The Four Questions-Wick Allison, D Magazine

June 6, 2006

Wick Allison, Publisher/Editor, D Magazine

D Magazine – initially tagged as "the magazine of Dallas" – launched October 1974. "Then, as now, our mission was to serve the broadened affluent leadership class of the city, and to provide a medium that advertisers wanting to reach that target audience could use much more efficiently than the newspaper," said Wick Allison, D's Publisher/Editor, who co-founded the magazine with another University of Texas graduate, Jim Atkinson. The Dallas native, who also founded Arts & Antiques in New York and authored The Bible Designed to Be Read as Living Literature, attended Southern Methodist University's Graduate School of Business, where he wrote his business plan for D Magazine – whose circulation now tops 72,000.

Q. D Magazine has so far spawned DallasCEO (monthly), D Home (six times a year), D Design Book (annual), D Beauty, D Weddings and the new D Estates (all biannual), with D Fashion still to come. Speaking of spinoffs, do you foresee D and its offshoot titles begetting programming ideas for TV and/or cable?
A. No. We have an exclusive agreement with the CBS outlet here, which airs a "D on TV" segment four to six times a week on its local newscast, and that has been very good for them and for us. It has led to some more programming tied to specific D events that are sponsored by local companies. But to do our programming wouldn't produce an adequate return, because it would be too local for syndication.

Q. For months there's been considerable speculation as to whether the real estate "bubble" has burst or is just leaking. In the wake of D Estates, what's your reading of real estate's outlook in your market?

A. It's too good. The appraisal firm just notified us that our home went up 24% last year, on top of 22% the year before. Dallas has historically ranked as the lowest priced of the top 10 markets, and we have not been a center of speculation like Las Vegas, for example. All indicators point toward continued equalization of the Dallas market with the rest of the country, which means prices will continue to move upward. Growth creates demand, no matter how the market is doing elsewhere.
Q. Despite the costs incurred, you once scrapped the entire 70,000-copy press run of D in 2000 because you found a couple of fashion ads obscene, or at least tasteless. Have you done that any time since? Would you do it again?

A. I think the fashion houses have gotten better about it. Sexy doesn't need to be slimy. Yes, I would do it again, but I won't have to because we have better procedures in place to prevent the necessity.
Q. For years, Dallas was known as the city where JFK was assassinated, then as the setting for the “Dallas” TV series, and as the home of the Dallas Cowboys and the team’s cheerleaders. During the '90s, the "Walker Texas Ranger" series was shot there. Today, what's Dallas' biggest claim to fame, in your opinion?
A. Business. This is an extraordinarily entrepreneurial environment. Our population is expected to double in the next 30 years across all ethnic groups. The nation is experiencing the largest North-South migration in its history, and Dallas is one of the beneficiaries. On top of that, we have South-North migration from Mexico, which we expect to continue no matter what Congress does. Dallas has become a transportation and distribution hub for the country as a result.