FOLIO: Section Blogs by Consumer

'You Can Create a Better Editorial Environment Online Than in Print'

Dylan Stableford — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:19:55 -0400

EVANSTON, Illinois—I've been covering the Independent Magazine Group's conference here this week. Despite the gloom and doom that sometimes (justifiably) seeps into industry events, the mood at this show was generally positive if serious, with publishers speaking frankly about the challenges facing indie magazines. In other words, "no bull***"!

Here are some assorted, random quotes from the sessions:

“[I’m glad to see that] everyone here is more concerned with communities than demographics.”
—David Lusterman, publisher, String Letter Publishing and IMAG conference chair

“Every one in this room should be putting together a video team, even if it’s only one person ... Video killed the radio star? Video is going to kill the magazine star if we aren’t careful.”
—Bradford Fayfield, founder and owner, Storm Mountain Publishing

“Thank you for your help in the quest to end bad Web sites forever.”
—Cia Romano, CEO and founder, Interface Guru

“We had a user that was offended by an ad next to an ingredient that was unrelated ... online it’s about bringing information in a relevant way, and that includes ads.”
—Janet Ludwig, president, Allured Publishing

“Only at IMAG is the legislative report as riveting [in] provoking response from the audience.”
—Lusterman

“I argue that you can create a better editorial environment online than in print.”
—Fayfield

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Glamour to Publish First ‘List’ Issue

Joanna Pettas — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:10:39 -0400

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 second best-selling of the year at 1.79 million, about 25 percent (or 350,000 copies) above the average for the six month period, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The year before, the list issue was the fifth best selling at 1.91 million, 410,000 copies above the six month period average. In 2005, it came in third.

Forbes’ 400 Richest People from October 8 was its second best-selling issue as well last year. The list issue reported 90,623 single copy sales—almost 140 percent above the six month period average of 37,837. The year before, the issue came in third for single copy sales, still about 102 percent above the six month period average but beat by two Investment Guide issues done that year.

Oddly enough, the much-hyped Time 100 issue came in 10th last year in single copy sales, about 37 percent below the highest-selling, December 31 issue at 200,315. Still, for a weekly, 10th best isn’t that bad, and the list actually seems to be gaining ground—in 2005, it was the 22nd best-selling issue; in 2006, it came in 15th.

But then again, in 2005, the best-selling issue sold 330,733 single copies; in 2006, it was 216,807; last year, it was 124,400. Poor, poor newsweeklies...
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Business 2.0's Quittner Returns to Time

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:39:05 -0400

When we last heard from Josh Quittner, he was facing down the demise of his Time Inc. title, Business 2.0, while a fervent group of his Facebook friends were trying to save it. (After Time Inc. refused to sell the magazine to rival Mansueto Ventures—home to Inc. and Fast Company—the company folded it into Fortune.)

Now, Quittner's been poached—cross-company style—from Fortune by Time editor Rick Stengel. Here's Stengel's memo:
April 16, 2008

To: TIME Staff
From: Rick Stengel

I'm delighted to announce that Josh Quittner is coming back to TIME to cover consumer technology with a regular column in the magazine and a daily blog on TIME.com. In his new role as editor-at-large, Josh will apply his singular voice to technology, writing both reviews of new products and features that explain what's most important to consumers in Techland.

Most recently, Josh was the managing editor of Business 2.0 and a writer for FORTUNE. He first had a byline in TIME in 1994 as a staff writer covering technology, back at the very beginning of the Internet. He went on to launch "The Netly News," first as a website on Pathfinder and later as a column in the magazine. He subsequently served as editor of TIME.com--twice--as well as tech editor of TIME before moving to San Francisco in 2002 to work for Business 2.0. Prior to coming to Time Inc., Josh worked at Newsday in the early 90s, where he wrote a pioneering column called "Life in Cyberspace."

Josh will continue to work from San Francisco where he lives with his wife, journalist Michelle Slatalla (with whom he has co-written five books) and their three daughters, but I expect he'll be in the New York offices regularly. Josh is a great mind and a great brand to have back at TIME.

We're fortunate to have him.

