FOLIO: Personalities -- The Blog People Page

The FOLIO: 40, our prestigious annual list of magazine industry innovators, power players and under-the-radar influencers, is fast approaching. This year, we’re opening up the nomination process to all of our readers, both print and online. (We’ll ultimately award a slot via online vote, but more on that later.)

We’re looking for nominees in the following categories:

C-Level Visionaries
Director-Level Doers
Industry-Influencers
Under the Radar
Ones to Watch

If you would like to nominate a colleague, competitor, or—as sometimes is the case—yourself, please fill More...

Maxim isn't exactly a bastion for journalistic integrity. Nor a bastion for music criticism. But according to the Black Crowes (you know, “Twice as Hard,” “Jealous Again,” Kate Hudson’s ex, beards) the magazine burned whatever credibility it had left by reviewing the band’s upcoming album without actually listening to it.

According to a post on the Black Crowes official site, the Maxim writer, who “has not heard the album since advance CDs were not made available—wrote what appears to be a disparaging assessment anyway, citing ‘it hasn’t More...

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following quotes are from various sessions during Day Two of the 2008 FOLIO: Publishing Summit. We’ll add to this list throughout the day.]

"We have a society columnist who looks at the computer and says, 'Over my dead body.' And that may indeed be the situation."
—A city and regional publisher on the struggle to change the editorial culture at his magazine.

“They not only save you money, they bring young, fresh ideas into an organization. They’re not cynical. They don't know it can't be done.”
—Michael T. Carr, president, Greenspun Media, on hiring interns. More...

The following memos were sent by Reed Business' U.S. CEO Tad Smith and global chief Gerard van de Aast, regarding yesterday's sale announcement:

From: Smith, Tad (RBI-US)
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 11:11 PM
To: RBI-US All Employees; RBI-US RCD - Canadian Employees
Subject: IMPORTANT BUSINESS ANNOUNCEMENT FROM TAD SMITH AND ALSO ONE FROM GERARD VAN DE AAST

As many of you now know, our parent company Reed Elsevier announced this morning that it was putting Reed Business’ worldwide publishing business up for sale. Reed Elsevier no longer views advertising-dependent businesses as aligned with its growth st More...

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following quotes are from various sessions during Day One of the 2008 FOLIO: Publishing Summit. We’ll add to this list throughout the day.]

“No one’s reading the magazine on the Web.”
—Dana Spain-Smith, COO, DLG Media Holdings, on the tired practice of replicating articles online.

“I’m trying to eradicate the word ‘hope.’”
—Michael T. Carr, president, Niche Media, on motivating his sales team to succeed.

“The company was founded on the social construct of Dad at work, Mom at home, Chevy in the driveway—clearly, we needed to change.”
—< More...

MIAMI—Jason Binn loves a good party—and chances are you’ve been to one. The company’s magazines throw some 300 a year, says Michael T. Carr, Binn's boss and president of Niche partner Greenspun Media. But that doesn’t mean his sales teams are invited.

Carr told a working group at the FOLIO: Publishing Summit today that Capitol File, Niche Media’s luxury D.C. glossy, recently thre a party hosted by Forest Whitaker. The magazine’s sales team, though, was not allowed in. “They don’t attend the party,” Carr says. “They stand in the lobby—and stay in the lobby.” The sales staffers are required to greet eve More...

Meredith president Jack Griffin is tough. He showed up at the FOLIO: Publishing Summit in Miami to deliver his keynote this morning on crutches following emergency surgery on a broken leg he suffered a year ago, having lost his cellphone somewhere between LaGuardia and the Doral. And, like a seasoned prize fighter, he landed some key jabs on the state of the magazine business, through the lens of a Des Moines, Iowa publisher Griffin said was “founded on the social construct of Dad at work, Mom at home, Chevy in the driveway.”

More...

Programming note: FOLIO:'s editorial staff will be liveblogging this week from the 2008 FOLIO: Publishing Summit, which kicked off this afternoon at the Doral Golf Resort in Miami, Florida.

Check our special FPS page throughout the conference for updates, posts, videos and news reports, or by clicking on our FPS tag here.

If you’re like me, you follow the travails of Gawker Media with a relatively perverse interest, not unlike how the snarky blog network follows its own collection of preferred media targets. After all, it’s the closest thing the blogodome has to Conde Nast, something founder Nick Denton likes to point out from time to time in his media kit.

Following a mini-exodus of editors at its flagship earlier this year, there was quite a bit of talk about Gawker’s demise (Exhibit A: “More...

In the rarified air of magazine party throwers, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is a sort of aristocratic Hugh Hefner. As such, Carter made headlines a few weeks ago for his decision to cancel his annual Oscar party out of respect for the Writers Guild strike. But now—with the writers back to work—it appears Carter pulled the plug too soon.

Enter New York magazine, which for the past two years has thrown a lesser known, decidedly low-key Oscar viewing party in New York. After weeks of internal wavering, editor Adam Moss and David Edelstein, the magazine’s chief film critic, have decided to make a go of it.

More...

People magazine is running an ad this month from Welch’s 100% grape juice which encourages readers to lick it. It tastes, I’m told, like Welch’s 100% grape juice.

It’s an historic acid test—the ad represents the final frontier of sensory marketing in magazines to be attempted by Madison Avenue.

We’ve seen ‘em try sight (remember the ad embedding LEDs a couple years back), sound (People once accepted an ad that played Elvis’ “Hound Dog” to annoying effect), touch and, of course, smell (see “More...

Every year around this time, when Sports Illustrated unveils its annual swimsuit issue, columns criticizing the issue for its titillating content seem to wash up on shore. (Recall, if you will, the thongs, er, throngs of subscribers opting out of having their swimsuit issues delivered to their homes for fear of impressionable youngsters getting ahold of them.)

However, they’re usually not written by employees of SI’ More...