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For our June issue’s cover story—“The Great Cover Ad Debate”—we ran an online poll asking readers if selling ads on magazine covers is a violation of editorial ethics, or a legitimate business opportunity. The results were surprisingly close, and hinted that the overall industry position on cover ads is softening:

51 percent of respondents believe any form of cover advertisement is a violation of editorial ethics. However, 46 percent think cover ads are a legitimate business opportunity,

One of the magazines that is beginning to explore thi More...

Last week, after Time Warner announced that it would spin off AOL—ending a disastrous, dot.com-era marriage with the former dial-up powerhouse—analysts and media industry onlookers turned their attention, almost immediately, to Time Inc., TW’s troubled publishing arm. Would Time Warner, as some have speculated for years, want to shed Time Inc., too?

Rich Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Research, thinks so: “Unlike many of its media peers, we believe [CEO] Jeff Bewkes and the Time Warner board of directors have no emotional at More...

There have been plenty of bad (even egregious) examples of magazines looking to capitalize on big media stories for their own benefit (see “The Ethics of Covering Heath Ledger,” "People Looks to Capitalize on Newman Death" et al).

 This one, however, is a good example of a niche magazine trying to capitalize on a general-interest story that legitimately crossed over to its market.

Incisive Media’s National Law Journal has launched something called “More...

Last month, a French magazine called Amusement announced that it had become the “first-ever magazine connected to the Internet”—linking a page in its magazine to the Web using RFID (“radio-frequency identification”) technology.

The process, however, was something out of a James Bond film—readers were instructed to bring the page near a specially-designed “RFID interrogator,” which was plugged into their computer’s USB port. As we explained it: “The RFID-tagged page has a unique ID number, which is then scanned by t More...

Great idea, but Time Inc.’s Mine kinda sucks.

There, I said it.

When I first heard about Time Inc.’s experiment in publishing a customized magazine, I was impressed—particularly that a big publishing conglomerate would attempt such an innovative idea—and hopeful that the concept, at least, would be successful, even if the business model was not.

After two issues, however, it’s clear to me that the execution of this cool idea is failing from a consumer perspective.

Why? Because nothing about Mine feels like it.

From the customized belly band Lexus ad with t More...

Earlier this month, I wrote about a weak case against Entrepreneur ("A Ponzi Suit That Sounds Like a Scam") in which a group of investors filed suit, alleging the magazine misled them about a company featured on its “Hot 100” list.

According to the suit, Entrepreneur “deliberately, willfully and recklessly failed to exercise due diligence in publishing information” about a company called Agape, whose founder, Nicholas Cosmo, was arrested and charged with a $370 million mail fraud. (More...

RELATED VIDEO: Kimmel's Upfront Presentation

A few years back, the Magazine Publishers of America organized a rally during television’s “Upfront Week”—the annual glitzy gathering of network executives and media buyers where fall programming lineups are unveiled by their on-screen stars—staging a peaceful protest outside of the Upfronts wearing goofy t-s More...

The numbers are in: Vogue editor Anna Wintour’s highly-anticipated 60 Minutes profile drew 10.2 million viewers for CBS on Sunday, according to Nielsen’s rating data released today.  That’s about a million more than NBC’s Dateline drew for its exclusive interview with ailing actress Farrah Fawcett on Friday.

Executives at CBS are said to be pleased by Wintour’s draw—6.4 percent of U.S. households were tuned in, generating a 12 percent share—considering the weekly show, which airs at 7:00PM EST, is on while it’s still d More...

In December, FOLIO: published a report on Newsweek, breaking the story that the venerable news magazine was considering an overhaul—rethinking everything from its circulation to its design to its news coverage to its voice—with the end result something akin to the Economist, a “thought-leader” position editor Jon Meacham (and Time editor Richard Stengel, for that matter) not-so-secretly covets. (It was one of our most highly-trafficked stories of 2008; Newsweek eventually confirmed the news.)

Well, t More...

RELATED SLIDESHOW: Relix Relaunch Party

Last night on the west side of Manhattan, a group of about 150 people, armed with an excess of sweet tea vodka and Magic Hat, gathered in a renovated basement bar to celebrate the relaunch (or, more accurately, a reprieve from More...

Yesterday, R.R. Donnelly, the Chicago-based printer, sent a letter to Quebecor World indicating its interest in acquiring the mega-printer for approximately $1.3 billion. It's unclear whether or not Donnelley's overture is hostile, nor is it clear whether or not a deal of this size would raise the ire of antitrust regulators (I'm thinking it might).

Here's the letter in full:

May 12, 2009

Jacques Mallette
President and Chief Executive Officer
Quebecor World Inc.
999 de Maisonneuve West
Suite 1100
Montréal, Province of Québec
H3A 3L4

David McCarthy
President More...

Last May, Entrepreneur put Agape World, a Hauppauge, New York-based company, on its “Hot 100” list of fast-growth businesses.

In January, federal agents executed warrants on Agape’s offices, and Nicholas Cosmo [above], founder and owner of Agape World, was arrested and charged with a $370 million mail fraud. According to Time.com, it appeared Cosmo was running an alleged Ponzi scheme, similar to that of Bernie Madoff.

Earlier this month, a group of 8 More...