FOLIO: Section Blogs by Editorial

Editorial ROI: Going from Good to Great

Jason Fell — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:18:13 -0500

[EDITOR’S NOTE: You can read the complete version of this post on Blanks’s blog here.]

I have been swimming in the Web metrics for several of RBI’s brands recently, and am constantly amazed at the insights that pop up. The question I am given again and again is: "How can we increase performance?"

Sometimes this question is with regards to an entire editorial strategy, other times it is focusing on just one content channel such as blogs, or it gets into focusing on one particular blog, newsletter, video series or Twitter account.

When looking for improvements, you try for the straightforward solutions first - tried and true tactics for online content:

■ SEO training
■ Structure content so that it is scannable
■ Use images to engage readers
■ Use links to connect great content
■ Focus a lot of effort on headlines
■ Etc., etc., etc.

Most media brands are no longer amateurs in online media. They have been doing this for years, and have long ago realized that this it’s not a choice of print vs. Web, but of serving readers wherever they are.

What this means is that the answers to the question "How can we increase performance" are no longer simple. Why?

■ Because it's not easy to serve experts, what b-to-b markets consist of;
■ Because audience behavior is changing quickly;
■ Because there is more competition nowadays;
■ Because revenue models have shifted;
■ Because search has changed the media landscape;
■ Because media brands are expanding their product lines to include a variety of revenue models;
■ Because while tactics can be quick, strategy takes time to analyze, implement, measure, and iterate.

In my recent diggings to answer the question about increasing performance, I find that every answer leads to another question, and then every question leads me to a better understanding of the needs and behaviors of the audience and product I am focusing on.

I have become mildly obsessed with a four part interview with Ira Glass, host of NPR’s "This American Life" radio series. (Here, here, here and here.) When Ira discusses the challenge for him and his team, he talks about how hard it is to find a great story, and how valuable it is to not be afraid to throw out "good" ideas, "good" stories, and considerable effort. Ira says they end up ditching half of the ideas that they actually moved forward with, meaning that they are willingly throwing good stuff in the trash.

His reasoning is that, when you throw something "good" out, it gives the chance for something GREAT to be born.

For b-to-b media, what this means is moving beyond simple answers, beyond adding on one more tactic to an existing strategy. It means focusing on two things:

■ Understanding and serving the needs of the markets that one is focused on, and always willing to rethink what those needs are and how audience behavior evolves and changes.
■ Constantly refining the products & solutions that you are offering.

In the media world, some are making a big play in the "content" space by churning out a huge number of articles.

■ Demand Media paying $15 per article from freelancers.
■ AOL is ramping up its low-cost content strategy in a similar way.

Will such a strategy work for b-to-b markets—those filled with highly experienced experts who need advanced solutions to move their business forward? Will "good" be good enough for these markets? Will "good" put smiles on the faces of those deep in the trenches? Will "good" grow media revenue models?

Click here to read the rest of Blank's post.

Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

Sarah Palin: ‘I Absorb News Via Many Sources’

Jason Fell — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:36:57 -0500

It’s been more than a year since former Alaska governor and ex-Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin did her first in a series of on-camera interviews with CBS’ Katie Couric. In case you’ve somehow forgotten, it was during that interview in October 2008 that Couric asked Palin what newspapers and magazines she read to inform her worldview. A visibly annoyed Palin said she reads “most of them,” “all of ‘em,” “any of ‘em,” but wouldn’t (or couldn’t) name even one specific news source.

Now, after so many months, America finally got an answer to the question Wednesday night when Palin told Fox News’ Sean Hannity: “I read, I read Newsmax, and the Frontiersman, and the Wall Street Journal, and everything online. I absorb the news via many, many sources.” (See a clip of the Hannity interview below.)

The Frontiersman is the local paper serving Wasilla, Alaska. Newsmax, of course, is a politically conservative print magazine and Web site.

