is important to - and will strengthen - Gemstar-TV Guide's position as the leader in television guidance. The TV Guide brand, which is at the heart of our strategic vision as a consumer-facing company, is built on TV Guide magazine's credibility, access and consumer reach.

The magazine currently guarantees 9 million readers to advertisers, according to its most recent filing with the Audit Bureau of Circulations. But the new guarantee will be set at just 3.2 million.

John Loughlin, the president of TV Guide's publishing group, said the higher per-unit costs of producing the larger-format, full-color magazine would make it uneconomical to distribute in some of the ways it had in the past, including through subsidized distribution in hotels, which count as 'sponsored' sales.

The changes come as Gemstar-TV Guide is trying to put a tumultuous period behind it. Gemstar's former CEO Henry Yuen and former Chief Financial Officer Elsie Leung left the company in 2002 and have been charged with inflating the company's revenues, and in June of last year the company agreed to pay a $10 million penalty to settle charges of revenue fraud from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Gemstar-TV Guide International is about 40 percent owned by New York-based News Corp., The media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch.