FOLIO: Section Blogs by Editorial

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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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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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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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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Liveblogging the Ellies

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:08:05 -0400

A FOLIO: Blog programming note: We'll be "liveblogging" during tonight's National Magazine Awards gala inside Rose Hall, Jazz @ Lincoln Center in New York. Check our guide to the races—"Handicapping the Ellies"—refresh this page throughout the night for the minute-by-minute highlights, and join the conversation in the comments section below.
6:00PM EST: Cocktail party begins, promptly. Magazine editors love an open bar. Clearly.
6:45PM EST: Annie Leibovitz arrives. No sign of Miley Cyrus.
7:39PM EST: Cocktails end, awards ceremony begins with nondescript jazz, courtesy of the house band.
7:41PM EST: Glamour's Cindi Leive: Magazines "first developed form of journalism three centuries ago." Unrelated question: Is it possible to fact-check while live-blogging?
7:46PM EST: First Ellie goes to ... Print, beating out Aperture, Georgia Review, Metropolis, and the Virginia Quarterly Review for general excellence for magazines under 100,000 in circulation.
7:47PM EST: Anderson Cooper hands out Ellie for excellence in reporting (National Geographic, beating out the New Yorker) and reviews and criticism (the Atlantic, also beating out the New Yorker).
7:55PM EST: Legendary Harper's editor Lewis Lapham presents the award for feature writing. First real upset of the night: Atlanta magazine wins its first Ellie (New York's profile of Gawker, "Everybody Sucks," had been the loose favorite). Also first tears of the evening, courtesy of editor Rebecca Burns.
7:59PM EST: Mother Jones wins in the wide-open general excellence, 100,000-250,000 circ category (Paste, Philadelphia, Radar and Foreign Policy were the other nominees).
8:04PM EST: Vanity Fair wins the profile writing Ellie. Here comes Graydon Carter, fresh off an emergency root canal, to accept the award. Thankfully, no references to the "back, the crack, the sack" from Carter this year.
8:05PM EST: Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi compares editing a magazine to developing a "fire in the loins." I'm awake now, thanks.
8:11PM EST: Upset number two. Backpacker steals general excellence (250,000-500,000 circulation) from heavily-favored New York magazine. Jonathan Dorn quips: "Sorry Adam, at least you inhabited my dreams for a month."
8:15PM EST: Legendary Esquire art director George Lois, he of the Museum of Modern Art-hung cover, presents the Ellie for design. Wired, justifiably, wins their second. Scott Dadich calls it "the highlight of my career, to accept this from George Lois."
8:20PM EST: Players Club founder and former New York Mets centerfielder Lenny Dykstra: "Let's get the biggest question out of the way. 'What the hell is Lenny Dykstra doing here? Sure, he's one of baseball's greatest success stories ...'" Popular Mechanics wins for personal service, while BusinessWeek snags the award for personal service online.
8:26PM EST: Speaking of baseball, ASME is pitching a New York, New Yorker shut-out so far. But it's early.
8:35PM EST: National Geographic wins its second Ellie of the night, for photojournalism, and 17th all-time.
8:38PM EST: While presenting the Ellie for leisure interests, 30 Rock's Judah Friedlander explains he's into "medium-core porn," because "hardcore is too hard."
8:40PM EST: New York magazine shut-out is broken; Adam Moss accepts for "Cartography: The Complete Road Map to New York City Street Food." (Note to self: May need that guide after this show.)
8:48PM EST: New Yorker shut-out still intact. The Nation wins for public interest.
8:52PM EST: Shut-out over. The New Yorker wins its first Ellie of the night, its 47th.
8:55PM EST: While serving the award for single-topic issue, Julian Niccolini, Four Seasons restaurateur, says his favorite single topic "is women, with Pinot Noir a close second."
8:59PM EST: Upset number three. Conde Nast's $100 million-plus business magazine launch, Portfolio, wins (magazine section) in its first year of publication, beating Esquire and Wired in doing so. Editor Joanne Lipman says she's "shocked."
9:03PM EST: Vanity Fair wins its second Ellie of the night, for a Leibovitz photo portfolio.
9:09PM EST: Runner's World wins the race for general excellence online, outpacing Babble, the New Yorker and Slate.
9:13PM EST: Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi wins for columns and commentary. (Yesterday, when Taibbi was asked how he thought the Democratic race would end, he said: "In a pool of my own blood in a hotel somewhere." OK ...)
9:18PM EST: New Letters, a literary magazine, wins the essay Ellie (beating a field that included the New Yorker) for a piece entitled "I Am Joe's Prostate."
9:20PM EST: The big award of the night: general excellence, circulation above 2,000,000: National Geographic, which beat Glamour, People and Time for the honor.
Click here for more coverage, and here for the full list of winners.
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Handicapping the Ellies Race

