Topeka ? Many magazines focus on the latest “in” place to see and be seen and the glitz and glamour of celebrities on pages that smell like pricey perfume.

But in Kansas, known for high wheat yields more than high fashion, Bryan Welch is focusing on basic American values with 11 publications, including the old-line GRIT, CAPPER’S and Mother Earth News.

“I like to think we are wholesome. Fundamental wholesomeness or conscientiousness improves people’s lives. It gives people contentment and satisfaction,” said Welch, publisher and general manager of Ogden Publications Inc.

Although declining to discuss financial specifics, Welch, a rural Lawrence resident, said the privately-held company is “doing very well” and that both overall paid circulation and advertising revenues are up this year.

Each magazine focuses on a specific and smaller audience such as those into farm equipment, herbal health and gardening, solar energy, or homecooking recipes.

“Our overall strategy is choose a magazine category where we can be the dominant force. We also like a category where we feel comfortable,” Welch said. “We continue to look for the small ponds where we can be important to an audience.”

Focused audience

Such publications offer a comfort zone in troubled times, said Samir A. Husni, a University of Mississippi journalism professor who keeps tabs on the magazine industry.

“One day we are on orange alert and the next on yellow alert and one day you get this publication telling you that life is OK and there is hope,” Husni said.

“These magazines focus on good things. Think of them more like the vanilla flavoring of journalism and each and every one of us from time to time needs some vanilla in our life,” he added.

Magazine publisher Bryan Welch displays the 11 periodicals produced by Ogden Publications at their Topeka office. The company publishes a variety of speciality magazines led by their flagship Mother Earth News.

Welch said that after Sept. 11, 2001, there was a downturn in the magazine sales market, but noted, “We were doing better than the vast majority of magazines.”

The company, owned by the same group that owns Ogden Newspaper Group based in Wheeling, W. Va., set up shop in 1996 in Topeka when it purchased CAPPER’S, founded in Topeka in 1879, and GRIT, which started life in 1882 in Williamsport, Pa., but relocated to Topeka in 1994.

CAPPER’S is a mix of news and features with a dash of columns and humor. No longer sold door-to-door by youngsters, GRIT still focuses on American life and traditions.

Mother Earth News, started in 1970 and acquired by Ogden in 2001, focuses on self-reliant living and preserving the environment with such topics as organic gardening and using rainwater.

“It’s exciting to live in simple ways and to live in ways that are beneficial. We try to focus on the great satisfaction and great fun of living a conscientious life,” Welch said.

Odgen isn’t the only publishing company tapping into the market. There’s Reiman Publications of Greendale, Wis. Founded in 1965, it has 11 magazines including Country and Taste of Home.

“We admire them greatly,” Welch said. “We do share some of the same audience but we haven’t modeled ourselves on them in any way.”

Numbers up

Mother Earth News leads with a paid circulation of 350,000, followed by CAPPER’S with 200,000 and GRIT with 100,000. The other eight publications, including Herbs for Health and Farm Collector, combine for another 146,500.

Welch said all the magazines have exceeded expectations for over-the-counter sales. Year-to-date advertising revenues were up 10 percent and circulation revenues up 20 percent over the same period a year ago, Welch said.

Subscription renewals also are on the rise, largely because the company does its own customer service work on that rather than farming it out, Welch said.

“We like the direct connection we have with our readers. If we were in New York or Los Angeles, we couldn’t afford to do it,” he said. “Renewals have been steadily stronger for all of our titles.”

While catering to a smaller audience, Welch said he’s been successful finding advertisers looking for national exposure.

“Our magazines represent to advertisers a passionate group of people. Our foundation remains an endemic advertiser interested in a passionate audience,” Welch said.

One such advertiser is Premier Fence Systems of Washington, Iowa, which sells electric fencing along with items like sheep supplies and livestock ear tags.

“We work with folks with smaller acreage who like to do things for themselves and Mother Earth kind of fits with that. They are a group of folks who do things on their own and we want to reach them,” said Stephanie Sexton, Premier’s marketing director.

More than magazines

The company isn’t limited to magazines.

It also publishes books on various topics, from a catalog of antique farm shows throughout America each year to funny stories about outhouses.

Nor is all about publishing.

Capper’s Insurance Service, Inc. was established in 1932 to provide insurance mainly for rural families. It offers various policies and annuities in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. Welch said it accounts for up to 30 percent of the publishing company’s revenues, but that insurance revenue is kept separate from earnings by the publications.

If that’s not enough diversity, the company also sells through Mother Earth News what it calls Conscientious Coffee grown organically in the shade.