“We launched Vida y Exito last year with the intention of covering topics related to both life and work,” says Pedro Toro, VP of Northern Media Group, the company that publishes the magazine. “We wanted it to address both areas equally, striking the balance that our audience strives to do.”
Toro says that the magazine broke even with its first issue, a rare thing in print these days. He attributes this partly to the premium content and partly to the revenue model. Instead of relying on newsstand sales, NMG does not sell the magazine directly to consumers, but to large institutions that contract large quantities of issues that they then distribute themselves to their more affluent clientele.
Toro says that the company just signed a deal with financial institution Promerica for about 40,000 monthly copies, and another deal with telecom company Telefonica for 10,000 monthly copies.
At the same time, the company is selling U.S. luxury advertisers such as Melon Bank, Xerox, and others into the magazine, which has a rather eclectic production regimen. The editorial staff is located in Costa Rica, the magazine is printed in El Salvador, and it is distributed mainly in Central America—in Panama and the Dominican Republic—as well as Miami. Current circulation is about 60,000 monthly copies, with a readership of over 300,000, according to NMG.
With regard to advertising, Toro says that the company typically works with the advertisers directly. “We do not usually work through agencies unless it is necessary, in which case we respect those relationships and do work with them,” says Toro.