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:58:10 -0400

Tonight's 2008 National Magazine Awards, like most industry awards shows, expects to be an uneven, awkward affair (these are, after all, magazine editors, not actors and we all know how those awards shows devolve.)

The New York-centric argument aside (see this post—"Have the National Magazine Awards Become Too New York-Centric?"—for background) the races themselves are always entertaining.

For those of you with Ellies office pools (there must be one, right?) here's a handy guide to five of the night's most intriguing races:

GENERAL EXCELLENCE ONLINE: This category recognizes outstanding magazine websites, as well as online-only magazines that feature original content. The award honors sites that convey a distinct editorial identity and create a unique magazine environment on the Web.

Babble.com
Chow.com
NewYorker.com
RunnersWorld.com
Slate.com

FAVORITE: NewYorker.com
OUR PICK: Babble.com
LONG-SHOT: Chow.com
THE SKINNY: Given its history of winning here and its slew of nominations, the New Yorker should be favored in any category it's been nominated. But a couple of pure plays—Babble.com and Slate—figure to give the New Yorker a run for its money. Babble, Nerve.com's gurgly spin-off, has the edge here.
GENERAL EXCELLENCE: Circulation 100,000-250,000

Foreign Policy
Mother Jones
Paste
Philadelphia Magazine
Radar

FAVORITE: Radar
OUR PICK: Foreign Policy
LONG-SHOT: Philadelphia
THE SKINNY: This is an interesting one, as each magazine nominated here is probably looking at itself as an underdog. It's penchant for hiring columnists from the Hills aside, Maer Roshan's Radar—now in its third iteration—should win, but Foreign Policy, a criminally underappreciated D.C.-based magazine, would be my choice. If it wasn't its first nomination, Paste—a forward-thinking music magazine that's not afraid to experiment with ads and subscription models—would be my pick.
GENERAL EXCELLENCE: Circulation over 2,000,000

Glamour
Martha Stewart Living
National Geographic
People
Time
FAVORITE: Glamour
OUR PICK: National Geographic
LONG-SHOT: Time
THE SKINNY: In the big-circ general excellence category, there are no real "underdogs." After, these are the biggest magazines with monstrous revenues. Glamour won last year, but don't be surprised if Time, fresh off its historic 2007 redesign, gets some general excellence recognition.
COLUMNS and COMMENTARY: This category recognizes excellence in short-form political, social, economic or humorous commentary. The award honors the eloquence, force of argument and succinctness with which the writer presents his or her views.

Inc.
New York Magazine
The New Yorker
Rolling Stone
Slate
FAVORITE: New Yorker
OUR PICK: Rolling Stone
LONG-SHOT: Slate
THE SKINNY: A hard-fought race in an election year, as this category is typically dominated by political-leaning columns. Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone's campaign warrior, deserves an Ellie, even if Jann Wenner, who has done little to improve Rolling Stone's downright archaic Web site, does not.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE: Circulation 250,000-500,000

Backpacker
Cookie
New York Magazine
W
Wondertime

FAVORITE: New York
OUR PICK: New York
LONG-SHOT: Everyone else
THE SKINNY: New York swept the National Magazine Awards program last year, and while they won't sweep this time around, it would be an upset of Marion Cotillard-proportions if Adam Moss' magazine didn't win for general excellence.
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Brian Williams: Is ‘Off the Record’ Dead?

