You want data? I got your data. First, you need a baseline for comparison. In 2006, we sold an average of 15,382 copies every month on the newsstand (No. 1 title in Dallas, bested only by People occasionally, if you must know). Our average sell-through (number of copies sold as compared to distributed) was 47 percent. Bully for us. So here’s what I know for this year. It takes a long time to get final numbers; we just closed March.
In January, we brought you “The Police Chief and the Reporter,” Trey Garrison’s story about how a young, hard-charging TV reporter by the name of Sarah Dodd fell in love with David Kunkle and became his fifth wife. The cover image was a more or less candid photo taken by staff photographer Elizabeth Lavin at the Black Tie Dinner. I think I may have reported months ago on FrontBurner that this one didn’t sell well. And when we worked on that cover, the staff was split on how it would sell. It’s not your typical D Magazine cover — not recently anyway. Well, turns out we did pretty well. 19,004 copies sold, with a sell-through of 63 percent. I’ll take that every month, especially when it’s not reader service. Speaking of …
In February, we brought you “Mexican Invasion,” Rod Davis’ excellent look at how immigration affects North Texas. A bit of a shock cover. I think Wick came up with the headline. The image was a digital illustration using some staged shots and some images from the march downtown. (Side note: I got a call from one marcher who said, “Hey, I wasn’t holding a Mexican flag at that march.” I got to tell him all about Photoshop.) This cover, frankly, I feared would tank. Lo, the newsstands gods smiled upon us once again. 14,760 copies sold, with a sell-through of 50 percent. For a journalism cover with a sober topic like that, a grand slam. And after two such risks (and not yet knowing how they sold), we went with something safe the following month …
Well, kinda safe. Because that 100-percent yellow made a few people in the office feel a little nervous. “Dallas Real Estate: The 9 New Rules” was written primarily by Eric Celeste. The image was of a University Park home listed for $899,000. The cover line read: “Rule No. 1: Tear This House Down!” My, my. Let no one accuse us of being too subtle. (Side note: the real estate agent for the house freaked, said we made her job impossible, the homeowners were livid, etc. Yeah. The home wound up selling for $868,000.) Anyway, as I said, we just got the final numbers for March. 20,074 copies sold, with a sell-through of 69 percent.
So far, this year is looking good. But there’s still plenty of time for us to screw things up.