R.S.
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ESPN vs. SI

Jason Fell — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:52:25 -0400

This year, the editors here at FOLIO: selected ESPN senior vice president of content development and enterprises Keith Clinkscales to our annual FOLIO: 40 list—and for good reason. The brand, and the magazine, have undoubtedly stepped out of the shadow of competitor Sports Illustrated.

Clinkscales has steered ESPN's business strategy and is responsible for operations associated with the magazine and the company's publishing-related business initiatives. The magazine has hired top talent, and saw a nearly 20-percent spike in ad revenues last year. In February, the magazine finally launched its own Web site, ESPNthemag.com, separate from ESPN.com.

But, already, it seems like SI might have a leg up for 2009. Late last month, SI.com launched the SI Vault, a digital archive of more than 150,000 stories, 2,600 covers and a half-million photos spanning 54 years.

In a little more than two weeks since its launch, the Vault has already racked up 17.36 million page views and 1.17 million unique visitors.

I'd say that's a home run.
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Newsweek's Statement on Buyouts

Dylan Stableford — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:27:28 -0400

I just got an e-mail from a spokeperson for Newsweek confirming that 111 of the 150 staffers offered buyouts are leaving the magazine. They're calling it a "voluntary retirement program."
Here's Newsweek's statement:
"Confronting the challenges in today’s media climate, we recently offered a voluntary retirement program to some of our employees. We were fortunate to be able to provide generous packages for eligible staffers who wanted to move on, while also saving on some of our existing expenses. A number of the familiar faces who accepted the offer, including David Ansen, David Gates, Cathleen McGuigan, Mark Starr and John Barry, will continue to contribute to the magazine and Newsweek.com. And, of course, Newsweek remains home to Jonathan Alter, Sharon Begley, Ellis Cose, Chris Dickey, Howard Fineman, Daniel Gross, Mark Hosenball, Mike Isikoff, Melinda Liu, Johnnie Roberts, Evan Thomas, Fareed Zakaria, Anna Quindlen , George Will and many other star journalists. New voices will be joining Newsweek too. We will continue to invest in Newsweek, newsweek.com and other new ventures, which collectively will strengthen our company’s long-term health and vibrancy. We are committed to producing the compelling, innovative and news-breaking journalism that has defined Newsweek for its 75-year history."
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Time Inc.’s Environmental Impact

Bill Mickey — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:50:29 -0400

When you're a $5 billion publisher like Time Inc., you can afford to hire someone like David Refkin as director of sustainable development. Indeed, the company has been studying the impact of its entire production process. At the MPA's 2008 Retail Conference in Tampa, Florida today, Refkin discussed Time Inc.'s efforts in environmental sustainability, offering up figures that give some insight into the company's impact:
The company buys 500,000 tons of paper each year from 53 mills.
75 percent of the company's fiber meets certified sustainable forestry (CSF) standards, up 25 percent from 2002.
The carbon footprint of producing one issue of Time is equal to 160 people flying an airplane around the globe.
Refkin also said that only one out of six magazines in the home get recycled, and that Time Inc. has partnered with Verso Paper to increase consumer awareness, spending $5 million on outdoor advertising and another $6 million in magazines to push recyclable messaging. To learn more about the publisher's efforts, keep an eye out for its sustainability report due out in April.
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Breaking Up (With TV Guide) is Hard to Do

Dylan Stableford — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:41:13 -0400