Dylan Stableford — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:04:03 -0400

NEW YORK—Brian Williams, the anchor, managing editor and resident blogger of NBC's Nightly News broadcast, moderated a panel on political magazine coverage at the annual American Society of Magazine Editors members' luncheon at the Hearst Tower on Wednesday. And, as anyone who's seen Williams outside of his 6:00 news role can attest, he was funny, bitingly sarcastic and utterly, if oddly, poignant when discussing the relevance of magazines in 2008.
Williams opened the panel—consisting of Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel, Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi and New Republic senior editor Michelle Cottle—by asking "How does the Democratic race ... end?"
"In a pool of my own blood in a hotel somewhere," Taibbi quipped. Taibbi said he had been assigned two political obituaries by Rolling Stone just as Clinton was winning key primaries, which were eventually killed.
"The Clintons have moved the goalposts so much they're off the field," said vanden Heuvel. The media, she said, "is going to play a big role in deciding this race."
Taibbi agreed: "Voters take their cues from the media."
"Only in America," Vanden Heuvel added, "can a black man who was paying his student loans off 10 years ago come off as elitist."
But is the election good for the magazine business?
"Political magazines tend not to be profitable," Cottle said. "[But] in a good horse race, more people pay attention." But the pace of coverage-specifically competing with the Web-has "turned us into wire copy reporter," she said. "It's put tremendous strain on staff."
When van Heuvel explained that the Nation was "aggressively pursuing many platforms" including branded cruises, Williams stopped her. "Please explain what one does on a Nation cruise," Williams demanded. When van Heuvel revealed that Jackson Browne would be the entertainment on the next one, Williams interrupted: "That is going to be one off the hook boat ride."
But Williams edged into potentially damaging territory for a panel in the midst of covering a race that doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. "When did the world-class lying start?" he asked Cottle, referring to the spin control coming from the campaigns. Hillary's campaign, she said, is famously tight-lipped. They know that lying, if done properly, "can get you elected."
The Nightly News anchor then asked if "off the record" is "dead or in critical condition."
"There's a sliding scale," Cottle said. "If you're in a big room, you have to realize that nothing's sacred."
Taibbi added: "It's a new reality—we haven't really defined the ethics."
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Obama-Clinton Race Causing Internal Crisis at Women’s Magazines

Dylan Stableford — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:58:10 -0400

The seemingly endless race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination has turned ugly. And it appears to be manifesting itself in the offices of women’s magazines.
“It’s come to screaming matches in our office,” said Marie Claire editor-in-chief Joanna Coles during a Mediabistro panel (see: "High Profile Magazine Editors Drink Whiskey, Discuss Industry's Gender Gap") in New York on Tuesday. “There are some knockdown arguments.”
Some Marie Claire staffers "feel that being the wife of the president is tantamount to being president,” she said. Others support Obama, with younger female staffers, in general, favoring the Illinois senator.
“It’s completely divided our readers” and staff, Coles said. “It’s a house divided.”
Other women’s magazine editors spoke of similar fault lines at their titles, and the existential crisis female staffers are having when their colleagues move to support Obama.
“I think she was so unfairly vilified,” Elle executive editor Alexandra Postman said of the media’s treatment of Clinton earlier in the campaign. “It was this stealthy sexism that was just so unfair.” If Obama faced the same vilification, it would’ve been “completely unacceptable.”

This, she said, has galvanized her staff, moreso than any election before. Coles said the readers have also been more engaged in the tight race.

Lead Time Problem

The other problem for women’s magazines trying to cover the election is the same problem all magazines—including newsweeklies—with even mildly substantial lead times have: How to predict outcomes in an unpredictable election cycle.