Palin also talked about the apparent controversy concerning the recent Newsweek cover [pictured above] featuring Palin and the cover line: “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah?” “It was just—just another little shot,” she told Hannity. “I think that the American people, they're tiring of the tabloidization of some people, like me. And they want to get to the issues.”

Palin recommended we all steer clear of tabloidization in general, and the “haters” out there in media-dom, in order to form a better judgment of the real Sarah Palin. “They need to start by reading my book and not believing the tabloidization or the mainstream media that wants to portray me as something that I am not.”

Ah, that's right, the book. That’s why she’s making the media circuit now, after all.
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

Could Time Name Twitter ‘Person of the Year’?

Jason Fell — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:42:37 -0500

After a more than hour-long debate, six panelists were split between two candidates they thought should be named Time magazine’s 2009 Person of the Year. Neither, for the record, were actually human beings.

Three panelists voted for Twitter. Three voted for the economy.

“Twitter affects a lot of people, but not as many as the economy,” said former New York City mayor and debate panelist Rudy Giuliani. “From the wealthy to the poor who are out of jobs, the economy affects us all.” Other panelists included Barbara Walters; cardiac surgeon and newly-named television show host Dr. Mehmet Oz; O the Oprah Magazine editor-at-large Gayle King; restaurant founder and Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio; and Luke Ravensthal, the 29-year-old mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A number of highly deserving, and living people also were talked about Thursday night on the eighth floor of Manhattan’s Time/Life Building. Here’s a quick look at who made the conversation:

Nancy Pelosi, in relation to Obama’s proposed healthcare bill (suggested by Walters); “patient zero,” the first person who contracted the H1N1 virus (Dr. Oz); U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke (Colocchio); recently-named associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor (King); General David Patraeus and Chesley “Sully” Sulenberger, the US Airways pilot who successfully carried out an emergency landing of an airplane in New York’s Hudson River in January (Giuliani). Giuliani, of course, also couldn’t help but nominate longtime New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.

OK, the Yanks won the World Series, but he hardly qualifies as the most significant global influencer of the year.

But between Twitter and the economy, which has the better shot at unseating president Barack Obama as Time’s Person of the Year (he was named last December)? Both arguably are relevant and have had significant global influence this year.

But is there a clear winner? I don't think so. And how much stock does Time actually put into these annual debates?

But if not for the social implication, I for one enjoyed another of Barbara Walters’ suggestions for the business aspect: despised Ponzie schemer-turned-jailbird Bernie Madoff. “If you want to sell some magazines, you name someone like Madoff,” Walter said. “People would pick up those issues and say, ‘How dare you?’”
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

The Value of Online Content: Practically Nothing

Jason Fell — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:56:02 -0400

I was thumbing through the November issue of Wired recently when I stumbled across an article on Demand Media, penned by senior writer Daniel Roth (one of my favorite Wired writers). It’s a detailed look at how the online network has successfully leveraged a user-generated content model and become the largest supplier of videos to YouTube. According to the report, Demand rakes in roughly $200 million a year and was valued in a recent round of financing at $1 billion.

Demand is reportedly the 15th-most-visited online media property, attracting 52 million visitors in September—bigger than cnn.com, twitter.com and weather.com. It seems like Demand is kicking butt.

But what jumped out at me while reading the Wired piece wasn’t Demand’s soaring profits. It was how co-founder Richard Rosenblatt (former CEO of Intermix Media, the company behind MySpace) thinks other media companies, which have been trying to increase the value of their content to at least match the cost of producing it, have the equation backwards. As he’s done with Demand, Rosenblatt said the trick is in cutting costs until they match market value for your content.

Demand utilizes an algorithm system it developed that mines search data, internet traffic patterns and keyword rates to commission stories/videos based on what online users want to know and how much advertisers will pay for it. The company has all but eliminated actual people from the process, other than to make sense of terms the algorithm spits out. (“Demand uses editors in its process, too” the Wired story says, but “they just aren’t worth very much.”)

