Quick End

When Publisher Gardner Cowles started pocket-size Quick magazine in May 1949, it quickly became something of a postwar wonder. In nearly four years, its circulation shot up from about 300,000 to 1,300,000, and it gave an outward appearance of success. But while Quick grew, "Mike" Cowles was arriving at a disturbing conclusion: in spite of its spectacular rise, Quick was no success. Last week, to his stunned and unbelieving staff, Publisher Cowles announced that he was killing Quick June 1.

Quick's failure provided a case history of the high cost of publishing. Despite its rapid growth, the magazine never got out of the red except for short periods. Last year, when its income was close to $4,000,000, it lost heavily. The circulation growth proved, insists Cowles, "that the magazine filled a real niche." He had started it with an editorial staff of five people, and to keep it going he had to increase the staff more than fivefold. Paper and printing costs rose about 25%. His original idea had been to take no ads, make money on circulation. But he soon discovered that to produce Quick cost more than the 10-c- that readers paid for it. To make up the difference, Quick went after advertising, ran head-on into another obstacle. Advertisers were cool because they found it difficult to run the same ad in Quick as in other magazines. Quick's tiny pages required special ads that ran up the cost of advertising in it.

Some advertisers told Cowles that preparing special ads would be worthwhile only if the circulation topped 2,000,000. Quick started running television-program listings, picked up some newsstand sales but not enough. Though about half of Quick's readers bought subscriptions, Cowles decided not to try for more because of the cost of getting and servicing subscribers. Said Publisher Cowles: "We were faced with the decision of making a very sizable investment . . . building the subscriptions above the 2,000,000 mark, and still being uncertain whether the magazine could be a big success as an advertising medium . . ."

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