The softer profiles that women’s magazines generally run are reliant on the candidate actually being in the race when the magazine comes out.

Cindi Leive, Glamour’s editor, said the magazine launched a blog, Glamocracy, to address just that problem.

“It’s been a very different election cycle,” Coles said. “It’s interesting how [all magazine staffers seem to] talk so seriously and so ponderously about politics.”
[PHOTO: CNN]
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Cat Fancy Makes Bid for 2009 Ellie, Pulitzer

Dylan Stableford — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:58:36 -0400

Just because you're an editor at, say, Cat Fancy, doesn't mean you shouldn't aspire to do the kind of hard-hitting, investigative journalism that wins Ellies and collects Pulitzers.
This story, you might say, is their fur-covered Watergate:
June Cat Fancy Article Suggests Possible Link Between Animal Trafficking and Terrorism
IRVINE, Calif., April 24 /PRNewswire/ -- A June Cat Fancy article, to hit newsstands on April 29, 2008, suggests a possible link between animal trafficking groups and terrorism. The article titled "Poaching's Criminal Element" outlines the intricate illicit underground activities of animal trafficking groups in many parts of the world, including the United States, and how these affect species population and Earth's ecologic balance. Surprisingly, the article also describes a clear and direct link to organized crime groups with possible ties to terrorism.
Focusing mostly in the trafficking of felines, the article highlights important worldwide animal issues such as the extinction of tigers in Asia, because of human killings. The piece cites astonishing numbers when describing the reductions of tiger population. It also explains how many of the conservation organizations take different approaches to capture poachers (animal traffickers) and organized criminal groups, from plain investigative work to extensive educational efforts.
This insightful editorial piece is authored by Brad Kollus, an award winning freelance writer specializing in the human-feline bond and Susan Logan, editor of Cat Fancy and CatChannel.com.
Cat Fancy is the world's leading cat publication. It entertains and informs responsible cat owners with the information they need to help their cats live long, healthy and happy lives. For the complete story on animal poaching, pick up the June issue of Cat Fancy.
To schedule an interview with Cat Fancy's editor contact Lisa MacDonald, marketing director, at XXX.XXX.XXXX extension XXXX.
About BowTie, Inc.
BowTie, Inc. is the leader in special interest pet magazines, trade magazines, books and websites dedicated to pet-loving consumers, pet-supply retailers, veterinarians, breeders, and pet professionals worldwide. Divisions of BowTie, Inc. include BowTie Magazines, BowTie Press, BowTie News, Thoroughbred Times Company, Global Distribution Services, and AnimalNetwork.com.
Source: BowTie, Inc.
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More on CIO and the LinkedIn Links

Joanna Pettas — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:45:38 -0400

ASBPE has not yet issued an official ruling on the controversy that began two days ago when I wrote about my concerns over CIO magazine's use of in-text links. That's understandable. Unlike the ad-in-links controversy that I've written about repeatedly, the CIO issue is more complex.

If you're not familiar with the issue, please take a look at the earlier post (and make sure you read the comments, which contain a number of interesting insights.)

But ASBPE has done the next best thing.

Steve Roll, president of the organization, has written a thoughtful piece in which he sums up the problem for journalism ethicists quite nicely, saying that "publishing on Internet—with all of its emerging functionalities—is likely to keep providing us with a steady supply of ethical conundrums. Failing to condemn unethical practices would destroy our profession. Being too quick to condemn new practices would likely have a chilling effect on innovation."

Meanwhile, Martha Spizziri, vice president of ASBPE, has weighed in as well.

Stuff To Think About

While ASBPE crafts its official response, I'd urge everyone in b-to-b journalism to think long and hard about the issues raised by the CIO links.

To aid in that process, here's what I see as the two crucial questions, based on my understanding of ASBPE's ethics guidelines, my conversations with CIO staffers, the comments posted to this blog, and the emails I've received.

