Agency boss launches gay marriage magazine Groom + Guy
The managing director of marketing solutions company Hello Thrive is entering the publishing space with the launch of gay wedding magazine Groom + Guy.
Matty Bulger, publisher and editor of Groom + Guy and MD of Hello Thrive, told Mumbrella the idea for the magazine was born when he was browsing in a magazine store.
“How it all started is: I was at a magazine store having a look and I’ve always been a fan of high fashion photography and that leads into wedding photography and I just had a moment where I thought ‘there’s not a gay wedding magazine’ which is a bit odd,” he said.
“I kept thinking about it and within about three months I thought ‘this has to happen’ so I just started to work through the idea and I found out we’re the only one in Australia and New Zealand, and perhaps the world.
“I thought, ‘no experience in publishing, never done this before, how hard can it be’?” he quipped.
No publishing experience: Tony Smith, Matty Bulger and Rachel Matters
Groom + Guy offers readers a full “360 approach” with a print magazine, a website and a soon-to-be-launched e-magazine available through the App Store and Google Play.
Bulger runs the company alongside his partner Tony Smith, a cabin supervisor with Virgin Australia, who handles the advertiser side of the business while on the editorial front Bulger is supported by administration manager Rachel Matters.
“We’ve got myself and Rachael and Tony, who’s my partner, he works in the business – he manages all the client and advertising relationships,” Bulger explained.
“I have an administration manager Rachael who works on the magazine with me and she was heavily involved in creating the editorial content to what you see in the magazine today.”
Neither Matters or Bulger have any previous publishing experience.
“I’ve done general copywriting for marketing and working with start-ups, creating their identity and their voice, but I’ve never done journalism or editorial, per se,” said Bulger.
Bulger wants the title to be the “go-to destination” for gay weddings; however, he suggests the masthead does have broader audience appeal.
“We’ve also had a lot of strong interest from heterosexual males who are interested in the grooming and food sections. There’s no bridal magazine out there that caters to that market,” he said.
“We want to be the leader in producing high-end content that is relevant to anyone that is getting married.”
In terms of advertisers, Groom + Guy has Qantas involved in the first edition and a number of wedding industry related brands from photographers to jewellers.
“There’s different brands on the different platforms, some of our print advertisers have followed across to digital but we also have digital-exclusive partners,” explained Bulger.
In terms of the revenue model, it is not quite set in stone yet with the publication largely reliant on advertising and circulation revenue.
“As far as the website goes we haven’t produced a subscription model, that’s something we’re looking at how to do. Right now, it’s currently from advertising and sales of the magazine as well as fee for editorial content,” said Bulger.
Groom + Guy has partnered with a number of key contributors to manage the various sections of the magazine, with Bulger explaining they want people with knowledge to produce the content.
“We have people such as Chyka Keebaugh from the Real Housewives of Melbourne and The Big Group who’s come on board to do an entertainment section. We’ve also got Dea Jolly from The Block, she does our styling section and we’ve got Brent Wallace who runs a blog called Where’s Brent Been? and he also owns a luxury travel agency so he manages our travel section,” he said.
Bulger said Groom + Guy will be looking to have its audience audited in the future.
“We do want to look at getting our audience figures audited so we have the credibility behind us when we’re stating our figures to advertisers.”
The first edition of the magazine is available now with the second due out in November and plans to move to a quarterly run after that.
Hear from political campaign Tiernan Brady, who masterminded the successful “yes” campaign in Ireland’s same-sex marriage referendum, on how to win a campaign for marriage equality this Wednesday at Mumbrella360. Final tickets are still available and can be purchased by clicking the ad below.
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I want to subscribe just to support the magazine. My life partner–in private we called each other husbands for 42 years–died in 2012 before the U.S. Supreme Court spread legal marriage to all of the 50 states.
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So is it Guy + Groom or Groom + Guy… make up your mind.
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Hi Sub-editor for hire,
Thanks for pointing that out – it’s definitely Groom + Guy, I’ve fixed my error.
Cheers,
Miranda – Mumbrella
Great Magazine
So proud that my Brother and Brother in law are on your first edition.
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