Cigar Magazine Debuts

From Rich Perelman at CigarCyclopedia:

“We don’t claim to be experts on world affairs, politics, which tie goes with what suit, or what yacht club you should consider. But when it comes to cigars, we know our stuff.”

That’s from the introduction on page 14 of the new Cigar Magazine, now arriving in mailboxes and in retail stores nationwide.

“With this publication, we intend to provide information, without the useless filler other magazines seem to use for the express purpose of taking up space between advertisements. We intend to earn the respect of the cigar-smoking community by serving all cigar smokers, whether they smoke a ten-cent cigar or a ten-dollar cigar.”

Oh boy. Here we go . . .

But the debut issue delivers on this promise. Of the 12 major features in the magazine, 11 are about smoking. Most are about cigars, one is about pipes and there’s a major feature on Cigar Store Indians and similar figures.

Of course, there are ratings. For their version, Cigar Magazine sent cigars to an undisclosed number of subscribers picked at random. Ten cigars were selected for rating in three categories – mild, medium and full-bodied. Each rater was asked to assign scores to each cigar from 50 (bad) to 100 (perfect) in appearance, taste and construction. A fourth score for value was calculated by averaging the scores for the other three criteria and diving by the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. The results?

> In the mild-bodied category, the Don Diego Aniversario and Montecristo Robusto tied for the best taste score at 86, with Partagas and Temple Hall two points behind. In appearance, Avo, Don Diego Aniversario, Partagas and S.T. Dupont ties for top honors, with Avo and Partagas ties for best construction. The Casa Blanca Reserve entry had the best value score.

> In the medium-bodied category, the Perdomo Exclusivo and Por Larranaga brands did best at 85 points with Arturo Fuente and Excalibur brands just behind. Pleiades was judged best on appearance and Excalibur and Por Larranaga best on construction. Gispert and La Corona had the best value scores.

> In the full-bodied group, the Bolivar Fuerte, El Rey del Mundo and Partagas Black brands tied for first with 90 points. Partagas Black was judged best in appearance and construction and Montecristo Afrique tied for second in both categories. A Maria Mancini entry won the value contest.

I like the ratings section and the way it was organized. In the future, the number of tasters for each group should be noted so that readers will know the size of the sample, an important background element in evaluating the validity of any review process which claims to be “impartial.”

The rest of the magazine is well laid out and well written. It really is for fans of tobacco and especially cigars. There’s an excellent news section about Cuban cigars from the much-respected Simon Chase, director of marketing for Hunters & Frankau, the importers of Cuban cigars for Great Britain and a listing of Cuban cigar prices (in euro) in Spain, the least expensive market for Havanas outside of Cuba itself. And Steve Saka’s article comparing the merits of ten outstanding maduro cigars is worth savoring.

There’s plenty of advertising and from some big non-tobacco names such as Ford, Citigroup, Triumph motorcycles, Jack Daniel’s, Ruth Chris Steak House, Harley-Davidson and Pontiac. In fact, there are 50 pages of ads in the 140 pages of the inaugural issue.

For comparison, we looked back at the first issues of Cigar Aficionado from 1992 and Smoke in 1995:

> The first issue of Cigar Aficonado had 154 pages with 51 pages of ads. It had 15 major features, with much cigar coverage, but also features on gambling, Lalique crystal, a movie about Christopher Columbus, a feature on actor and dancer Gregory Hines and a primer on port wines. Reports about this first issue in court documents in recent cases indicate that about 100,000 copies were distributed, with 73,000 sent to pre-publication subscribers.

> Three years later, Smoke appeared with the new “007″ on its cover, actor Pierce Brosnan. This issue had 182 pages and 47 pages of ads. It had 10 articles and 15 other lengthy features on sports, fashion (with Gina Gershon), travel (to Jamaica), a review of the Land Rover Discovery, and the then-new world of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). It was, as the tagline said, “cigars, pipes and life’s other burning desires.”

The landscape has changed considerably since 1995, of course. The first issue of the quarterly Cigar Magazine had a press run of about 300,000 and it has been heavily promoted to the customer base of giant J-R Cigars as well as distributed for sale to tobacco retailers. If it can achieve that level of circulation on a consistent basis, it will become the largest cigar-themed magazine in the nation. At present, circulation of the bi-monthly Cigar Aficionado averages approximately 257,000 and the quarterly Smoke, about 100,000.

There’s plenty of room for a new magazine about cigars and the joy of smoking. Publishing is a tough business and there are many more failures than successes. But let’s give this first issue an “A” for effort and an “A” for content that focuses on cigars and the people who love them.

Posted on Monday, November 8th, 2004 at 9:27 pm.