European Diaries (1)… Sex and The City (The Magazine)
May 27, 2008
On a recent trip to Estonia I picked up a copy of a new Russian magazine called Sex and The City. Yes you read that right. A monthly magazine that have been published for seven months now carrying the name of the big HBO hit series, and now hit-to-be movie, Sex and the City. The magazine reminded me a lot of Cosmopolitan and was divided into two main sections, you’ve guessed it, sex and the city. The 224-page issue seven of the magazine carries a variety of articles that feel and look like pages of Cosmopolitan (which by the way, is also published in Russia). The surprising fact is this is not a one shot special issue of the magazine dealing with the Sex and the City series (more about that in a later blog) but rather a monthly addictive dose of information sprinting off the name of the famed television series. The examples below illustrate the similarities with the pages of Cosmo and the cover above (for those who can read Russian) probably provides a lot of cover lines selling the power and addictiveness of Sex and the City.
A very interesting magazine that merely seems to add to the mix of women’s magazine titles and begs the question to whether such a magazine can survive on the American marketplace considering the success of the television series?
The main cover line says “Who are all these people? [The high society issue]”. Which is exactly what was written on the cover of one of our magazines 3 years ago and was a headline of our recent ad campaign throughout Russia. So it’s not only Cosmo they read ) (i don’t mean any selfpromotion)
I know it barely makes a difference (though the copyright lawyers may think so), but the mag seems to be called Sex and City.
(A note from Samir: In fact the name is Sex and the City, however on this cover the “the” is hidden behind the model’s head)
Dear Madam, Dear Sir,
We work for the in-house media agency of the Swatch Group and we act for all the brands on an international basis.
We would really appreciate if you could send us all the relevant media information regarding the magazine “Sex and the City, Russian edition” (readership, circulation breakdown, rates, deadline,…) and some copies of the magazine to the following address:
THE SWATCH GROUP LTD
Media Dpt
c/o Omega
Rue Stämpfli 96
PO Box 4129
2500 Bienne 4
SWITZERLAND
Also, could you please send us the media kit by e-mail? Indeed, we need them quite urgently.
Many thanks in advance for your collaboration.
Best regards,
Sandra Moser
Sandra Moser
Media Buyer
The Swatch Group Ltd
Office: Rue Jakob Stämpfli 96
CH – 2500 Bienne 4
phone: +41 32 343 91 21
fax: +41 32 343 92 92
sandra.moser@omega.ch
http://www.swatchgroup.com
There is definately a great deal to learn about this topic.
I really like all of the points you’ve made.