XXL Has A History of Trash Talking the Competition

Bucky Turco — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:18:58 +0000

Yesterday, we published a propagandist style dispatch that purported to show Hip Hop magazine XXL dishing scurrilous information—that probably wasn’t too far off the mark—about one of its competitors, Giant, to a major media planning agency. With brands spending decidedly less money and insertion orders becoming more and more scarce, we assumed this was just a new, albeit sleazy, strategy to secure ad dollars. But Harris Publications head honcho, Dennis Page, claims that the rumor mongering memo was not generated by anyone on his team, writing:

I saw the item that was posted today about XXL and want to let you know that this did not come from anyone on my staff. You are right that magazines are facing a challenging environment however it is not our style to spread malicious rumors about competitors. I have spoken with my entire staff and no one sent this letter. We are reaching out to Mindshare to see if they can tell us the source.

Dennis Page
XXL, Publisher

Unfortunately for Mr. Page, a reliable source tells us this isn’t the first time that XXL has resorted to such gully and underhanded tactics. It wasn’t too long ago that VIBE and The Source were also targeted in the same fashion. A commenter on Gawker speculated that if the publisher wasn’t directly involved, perhaps his right hand man, Jon Rheingold, was—a name that has also been tossed around from what we hear. Although the staff at The Source has been dispersed someone has to have one these other examples lying around. Send them in.

Just in case you missed the letter the first time around, here it is for your perusal again:

XXL Warns Advertisers About the Fall of Giant

Bucky Turco — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:49:34 +0000

It’s no secret that marketing dollars have been drying up industry wide, but who knew that Hip Hop magazines like XXL were taking such drastic actions to retain and attract new advertisers, like this dire memo warning against spending money in a competitor book. This communique was sent to Mindshare, a media planning agency that controls a lot of money for big brands, and basically describes just how close to death Giant is. They claim that even the parent company, Radio One, has lost faith in the title, citing the lack of the mag’s inclusion in a recent trade advertisement that ran in Ad Age as the most damning evidence. Additionally, they mention the far more important indicators of its inevitable demise:

-Giant cut its newsstand distribution.

-The last two issues had less than twenty total ad pages.

But then things take a turn for the surreal.

XXL flat out says that “Giant will fold in the near future like King and Blender. So I implore you to take a hard look at your print partners and invest with those that are credible, viable, proven and trusted.” While we understand the whole taking shots at Giant and Blender—both owned by rival publication houses—why would they take aim at one of their own titles? True, King is dead, but only after XXL’s parent company, Harris Publications, couldn’t make it “credible, viable, proven and trusted.” Related: They’re all going out of business anyway.

ANIMAL » Dennis Page

XXL Has A History of Trash Talking the Competition

XXL Warns Advertisers About the Fall of Giant