Science Illustrated and History Hits in Estonia

Two Estonian magazines in two years, launched with lean budgets during a financial crisis. It may not sound like a recipe for success, but for Imeline Teadus (Science Illustrated) and Imeline Ajalugu (History), readers and subscriptions have proved otherwise. "We were able to create the No. 3 monthly magazine in Estonia in the case of Imeline Teadus within a year after launching the first issue and repeat the success a year later with Imeline Ajalugu magazine," says Rain Väät, marketing manager at Äripäev, the business daily which is behind the launch of the two Bonnier titles. 

Imeline Teadus was launched in November 2010 as a monthly and within eight months had twice the circulation of its biggest competitor, Tarkade Klubi, (Wise man's club). The Estonian market is relatively competitive, says Väät, and like many other markets, the business model for most magazines is based primarily on advertising revenues. But Imeline Teadus took a different tack. "Ad revenues are only 5-10 percent of the total income of the magazine, three-quarters of the income is from subscriptions," he says. "You just have to have a good enough magazine that you can ask for a higher price, about 1/3 more than other magazines."

Imeline Teadus did so well that it has now merged with Tarkade Klubi, which gave it an additional 4,000 to add to its 9,000 existing subscribers. The success of Imeline Teadus also paved the way for the launch of the history title.

"Imeline Ajalugu has been even a slightly bigger success than Imeline Teadus ," says Väät. "The third issue of Imeline Ajalugu will have more than 6,000 subscribers, with nearly 2,000 of them overlapping with Imeline Teadus. If you add to this single copy sales, you have a little bit less than 14,000 paid copies per issue."

Not bad for a three-month old magazine in Estonia, a country with only 1.3 million inhabitants.