Folio Blogs

Cover Critique: Time Out's Duct-Taped 'Sex'

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:55:34 -0400

Time Out New York followed up its “sex issue” (“How Not to Promote Your Magazine's Special Issue”) with the anti-sex, err, anti-Sex and the City issue. The cover features a photo illustration of the show’s stars with their mouths duct-taped shut. It’s an effort to combat the relentless hype the HBO-hit-turned-movie has garnered (see Entertainment Weekly's latest cover, for starters). It also serves as a thinly-veiled shot to its bigger, more established (and, frankly, better-designed) rival, New York magazine, which last week plopped Sex star Sarah Jessica Parker on its cover, declaring “Sex is Back”—as if it had never left.

NAME: Tim O'Brien
TITLE: Illustrator, Rolling Stone
CRITIQUE: I subscribe to Time Out. They often have clever concepts on their covers. For me, a photoshop gag has to be well executed to work. I get that this movie is being talked about way too much, but duct tape over a woman's mouth, anyone's mouth is always sick. The trick can work visually, however, if the lighting on the tape matches the lighting on the women. In each, the model who posed with tape on their face for the photographer had one light source from the side and merely turned the head to match the head positions. The lighting on the photo of the Sex ladies is controlled and flat to minimize father time. The mix of both makes the tape too dark on the shadow side but works best on Cynthia Nixon, I guess. I would also have had the headline, "NO MORE SEX!" If I were in on the concept meeting, I might have pitched a photo of a torn and weathered poster on a wall in Manhattan with other images beneath it. New Yorkers show how they've move on in the small editorials written on posters in the subways. Perhaps it's too subtle though. Here [right] is how it might look. After doing it, I might like their cover more. Ha!

NAME: Dan Trombetto
TITLE: art director, FOLIO:
CRITIQUE: I was hesitant to comment on this one, because I felt my opinions might be swayed by the fact that I detest the show and its characters and I cringe whenever I see the trailers for the movie. So because of my feelings toward Sex, this image and concept immediately brings me some perverse sense of joy. Sure, the cover subject with a duct-taped mouth has been done a few times before—but this image does convey exactly how I feel about the franchise at this point. It’s probably safe to say that much of their target audience (New Yorkers) share these sentiments as well. And while I don’t think they were really aiming for a design award with this cover, it still probably could have benefited from a smaller color range. Maybe it’s the reds that aren’t mixing too well with the cooler pinks, lavenders, blues ... Color clashing aside, this cover still makes me happy.

What do you think? Leave your own critiques in the comments section below ...

PAST FOLIO: COVER CRITIQUES:
Rolling Stone's Barack Obama Endorsement
Vogue’s Lebron and Gisele
New York's Spitzer Cover

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Do Not Reply to This Blog Post!

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:28:00 -0400

Shrinking advertising revenue. Layoffs. Foldings. A recession. You'd think b-to-b publishers have enough to worry about without, say, an international SPAM conspiracy.
Via American Business Media's chief technology officer:
From: Joshua Kuvin
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:18 PM
To: Dylan Stableford
Subject: Crucial ABM-CTO Message

Dear Dylan,

Warning!

If you receive a foreign e-mail from any country or anyone stating that you are in danger of losing your Company or Brand's Domain Name (in China .cn; or Germany .de; or Europe .eu; or even the United States .us)

Do not reply! ~ If you wish to have these domains, you can register these domain extensions yourself using GoDaddy.com, Register.com or any others.

By replying, you are actually alerting these foreign e-mail spammers (mostly from China and Hong Kong) that your Web site, Brand or Company is a valuable commodity. They will purchase the foreign domain name extension and try selling it back to you.

Just a heads-up from your Association's CTO (and you may want to forward this message to your employees).

Best Regards,

Joshua

Joshua Kuvin, Chief Technical Officer

P-[REDACTED]
F-[REDACTED]
Cell-[REDACTED]
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Another Big-Time Editor Goes Out on His Own

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:53:23 -0400

Harry McCracken is leaving PC World to start his own technology Web site. That's big news for the world of b-to-b journalism for several reasons.

