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As the iPad continues to rapidly attract new customers every day with its top-notch capabilities, publishers are equally as eager to join the party and create an additional revenue stream for their brands. Apple announced last month that it had sold 2 million iPads in less than 60 days and Wired editor David Rowan tweeted earlier this month that the Condé Nast title's iPad app had been downloaded 62,431 times.

ABC addressed the new phenomenon during its March More...

When it comes to e-mail marketing, b-to-b publishers have a few advantages that consumer publishers don’t necessarily have, especially when it comes to combining it with social media.
 
During the “E-mail Marketing Survival Guide” session last week at the 2010 Audience Development Show (co-located with the FOLIO: Show), Lou Ann Sabatier, owner of Sabatier Consulting, and Gloria Adams, senior vice president of audience development at PennWell Publishing, discussed best practices to ensure higher open rates, such as what subject line words are considered the kiss of death. (One of them happens to be “help.”) One thing, however, attendees More...

Forget betting on which team will make it to this year’s NBA championship or who will take home the 2010 World Cup trophy. Now that Newsweek is up for sale, you can place bets on which company will acquire the troubled title.

According to YouWager.com—a sportsbook, online casino and poker room—there’s a 33 percent likelihood that Rupert Murdoch will be the one to acquire Newsweek. Next up is Bloomberg (25 percent), Thompson Reuters (20 percent), Time Inc. (12 percent), McGraw Hill (9 percent) and OpenGate Capital (6 percent). [View the chart below for the return on wagers.]

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Vogue Italia recently launched a trio of Web sites—two of which seem to have a goal of filling in some of the widest gaps in the fashion industry: the lack of images and articles depicting African-Americans and women with fuller figures.
 
Vogue Black, Vogue Curvy and Vogue Talents, which casts a spotlight on up-and-coming fashion designers, went live last week with little or no promotion, at least stateside. Fashion and beauty bloggers, however, have had a More...

Sure, manufacturers of e-reader technology tout the convenience that consumers can gain from having access to all of their favorite books and/or magazines on one portable device. But imagine if you could read a magazine article right from—ahem—the shirt on your back?

Well, you can. Created by a Sweden-based company of the same name, T-Post—which calls itself the “world’s first wearable magazine”—is a graphic T-shirt with a news story printed on the inside and a graphic artist’s interpretation of the news story printed on the front.

Strange, right? Absurd? Most definitely. More...

While there has been recent speculation that the U.S. Postal Service is close to raising First Class stamps from 44 cents to 50 cents or seeking an “exigent increase” of 2 to 3 percent in order to improve its dire financial outlook, there are a couple of actions that it will probably take before getting to that point, according to postal consultant Ed Mayhew.

“The Postmaster General would rather bite the bullet than go for an exigent increase because even as revenue would go up, volume would go down,” he told FOLIO:. “They don’t want to drive customers away.”

■ The Office of the Inspector General recently hired More...

When it comes to rate base adjustments, this week has arguably been the antithesis of the entire first half of 2009.

While titles including Newsweek, New York, Reader’s Digest, Prevention and Vibe (which later folded) announced that they were reducing their rate bases between February and June 2009, Food Network, Life & Style Weekly and Parenting School Years all announced just this week that they were raising their rate bases.

Is this perhaps a sign of better times ahead, or an attempt to reel in skittish advertisers?

“Circulation has been trending in a very positive direction for Life & St More...

MIAMI—According Cosmopolitan editor Kate White, the opening keynote speaker at the 2009 MPA Retail Conference here Monday, the magazine industry has quite a bit to learn from Harlequin book industry, which over the past few decades has continued to survive and remain popular with classic themes of “heaving bosoms and Fabio-like hunks.”
 
When it comes to connecting with consumers and trying to anticipate their changing needs, White says it doesn’t pay the print industry to “throw the baby out of the bathtub,” or get rid of print and focus only on the Web and other digital properties.
 
While providing the More...

Industry associations are feeling the economic pinch as much as publishers these days. Events are being scrutinized as one area for consolidation or cutbacks. After high-profile cancellations from MPA and ABM, the DMA has made another round of cuts, as well as some trimming of its event portfolio.

Below is the letter that president and CEO John Greco sent to DMA members yesterday, which states that the organization will have "less dependence on the more volatile parts of our traditional revenue stream, especially our large portfolio of conferences and events.”

TO: DMA Members

As the recession worsens, the economic activity of business and cons More...

CHICAGO—During a session at this week’s CM Show, Jennifer Armor, audit manager at Verified Audit Circulation, argued that free magazines are the future of the business.

She riffed off a quote from Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson: “From the consumer’s perspective there is a huge difference between cheap and free. Give a product away and it can go viral. Charge a single cent for it and you’re already in an entirely different business.”

Armour thinks this idea can, and will, eventually extend to the magazine industry. (Broadcast radio and TV have been offering it since their inception, after all, and the More...

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch announced this week that he intends to make access to The Wall Street Journal's Web site free-a move he believes will attract "large numbers" of big-spending advertisers.

"We expect to make that free, and instead of having one million [subscribers], having at least 10 million-15 million in every corner of the earth," Murdoch said.

News Corp. has signed an agreement to acquire Dow Jones & Co., and the deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. A special shareholders meeting is scheduled for Dec. 13 in New York.

WSJ.com currently has about one million subscribers and generates about $50 million in annual user fees.