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investment in publishing booms

they've been multiplying like bunnies lately: every visit to the news-stand reveals a glossy new contender in cairo's increasingly crowded eng-lish-language publishing market.

judging from the number of recent start-ups, it would seem that putting out a magazine or newspaper is the fast way to easy money. but the reality is far different. the vast majority of cairo's english language publications are consistent money-losers, publishers say, and the increased competition for readers and advertisers is only going to make things worse. "people are not going to get rich in the english-language publishing business," said thomas olson, publisher of satellite guide.

nevertheless, the new contenders keep cropping up - many of them bankrolled by deep-pocketed private investors. restaurateur johnny zahra, owner of le pasha 1901, is the main backer of the new society magazine enigma. shafik gabr, chairman of artoc group for investment & development, is putting out a pair of publications - the society magazine cleo and the book-length pharoahs - and has plans to introduce even more. cairo has become home to four separate english-language weekly newspapers: al-ahram weekly, middle east times, cairo post (which debut-ed last december) and the now-weekly cairo times. compounding the glut, there are also two men's magazines and a whole crop of general interest publications.

the market has come a long way in the 20 years since fledgling publisher bill harrison started putting out an unassuming little community pamphlet that would grow into egypt today, which for more than a decade was synonymous with english-language journalism in egypt.

egypt today still has impressive name recognition. but with the advertiser and subscriber pool being cut up into smaller and smaller slices, many doubt that any of egypt's english-language general interest magazines can be turning much of a profit.

"in the general interest magazine business, it was fine when there were one or two magazines, but when there are nine or 10, it gets harder and the advertisers get smarter," olson said. "the advertiser is going to say, 'who are you going to give me that i don't already have?'"

the advertisers themselves are equally pessimistic. "some of them will definitely die out," said leo burnett media executive hafez afifi. "adver-tising budgets aren't growing to meet demand. new publications will have to establish themselves in the market. unless they're doing something really new and different, it's going to be hard."

so why then are seemingly savvy and profit-minded businessmen so eager to sink money into what are apparently losing ventures? one reason, publishers say, is the status, prestige and influence which comes with being a publisher.

"the risk isn't worth it, but people like to have magazines and be part of the show," said zahra, who cited the example of late george magazine publisher john kennedy jr. "he didn't need the money," zahra said. "his father left him a fortune, but he wanted to be part of the action."

zahra said he personally decided to invest in enigma out of a sense of adventure. publishing, he said, was "something i hadn't tried before."

not surprisingly, some of cairo's more established publishers - who aren't quite on stable ground where advertising revenue is concerned - regard the new crop of wealthy fledglings as dilettantes. cairo times pub-lisher hisham kassem predicted that most of this new wave will "burn their fingers and get out" in three or four years.

kassem and others said that many of these new privately funded publications aren't even particularly interested in turning a profit. instead, they exist as an extension of their benefactors' personal interests.

"if you open up the pages of pharoahs, you find almost no advertising," said one publisher. "clearly, shafik gabr is not trying to make money at pharoahs magazine."

which isn't to say that there's not money to be made in egyptian publishing. specialists such as olson have done well by targeting unserved niche markets. in addition to satellite guide, olson produces golf in egypt and medina, the latter catering to architects and design buffs.

"the specialized publications have a better chance. it's the same all over the world," olson said. "if you're selling fly fishing equipment, you're better off advertising in a fly fishing magazine than in time."

but for general interest publications, the prospects for turning a consistent profit are grim. the language barrier and the high newsstand price automatically limits the size of the audience. circulation and profit figures for the various publications are notoriously unreliable, but afifi of leo burnett said none of them can possibly be circulating more than 10,000 copies. compare that to rose el youssef, which afifi said has a circulation of around 200,000 and charges about half as much for advertising as an english-language magazine.

"mass reach is very important," said afifi, who picks which magazine to advertise in based on cost-per-thousand efficiency and the size of the discount being offered. advertising in english publications is a useful way to establish an upscale product image and reach expatriates and elite egyptians, afifi said, but those goals were already being met with far fewer publications.

regardless, the new publishers continue to target that same pool. "i'm going for the one percent who spend," said yasmine shihata, editor in chief of enigma, "because that's who my advertisers want."

shihata and zahra both maintained that an egyptian english-language publication can make a profit - but only, they said, by expanding beyond egypt's borders to aggressively marketing to arab emigrant communities and establishing a readership base in lebanon and the gulf states.

zahra said cairo could become a source of a thriving regional publishing industry that produces newspapers and magazines in english and arabic which appeal to the whole middle east.

"people are interested to know what's happening in egypt," zahra said. "this is the center of civilization and social life."

curiously, the publishing boom isn't being reflected as strongly in the arabic-language press, despite the far larger potential audience.

while alam al youm publisher emad el din adeeb has built an ex-panding media empire in recent years with magazines like kolenas and the men's magazine adam al youm, most of the private money has been going toward english.

zahra said that he has long-term ambitions of expanding into arabic-language publications, and that many of his fellow english-language investors feel the same way. he cited adeeb as an example of someone who spotted an opening in the arabic market - the need for quality daily financial reporting - and filled it with great success.

"i respect him a lot," zahra said of adeeb. "he's a genius as far as i'm concerned."

ashraf khalil

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