Harry may be the biggest name in b-to-b editorial circles. Anyone who follows this industry will remember Harry's clash with management last year. Harry's ethical stance in that dispute won him the most important award in B2B publishing—American Business Media's Timothy White Award for editorial integrity. And certainly Harry's departure is a tremendous blow to PC World and parent company IDG.
But what I find most interesting about this development is that Harry is now the best-known business-media journalist to enter the world of entrepreneurial journalism.
More than three years ago I began predicting a rise in the number of established b-to-b journalists who would abandon traditional publishing companies and strike out on their own. And history has shown me right time and time again. But in the past few weeks this trend seems to be accelerating.
First, there was the news that the majority of the staff of Cygnus' Aircraft Maintenance Technology magazine had resigned en masse, reportedly to start a competing product.
They join another group of Cygnus employees who quit a few months ago and launched RV Industry News, a competitor to Cygnus' RV Trade Digest. And in the past few weeks I've begun consulting with and/or offering advice and support to four different b-to-b editors who are building new products as they make plans to quit their day jobs before the end of the year.

But most interesting to me is that I'm in talks now with an entity that is interested in offering tools, a platform, ad-sales services and a revenue share to b-to-b editors who opt to take the standalone route. (When and if I reach a deal with that group, I'll publish the details here.)
In the meantime, congratulations to Harry and everyone else who has taken the plunge.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Read more analysis from Paul Conley on his blog ...]
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Death of the Star Magazine Editor

Dylan Stableford — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:04:33 -0400

Yesterday, Bonnie Fuller, a celebrity magazine editor who seemed to view herself as a celebrity in her own right, announced that she is abandoning her post as editorial director at American Media Inc., publisher of Star and the National Inquirer. Her departure, by many accounts, had been a long time in coming. AMI CEO David Pecker had hired Fuller away from Wenner Media, where she was responsible for the meteoric success of Us Weekly, to oversee Star's transformation from tabloid to glossy.

But it was the luxurious contract-which runs through March 2009-that ultimately lured Fuller away from Wenner.

Details of Fuller's Current AMI Contract^

Annual salary: $1,500,000
Minimum bonus: $500,000
Target bonus: $1,000,000
Car service: $80,000
"Properly documented hair and makeup charges": $2,000

Now, I'm no financial whiz. But a magazine that's spending $2,500,000—not including her hair and makeup!—on an editor who appears, at this point, to be relegated to blogging for the Huffington Post, is not spending its money wisely.

And this, too, for a coveted editor who largely failed to deliver on the promise she showed at Us Weekly. (A protracted newsstand slump forced AMI to slash Star's guaranteed circulation.)

Then again, as Keith Kelly noted, AMI was scared to cut her loose in 2006, when she negotiated her current deal, because of how the move would be perceived by the company's potential suitors. Now that the rumored interest from Ron Burkle's Source Interlink appears to have fully evaporated, it was the perfect time for AMI—and Fuller, to a certain degree—to cut bait.

I think, too, that paying an editor some 50 times, say, what another editorial staffer was making is a poisonous recipe for any magazine.

Unless your name is Martha or Rachael Ray (or A-Rod), it's a good time for publishers to rein it in those exorbitant edit contracts.
[IMAGE: NYT]

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Nine Out of Every 10 Doctors Prefer Print

Dylan Stableford — Wed, 14 May 2008 09:48:24 -0400

No matter what sector or industry you are in, this is a great study to sell the value of print advertising. The study—"What Doctors Think"—documents how physicians prefer to receive their professional information, and magazines top of their list. The study has implications beyond just medical magazines because of the importance and prestige doctors have. The study, with 231 physicians responding, also covered a variety of other perceptions doctors have on the media that serve them.

Use it on a call.

Talk about the importance physicians play in our society. Talk about how, unlike almost any other profession, the information they receive will impact life or death decisions. Then show them the chart. When information absolutely must be accurate and trusted, magazines deliver.