I didn’t use the old chestnut “it’s not you, it’s me” when I broke things off. After all, I was still the same guy I always was, right? She changed, not me. I got used to everything being the way it always was. I was happy. I knew what to expect week after week, month after month.
But then change came and I wasn’t interested in continuing the relationship. And this was a relationship that had lasted as long as I can honestly remember, but things just weren’t right between us. It was time to bring this decades-long relationship to an unceremonious end.
Yep, I let my subscription to TV Guide run out.
For the first time in my ENTIRE life, I do not receive this weekly staple that was once the largest circulation magazine in the world. TV Guide was one of those things I looked forward to as a kid (yes, I know it’s sad). From the stylish covers—cheesy posed photos or Al Hirschfield caricatures—to the shamefully easy crossword puzzle in the back (“_____ of Hazard”? Please!), TV Guide would send me into world that was all about one of my favorite things in the world: television.
Things were going fine until that fateful day back in 2005. No longer would it publish in its familiar digest-sized format; it was as big as People, Us Weekly, Men’s Fitness, etc. But it wasn’t the size that bothered me. It was the fact that it was trying to be all things to all people. The new grid for all the show listings was lacking and there were hours of the day that simply weren’t covered anymore. Somehow it lost its charm.
Typically familiarity breeds contempt but in this case it bred content and I was no longer content so when my subscription expired, I unceremoniously buried my relationship with a magazine I’d read all my life. I should also add that my cable company has a function that allows me to get more info about a given show than TV Guide now offered, so the decision was that much easier.
Now, I hardly even think about TV Guide. Sometimes I’ll see it in the grocery store but the feelings are no longer there. I’ve moved on. Does TV Guide miss me? Judging from the number of offers I still receive in the mail, apparently so, but not enough to go back to the way it was before: when I was happy.
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Have the National Magazine Awards Become Too New York-Centric?

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:53:07 -0400

The finalists for the National Magazines Awards were announced yesterday. And—like every year—the list included some surprises (Good), snubs (Esquire) and the requisite head-scratchers (Bloomberg Markets?) that make any awards process fun.
And, also like every year, the list, like a lot of things in the consumer magazine industry, was dominated by a disproportionate number of magazines about or originating in New York.
Of the 128 finalists for this year’s Ellies, at least 78 are based (or have significant staff) in New York City. That’s over 60 percent, for those of you scoring at home. (The New Yorker and New York magazine combined for 21 nominations alone.)
It’s always been a criticism of the media at-large. It locks its viewfinder on New York—to a lesser extent, L.A.—and nothing else. And the media that covers media—particularly the journalists that cover the magazine and advertising industries—are especially prone to overstating the importance of New York, or, perhaps more accurately, not expanding the scope beyond Manhattan enough.
I think it’s a valid gripe to have, but an unfair one, too. For starters, what is a journalist covering the magazine industry supposed to do when the American Society of Magazine Editors is not exactly hunting down new nominees (sorry, the Virginia Quarterly Review doesn’t count anymore)? And when virtually every major magazine publisher works or has a sales office in New York, it’s tough not to have your view distorted.
While we, at FOLIO:, always talk about representing the entire swath of magazine publishers in such far-flung places as “Washington D.C.” and “Chicago,” we’re admittedly part of the machinery that gives New York its big head. (We’ll shoot video and liveblog the Ellies in May, for example, like every other magazine media outlet—and we should.)
But who cares what I think. What do you think? Has ASME become too New York-centric? Have the National Magazine Awards become the New York Magazine Awards? Will the MPA ever tire of Adam Moss?
Drop your comments below …
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Is This Really the Nicest Guy in Publishing?

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:37:02 -0500

Don't get me wrong. I like David Carey. I've met the new Condé Nast group president just a handful of times, and he seems softspoken, smart, funny. Sweet, even. And I count him as one of my Facebook friends.

Still, if I were doing a profile on the heir apparent to Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend—as the New York Observer did this week—I'd surely dig a little deeper than, say, Condé cronies like David Remnick—or Carey's weakness for office cantaloupe and fruit smoothies—to paint a picture of the guy.

Here are some of the quotes about Carey the Observer managed to squeeze into its 1,363-word profile:
“I always heard he was a good guy." (Former Condé executive Ron Galotti)
"David Carey certainly embodies, in the best sense, the Condé Nast of now." (Remnick)
"Carey is the sort of publisher you 'hate competing against because he’s so good.'" (Graydon Carter)
"Carey is very nimble intellectually. He will not allow himself to fail.” (Remnick)
"David inspires people to do the very best. You want to be smart for David.” (William Li, who succeeded Carey as Portfolio publisher)
“Also, I like the fact that like me, he has four kids.” (Carter)
And that doesn't include this passage:
The quiet, contented face of a millennial Man in the Gray Flannel Suit with a slight spare tire around his middle, leaving the Beemer at the Metro-North station to chug into work. There’s also a Toyota Sienna, “the best one on the market,” in the garage back home—Mr. Carey’s choice for corporate car. “Alas,” he e-mailed OTR, “minivans are something I know about.” And then: a frowny-face emoticon.
Looking for the darker (OK, maybe olive-colored) side of David Carey? I was too. Maybe he really is that nice.
For more Carey love (we're not above it!) check out our video interview with him at the FOLIO: show last year.
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The FOLIO: 40: A Call for Nominees

