Barnes & Noble announced this week that it will begin selling magazine subscriptions online at steep discounts to more than 1,000 print and digital titles. Print subscription prices range from as low as $5.99 (Batanga) to $299 (Adweek). Digital subscriptions range from $1.56 (24-K) to $1,372 (Jane's Defense Weekly). Digital single issues range from $0.99 to $99.

The retailer scoffed at the idea that it would be competing with discount subscription sellers. More...

Was this for real?

Late last month, FOLIO: reported that Elle’s May green issue was the apparent victim of a prank by which “Retraction” stickers were placed in several copies on an investigative report that examined the eco-extremist movement through the story of a teenage FBI informant.

Earlier this week, someone posted an anonymous comment to the story pointing readers to a site to see the stickers—which claim the Elle story contains “factual inaccuracies,” and gives a “fair hearing More...

On Monday, the New York Times published a must-read profile of International Data Group, the large technology publisher that last year made a dramatic turn away from print to become a Web-focused company. (The big move came in April, when IDG shuttered the print edition of InfoWorld.)

IDG's online revenue has now surpassed its print revenue (52 percent online to 48 percent print) and its managers say they've adopted an online first business model.

Perhaps not surprisingly fo More...

[There Will Be Blood still, courtesy of Paramount.]

There is nothing that will create a bond between art and editorial quicker than a meddling publisher. Granted, editors and artisans should already be thick as thieves, but when a publisher starts needlessly getting involved in the creative aspects of a magazine, there will be blood!

Take the case of a design-driven b-to-b magazine. The creative staff worked together nicely throughout the production process, but almost like clockwork, the publisher would decide to put her two cents in. It basically happened eve More...

Here's an e-mail I received from Time Out New York's publicist, presented without comment:

From: [FLACK REDACTED]
Date: Tue, May 6, 2008 at 2:27 PM
Subject: I see naked people.
To: [REDACTED]

Feeling hot and bothered? So are we, and we've got the boners to prove it.

Check out Time Out New York's horny issue, now online, featuring dozens of naked New Yorkers and an interactive pole, I mean poll, where you can vote on who you want to strip next.

It's hot and sweaty outside, bu More...

NOTE: FOLIO: editors are in California this week, filing reports from American Business Media’s annual Spring Meeting.

LA QUINTA, California—Incoming ABM chairman and Meister Media CEO Gary Fitzgerald opened the ABM general session by saying, “It’s time for leaders to lead.”

For Nielsen Co. chairman and CEO David Calhoun, that means establishing a new series of corporate values to direct the company in “The Google World.”

“We chose a set of leadership values that’s what changes the nature of a company. Sounds soft but it’s measurable. Didn’t pick value changes we thought we were More...

You might not like this.

A recent poll of Cafepharma visitors, a Web site for salespeople in the pharmaceutical industry, asked how a salesperson's physical attractiveness affects their selling. The survey was posted with a big helping of skeptical humor, with only three possible answers to "Which type of rep gets the best results?":

1. An average looking rep that knows their products and can sell.

2. Doesn't matter. Too many other factors come into play regarding sales.

3. A super attractive rep that is an idiot and can't sell.

A bit over More...

Longtime readers of my blog, as well as the folks who have seen one of my speaking engagements, know that I often point to b-to-b publisher IDG as a guide to the future. No publisher I know has done a better job of understanding the Web and making the transition away from print.

I've had a pretty good view of the struggles the company has faced as it moved to a Web-first model. And just like everywhere else in journalism, most of those struggles involved stubborn and close-minded people.

Truth be told, IDG has fewer stubborn and close-minded people than any publisher I know. That has given the company a tremendous advantage. But as in most publishing companies, the slow-witted ch More...

You cannot be serious! Dykstra, John McEnroe at the Players Club launch last month.

Last week, Lenny Dykstra, the ex-Met turned carwash millionaire and stock svengali, sued Doubledown Media, the company he hired to help launch the Players Club, the magazine for professional athletes which launched last month. Doubledown filed a counterclaim against Dykstra in federal court on Tuesday.

For those of you who enjoy reading sordid details of business deals gone sour (even one involving your boyhood New York Mets idol ... sniff ... sigh) this one is a doozy.

Click More...

For its June issue, Glamour is doing something it’s never done before: a “list.” Well, an official, branded list, anyway. Glamour’s “50 Most Glamorous” will … well, you get it already.

And why not? Fellow large circulation magazines like People and Time seem to publish a list issue every other month. List issues do historically well at the newsstand. And Glamour, like a lot of titles, has been seeing a decline in single copy sales in the past few years—a 7.8 percent drop between 2005 and 2006 and a 10.3 percent drop from 2006 to 2007.

Last year, People’s 100 Most Beautiful issue was ITS More...

Few topics spark industry response like lay-offs and hiring freezes, and there's been a lot of that lately: see TV Guide, F+W, Cygnus, Penton.

And that industry response, as you can expect, has been caustic, especially towards publishing company leaders. Some of it is fair, some of it is not, but it is what the industry is thinking.

The FOLIO: edit policy for story comments reads: "We encourage lively, open discussion and posts, and only ask that you refrain f More...