There is another reason to use this study. On April 4th I posted on the just released MediaVest study that measured the amount of trust consumers felt for different media in four major categories. In the fashion, food, and entertainment fields, magazines were found to be most trusted, but in health and wellness onlline sources were tops. Michael Turro posted a comment raising the concern that had print fallen behind with readers in the only category "that could kill them." Cheer up print reps! You can now use this study in conjunction with the MediaVest study. While consumers may find online media in the health and wellness field more trustworthy than print, doctors do not agree.
Download the entire "What Doctors Think" study here ...
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Magazine ‘Like Tequila for the Mother’s Soul’

Jason Fell — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:47:29 -0400

Embracing the post-Mother’s Day spirit, I couldn’t resist sharing this edgy literary magazine for mothers I stumbled upon.
Launched in the fall of 2006 and published quarterly, Get Born magazine’s tagline is: “The uncensored voice of motherhood.” Get Born was founded by two Colorado mothers who wanted to “celebrate the whole messy process of motherhood by giving real women in the real trenches of motherhood a chance to speak, to write, to make their voices heard,” the magazine’s Web site says.

According to its media kit, Get Born targets mothers aged 22 to 45 with children from infants to school-age. It has a 650 direct distribution circulation and claims a readership of 1,800.

“We’re not chicken soup for the mother’s soul,” co-founder Heather Janssen said in a recent newspaper story . The magazine is “more like tequila for the mother’s soul.”

The stories told in Get Born definitely aren’t your mother’s—at least not the ones told on the glossy pages of magazines like Babytalk or Working Mother. Instead, these mothers dish about the pains of childbirth, sex, and finding “adult time” while trying to raise a child—at times told with profanity.

“In a lovely world, I would never not want to read to my kids,” Janssen said in the newspaper story. “In my world—the real world—I just want a moment to myself … I don’t love smearing peanut butter and jelly on bread day after day.”
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Inside the Time 100 Party

Dylan Stableford — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:30:35 -0400

SEE RELATED SLIDESHOW: Inside the 2008 Time 100 Party

Time magazine celebrated its Time 100 issue—like all lists, an arbitrary collection of the “100 most influential people” in the world—with a star-splashed, blingy black-tie ceremony last night in Manhattan.

The annual event is always a surreal experience—not just in terms of who shows up (last night roughly 40 members of the 2008 list were in attendance). The sheer volume of celebrities in one room presents bizarre comingling opportunities that would appear, at least on the surface, awkward anywhere else (Herbie Hancock with Robert Downey Jr.; Martha Stewart with Rupert Murdoch; Murdoch’s wife with Arianna Huffington; me with … well, anyone).
As Stephen Colbert put it at the event couple years ago: "This is cool ... It's the 100 most influential people hanging out and influencing each other."
Last night’s influentials influencing each other included movie and TV stars (Downey Jr., Tyler Perry, producer Harvey Weinstein, 40-Year-Old Virgin director Judd Apatow, the cast of Saturday Night Live including Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen, Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, executive producer Lorne Michaels as well as alums Chris Rock and Tina Fey), athletes (Lance Armstrong), moguls (Murdoch, Martha, Marc Ecko), musicians (Hancock, Peter Gabriel, Mariah Carey), newsmen (Brian Williams), pundits (Bill O’Reilly, Joe Scarborough), neo-geeks-turned-Web 2.0 millionaires (Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales) bloggers (Williams, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington) and one presumptive presidential nominee (John McCain, whose security detail swept the bathroom a full 10 minutes before the senator from Arizona even knew he had the urge to relieve himself).
The evening was just as notable for who wasn’t there: Obama, Hillary, Bush, Putin, Pitt, Clooney, Oprah, Springsteen, Radiohead, Agassi, Bloomberg—all of the 2008 list—were no-shows, as were Miley Cyrus, Muqtada Al-Sadr (shocker!) and the Dalai Lama.
The toasts are usually memorable, and last night’s didn’t disappoint: Armstrong toasted a cancer doctor; Downey Jr. choked and fought back tears while toasting his dad for being there for him at his lowest moment. (Downey Sr. then quipped “You’re not my son!”)
There’s truly no event like this, at least, not in New York. I’d imagine pre- and post-Oscar parties have more firepower, but I’d bet the cast of A-list characters there aren't nearly as approachable.
Still, for all of the party's slick production work and behind-the-scene's effort (think about the logistics of coordinating all of the handlers—and handlers of handlers), the Time 100 issue itself doesn’t sell extraordinarily well (last year’s sold 124,400 single copies, merely the tenth best seller at the newsstand for Time in 2007.)
In the end, the Time 100 party is simply a million-dollar branding device the magazine hopes will pay off in terms of future access to world leaders, politicians and celebrities—and luxury marketers, like, say, Swarovski, who had a case of crystals positioned at the end of the red carpet.
It’s a clubby business to be in. I just hope I get a real seat next year.
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Making a User-Generated Issue ‘Neither Cheap Nor Easy’

