Exclusive Giveaway

For the working executive whose In basket never seems to be empty, one practical rule of thumb is that anything mailed to him free is probably not worth reading. But there is one giveaway magazine that has sought, with mild success, to be an exception. In seven years, News Front, which calls itself "management's news magazine," has at least gained entree to some of the most influential In baskets in the U.S. Among its 92,000 nonpaying recipients are the presidents and key officers of the country's 7,500 largest companies, the Governors of all 50 states, all U.S. Congressmen, the members of President Johnson's Cabinet, and his nibs himself.

News Front was started in 1957 by Baldwin H. Ward, 51, a onetime advertising salesman, and nearly died at birth. Advertising, News Front's sole source of revenue, fell to three to five pages an issue during the recession of 1957-58. All told, says Ward, he dropped $400,000 before nudging News Front barely into the black last fall.

News Front's gift subscribers seem to favor its relatively bland reading fare. One of the most popular features of each issue is also the most unreadable, except perhaps to businessmen: interminable tabulations of what some segment of the business scene spends on research, collects in income, earmarks for advertising--all cast in the eye-straining type that spills from electronic computers. Many of News Front's trend stories demand not only reader attention but reader participation: the magazine is forever sending out lengthy questionnaires to its circulation list (60% of the subscribers usually fill them out). If nothing else, News Front qualifies as one of the most exclusive giveaway magazines in print. Publisher Ward vigilantly keeps his subscriber list pure, firmly turns down unqualified junior executives who are eager to get a free subscription for the prestige it may confer. This, as much as News Front's content, may explain why business leaders seem willing to let the magazine drop in their In basket each month. Every year, Publisher Ward asks his subscribers, by mail, if they want News Front to keep coming. All but 3% of them do.

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