NY Times Praises HEEB Mag Ad Model

The Uber-cool Heeb magazine was praised lavishly in the business section of the Times today. The article provides generous background and history of the venture for those who do not know Heeb.

...Heeb has served as what Mr. Neuman called a “quasi ad agency.” The staff conceives and executes ads that don’t appear in other publications for several of the magazine’s advertisers, including LoHo Realty and Gold Pure Food Products. Although advertisers usually pay agencies to design ads, Mr. Neuman waives that fee, but requires that such advertisers buy full-page ads and sign multiple-issue contracts. (A full-page ad costs $3,500, and it is about twice that for Page 2 or either side of the back cover.)

Four pages of ads in the current issue were Heeb’s handiwork, and the previous issue was a “milestone,” Mr. Neuman said: For the first time, ad revenue — more than half from Heeb-conceived ads — paid the issue’s print bill. “There’s no way we’re in business without functioning as a quasi ad agency,” Mr. Neuman said. “No way. Maybe we’d be in business as a Web site, but there’s no way we’d be printing a magazine without it...”