Dylan Stableford — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:07:18 -0400

SEE RELATED STORY: Magazine Publishes 100-Percent User-Generated Issue
If there’s one thing—above even the emphasis on value—that sets Budget Travel apart, it’s that we don’t just make the magazine for our readers, we make it with our readers. Four of our recurring sections revolve around our community: 20 Tips, Trip Coach, True Stories, and Budget Travel Upgrade (and that doesn’t include Letters to the Editor).

So for our 10th-anniversary issue (June), it seemed natural to let readers generate the entire magazine—text and photography. Not only would the issue be inclusive rather than exclusive, it’d be a nod to one of the major changes to have affected travel industry in the past 10 years—namely, that consumers are turning to each other as much as to so-called experts.

We sat on the idea for a couple of weeks, wondering if we could really pull it off. Then, in the words of Van Halen, we figured we might as well jump. We began running call-outs in the magazine and online, as well as in our e-mail newsletter. Some of the call-outs were broad (“Want to be a travel writer? Pitch us a story”) and others were very specific (“Are you enough of an expert on Chicago to review three guidebooks to the city?”). We asked for reasons people love New York City, readers’ favorite local restaurants, spectacular photos to run on our cover (the first submission was of a toothless man holding a fish), great supermarket souvenirs, lessons travelers had learned the hard way, and much more. The response was tremendous: We received almost 2,800 in-depth pitches for the “Want to be a travel writer?” story alone.

Occasionally someone would ask if we were doing a reader-generated issue because it was cheaper or easier. Let’s be perfectly clear: Making this issue was neither cheap nor easy. First, we paid our regular fees; second, we traveled more writers than we normally would (we tend to find people who live someplace); finally, we also paid for companions’ expenses (something we don’t do for professional writers). And without an extraordinary amount of deft editing—both in terms of generating ideas, sifting through submissions, working with non-professional writers and photographers, and actual text-editing—the issue would’ve been a mess. Editing non-professional writers’ words is never easy.

But the limitations also brought out our creativity. For 20 Tips, we normally have an illustrator illustrate a few of the tips; for this issue, we got readers’ kids to do the drawings. For the Budget Travel Upgrade, we tracked down our longest running subscriber—William Herndon of El Paso, Texas—and brought him to New York for a night at the opera. Instead of the standard service Q&A, we turned the tables: Readers answered our questions. Better yet, we took their advice (with photos to prove it).

Travel is something that few of us do often enough to really feel like we understand the system, let alone to game it. All we can do is share our knowledge, pool it, and together we can travel more intelligently, more affordably, more rewardingly. And in that spirit, our June issue is a rare thing: a commemorative anniversary issue that looks to the future, not the past. Because in the future, love it or hate it, an editor’s role will be to lead a conversation, not deliver a monologue.
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The Weird Pricing Plan at Barnes & Noble’s Magazine Store

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:47:28 -0400

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. (I don’t buy it. Nor does John Harrington, the New Single Copy editor, who said "it's not much different from a number of online subscription sources.”) But this is nothing new.
What is new, from what I can tell, is that, in some cases, the site is charging more for digital subscriptions than it is for print. For instance, a year's subscription to Men's Health is priced at $24.95, 44 percent off its $45.00 cover price; a digital subscription to Men's Health sells for $24.97.
Even weirder: some of the digital single copies BN.com is selling are priced close to their original cover prices. Granted, back issues of print magazines are usually inflated, so it might appear to be a good deal for someone trying to extract some old feature not online anywhere. But I sure as hell wouldn’t pay retail cover price for a digital copy of something I could find in print elsewhere, even if it took a little eBay digging.
Barnes & Noble says digital magazine publisher Zinio and M2, its print fulfillment partner, are responsible for the prices. “They’re actually the seller of record. And they’re selling the magazines through our site to our customers. So they’re setting the prices.”
So, Zinio, what gives?
UPDATE: See Zinio's response below.
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Elle’s Green Issue Prank: Fact or Fiction?