Another way to cut costs: Pay your content producers squat. Rosenblatt’s massive stable of freelancers earn just $15 per article and $20 per video produced, on average. Some writers opt to earn nothing upfront instead to participate in a profit sharing program, although the story said it can take months to earn even $15 that way. Copyeditors take home $2.50 per article, fact-checkers get $1 an article and headline proofers bank a whopping 8 cents a headline.

Fifteen dollars a story? Granted, the stories are far from 4,000-word investigative pieces, but as a writer you’d need to crank out an insane amount of copy in order to earn anything close to what some think is a reasonable commission. Only a few years ago I was freelancing for a Boston-area newspaper, writing 300-word lifestyle/entertainment stories at about $100 a pop. That’s more than six times what Demand pays today.

To be fair, the pittance Demand pays its freelancers multiplied by the volume of content it produces has added up to $17 million in expenses so far. But even so, the idea that online content and its creators have been devalued is astonishing. As a content producer myself, it’s scary.

But as much as I don’t want to admit it, Demand’s model is something some publishers might want to take a hard look at. Making money online isn’t a no-brainer.
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

Celebrity Byline Hunting: Glamour Taps Katie Couric as Contributing Columnist

Jason Fell — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:35:51 -0400

Another magazine publisher has tapped the power of the celebrity byline.

The latest: Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of CBS Evening News With Katie Couric, was named a monthly columnist at Condé Nast’s Glamour magazine. Each month, Couric will write a Q+A on a subject—an athlete, musician, politician, you name it—who she thinks is inspiring to women and girls.

Couric [pictured] is going straight to the top for her first column, to be featured in the December issue: First Lady Michelle Obama.

"It's not just that she's a dominant figure in news to them, which she is,” Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive said of Couric, “it's that she has the human touch it takes to get into the personalities behind the news, and that makes her perfect for Glamour readers."

Glamour isn't the only magazine to turn to a celebrity editorial contributor in recent weeks. Earlier this month, O, the Oprah Magazine named regular Oprah Winfrey Show guest and health expert Dr. Mehmet Oz as a contributing editor.

Like her or not, Couric, who also recently launched a new Web show, is an award winning journalist. Dr. Oz, for his part, is a cardiac surgeon and a trusted voice in the medical/media world (Dr. Oz landed his own TV talk show, too).

But to what extent are these appointments about editorial substance and credibility? Or, are they about making money?

I mean, celebrity sells, right? (Or, does it?)

The most egregious of these recent appointments, without a doubt, was OK! magazine’s naming Kim Kardashian a contributing beauty editor. They even threw the celebutante (what is she famous for, anyway?) a swanky welcome party at New York City’s Griffin lounge. (See pictures here.)

The OK! editorial team isn’t really going to let Kardashian write anything, is it?
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

Report: Journalism Jobs Vanish at Three Times The National Rate

Matt Kinsman — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:25:46 -0400

It may not feel like it but magazines may be a relatively safer gig compared to other journalist jobs. According to Unity's 2009 Lay-off Tracker Report, a survey from Unity Journalists of Color, there has been a 22 percent increase in the number of journalist jobs lost every month from September 2008 through August 2009. That's three times more than the national average, in which jobs were lost at an 8 percent rate each month.
The report says the news industry has lost 35,885 jobs since Sept. 15, 2008 and 46,599 jobs since Unity began tracking journalist cuts since January 1, 2008.
While much of the report pertains to the newspaper industry, no sector is immune. Since September 2008, cuts include 24,511 jobs in print (primarily newspapers), 8,333 jobs in broadcast and 1,172 jobs in magazines.
E-media is no safe haven either, as evidenced by Conde Nast's purge of more than three dozen online staffers last fall and multiple lay-offs within the last couple weeks at Reader's Digest's e-media group, including several editors.
With many publishers facing broken covenants with lenders (even as they company itself may be profitable), it's going to be a while before many employees can breathe easily again, even if we start to see an uptick in print and online that some observers are predicting for 2010 (events however, which many publishers made the core of their business in recent years, will still be down).

Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

Edit Salaries Slump in 2009

Matt Kinsman — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:35:35 -0400

Magazine editors, for the most part, saw salaries rise in 2008. But with many publishers turning to salary freezes or salary cuts (often as steep as 25 percent) editors are expecting a significant decline of possibly 10 percent or more, according to the 2009 FOLIO: Editorial Salary Survey, conducted by Readex Research.

And while most editors have seen their workload take a significant jump, thanks to more digital assignments, that's not yet reflected in salaries. "Closing down print products could be smart from a cost standpoint but getting big dollars from online is a challenge, which could result in cuts in pay and staff," said one respondent.
Look for more on the Edit survey in FOLIO:'s September issue. In the meantime, here's a quick look at some of the more telling stats:

Mean Salary for Editorial Director
2008 2007
B-to-B
$98,200 $90,600
Consumer
$90,800 $83,300
Association
$81,300 $80,600

20% expect a salary increase in 2009
47% expect salaries to stay the same
31% expect salaries to decrease

Mean Salary for Editor/Executive Editor

2008 2007
B-to-B
$70,600 $67,800
Consumer
$58,600 $67,100
Association
$74,900 $63,700

17% expect an increase in 2009
53% expect to stay the same
28% expect a decrease
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

UPDATE: Time to Publish Commemorative Kennedy Issue, Book

Jason Fell — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:21:22 -0400

American politics lost its “liberal lion” Tuesday night when longtime Massachusetts Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy passed away from a battle with a brain cancer. He was 77.

As expected, the media coverage surrounding Kennedy’s death has been swift and dedicated. A number of news outlets, including several television networks, are planning special commemorative coverage of Kennedy’s life and work.

Time is the first magazine I’ve seen step forward with plans for a special commemorative issue in print, which publisher Time Inc. said is set to hit newsstands Friday, August 28, under its normal shipping schedule.

The issue will feature pieces on Kennedy from Time columnist Joe Klein, as well as Bob Shrum, Mike Barnicle and longtime Kennedy family aide Ted Sorenen. It also will include a number of articles about Kennedy written by Time editors.

Over the years, Time has published commemorative editions about Barack Obama’s election and the deaths of Princess Diana, JFK Jr. and others. A Time spokesperson said she didn't have details when I asked if this issue will have any special distribution.

A Kennedy Commemorative Book

In addition to the magazine, Time is publishing a 112-page commemorative book: Ted Kennedy: A Tribute. This is how Time describes it:
The book is an intimate portrait from his early years to his last days as the Lion of the Senate. His life will be told through never-before-seen photographs by photographer Ken Reagan of Kennedy at work, on the campaign trail and with family and friends.
With Kennedy's health deteriorating in recent months, I bet Time had been working on this well in advance. The book will be available for pre-order on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com for $19.95, and on newsstands on September 4, for $13.99.

I'm sure this won't be the only Ted Kennedy commemorative work we'll see from magazines in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: See? It appears that Newsweek also will be publishing a commemorative Ted Kennedy issue, on newsstands only starting this Friday.

The 99-page issue, called “The Last Brother-Edward M. Kennedy 1932-2009," will feature contributions from Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Birch Bayh, author Burton Hersh and political commentator Neal Gabler, among others. The issue will remain on newsstands through November 30.

Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

The Mayhem of Hiring an Assistant Editor: Part One

Jason Fell — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:59:52 -0400

I got the bad news three weeks ago that my beloved assistant editor was taking a job in Birmingham and would be leaving Southern Breeze. Not only was she leaving publishing altogether but her salary was doubling—before commission. Who could blame her for this decision? Still, it’s sad to see someone so gifted as a journalist, editor, writer, and reporter leave the profession.

But the cavalcade of projects slows down for no one so I had to fill the position. I posted an ad on several online job boards and in the local Sunday newspaper. Within 48 hours I had more than 40 applications pop up in my in-box. Very few came in based on the newspaper ad while the majority came in from journalismjobs.com. Let’s not even discuss the applications that came in from craiglist.org.

