hot.dots magazine
2100 Lakeshore Dr.
Birmingham, AL 35209
205/877-6000
http://www.hotdots.com
What shopaholics do in the privacy of their own homes is Southern Progress Corp's business. On November 6, the publishers of Cooking Light, Southern Living and other female-skewed titles
introduced hot.dots, a print title dedicated to the art of online bargain hunting. Content teeters on the verge of catalogue-ism, featuring the hottest products and newest services in home,
beauty, fashion, health/fitness, travel, children, entertainment and technology. The magazine's companion Web site, hotdots.com, provides regularly updated online shopping tips, as well as a searchable
gift find. The premier issue of the print pub (November/December) hit newsstands nationwide with an initial guaranteed rate base of 400,000. hot.dots will be published bimonthly in 2001 and monthly
in 2002. -Ann Brandstadter
Content/Contacts
According to Editor Kay Fuston, the average hot.dots reader is a professional woman and/or working mother in her mid-thirties who has a limited amount of time. She's highly sophisticated,
educated, and has a good bit of discretionary income. Note: women comprise 65% of readers, but there is a male audience to boot, and the book includes technology and travel sections geared towards
men.
Categories include Fashion, Beauty, At Home, Health & Fitness, Technology, Entertainment, Travel, Kids Stuff and another section called Etcetera for topics (e.g., automotive and finance) that don't
fit into the other sections.
hot.dots runs three kinds of stories:
Hot Stuff: A roundup of hot new products and services.
Insite: A column that introduces people and personalities. For example, the magazine recently profiled the CEO of "Athleta," a women's athletic company.
Features: Trends and such - a la recent stories on retro toys, disco fashions and winter workout fabrics.
Direct print pitches to editorial assistant Angie Kelly: 205/877-6861; 205/877-5923 (fax); [email protected]. Send Web fare to online editor Jason Burnett:
[email protected].
Pitch Tips
Fuston says product picks should obviously fit the hot.dots demographic, but they don't have to be brand new. Pitches may also include retro items that are experiencing resurgence. For example,
she says, "Slap bracelets were really big years ago, and now they are back with animal prints and snake skin prints for the teen audience. Vintage clothing is also back: 70's clothing, high heels - these
are products that are coming around again."
Pitches can be delivered via phone, fax or email, but your chances of scoring coverage may be enhanced if you provide a visual or tactile hook with your release, Fuston says. You don't necessarily have
to send a sample of your product. Transparencies or product shots are fine.
What gets editors' attention? Clever packaging. One item that scored points was a press release for a new beauty line for Asian women called Zhen. It was sent in a fortune cookie box. "We had one of
our Asian editors try the line and she loved it. Then it was featured in our Hot Stuff section," Fuston says.
Comments
One misconception about hot.dots says Fuston, is that "a lot of people think we are a Web site review magazine. It's not about the sites, it's about the products. However, the common theme is
that everything we write about has to be available [for purchase] on the Web. The great thing about our site is that everything is always updated. You can link from the site to any of the products in the
magazine. We've done all the legwork for the reader. We have already comparison-shopped for the reader."
If a product is turned down by hot.dots, it's usually because of an amateurish presentation or anticipated problems with fulfillment. "We are a magazine that has a circulation of a half a
million. We cannot represent something that will not be available in large quantities," says Fuston.