Jason Fell — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:48:07 -0400

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 to radical anti-capitalists”—for themselves.
It appears that Elle parent company Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. hasn’t made much headway into its investigation. According to a spokesperson, no retailers have reported finding the stickers and the publisher has no proof that the prank happened at all.
Was this an actual prank, or was it all staged online with fake comments posted to sites like Ecorazzi?
If this was a real prank, I find it hard to believe that these “activists” managed to get the stickers into every issue on particular store shelves without someone getting spotted red-handed.
And if the stickers were put in the issues before they hit the shelves, does that mean that a distributor was in on the prank? That would add a deeper layer to the apparent vandalism, wouldn’t it?
Still, it’s a cautionary tale for any magazine—particularly those dealing in fashion—that attempts a “green” issue.
The eco-terrorists are watching.
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Is This the Future of Publishing?

Dylan Stableford — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:37:34 -0400

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 for the Times, more than once the article hinted that IDG "may offer a glimpse of the future of publishing."

IDG CEO Pat McGovern is quoted as saying "there is life after print in fact, a better life after print." The Times also tracked down Stewart Alsop, the editor of InfoWorld in the 90s, who said "what's happening at IDG is a fairly accurate map for every other publishing organization."

But is it?
The future-watching pundits are weighing in ...
BusinessWeek's Aaron Pressman:
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, especially for my own industry, but using what happened at IDG as a map for the rest of the publishing industry would be like using Christopher Columbus's charts to fly to the moon. There's a publishing pink elephant in the room that nobody in the NYT's story seems to notice. Most of IDG's publications are what's known as controlled circulation. Readers paid nothing but were selected to receive titles like Infoworld gratis based on their attraction to certain advertisers. There is no subscription revenue to the publisher and the publisher still bears all the costs of printing and mailing. So when IDG shifts a publication to the web and stops printing, it can cut costs to the bone and shift advertisers to its Web site.

Bob Sacks:
There are still multi-billions of dollars in the print universe. Media that matters is in flux. Media that makes money is in flux. Our media universe is changing faster than we can possibly comprehend.

Paul Conley:
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.

My take: I tend to agree with Aaron. Magazines with controlled circulation and no subscription revenue are probably better positioned to make the transition than other magazines, where print accounts for 80 or 90 percent of the overall revenue, in some cases. But, also remember, IDG is the biggest tech publisher in the world. Smaller publishers, or those with audiences that haven't made the wholesale migration to the Web (there are a few lost souls out there—think, for instance, the readers of Town & Country) are going to have a tough time making the leap, and will probably be clutching their luxury glossies on the way down.

I do think this "Web-first" as a business trend is great, even if it's about three years late.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below ...
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When Bad Publishers Happen to Good Magazines

Dylan Stableford — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:28:06 -0400

[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 every other issue.
Seriously, you could set your watch by it and it always involved cover art. Typically the magazine would run glossy, beautiful shots of a building’s interior or a statuesque shot of an exterior ... then along comes the publisher.
This particular publisher liked artwork on the cover. But not striking artwork. She would find stock art of a businessman going up a staircase or vague representations of dollars and cents or, worse yet, flow charts! Since the mag was a trade book, it’s not like newsstand sales were an issue, but the magazine still needed to be attractive. The problem was solved when the parent company was bought out by another company and all the individual magazine publishers were replaced with group publishers.

Now, there’s a nightmare nobody wants to go to sleep for!

Speaking of group publishers, consumer books have seemed to realize that the group publisher model just doesn’t work that great. It’s like a teacher with too many students or a single parent with too many kids; sooner or later somebody falls through the cracks and ends up on the streets. Magazines are no different ... I know this lesson firsthand.