The Brutal Process Begins

So, I began the brutal process of weeding the good applicants from the bad. (We should keep in mind that this is an entry-level position and that the salary—in the low $20,000s—as well as the various duties, are stated clearly in the ad.)

The first applications I deleted were those from people who had no writing or editing experience whatsoever, but thought “it might be fun to try.” Some resumes—believe it or not—I just couldn’t read.

The process is heartbreaking in its own way when you see the amount of experience some of the applicants possess. There were some whose careers began while I was in high school. Others had full careers in other fields (newspaper, broadcast), but found themselves in the region due to retirement, but wanted to work again.

‘Reading Resumes is Like Online Dating’

Honestly, going through resumes is akin to online dating: you pick and choose based on your own preferences. For example, in her cover letter, one applicant wrote of her move from Chicago to Alabama (where Southern Breeze is located): “In addition to awesome weather, where else can I order macaroni and cheese as a vegetable?”

Letting your humor shine is especially valuable, especially in this case since the assistant editor shares an office with me. I invited her in for an interview.

The applicants who made it to the top of the pile were those who were fairly new to the field or recent college graduates with relevant internships and/or published clips. A couple of applicants had interned at fellow International Regional Magazine Association member publications, so they made it through since this is essentially a stamp of approval.

Of course, no matter how great a resume looks, the real proof is when you meet the candidates face-to-face. That will be the topic of Part Two of this blog post: The Interviews.

In the meantime, here’s a list of resume do’s and don’ts to follow. Some may seem obvious, but maybe this can serve as a refresher for those who haven’t had to craft a resume in some time:
•   Experience should be listed with the most recent first then work back in time. That seems obvious but apparently it’s not.
•   Don’t forget to include the years for education or experience. One candidate listed her positions but absolutely no timeframe. It could’ve been four years or four hours for all I knew!
•   Watch what you list. Some managers may not be too keen to hire someone whose experience includes the Phil Gramm for President, Bush/Quayle 92, or your college’s Democratic organization. It’s best not to take chances if you’re not looking for work in that field.
•   An objective sentence or two is not always necessary, but if you do have one make sure it is at least relevant to the job you’re applying for. One quickly deleted resume had an objective that stated: “To find a position where I can better utilize my marketing and public relations skills.”
•   If the ad clearly states to whom you should send your materials to then do not use “To Whom It May Concern” or “Dear Sir/Madam.” This shows you weren’t paying attention.
•   Don’t leave off your mailing address. It helps to know where an applicant is located in terms of setting up interviews.
•   If an ad says “No phone calls please,” you better not call. That’s the quickest way to get your resume thrown away (this actually happened in our sales department…often!)
•   Keep it brief. If you’ve just been out of college a couple of years, do your best to keep your resume to a single page; I’ve been out of college 23 years and my resume is a single page.
•   Don’t be afraid to put more of the “real you” on your resume under “Skills & Interests,” “Other Stuff,” or any other heading. When I first moved to New York City in 1990, I had “aspiring playwright” listed under skills and interests and one of my interviewers just happened to be an actress with a small theatre group and that sparked her interest in calling me in for an interview. We worked together for over three years and she was one of the best bosses I ever had.
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

Reader’s Digest: A Golfing Joke Gone Bad

Jason Fell — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:07:24 -0400

This isn’t exactly the shot you’d think to use your five iron for.

Last month’s issue of Reader’s Digest featured a joke submitted by a reader about police officers finding a man in an apartment, holding a golf club and standing over the “lifeless body” of a woman. In the joke, when asked how many times he struck the woman, the man replied: "I don't know. Five ... maybe six ... Put me down for a five."

Now, advocates for domestic violence victims are speaking out against the joke and the magazine. "Women have a hard enough time coming forward to report the abuse and/or to leave their abuser—now she gets to feel as though it's ok for people to joke about it?" a victim advocate for Bolton Refuge House, a nonprofit support service for domestic violence victims, wrote in a letter to the magazine. "It's obvious that you have no sensitivity to victims of domestic violence and have no clue of the prevalence of this crime."

