BRUCE Forster is no stranger to publishing—having worked with Murdoch Magazines and having played a part in the launch of Australian Style and Blue magazines—which makes his launch of RU? magazine last week all the more perplexing.
Too many magazines over the past 12 months have fallen by the wayside; even established titles such as Elle and Aussie Post fell victim to the tough advertising climate, so with an upswing in ad spend looking less and less likely for the rest of the year, what on earth makes Forster think his magazine will be any different?
Well, he doesn’t, but he clearly believes in its validity, enough to have thrown himself into RU (which hit newsstands last week) and his media company Boo Media (“it sounds better than Bruce Media”) with admirable passion.
“[These are] very nerve-wracking times,” Forster admits. “It took me a long time to convince myself that I have got something that could be popular. But not one person along the way had a negative word to say [about RU?],” he said.
After leaving Terraplanet, Forster spent some time soul searching and says September 11 had a profound effect on him by bringing him out of a fug he had worked himself into after leaving the media industry for the first time in his working career.
He says he asked himself: “Why the hell can’t I do what I do best?”
Forster has a passion for print media which stems from his time as a Fairfax marketing cadet in the mid 1980s—he says those cadetships should be brought back to foster a love and knowledge of the industry.
An admirer of UK and US magazines such as Interview, Forster says he only saw Australian magazines develop a distinct identity with the launch of titles such as Cleo. And he wants to take the elements of the magazines he has grown up with, and loved, into his new venture.
The debut edition of RU? is a 108-page, perfect-bound, glossy number with a surprisingly ambiguous cover, given the breadth of articles inside.
Top-end advertisers in the first issue include Tag Heuer and Lancome with a total of 19 full-page ads, and a further 16-page bound-in insert called “The Mall” in which various products are ‘reviewed’.
Forster plans to audit the magazine to lend it greater credibility and assist with the marketing process to advertisers.
“My intention is to audit. [Some magazines] give the impression of being popular, but then they don’t audit. I’ve worked in a lot of places that don’t audit. I don’t think you should be ashamed of a figure in the low [20,000s]. If I audit and I show [advertisers] a figure in the low 20s, then they will support me,” he says.
He is also heavily marketing the product, using scooter lites and radio ads.
“You can’t expect the industry to support you if you don’t use advertising, and I believe in the power of advertising wholeheartedly,” he adds.
Forster says he thinks it will be hard to gauge the success of the first issue as he has taken the concept of interactivity very much to heart.
“My product is a totally interactive product… Readers can be as involved as they want to be. I call it an adventure or a journey.”
Readers have the opportunity to contact the magazine through its website—launched concurrently with the magazine—but also by contributing articles, for example for the travel section where readers submit a location and a reason they should be sent there on behalf of the magazine.
Forster said RU? was almost built “back to front” in that many features and weightier articles are positioned towards the back—something he says a lot of titles don’t do.
And he is acutely aware of the fickle ways of the modern media consumer.
“It’s about being one step ahead of your readers and never allowing your audience to predict your first move. If you can’t do those things, you shouldn’t be producing media, really,” he says.
“We must be flexible. We are not going to just have a formula.
“[It’s difficult] for me to say [the first issue] is my product because it doesn’t have the reader involvement. You’ve got to have the readers to make it complete.”
Forster said he has other media company backing, and seems to maintain close ties with former boss Matt Handbury, who delivered a speech at the magazine’s launch last week in praise of Forster’s new venture.
Handbury said he was pleased to offer former employee Forster support for RU? as it represented positive movement in the industry, something he is the first to welcome.
“I was always hugely impressed with him—I’m very fond of him, and I wanted to offer whatever support I could,” Handbury said.
“It’s a revolutionary concept, and it’s good to see some vitality in the industry.”
Forster has 12 full-time staff at Boo Media—all of whom have a profit share in the company—and plans on getting RU? up and running before launching other media initiatives. He says he has content for six issues “locked down” and expects his next new project to be unveiled in November. n
