The South Beach Diet's Journey to the Top

(AP) - Do an Internet search for "low-carb diet," and chances are you'll come up with a link to "The South Beach Diet" Web site. The same thing is likely to happen when people search the Web for "protein" or "tummy" or even "cabbage-soup diet."

The Web ad blitz is one of several unconventional marketing techniques that helped transform "South Beach" from a regional diet into a national juggernaut.

More than a year after its debut in April 2003, "The South Beach Diet" remains one of the country's fastest-selling diet books of all time. Some 7.8 million hardcover copies are in print, as well as two million copies of "The South Beach Diet Cookbook," and 3.2 million copies of a related paperback. In addition, an estimated three million people receive a free "South Beach" newsletter via e-mail every day. "The planets have lined up," says Steve Murphy, chief executive officer of Rodale Inc., the book's publisher.

Behind the "South Beach" phenomenon is a publisher that mobilized publicity by drawing on a company-owned health magazine. The book got an unexpected plug from former President Bill Clinton. But the diet got one of its most unusual boosts from an aggressive Web campaign that has persuaded hundreds of thousands of dieters to join an online "community." That strategy is helping to keep the book on bestseller lists.

Primers on losing weight have long been a staple for nonfiction publishers in the U.S., where a modest investment can bring a huge payback. "Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution," published in 1972, and its 1992 update, have cumulatively sold 18 million copies in hardcover and paperback in the U.S., says a spokeswoman for closely held Atkins Nutritionals Inc. Dr. Atkins was an early proponent of the low-carb approach to dieting.

But most of the estimated 250 diet titles published annually quickly melt away. "They're either a strikeout or a home run, and most are strikeouts," says Laurence Kirshbaum, chief executive officer of Time Warner Inc.'s Time Warner Book Group.

Rodale initially printed only 50,000 copies of "South Beach," suggesting it would have been satisfied with sales of 40,000. Instead, Rodale says "South Beach" continues to sell 65,000 copies -- every week. It currently ranks No. 3 on The Wall Street Journal's nonfiction bestseller list, while "The South Beach Cookbook" is ninth. The diet guide is also the No. 1 nonfiction title on the Library Journal's list of books most in demand at libraries.

The tale of how "South Beach" beat the odds begins with Arthur Agatston, a 57-year-old cardiologist in Miami, who was concerned about the growing number of obese and pre-diabetic patients streaming through his office.

Dr. Agatston says he prided himself on keeping up with research on heart disease and strokes during the 1990s. He was impressed by the Atkins books, he says, although he disagreed with their approach in two areas.

Unlike Atkins, which advocates eating protein and excluding many carbohydrates, Dr. Agatston believed there were "good" carbohydrates that shouldn't be eliminated. And while Atkins relied heavily on meats as a source of protein, Dr. Agatston opposed saturated fats -- found in meat, dairy and fried foods -- for heart patients.

"The 'South Beach' diet positioned itself as smarter than Atkins, while emphasizing the value of some carbs and the hazards of some fats," says David Katz, associate clinical professor, Yale Schools of Public Health and Medicine.

At Atkins, medical director Stuart Trager calls the "South Beach" a "copycat diet," adding that the Atkins approach is balanced and healthy.

Dr. Agatston began fiddling with his own diet ideas, and in 1996 created a precursor to "South Beach," a 10-page pamphlet with the unappetizing title, "The Modified Carbohydrate Diet." It emphasized cutting out processed carbohydrates, such as white bread and white sugar, while recommending whole grains and vegetables. "You don't count calories or fats or carbs. You don't measure food sizes," Dr. Agatston says.

For two weeks, "South Beach" dieters avoid bread, pasta, rice, all sugars and alcohol. Then they add back whole-grain breads, some fruits, and wine. There are even good fats, he says, such as olive oil, peanuts and soy products.

Dr. Agatston printed several hundred pamphlets outlining his diet ideas for patients. They shared them with friends. In 1999, Dr. Agatston says, a local TV station heard about the pamphlets and asked him to put all of South Florida on the diet. The doctor was interviewed, and each night a clip was shown to viewers, with a menu for the following day. Some local supermarkets stocked the pamphlet and promoted specific meal plans.

Later that year, New York literary agent Richard Pine heard about the diet from a friend of a client in Florida whose husband was following it. Mr. Pine gave his phone number to the patient, who then passed it on to Dr. Agatston. That fall, Dr. Agatston called.

Mr. Pine suggested they bring in Bill Tonelli, a magazine editor and author who was also a client of his, to help shape the book. A proposal was submitted to 12 publishers. An hour after she received it, Tami Booth, editor-in-chief of Rodale's women's publishing group, says she decided she wanted to buy it. Ms. Booth says she liked that it was written by a practicing cardiologist. And the diet had already attracted local publicity in Miami. By day's end she had submitted an offer. Mr. Pine won't disclose the amount of the advance.

"South Beach" was a good fit for Rodale, a closely held media concern founded by organic-foods pioneer J.I. Rodale in 1930. Mr. Rodale was concerned about the country's eating habits at the time, and wanted to do something about it. His heirs still control the business, which publishes eight magazines, including "Prevention," "Men's Health," and "Runner's World." The Emmaus, Pa., company, which also sells books by mail and online, has annual revenue of about $500 million.

In the book arena, Rodale is a midsize publisher that issues nearly 100 books a year. It's grown by focusing on health, cooking, fitness, gardening, and such sports titles as Pete Rose's "My Prison Without Bars."

Editors at Rodale were enthusiastic about the "South Beach" manuscript, and by February 2003, it was at the printer. Associate art director Carol Angstadt, who designed the cover, says she decided against the textbook appearance of most diet books. "I wanted to create the feeling of 'ooh, I can be like the people at the beach who have a healthy, outdoors lifestyle,' " she says.