In responses to the outcries, a Reader’s Digest spokesperson told the Associated Press that it takes domestic violence “very seriously, and clearly this joke crossed the line."

I must have missed the joke when I flipped through that issue of Reader’s Digest but can’t imagine how that one slipped past its editors. I agree that a joke of that nature—submitted by a reader or not—has no place in a magazine like Reader’s Digest.
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

Editors’ New Role As ‘Talk Show Hosts’

Vanessa Voltolina — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:44:42 -0400

In his recent Boston Globe op-ed, DBMediaStrategies president Doug Bailey presented his manifesto on reader comment sections.
His conclusion: reader comments devalue journalism, blur the truth and confuse the issues. He suggests publishers rid their sites of user forums as a first step toward restoring journalism’s dignity. Ironically (or maybe not so?) the op-ed saw 190—mostly out of spite, and presumably unedited—reader comments.
Our own mediaPRO social network elicited feedback from FOLIO: readers on the topic. Beginning the thread was Rachael Globus, editor-in-chief at Event Publishing LLC, who wrote: “Is this guy [Bailey] for real? … When are publishers going to get it that user-generated content is content? Yes, it's still a reporter's job to sift through complex issues to present a coherent narrative and there will always be demand for that. But why in the world would it be beneath a newspaper to host the lively debates its content sparks?”
Doing away with reader comments completely may seem extreme. But Bailey’s op-ed brings to light something that publishers are still struggling with: how much unattended—or unedited—content is worthwhile content?
"An unattended comment thread will be full of garbage and many are,” blogged Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist and principal of Union Square Ventures. And this sometimes useless user discussion, University of Mississippi professor Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni told FOLIO:, is a result of editors treating threads as “an easy excuse to have less editing and fact checking” and “to assume that your readers’ comments and letters are true and factual. Editors will never publish some of the stuff in print that they publish on their Web sites, and thus they have no one to blame but themselves.”
Reporters Take on a New Role
I’d be lying if I said that FOLIOmag.com didn’t have its share of inappropriate, raging and nonsensical “comments”—which we screen before they are published to the Web. But we also get some very focused analysis from insiders, which can help to advance the story we’re reporting on.

But as comment sections continue to gain traction, is it the job of editors and reporters to moderate and lead discussions?
“Reporters aren't trained to be talk show hosts, but that's what a forum is all about,” said custom publisher Hammock Inc. CEO Rex Hammock. He, like Husni, believes that if editors are not going to moderate comments, then there is no reason to include them as part of a Web presence.
The upside to comment maintenance? “Journalists that do it [moderate, edit and offer feedback] and do it well will be better read,” wrote Wilson. “And they'll be better informed. They'll get tips in the comment threads, constructive criticism that will help them do their job better, and leads on new stories before others will."
While this may be a bit of optimism about what can be culled from reader comments, at the very least, publishers need to establish that: “Being invited into a discussion is like being invited into someone’s home,” said Hammock. “Add to the conversation and you'll be rewarded. Be an ass, and you'll get kicked out.”
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

Thoughts on Evolving Publishing's Content Strategy to Leverage Social Media

Jason Fell — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:30:45 -0400

[EDITOR’S NOTE: You can read the complete version of this post on McCarthy’s blog here.]

The evolution and dispersal of social media tools creates the opportunity to rethink the traditional content publishing model for media brands.

That’s the conclusion I’ve come to after puzzling through the different ways we create editorial content, the ways that we engage with customers in a market and the opportunities to leverage that engagement for the advantage of our advertisers.

The dichotomy I’ve zeroed in on is the difference between Creating and Sharing. The best model for the future of an editorially-driven businesses will benefit from increasing the focus on Sharing and sacrificing some of the focus on Creating.

Social Media Tools Can Drive Process Change

The driver for this transition is the relative ease of use and ubiquity of social media tools. These tools make it easy for anyone to create and distribute digital content. If you can turn on a computer and type, you can set up a blog; if you can take a photo, you can post it to Flckr; if you can use a FlipVideo, you can publishto YouTube.

