Media Perspective: ShortList surprises everyone and offers a real ad alternative

Ian Darby, ian.darby@haymarket.com, Campaign 28-Sep-07

ShortList, the new free weekly men's magazine, hit the streets last Thursday. And it wasn't as crap as some feared it would be. In fact, it wasn't crap at all.

The title is hand-distributed by a team of vendors (or "agents" as
ShortList likes to call them - perhaps in a bid to involve them in the
fantasy of its first front cover, which urges readers to learn how to

"Find Your Inner Bond"). Everybody will have probably seen the clip on

YouTube of the title's founder, Mike Soutar, looking a bit silly in a
blue ShortList raincoat as he urges "agents" to smile and make eye
contact with their audience. Thankfully, his magazine, edited by the
former Nuts man Phil Hilton, is not as wooden.

Pitched as a more upmarket, older alternative to the existing men's
weeklies (and the downmarket men's monthlies), ShortList's take on the
week is hardly that of The Economist or even The Week, but it's
substantially more sophisticated and text-heavy than its weekly
entertainment magazine rivals. The title includes a lot of lists, which
may be pretty easy to compile, but supplements this with the usual men's
staples of sport, entertainment, health and fitness. The fleshpot count
is low compared with titles on newsstands, but then, given that the
title is free, ShortList doesn't need a naked cover-girl to shift
copies.

It also creates an alternative environment for advertisers. The early
signs are that agencies are buying into the product. Mark Gallagher, the
executive director of Manning Gottlieb OMD, says: "It looks really good,
the paper quality could be improved a little, but there's nothing in
there that looks out of place or out of kilter with the
advertising."

The first issue attracted eight advertisers (including O2, Adidas and
Michelob) and the ShortList commercial team has apparently agreed volume
commitments with five buying points (Carat, Group M, Media Planning
Group, Universal McCann and ZenithOptimedia) that should give it a good
start in bringing in the revenue.

Another point in ShortList's favour is a smart website
(www.shortlist.com), which even at this early stage offers new content
and ideas as well as the opportunity to read a digital version of the
print title. This has clearly been thought through and could bring in
additional revenues.

Taking its lead from Sport, which has been an undoubted success in its
first year, ShortList has a good start on which to build. A few doubts
surround it: some agencies feel its £8,000-a-page ad rate is a
little steep and there is some suspicion that the distribution outside
London (around 150,000 of the 500,000 total) may be insufficient to
generate real momentum. But while ShortList is not Esquire or even GQ,
for a 20-minute read on the Tube, it does the job.