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:33:23 -0500

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 out the form below.
Remember, nominations are one thing, but to ultimately be included among our list of 40, nominees must be able to demonstrate how they’ve succeeded in their market—or influenced the industry—with quantifiable metrics to back up your case. (Alas, low golf handicaps do not count).
Check out last year’s list here, and get nominating!
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Time Inc. Staffer Complains About SI Swimsuit Issue: ‘My Company Made Me Look at Porn’

Dylan Stableford — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:02:03 -0500

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’s parent company. And they’re certainly not published on one of the parent company’s blogs, like this one on Time.com:
The [swimsuit] issues are considered so valuable that they're not even distributed in the bins downstairs; they're doled out, copy by copy, to each employee, like glossy, perfect-bound bonuses. So when I came in this morning, what do I find under my door but a beautifully laid out publication of porn. Who decided I wanted to look at 100-some pages of barely dressed girls with abs made of slate and boobs that defy reason? SI boasts that women cherish the swimsuit issue because it offers us fashion ideas for the bathing season. Seriously? I'm going to don this bikini made of dental floss this summer after I've just popped out Baby #2?
Look. I'm no prude. And it's not the same thing as working in an office whose walls are plastered with pin-ups, like the women workers at Halliburton/KBR had to endure. Still, I'd rather be offered the option of picking up a copy, rather than have it stuffed under my door like some urgent memo. What I want when I step into my office is a cup of tea. Not NFL cheerleaders in thongs.
Some interesting things to note here:
1. According to a commenter, some issues were delivered “face down.”
2. The blogger, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, is a Time staff writer. She has her own Web site.
3. That wasn’t dental floss, Lisa. That was the chord to a pair of iPod earbuds.
4. Again, this was on Time Inc.-owned blog. Which I think is very refreshing—a corporate environment where having opinions, even those critical of your boss' products, are not only encouraged—they’re published.
Still, you have to wonder where the consistency was here.
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‘The Music Business Sucks—So Does the Magazine Business’

Dylan Stableford — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:25:38 -0500

The music business sucks. At least that’s what everyone tells me. You hear the same thing about the magazine business. “That’s a tough business,” people say.
Is there such a thing as an “easy” business? Being a pro athlete might seem easy, but try throwing a 20-yard pass with a 300-pound lineman ready to separate you from your shoes. No thanks, I was never good with pain. If I get a paper cut I call in sick.

So if I detest pain, why am in the music magazine business? (My company, Zenbu Media, publishes Relix, Metal Edge, Metal Maniacs and Global Rhythm.) It would seem to be a double whammy. Fortunately, it’s not. Music is not going away and neither is the printed page. Picture yourself on the beach trying cuddling up to a great article or novel on your PC. It doesn’t feel the same. It’s kind of like a Stepford wife. Sure the PC is a fantastic way to connect, socialize, learn and listen but it lacks one thing. Tangibility. People flock to concerts and music festivals in record numbers to see the artists, feel the vibe and experience something real. Tangible. It is easier (and cheaper) to sit at home and watch the Rolling Stones on YouTube, but you miss the energy, the camaraderie and the feeling of true artistry.