Take the case of the group publisher who played favorites. After being acquired in a buyout, two b-to-b books found a new home at a big publisher. Both of the magazines’ publishers were fired and a new group publisher was brought in who had just seen the collapse of his venerable title after almost 100 years. (This magazine, by the way, survived two world wars and the Great Depression, but not this publisher!)
The new group publisher took a shine to one of the books that was more his style because it was glossier and more in line with what he was used to. The second book—the stepchild he got in the marriage, as the mag’s editor-in-chief termed it—was more nuts-and-bolts and technical, but highly respected and a leader in its field. Sales people were taken away from the tech-y book altogether.
Guess what happened? Sales plummeted! Go figure!

Then the tech-y book defied the odds and won a Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Business Journalism. The magazine’s reward from the big publisher? Pink slips! And the three staffers sent packing were not even placed in similar available jobs within the company (apparently that was against policy).

Then, of course, you have the publisher who is extremely hands-off, lets the creative staff do what it was hired to do. Then one day he gets an idea because he’s been talking to other publishers—no more sodas at your desk; all headlines should be in "Courier"; numbers must always be on the cover ... ALWAYS! And insists that the edit and art staff institute new changes or rules. Luckily these kinds of publishers get distracted by other trends ... or something shiny!

If any editors or art directors have “bad publisher” stories, feel free to share!
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Sex Sells

Joanna Pettas — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:21:01 -0400

Christianity Today’s March cover clearly shows a magazine trying to push boundaries, with white space surrounding the bold, red words “Christianity,” “Addicted” and “Sex.”
“Trying” is apparently the key word for Winslow Taft, senior art director at Mental Floss magazine, who says the cover is “very close to being great,” but not quite. His advice: “Hit the reader with the message hard and do not give them an abundance of white space to get comfortable around the image.”
But it’s not about a message, according to Christianity Today’s senior managing editor Mark Galli. “The article [it refers to] spends a lot of time showing how addictive sexual behavior is not just a moral or spiritual problem but has medical, biological and psychological dimensions.” Theologically, the apple doesn’t represent sin or sexual temptation as it does in pop culture, Galli says, but rather “temptation for man to live on his own apart from God.”
Devout subscribers may already know that, so mission accomplished. The average newsstand shopper probably won’t, so mission also accomplished. (It’s painful to type this but here goes: “sex sells.”)
Anyway, as always, here’s your chance to chime in:
Take the Face Up survey for a chance to win an iPod Shuffle!
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Put your cover to the test. Send unique magazine covers to jpettas AT red7media DOT com]
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How Not to Promote Your Magazine's Special Issue

Dylan Stableford — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:09:57 -0400

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, but you can get hot and sweaty at your desk. We won't tell.
It's worth noting that Time Out New York's former editor, Brian Farnham, speaking at the 2007 American Magazine Conference, said he had one goal in mind when putting together the 2007 sex issue, his second as editor: Cancelled subscriptions.

"If you do a sex issue and no one cancels, you're probably not doing your job," Farnham said.

It's also worth noting Farnham is no longer with the magazine.
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Nielsen’s New Corporate Values: ‘Integrated, Open, Simple’

Dylan Stableford — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:17:52 -0400

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 good at.”

Those values include:

1. Integrated: “Advertisers want to put things together,” says Calhoun. “There’s a notion that integrated data will save the day. We gave our people a blank check and have them working on how to integrate processes. This isn’t about saving a buck but how to begin to put data together. This is measurable and our leaders know they are accountable.”

2. Open: “If your values preclude you from looking at the models of others, you will lose,” said Calhoun. “Proprietary systems were the world we used to aspire to but that’s the world we need to crush.”

3. Be Simple: “It’s getting harder every day in the Google World but if you can provide clarity in an open environment, you will win,” Calhoun added. “We aren’t going to budget our way to change. We all have to get a clear view and a lot of emotion behind it before it’s real.”
FOLIO:'s Spring Meeting Coverage:
The New Must-Have Skills for B-to-B Media: Project Management
Publishers on Redefining the Role of Print
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