KEY BEEF MESSAGES DELIVERED TO NATIONAL MAGAZINES

CHICAGO, Ill., Dec. 10, 1997 -- Food editors and writers of some of the country's largest food and lifestyle magazines are now more up-to-date on beef, thanks to recent desk-side visits from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA). Meetings with New York media in November are part of a coordinated checkoff-funded effort to increase beef featuring in key magazines and newspapers read by the beef industry's target audience.

The most recent round of desk-side visits yielded meetings with 17 major magazines, as well as the Associated Press News Wire. The publications visited represented a circulation of more than 40 million, and included such magazines as Good Housekeeping, Redbook, McCall's, Glamour, Parents, Woman's Day, Ladies' Home Journal, Family Circle and First for Women.

In addition to general information about beef, editors and their staffs in November were introduced to five new, fully-cooked, ready-to-heat-and-eat boneless pot roasts now available in retail stores. The briefing theme, Wednesday is Pot Roast Night, encouraged editors to demonstrate to their readers how Wednesdays could be perfect for preparing a delicious family meal quickly and with no fuss.

Materials provided to editors included The Complete Take on Steak, an extensive collection of interesting steak information, and Cook-Ahead Beef Favorites, a new NCBA booklet that focuses on slow cooker recipes specifically for chuck and round cuts. Visits also included an update on food safety.

These kinds of behind-the-scenes food communications programs are creating results for the beef industry. They generated more than 7,050 positive beef stories that reached into homes 1.24 billion times during the NCBA fiscal year ended Sept. 30. That total compares favorably to 1996, when NCBA food communications were responsible for articles in newspapers and magazines with total circulation of 1.13 billion.

"Desk-side visits help keep beef top-of-mind with food editors," said Marlys Bielunski, NCBA director of food communications. "They also allow us to introduce new ideas and products to editors, as well as provide a health reassurance message about our product. This kind of ongoing dialog is important if we are to continue receiving a positive, high profile in major publications."

Initiated in 1898, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is the marketing organization and trade association for America's one million cattle farmers and ranchers. With offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C., NCBA is a consumer-focused, producer-directed organization representing the largest segment of the nation's food and fiber industry.