The use of social media tools by consumers is incredibly well-documented and is a critical plot element in the story line about the disintermediation of traditional media. Consumers are creating content and sharing content: in June alone more than one billion links, photos, videos and posts were shared on Facebook.

But there’s been virtually no discussion about how social media tools can be used to help transform traditional publishing operations.

One reason for this absence of dialogue may be the technical focus on content-tool innovation on the web. Over the past 20 years, the development of the web has been the purview of technologists who have revolutionized the concept of media. What has developed, however, is a media platform that creates more depth, dimensionality and interaction than any other media platform that has come before it. [The media proposition on the Internet is able to wholly close the commercial loop, moving from awareness, intent and transaction without having to shift from one media to another, or even having to move from one place to another.]

Some observers have posited that we are moving into a postdigtal age, where technological innovations become secondary to the primacy of social imperatives—the needs and abilities of people—in structuring the processes that will drive the next generation of media.

The Application of Social Media to a Traditional Publishing Environment

When you think about social media as a set of tools that can enhance your interaction with the marketplace, you find yourself answering a new set of questions. The focus is not on how to handle media displacement, it’s on how to integrate the tools into your workflow so that you can be in touch with an audience in multiple ways across multiple platforms with minimal extra cost.

This is a reinvention that is about increasing the relevance of your core assets, not of protecting your legacy business.

Click here to read the rest of McCarthy's post.
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

An Ex-Entrepreneur Writer Lashes Out

Jason Fell — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:40:40 -0400

The editorial exodus at Entrepreneur continues.

According to his blog, staff writer Dennis Romero was let go Friday for "failing to carry out the duties of my job" and because "it was clear I was not happy working there."

While Romero admitted his unhappiness at the magazine, he vehemently denied the charge of failing to carry out his duties as a writer. “I will cede the second point. On the first, let me call bullshit: Since arriving to the job of staff writer at Entrepreneur in September of 2008, I have produced more copy, written more words, interviewed more people, and penned more cover stories than anyone else employed by the company,” Romero wrote. “Repeat that sentence to yourself, then wait to see if anyone from the company refutes it. You’ll hear crickets, and I’ll put money on it.”

Romero also had editor-in-chief Amy Cosper in his blogging crosshairs: “During my experience at Entrepeneur [sic], Cosper could not be bothered to make many assignments, read much copy, edit many sentences or manage many staff members. She once told an incoming editor to find out what the folks back in the cubicles did. This was after she had spent more than half a year at the mag. These were her people—her responsibility.”

"We terminated his employment for cause," Entrepreneur vice president and corporate publisher Ryan Shea wrote in an e-mail to me this afternoon. "As you know there are two sides to every story."

So, are these the rantings of a slighted staffer? Or legitimate condemnations of an editorial staff in trouble?

Click here to read Romero’s entire post.
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

Doubles, Anyone? Men’s Fitness Uses Nadal Photo from New York Cover Shoot for its Own

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:26:25 -0400

When my June/July issue of Men’s Fitness landed in my mailbox, tennis star Rafael Nadal’s shirtless torso looked familiar—and it wasn't because I was looking at my own torso in the mirror, that’s for damn sure. Had it not been for the green Nike polo shirt around his neck, I would’ve never remembered that a similar photo was used on the cover of the 2008 fall fashion issue of New York magazine.

The photos, taken by Nigel Parry, are fantastic, and work remarkably well for both magazines. The New York cover shows Nadal at his pouty and petulant best, giving the camera—and thus, the reader—a wicked come hither look that likely sent the magazine flying off the racks across the country (especially in Chelsea and West Hollywood).

The Men’s Fitness cover photo—from the same shoot but used inside the New York issue in black and white—is also strikingly appropriate. Here, Nadal has the same intense gaze, but unlike the New York cover, this photo highlights the tennis pro’s physique, especially his six pack. No doubt this is a totally appropriate photo for the article it was touting—MF’s 25 Fittest Guys in the World. (Not surprisingly, Nadal was no. 1.)

