Published: Friday, October 13, 2006

 

Memo Pad: Royal Capitalism...

 

ROYAL CAPITALISM: Tonight's screening of Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" at the New York Film Festival will be followed by an exclusive "midnight fete" with the film's director and stars at the Museum of Modern Art, hosted not by Vogue — which devoted its cover and a massive chunk of its September issue to the movie — but by the Wall Street Journal's Weekend Edition. While the let-them-eat-cake school of economic thought may not be wholly incompatible with the Journal's core demographic, this is relatively untrod ground for the paper.

Event partnerships in arenas like film and fashion are one prong of the Journal's bid for female readers, which includes ratcheting up its "female-friendly" lifestyle coverage (including a concerted effort to cover fashion) and a circulation strategy that targets places such as women's conventions and spas. All of this appears to have paid off: The most recent Mendelsohn Affluent Survey shows the paper added 178,000 female readers in the last year, to 35 percent of readership. By the survey's numbers, that's more female readers than the daily New York Times.

Why the push for female readers? Ad dollars — which the long-struggling Journal sorely needs. And, in a broadside at the competition, Andrea Norlander, executive director of marketing for the Journal's Consumer Group, said luxury advertisers "aren't just looking for the glossy, superficial fashion bibles. They're looking for smart, intellectual content to partner with and readers with deep pockets." This is Norlander's first foray into newspapers after stints at LTB Media, Elle Decor and Jane, which jibes with the paper's goal of competing with magazines for luxury advertising, said senior vice president for sales and marketing Judy Barry. Advertising revenues are up 10 percent.

— Irin Carmon