1. What constitutes editorial approval?

I first heard about the CIO links when I was contacted by CIO editors who were upset that they had not been consulted. They didn't approve of the links. They didn't insert them. And they didn't know they would be there. What the editors told me was that the links simply appeared in their stories.

ASBPE's guidelines say that "Whether for editorial or advertising information, hypertext links should be placed at the discretion and approval of editors." To me, the use of the plural is crucial. It seems to me that links—whether they are an ad or something else—should only be inserted by the individuals responsible for each story. In other words, each editor at a publication must decide when, and when not, to add a link.

However, there is another school of thought. Abbie Lundberg, who runs the editorial department at CIO, posted a comment to my earlier post saying "As Editor in Chief at CIO, I approve the use of these links. " Abbie also notes that another senior staffer who has since left the company also approved of the links.

In other words, Abbie is saying that because the senior editorial staff approved the deal to place the links on the site, then discretion has been exercised and the links have received the "approval of editors."
Certainly many people would agree with Abbie on this. The senior editorial staff is ultimately responsible for editorial decisions.

I, however, disagree.

I think the ASBPE guidelines do and should require that individual editors be able to exercise choice in inserting a link into a story. If an editor thinks the link has value, the link goes in. If he doesn't think so, the link stays out. Or, to put the question another way—would ASBPE say that the ads-in-text used by Vibrant Media don't violate the ethics guidelines as long as the senior editorial staffer signs off on the deal? Of course not.

2. Must a link have a commercial/advertising component for it to violate ethics guidelines?

This is perhaps the most complex part of the equation.

In a comment to my earlier post, Rex Hammock notes that "nearly every financial news site on the web has such automatic links to information about publicly traded companies. Those are in-line links that an editor does not explicitly approve every instance of their inclusion—they are baked into the CMS."

To see an example of what Rex is talking about, take a look at this story on the CNNMoney site and scroll down to the third paragraph. What you'll find is that inserted after the word "IBM" are links to IBM's stock price (and other material) and a Fortune magazine profile of the company.

It's unlikely that anyone would argue that these links do not have value to the reader. It's equally unlikely that anyone would argue that the links are any more or less commercial than anything else on the CNNMoney site.

In other words, such links are, by any reasonable measure, editorial links and not advertising links. And Rex is saying, correctly, that such links are widely accepted among professional journalists.

Furthermore, as a general rule in 2008, such links are "baked into" the content-management systems of many of the financial-news giants. The journalists who produce stories at most of those sites don't insert the links. The links simply appear.

However, back when I worked at CNNfn, the predecessor of CNNMoney, editors did have to "explicitly approve every instance" of such links. If I remember correctly, all that was required was that you highlight the company name and click a button in the CMS. But if we didn't do that, the links didn't appear.

Now in truth, that requirement for approval was a function of the CMS. None of us thought to insert editorial choice into the process. It just sort of happened that way. I have no idea if such "approval" is still part of the CMS at CNN. But I believe that it should be part of the process for B2B publishers. Because, as the ASBPE guidelines say, "Whether for editorial or advertising information, hypertext links should be placed at the discretion and approval of editors."

Perhaps I'm being too harsh. Perhaps I'm being too rigid. But I believe with all my heart that b-to-b journalism functions best when it allows individual editors to determine what does and does not go into a story.

I hope that ASBPE agrees with me.
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Ex-Newsweek.com Editor Shows Up at Magazine Day Anyway

