Packaging Alaska's men.

• Author: Hill, Robin Mackey
• Position: Susie Carter's AlaskaMen magazine - Company profile

Packaging Alaska's Men

If Alaska Men USA magazine, the Anchorage-based publication featuring facts, amateur photos and phone numbers of available single men, is still on news-stands in April, it will have done what most new magazines only dream of: It will have succeeded in reaching the enviable four-year milestone.

The marriage of a hot concept and non-stop media attention has done more for the family-run, bimonthly magazine than all the investment capital and advertising revenue a publisher could hope for. This year AlaskaMen was renamed AlaskaMen USA when it began featuring men from other parts of the United States.

According to a study completed in 1988, only one in five new magazines is still publishing four years after presenting its first issue. "The magazines disappear from the newsstands as quickly as they come, says Samir Husni, head of the magazine program at the University of Mississippi and author of the study.

According to a recent story in Time magazine, some 2,800 new magazines debuted during the past decade, 584 in the past year alone. Many, including struggling monthlies, the seemingly successful Psychology Today and the slick, award-winning 7 Days, have folded. The article goes on to say that magazines filling "less glamorous market niches are flourishing," including publications that cater to gold lovers and model railroad enthusiasts.

"It's quite possible that what she's done is fall into a very unique niche," says John Klingel, a magazine consultant based in California. "The miracles do happen but they're very rare."

Consider the magazine's vital statistics: Owner and publisher Susie Carter, along with husband dave, launched AlaskaMen in April 1987 from the couple's kitchen table. Five thousand copies of the first issue were printed and sold at Anchorage-area newsstands. Three years later, Carter says the magazine's international circulation is approaching 200,000, and she hopes to more than double that number by the end of the year.

A $30,000 initial family investment has multiplied into gross annual revenues of more than $1 million. Frequency of publication has increased from quarterly to bimonthly installments, and other magazines, including one featuring single women, are in the works.

The magazine's 900-prefix phone service, through whcih women can listen to and leave recorded messages for featured men, is in use up to 20 hours a day and is a major revenue source for the magazine. After a single appearance on the...