IGA Grocergram Goes Quarterly

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

CHICAGO — IGA here said last week it is converting its Grocergram magazine to a quarterly publication after 81 years as a monthly.

The change, effective after the September issue, was made in an effort to provide more timely support for IGA's marketing events, Barbara Wiest, vice president, communications and events, told SN.

IGA, a network of independent retailers, also plans to utilize a new daily e-newsletter called “The Independent View” for quicker communications with its membership.

The magazine will be published in November, February, May and August, Wiest told SN, with each issue geared to an upcoming marketing event: Shopping Spree, a February promotion, in the November issue; Family Meals, an April event, in the February issue; Kidsfest, a July event, in the May edition, and Hometown Holidays, a November event, in the August issue.

“Although members receive great materials before each event, the quarterly focus of the magazine will enable us to share information about the event well in advance of the actual promotion, so retailers will have more time to plan — rather than featuring the marketing event in an issue that comes out the same month as the event,” Wiest explained.

In addition to supporting the four annual marketing programs, “the quarterly magazine will continue to document and preserve the accomplishments of the alliance,” Wiest said.

Grocergram will also undergo a facelift, ”with a more vibrant and modern layout,” she said, “and it will focus on shorter, more readable articles that are more instructional and that highlight more how-to information relevant to retailers.”

IGA has had a monthly publication since its founding in 1926 — originally a tabloid newsletter called IGA Independent Grocergram, which became a monthly magazine in 1935. It was published in-house until 1981, when it was outsourced to Fisher-Harrison Publications, Greensboro, N.C., which changed its name to Pace Communications in 1985.