Joanna Pettas — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:23:38 -0400

Interesting moment at New York Magazine Day—I mean, aside from the VP of Toyota Motors telling the Magazine Publishers of America chairman that magazine readers don't care about editorial ethics anymore: Deidre Depke, Newsweek.com's assistant managing editor who recently took a company buyout offer (one of many longtime editorial staffers to do so), showed up for a panel called "All Things Digital" (she was honoring her commitment, she said later). Refreshingly, Depke—perhaps because she's no longer at the company—spoke openly about the challenges at Newsweek.
Among them:
Flexibility with talent. Depke said that a chief political correspondent announced he would be taking a vacation during the recent Iowa Caucuses. "His girlfriend was on vacation, so he was, too," she said, noting that publishers should not view it as a lack of dedication. "They're dedicated to the company when they're at the company."
Poaching. Ad agencies and Web companies are "coming in" and picking off Newsweek.com's design talent "because they can pay very well."
Product "integration" and customized editorial requests from ad agencies. "It's the single biggest point of contention within our company ... The only editorial asset our magazine has is its content-for us to abandon that, and let advertisers do what they want with it, would be a big mistake." When a fellow panelist suggested ASME is working on new guidelines to help navigate the increasingly murky ad-edit line, Depke quipped, "I have been hearing that for eight years."
Finding advertising support for video. Despite a relatively small but "deeply engaged" audience for its live online video offerings, Depke said getting advertisers to commit to the medium—when pre-rolls and interstitials are limited by Newsweek—is a major challenge. (She told FOLIO: as much recently.)

Print stories vs. online stories. Newsweek has 4 million print readers and 14 million readers online, leading Newsweek to rethink their silo-driven editorial strategy. "Stories are not print stories, they're not online stories-they're stories." Newsweek, like most magazines, constantly monitor how well Web stories are doing, trafficwise, and use that as a justification for putting them in the print magazine. "If a story that got rejected for the magazine goes online and zooms to no. 1, it's almost certain to make it into the magazine."
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Players Club Doubles as Free Real Estate Listing for Lenny Dykstra

Dylan Stableford — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:08:18 -0400

The Players Club, the magazine for professional athletes founded by Lenny Dykstra and published by Doubledown Media, had its launch last week. I had an interview scheduled with Dykstra—apparently notorious for missing interviews with journalists but one helluva stock picker!—but he never called. (Naturally, I waited by the phone, sucking on a hunk of chaw for six hours, but no “Nails” for me.) I had plenty of questions, the first of which is why Dykstra—and, moreover, Doubledown—thinks a magazine like this will work when others, specifically Overtime, have failed.
Hopefully he’ll reschedule.
In the meantime, I thought it might be useful to take a peek inside the 170-page debut issue. The magazine itself is big and heavy—kind of like a W for the athlete set. And then, the ads. There are a lot of ‘em, mostly for private jet services. (Whether or not these ads are paid or barter or gratis is another story.)
The content is pretty standard fare—in other words, unmemorable listicles (“All-Money All-Stars”), grids (“What’s hot in your world?”), charts (“Fitness Drinks: the box score”) as-told-to columns by John McEnroe and Tim Brown, an awkward fashion spread featuring Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Pat Burrell and vapid profiles—including the laughable cover story on Yankees shortstop and noted nightclub connoisseur Derek Jeter, by otherwise respected sportswriter Bob Klapisch. (Sample Jeter quotes: “I’ve really toned it down away from the field” and “I watch movies.”)
One feature, though, did catch my eye: a six-page photo spread of a 12,000-square-foot mansion outside of Los Angeles, built by Wayne Gretzky—a member of the Players Club “board of directors”—that sold in 2007 but is “on the market again.”
The unmentioned current owner of that estate: Lenny Dykstra.
Nothing like a free, high-end glossy house ad in a down real estate market, right? Now that’s a true player.
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An Indie Publisher’s Emotional Final Letter to Subscribers

Dylan Stableford — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:52:05 -0400

This week, another small, fiercely-independent magazine folded (“Another Small Music Magazine Bites the Dust”). The publisher, as they often do, wrote an apologetic, heartfelt, 1,000-word note to subscribers detailing the constant struggle that is being an independent magazine publisher in 2008.
It’s also one of the best “exit” memos I’ve read in awhile (sadly, there have been enough of these lately to compare), touching not only on the “harsh and sudden shock” of having to fold, but also on the blood, sweat—the love, really—that went into launching a magazine like this (“Resonance began in a bedroom, moved to a living room, then, for the second half of the magazine's existence, persisted in the two-room attic”) in the first place.
Here it is, in full:
To our dear friends and supporters:

