This was the first time that someone had tried to tell people about cigars in the same way as people were telling about wine and this appealed to smoker's intelligence really. I think the reason that magazine sold was that it's the only magazine produced in recent years which appeals to the old-fashioned man. He also doesn't inhale a cigar the way a cigarette smoker does. Cigars have tended to gain in such circumstances and particularly the bigger cigars because the smaller, miniature, mass-produced cigars are really substitute cigarettes. You don't usually get people standing around on corners chain-smoking large Havanas.
Fine cigars are also a sign of wealth.
Oh yes, and the growing sales reflect the fact that there is now more readily disposable income available to spend on luxury products. In the old days Havana cigars would only have been afforded by the wealthiest people. The thing about fine cigars, and I'm really only talking about Havanas, is that there is only a finite supply of them but there seems to be a growing worldwide demand for them. That's the problem. Every country in the world has been fighting to get the product.