Music has never been more accessible (legally or not). Myspace and other social networks have made it easier for garage bands to be heard. Hundreds of thousands of them. From all over the world. How do you choose what to listen to? How do you cut through the crap and find the gem? Ask the people who live for music. Those who are out every night and are never without pods in their ears.
Fortunately they write about it, too.
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Maer Roshan’s Anna Wintour Fetish

Dylan Stableford — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:01:14 -0500

Radar editor Maer Roshan has a thing for Anna Wintour. The Vogue editrix—and FOLIO: 40 veteran—appears in a photo illustration on Radar’s current March issue cover.
It’s not the first time she has appeared on magazine cover (weird to say, but I asked a number of magazine veterans who couldn’t recall Wintour on another national magazine cover ever—if you can recall one, let us know in the comments section). In September 1999, she was profiled in a New York magazine cover story.
New York’s editor at the time? Maer Roshan.
Perhaps Luke Hayman, the hot shot designer responsible for New York’s award-winning look and Time magazine’s historic redesign, will be able to reign in Roshan’s Wintour fetishism. This week, Hayman was hired by Radar as a design consultant.
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The Wal-Mart List

Dylan Stableford — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:00:57 -0500

Magazines love lists, don’t they?
Well, we've got the motherlode: the mysterious list of magazines Wal-Mart decided to remove from its shelves.
Wal-Mart has thus far refused to release anything official; however, the list surfaced last week on the New York Post’s Web site—buried in a link at the bottom of one of Keith Kelly’s columns—but was quickly taken down.
We’ve reprinted it, in full, here.
NOTE: Click here for the full list.

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Behind Playboy’s Sweaty Super Bowl Party

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:05:23 -0500

On Friday morning I’ll be flying out of sunny Newark, New Jersey and heading to Phoenix for the Super Bowl. Well, not exactly the Super Bowl itself. As a jaded media insider, I’ll actually plant my behind in a seat out of Phoenix in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday and watch the game at home (trust me, it’s a better experience). So the truth is I’m making the six-hour trek to sweat through Playboy’s million-dollar extravaganza known at Super Saturday Night, the best party we throw outside of Hef’s Mansion spectaculars (the Midsummer Night’s Eve and Halloween parties in particular). Chances are most people will never get a chance to go to Hef’s biggest blow-outs, so the SSN bash is probably the closest heaven ever gets to earth for a select group of the people who know people.

And what will you find when there? I don’t know exactly, I haven’t been to the venue. But the Playboy marketing, PR and ad sales teams have been overheating their engines for a solid month to pull this thing off, and if the past is any guide, I’m looking at eight hours of pure adrenaline. So now comes the press-release portion of what’s going down in the desert, which sadly won’t do it justice, and may actually make the party seem similar to what other magazines and companies are doing. But it’s not. Playboy knows parties, which is why this event, which started 10 years ago as a small, simple advertiser-sponsored event at a restaurant (the lines around the block tipped us off to the fact that we had something to exploit, and so we did) has won the best-party awards from the press and attendees for the last several years.

The theme is Playboy’s Desert Oasis and Resort. Common will be the host. Hef will be there. So will our March 2008 cover stars, the Girls Next Door—Holly, Bridget and Kendra. They’ll all fly in on the wings of one of our principal sponsors, Jet One Jets. We’ll have huge blow-ups of the new March 2008 cover—three of them. Why three? It’s the three GND’s third time on the cover, and this is the first time Playboy has produced what’s commonly known as a split run of covers. So there’s a collectible angle at work. Subscribers are receiving a racy version of the cover, with the girls mostly nude; military bases and Europe will see a semi-nude cover; American newsstands, naturally, will get a clothed version (all variations available for sale at Playboy.com).

There will be a celebrity DJ—Wild ‘N Out host and actor Nick Cannon—sharing time with DJ Reach. There will be lots of different environments—dance floors, cabanas, and an Oasis Bar pouring the drinks of our sponsors (Corona Extra; Cuervo Black) and offering Playboy Cigars. There will be a giant martini glass and a life-size Femlin (it’s her 50th Anniversary, after all), a Playboy TV Lounge (with retro footage of Hef and new clips of current shows; it’s PBTV’s 25th Anniversary (we’re big on anniversaries here)). What else? A coffee shop, the Girls Next Door Café, with grilled cheese and more TVs (retro-style), a mock-gift shop with lots of freebies (our licensing groups is launching a new men’s underwear line). And at 12:30 our Playmates will change into Playboy’s new men’s boxers.