In January 2008, immediately before going to press with our 55th issue, we were forced to stop printing Resonance. The financial challenge of publishing an independent magazine finally overwhelmed us. Fueled by the tireless support of many people (readers, subscribers, staff, freelancers, advertisers, publicists, as well as long-suffering spouses and significant others), we stubbornly survived on a shoestring budget and volunteer staff for 14 years. Such a business model isn't sustainable forever.

Independent publishing has always been a challenge; the recent couple of years, however, have been a much greater struggle due a number of factors, not the least of which include: downturns in the magazine and music industries; rising paper, production and postage costs; the list goes on. We've always been a small-budget business, but we nonetheless made additional spending cuts wherever possible, many of them painful (being unable to pay staff for the previous year, for one). In the past we had survived the lean times by borrowing on credit to cover shortfalls, but these gaps have been steadily increasing to an unmanageable degree. I believed we would manage financially, like usual, by the skin of our teeth. Our debt finally reached its limit—immediately before going to press with issue 55.

This was a harsh and sudden shock. We had worked tirelessly and in good faith these past several months to produce the best issue possible in terms of editorial, design and integrity. So although not in hardcopy, we hope you will read our final issue, Resonance 55. With the help of contributors from around the globe, we pour hundreds, maybe thousands, of work hours into assembling each edition. This issue—even if only in digital form—shines as one of our best ever and will be permanently available on this site as a free, high-resolution download. Resonance 54, the first issue of 2007's bold redesign, is also posted here. Please download, enjoy, and share the link with others, too.

To our subscribers: You believed in our vision and are the most valued supporters of Resonance. Only one subscriber ever requested a refund since we began publishing. For this faithful support, accept my deepest gratitude. What may be harder to accept is my apology. We will take care of you, and are negotiating to ensure that all subscriptions will be fulfilled by another music title. I know this is not at all ideal. I am sorry. Please understand that this is our only option.

For the near term at least, Resonance as a media vehicle is on indefinite hiatus, and continuing a print version at a future date is highly unlikely. A more viable route may be to phoenix ourselves online with a site devoted to the same vision (and with a massively diminished carbon footprint). We shall see.

+++++++++++++++++++

Resonance launched in 1994 and consistently published quarterly editions for 14 years. The initial focus of Resonance was electronic music, but within the first year the mission evolved to focus on emerging artistic innovation itself, first across music genres, then encompassing other media such as books, film and the visual arts. The goal was to promote imagination in music and art, beyond the constraints of a single genre or medium. Creativity rarely stays in a vacuum, it explodes and interacts and influences everything around it. In the mid-'90s, the internet was making this synergy among media all the easier. We wanted a magazine that reflected this same kind of open-minded interconnectivity. Then, eschewing a narrow niche was considered ill-conceived marketing—we took the risk anyway. Now, such a kaleidoscope approach is common. We like to think we played a role in expanding the old, rigid view of what a magazine could be.

Eclectic content became one of the defining traits of the magazine. We wanted Resonance to cover media readers could actually talk about. So we launched a film department, featured visual art, and strongly developed our literature content. In fact, our feature interviews with book and graphic-novel authors count among some of our proudest pieces: e.g. David Sedaris, Miranda July, Eric Schlosser, Douglas Coupland, Chuck Palahniuk, Tony Millionaire, Irving Welsh, to name a very few ... and we put Eightball and Ghostworld creator Dan Clowes on the cover of issue 47. Resonance even received an Independent Press Award nomination for its arts and literature coverage from the Utne Reader.

