Who's Who in Huntsville

New magazine targets rich. Publication headed for other cities.
By Paige Orr porr@nashvillecitypaper.com

About 15,000 copies of a new magazine will be mailed next month to Nashville homes with head-of-household incomes of $150,000 and up. The biannual publication Who’s Who in Nashville will feature ads from local business and "advertorial" articles about those same advertisers.

Doug Dittamore, vice president of operations for the magazine, said he wants Who’s Who content to include the "right business" – leaders in their categories. "You can only say so much in an advertisement," Dittamore said. "We give business an opportunity to tell their stories though a feature article."

"The magazine offers advertising space and editorial coverage to its advertisers, who pay rates up to $5,000," Dittamore said. "Full-page advertisers are then subjects of feature stories inside the publication."

The company’s business model has worked in Huntsville, AL, where Who’s Who in Huntsville has been profitable, according to Dittamore, who declined to comment on printing costs or specific financials.

"Publisher and founder Daniel Stephens started the company more than two years ago in Huntsville and grew the magazine there from 22 pages up to 74," Dittamore said.

Article from Nashville Business Journal
Huntsville Entrepreneurs launch high-end mag By Joe Morris

After three years of increasing success in the Huntsville market, Who’s Who Inc. has launch a Nashville version of its biannual magazine.

The first issue, which came out in late November, has a press run of 25,000 copies. Of that, 15,000 go to high-end residential ZIP codes and the rest to the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce for distribution in newcomers’ and relocation packages. Doug Dittamore, vice president of operations, says the idea is to reach a core group of readers who will respond to the publication’s advertising base.

"We target areas where the head of the household makes at least $150,000," Dittamore says, "We’re hitting Belle Meade, Franklin, Bellvue, those areas."

The first Nashville issue had 32 pages, compared to the Huntsville launch of only 22, a response Dittamore and Who’s Who CEO Daniel Stephens say they find encouraging.

"Huntsville has grown to 72 pages and now we believe there’s potential for Nashville to reach that size," Dittamore says. "We’re hoping to at least double our page count for the May issue."

Nashville was chosen after the two looked at other markets, including Chattanooga and Atlanta, because of its size and mix of businesses. While growth is the idea, the publications are not likely to ever be much larger than 76 pages because that would interfere with the bulk-mail delivery system now in place. For further distribution, stories now are posted on the company’s Web site, which recorded more than 31,000 hits in December, Stephens says.

Although Nashville doesn’t lack for media outlets, Stephens says he thinks Who’s Who will catch on because it offers its advertisers the chance to be featured editorially, something he pursued as a furniture store owner in Huntsville – to no avail.

"We couldn’t get the local paper to do an article on us, even though we were pretty unique," he says. Not wanting to buy an ad, he began the publication to advertise himself. And he says the results were immediate and significant.

"The first week, the magazine came out we sold $15,000 worth of merchandise, and the next week about $10,000," he says. "All I cared about was breaking even on the deal, but it really worked."

jmorris@bizjournals.com 615-248-2222 ext. 112