CT Slant magazine started out with much fanfare — billboards, promotions, an ambitious mission — and ended, after a mere nine months’ run, with a quiet farewell letter in its final issue.
Competition for ad dollars was expected to heat up with CT Slant’s launch, but instead, the threat never materialized.
The 80,000-circulation “lifestyle” glossy was an attempt by the Hartford Courant and the Hartford Advocate to create an arts and living magazine: Most copies were distributed at no charge to Courant subscribers or bulk-dropped with copies of the Advocate.
Not A Priority
In CT Slant’s farewell address, CT Slant editor Alistair Highet — also the editor of the Hartford Advocate — wrote that “other projects needed to be a priority,” such as the Courant’s new Web feature Metromix, an arts and entertainment site that included content similar to that of CT Slant.
Efforts to improve the Advocate’s Web site had also consumed a lot of the staff’s time and effort, Highet said, so eventually the magazine was let go. December’s edition is its last.
“Redundant” was the word University of Hartford communications professor Roger Desmond used to describe CT Slant’s content, more bluntly echoing Highet’s own assessment of the glossy.
Tons of media outlets already flood readers and viewers with entertainment content, he said, so CT Slant offered nothing new to its target 25- to 33-year-old audience.
A lot of hoopla marked the opening, including distribution of a little plastic mascot called “Señor Slant” — a “hideous” and offensive miniature Latino figurine, Desmond said — but the magazine itself didn’t live up to the hype.
“I didn’t hear any buzz after the first week,” he said.
Web Effort
The business side of the magazine also suffered from some fundamental problems from the get-go, said consultant John C. Peterson of the Essex-based The Peterson Group.
“The Courant ran the risk of picking its own pocket for revenue,” he said. The company had gone to the expense of creating a new product that was going to the same people who were already reading the Courant — advertisers had no reason to fork over premium rates for a CT Slant ad when they could already just go to the newspaper.