Still, it’s a little odd to see a big national magazine like Men’s Fitness reuse an image for a cover.

When I asked Men’s Fitness editor-in-chief Roy S. Johnson about this choice, this was his response: “When we selected Rafael Nadal as our Fittest Guy in the World, he was excited about the honor but unable to offer time for a photo shoot,” Johnson explained to me in an email. “He told us of the shoot he did for New York magazine and directed us to the photographer. We liked the shoot (and we researched others) because it was the only one we found in which he was shirtless, which is occasionally how we show our cover subjects. Of course we were aware that the shoot had been originally done for New York, so we made sure not to select the exact same shot they used. Finally, as widely read as New York magazine is, our guess is that few of our readers had seen it.”

Johnson added that he had not received a single e-mail mentioning the Men’s Fitness cover’s similarity to the New York cover … other than mine. Leave it to a magazine editor to be a thorn in the side of another magazine editor!

Introducing the … Bloomberg Markets Cover Curse?

Of course, Nadal—the world’s no. 1-ranked tennis player—would figure to be a popular cover choice for those magazines that cover tennis, fitness and/or the four cities in which the Grand Slams take place (hence, New York’s pre-U.S. Open cover last year). Based on a quick scan of the local newsstand, Nadal appears on at least four covers, including Men’s Fitness, Men's Journal and this weekend’s ill-timed New York Times Magazine.

But, given Nadal’s recent collapse at the French Open (he lost in the fourth round to a relative unknown, ending his streak of consecutive French Open wins at four) and his withdrawal from Wimbledon on Friday (sorry, New York Times Magazine!) it would seem that Bloomberg Markets' odd decision to put the Majorcan matador on its June cover backfired just a bit.
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

Reader's Digest Memo: Actually, We're Not Shifting in Conservative Direction

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:43:35 -0400

Earlier today, the New York Times published a story about the Reader's Digest Association, suggesting the publishers of its flagship magazine were "pushing it in a decidedly conservative direction."

Our story, also posted today, focused on the business decision by RDA to slash its rate base by 2.5 million copies and reduce its monthly frequency by two issues. We spoke with RDA Community president Eva Dillon, who told us "there is no big shift that we’ve done or plan to do editorially."

Executives at RDA insist that the Times' writer, Stephanie Clifford, got it wrong, so much so that Dillon sent an employee-wide e-mail today shooting down the Times' assertions.

Here's the memo, via ex-Portfolio writer Jeff Bercovici's Daily Finance blog:

June 19,2009
TO: RDA EMPLOYEES
From: Eva Dillon,
President, Reader's Digest Community

In today's New York Times there is an article about Reader's Digest. The article in part suggests that the brand has decided to shift direction editorially. I want to assure you that that is not what is or has been planned, and that the strategy to embrace our core values can be misinterpreted.

To clarify, neither the magazine nor the company is going in any direction other than what we are doing now. Reader's Digest has always been about the values of home, family, community, optimism and country, and certainly our values today are more than ever in step with America, especially during these recessionary times as people focus on the "back to basics" of family and home. What we did with the relaunch and redesign of the magazine and websites was to go back to the roots that made this company great by embracing and catering to our specific and unique audience -- and do that very well, which resulted in an ASME Award for General Excellence, the first ASME in 20 years.

In a challenging time for our industry, we are excited about the plan we've developed (outlined in my earlier memo yesterday afternoon) to take a leadership role and transform our business model to respond to changed consumer media habits by leveraging our unique global assets and addressing this new generation of media.

Please let me, or any other Executive Committee member, know if you have any questions.

Eva Dillon
Folio RSS: Feed sponsored exclusively by NXTbook Media - offering RSS feeds for Digital Editions Call 866-268-1219 for more information.

	2008	2007
B-to-B	$98,200	$90,600
Consumer	$90,800	$83,300
Association	$81,300	$80,600