Online email magazine Monkey appears to be a pretty big success for UK publishers Dennis. It gets open around a million times a month, makes around £16,000 per issue, and attracts around 4000 new readers daily.
Despite an accusation that the Zoo and Nuts rival was only launched online due to cost, because Dennis couldn’t afford the multiple millions for a print launch, it seems that actually, it’s finding a slightly different audience. Quoting from the Guardian: “60% are from the ABC1 demographic group, with an average age of 27. Almost two-thirds are homeowners who appreciate a huge range of subjects rather than just “girls and gadgets”.
Case in point? Me. I’d never buy Zoo or Nuts. If I want gadget news, I’d go to a gadget blog. If I wanted naughty ladies, I believe that they are also available on the internet. And there’s a popular site which apparently has lots of videos of people hurting themselves.
But give me all that in an attractive email mag, and I’ll happily take the time to browse through it, pick out the best bits, and possibly even watch some advertising videos, and maybe even click on a link or two. It’s another example of magazines becoming arbiters of taste, rather than story creators.
I suggested a similar approach to magazines a couple of years ago, and fortuitiously, started working on Disposable Media. DM is currently on around 10,000 downloads per issue, with no marketing, advertising, paid staff etc.