The dust jacket that resulted -- an aqua blue cover embossed with white letters and flanked by green palm fronds -- looks more like a novel than an eat-your-spinach title. "It was beautiful and sexy," says Bob Wietrak, Barnes & Noble Inc.'s chief merchant, who initially bought more than 7,500 copies. The chain has since sold more than 1.3 million copies.

Rodale sent 1,500 copies to various publications. The company says it also mailed copies to 500 celebrities, including Larry King, Calvin Klein and Mr. Clinton.

The company broke publishing rules by issuing the book April 1 -- ignoring the customary January date for many diet-related titles. "We wanted the space to set us apart from the competition," says Ms. Booth. Rodale paid to have the book displayed at tables near the front of many Barnes & Noble stores.

In April, Rodale's "Prevention" magazine -- with 3.25 million subscribers, most of them women -- ran an 11-page serialization of the book. Simultaneously, Prevention.com sent out a "South Beach"-related edition of its e-mail newsletter, delivered weekly to approximately 500,000 people. The company said it made clear that it was the publisher of the book.

Using "Prevention" magazine to promote its diet book reflects Rodale's unusual operating structure. Steve Murphy, who joined Rodale as president in 2000 after running Walt Disney Co.'s Disney Publishing unit, had restructured Rodale's divisions on the basis of the customers they serve rather than their media format. Today Rodale's women's books and women's magazines are in one division. Men's health and sports are in another.

This means that Rodale magazines now work closely with the book people. Magazine executives may even be involved in the decision to buy new book titles that they think could be adapted for their publications. The August edition of "Runner's World," part of the men's health and sports group, for example, will feature an article about Suzy Favor-Hamilton, co-author of "Fast Track: Training and Nutrition Secrets from America's Top Female Runner" that Rodale is publishing in July. A photo of Ms. Favor-Hamilton will also be on the cover of "Runner's World."

"South Beach" then got an unexpected endorsement. In comments in New York magazine in June 2003, Mr. Clinton said the diet was helping him take off the pounds. Book sales jumped 20,000 copies that week. Mr. Clinton declined to comment.

"There are so many diet books published that the only way one breaks out is when a celebrity says that they tried the diet and they got slimmer," says Howard Reese, president of book distributor Levy Home Entertainment, a unit of closely held Chas. Levy Co. that deals primarily with mass retailers. "You can't just do it on the basis of sound medical planning."

But what has helped keep the book's sales humming is a little-noticed deal Rodale cut last June with closely held Waterfront Media Inc.

The Brooklyn, N.Y., online publishing company buys Internet rights to books by self-help promoters, such as financial adviser Jean Chatzky and fitness guru Denise Austin. Waterfront then builds Web sites for those books and tries to persuade Web surfers to pay for additional information. Waterfront woos potential subscribers by purchasing massive amounts of Internet ads that direct people to the site.

In the case of "South Beach," Waterfront acquired the rights to operate www.southbeachdiet.com. Visitors see the basics they would expect on any such site -- how the diet works and an introduction by Dr. Agatston. But they also are encouraged to pay $5 a week to receive customized eating plans, recipes, and even a "beach buddy," a fellow dieter to share tips and offer daily encouragement.

"Our ads are geared towards action -- signing people up," says Ben Wolin, 29, Waterfront's chief executive. "Everything falls out of favor eventually, but we have an ongoing community here that we're providing with current information."

Waterfront pays Rodale and Dr. Agatston a percentage of the estimated $2 million in revenue that the online "South Beach" site generates each month from 100,000 subscribers the company claims. The average subscriber stays seven months, Waterfront says.

Even more importantly, Waterfront has been an aggressive advertiser on the Web, keeping the "South Beach" name in the public eye. Every month it spends $750,000 on such sites as Google and Yahoo, buying up key words so that its ads pop up when those words are typed in. It buys hundreds of key words on the Google search engine, so that surfers will be directed to its site. These include obvious ones, such as "South Beach Diet," "Diet" and "Smart Carb Diet." But they also include the offbeat, such as "cabbage-soup diet." The words change on occasion.

Waterfront buys some banner ads on food and cooking Web sites, as well as on AOL and MSN. It also buys search engine advertising on Yahoo and MSN.

In addition, the company sends newsletters via e-mail seven days a week to those who have signed up to receive them -- an estimated three million people daily. Waterfront now sells advertising on its "South Beach" e-newsletter, with Dr. Agatston receiving an undisclosed percentage of sales.

Not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. Dr. Katz, of Yale, for instance, believes "South Beach" is designed more to help people lose 8 to 14 pounds in two weeks than to provide lasting benefits. "When you liberalize the diet, you are likely to gain back weight, and the recommended solution is to return to the more extreme initial phase of the diet," he says.

But one of the country's largest marketers has signed on. Kraft Foods Inc., whose earnings have been affected by consumer worry about obesity, recently struck a deal with Dr. Agatston that will allow Kraft to put the "South Beach Diet" moniker on some of its products, such as cheeses and deserts. It is the first time Kraft has aligned itself with a specific diet, and the first time "South Beach" has licensed its name to food products.

But don't expect to see the logo on the company's famed boxes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. "South Beach" endorses only whole-wheat pasta.

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Light Reading


The South Beach Diet


-- Price: $24.95 (April 2003)

-- Copies in print: 7.8 million after 25 printings

-- Weekly sales: 65,000 copies


The South Beach Diet Cookbook


-- Price: $25.95 (April 2004)

-- Copies in print: 2 million after four printings

-- Weekly sales: 40,000 copies


The South Beach Diet Good Fats/Good Carbs Guide


-- Price: $7.99 (January 2004)

-- Copies in print: 3.2 million after five printings

-- Weekly sales: 50,000 copies


Source: Rodale