Speaking of girls, we’ll have 26 Playmates there, and dozens of Painted Ladies (the most beautiful local models wearing nothing but paint). The New England Patriot Cheerleaders are attending; so are the Hawaiian Tropic Girls. Believe me, based on the amount of happy, partying, scantily clad women alone, there’s no way another party will beat ours, which is why our magazine competitors have given up on throwing parties on Saturday night, leaving Playboy to own the evening. All this for just 2,000 lucky guests—so few tickets, that scalpers sometimes drive up the price of the rare black market tix to levels rivaling that of the actual game tickets (sometimes as high as $2,500). We’ve gotten increasingly sophisticated with our ticket production (holograms, black-light watermarks) to avoid counterfeit tickets, which is a huge problem. If someone drinks too much? No worries—Cuervo Black has set up a Safe Rides program to help everyone get home.

We expect a lot of celebs to show—Entourage guys like Kevin Dillon and Alyssa Milano, Lauren Conrad, athletes like Amare Stoudamire and Keyshawn Johnson have committed early, and the already large list is sure to grow.

One more thing: This is not a sausage fest. The ratio of women to men is generally 1:1, and women who attend the event have as much fun as anybody. It’s the key to Playboy’s mainstream. A female guest can get as sexy as she wants and dress however she likes without worrying that she’s going to catch crap for her behavior or having people snark that she’s underdressed.

One of the more comical aspects for us here is receiving calls from executives at companies who shun our business on moral grounds (there are a few of them out there; just look at some of the conservative-leaning corporations who back the kind of political initiatives that are completely opposed to Playboy’s progressive and libertarian philosophies, and you’ll be able to identify the hypocrites).

Not all my memories of past Super Bowls are good. In fact, I missed last year’s party in Miami thanks to a stomach flu that hit me right after our walk-through at the Miami Heat arena. I shivered and shook under the covers all through the night, fearful that I’d miss my early morning plane ride.

I also recall a sharing a moment with Gary Cole, our photo director, in Detroit the year before. Our venue was at the Detroit City Airport Hangar. As I was leaving the walk-through with Gary, I pulled my rental car into slow-moving traffic. Some aggressive horns went off behind me; a few cars sped around me and stopped, blocking two lines. A few guys jumped out, yelling and waving their hands. They were upset. “Holy shit!” said Gary. “You’ve broken into a funeral procession.” I gave my best “Whaddya?” with my hands, a shrug, jammed into reverse, then forward, and sped off. I’ve been in my share of funeral processions in New York and had cars break it up, and it’s not a big deal. It is in Detroit, though.

Other good times: Being told by Kanye West that we had a great party thanks to high ceilings and DJ Sky Nellor. Watching girls rush a VIP cabana and dance in front of it because some guys showed up from some new show I’d never watched (turned out they were the stars of Grey’s Anatomy; the Entourage guys are similarly idolized at our events). At one point I found myself entertaining Joe Jackson, Michael’s father, chatting up Al Sharpton and introducing them to Joan Jett. Or sitting in between Jaime Pressly and Kelly Monaco, running short of small talk, and sweating out a reason to get up and go.

And I’ve gleaned one excellent piece of advice, albeit second-hand, from Hef. The Playboy crew and staff and Playmates generally all stay at one hotel. As the editor of the magazine, I don’t interact with the Playmates much once they’ve appeared in the magazine, though many of our ad sales and marketing people do as they build their careers. So the Super Bowl, for me, is a reunion of sorts—I looked forward to seeing Monica Leigh and Courtney Culkin from Long Island, plus Cara Zavaleta, Pilar Lastra, Penelope Jiminez, Hiromi Oshima and Tiffany Fallon. I think I was sitting around at the hotel talking to Pilar who joked about how Hef never called her by name but always called her darlin’—and other Playmates chimed in and concurred. Even though I am atrociously bad at names, I had a laugh at that, too. Of course, the night of the party when they were all in costume, I put my newly solidified friendships to the test. “Hey Cara!” I said. “You idiot, I’m Pilar!” she told me. And as if that wasn’t enough, I proceeded to screw up a few more names.

So from now on, I’m sticking with darlin'. See you in Phoenix.
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