The uber-wealthy will not be left behind in the digital revolution… Spear’s, the UK-based quarterly printed magazine for the super-rich and their money managers–recently bought out by its editor William Cash and Nectar Capital–is adding new issues in a digital-only format and expanding its online content.
The moves come as the publication plans a push into the U.S. market and appoints a new publisher, Christian Price, ex-Conde Nast group director of advertising.
Initially, Spear’s will be using the new digital products as a prop-up for its print edition: there are no current plans to offer them separately, Josh Spero, the web editor, told paidContent:UK.
When the digital products launch–expected to happen spring/summer of this year–the annual subscription will go up to £100 from its current price of £50. “This is the definition of what the premium content revolution is about,” Spero said.
“When you have authority and independence, people will be happy to pay for it.” Currently the magazine has 10,000 subscribers, 60 percent of whom are wealthy individuals and 40 percent their wealth managers (assuming the latter group are not exactly paupers themselves, though).
Spear’s plans to produce two extra issues of the magazine in a digital-only format this year, and from 2011 that number will go up to six. The U.S. edition will be a separate product although it will use some content from the UK magazines. Spear’s Russian edition, which is published under license by Mediacrat, is not currently included in the digital overhaul.
Digital products available only to subscribers will include, in addition to the magazine issues, access to Spear’s wealth indices. These are reference guides to different sectors of wealth management such as lawyers, hedge funds and art advisories. The site also plans to supplement these with online videos interviewing the different companies and people mentioned in the indices. Spero says this is to help wealthy people save time with “beauty parades” to assess companies before retaining their services.
Investment for expansion: Spero says that Spear Ltd, the publisher, is currently profitable, but that it is “speaking to some people that we know” about further investment in the company to fund growth. Currently, the magazine’s editor, William Cash, owns 67 percent of the company and Nectar owns the remainder. Cash led a buyout of the magazine last August from its former owner, Luxury Publishing, which also publishes Quintessentially and Cartier.
The company’s push into the U.S. will be led by Deirdre Brennan, who founded a US hedge fund newsletter, FinAlternatives. She will also be the head of Spear’s Digital, according to Media Week.
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