Local media company adds magazine to its wedding/bride offerings

By David Markiewicz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When she got married eight years ago, Stacie Francombe had a "small, intimate beach wedding" in Florida. If she had to do it over again, she admits, she would "do it differently."

Who could blame her? As founder and president of Get Married Media, a three-year-old Atlanta company, the 35-year-old is surrounded by temptation. Get Married sells all manner of wedding products through its Web site, cable TV show and, now, a glossy quarterly print publication that is currently available online and will be on newsstands come January.

In doing so, the company is competing against more established players such as Brides, The Knot and Martha Stewart Weddings.

Francombe has big plans, though. She believes her company's three-pronged advertising and shopping platform will appeal to advertisers and to brides-to-be who want a 24/7  service offering everything from flowers and invitations to garters and honeymoon trips.

She won't disclose revenues of the privately held company, but says they are growing. She said the Web site has 212,000 active registered members.

The hope is that the print publication, which is more shopping aid than magazine journalism, will feed readers and viewers to the Web site where they'll browse and buy.

Stacey Reece, vice president of Echo Media, an Atlanta print media agency, called the wedding/bridal segment "an important niche market" and said the publication offers  "another layer" of business opportunity.

Launching a print publication makes sense, Francombe said, even though the economic downturn has slammed the media industry. Recently, publishing giant  Conde Nast, shuttered two weddings titles, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride.

While 85 percent of brides use the Internet to shop, she said, research shows that they first turn to magazines for information on the latest trends and products available. That makes a print publication a valuable tool in the Get Married business model.

Francombe said the folding of competitors, "will help us." Some advertisers will now turn to Get Married to get their message across, she said.

Get Married has seen "a slight decline in some online advertising," she said. But the wedding market continues to be a lucrative and stable one, she added, noting that there are 2.2 million weddings annually in the U.S., with an average of just over $20,000 spent on each. Plus, she said, "Weddings are always happening, like death and taxes."

Francombe said the Get Married publication will be fresh, sassy and irreverent, trend-oriented and easy-to-use with the emphasis on how brides can find and buy wedding merchandise. There won't be pages and pages of articles or tips.

"The bride is busy," she stated. "This is instant gratification."

The Florida native hadn't planned to get into the wedding game. At Ohio State, she studied broadcasting and at one time wanted to be the next Hannah Storm, the TV sports personality. But, while working after college for CNN, the entrepreneurial dream grabbed her and she started her own production company.

Seeing opportunity in the wedding/bridal segment of the media industry, she launched a Get Married TV show seen locally in Atlanta in 2006, and followed that with the Web site in 2007. Her husband, for whom she worked at CNN, now works in the business as do some other family members. The company has about 56 full time employees, she said.

The next planned step she said is getting Get Married into mobile media. For now, the new publication, is the focus. Said Francombe, "It's kind of solidified our position in the marketplace."