None of us got much monetary gain from Resonance. As publisher, I barely made a living wage. The editors and contributors worked for small stipends or simply volunteered. We never had a real office, either—Resonance began in a bedroom, moved to a living room, then, for the second half of the magazine's existence, persisted in the two-room attic of a rented house in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood. But financial reward was never the point for anyone involved. It was to be a part of something sincere, a cause to believe in, a labor of love fiercely committed to editorial integrity and excellence. We wanted to create an oasis amid a sea of advertorial-riddled media churning out predictable coverage of the newest flavor of the month (indie or otherwise). So we filled most of every edition with little-known artists creating something more ... inventive. And we were never afraid to go as far as giving them their first U.S. magazine cover, either (Lali Puna, Goldfrapp, MIA, Bobby Conn, Dan Deacon, Octopus Project, to name a few).

Whenever we had the opportunity, we tried to create content as unconventional as the artists Resonance championed. Perhaps our most unique achievement was orchestrating a dialogue between Thom Yorke and author Howard Zinn in issue 39—a worldwide-exclusive feature some readers thought was a fabrication. It wasn't. Even with interviews we looked for refreshing ways to engage artists, such as the single-topic Final Cut department, in which we shared candid, often hilarious, chats with diverse personalities such as David Byrne, Diamanda Galas, Afrika Bambaataa, Boy George, Britt Daniel, Vincent Gallo and many more. Our Toolkit page, for another example, showcased interviewees illustrating their answer to the question "What does your favorite song look like?" using only the limited (and masochistic) art supplies our staff provided.

Yeah, we liked to play around, a lot. A content mix of erudite and silly kept Resonance from becoming a somber, geeky journal for pundits. It was a nice balance. Besides, who wants to work for peanuts without some good laughs? Our penchant for costumes, props and mischief kept the photography lively, for sure. Long-suffering artists became characters as cartoonish as wing-and-halo'ed angels (Mogwai), Soviet comrades (Mates of State), hotel-room trashers (the Flaming Lips), and silver-skinned visitors from the future (Le Savy Fav).

Our most outrageous stunt was in 2000 when Yo la Tengo conspired with us to do a cover photo shoot, not of the band themselves, but with three unknown impersonators instead: a trio of attractive, young Latin models. The cover's headline read: "The sexy makeover of a hot Latin trio." Most readers got the joke, others believed the models were the band. Yo la Tengo's record label Matador responded with a cease-and-desist letter from their attorney that threatened legal action for misrepresenting their artists, citing "gross non-compliance of the fair-use agreement regarding Yo La Tengo imagery." We published the letter in the following issue. Many readers, Resonance staff, and Matador fans were alarmed that such a credible indie label would be so devoid of humor. Well ... they're not. The legal threat was also a joke, kept secret until now. Thanks to the label's then-publicist Ben Goldberg for help orchestrating it all, and for keeping mum for eight years. God, to this day I still chuckle about that.

Since 1994, Resonance celebrated the forward regions of music, books, film and the visual arts. We've always aimed to create a friendly mosaic—a mix of what's next, innovative and inspiring—accessible to everybody in one nicely designed package. That's what we ask readers to remember about Resonance. And if we reemerge online, the same spirit will continue.

We've had a lot of fun along the way—I hope you have, too. To all supporters of Resonance, thank you.

With warmest regards,

Andrew Monko, publisher
Resonance Magazine
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Is It Wrong to Borrow From Other Magazines?

Dylan Stableford — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:09:18 -0400

I wanted to broach the subject that I’m sure many editors, writers, art directors, et al. have come across over the years, and that’s the influence of other publications. I’m not talking plagiarism, just borrowing a good idea.
In the two years that I’ve been at the helm of Southern Breeze I haven’t been trying to reinvent the wheel, but I have been slowly nudging the magazine into a different arena with a more cutting edge, contemporary, and, yes, even urban feel. As a regional/lifestyle publication with Deep South roots, it would be far too easy to continue down the path of least resistance. But the South is changing. So, too, should its magazines.
Yes, we still have recipes, shopping, home fashion and all the things that make for a perfectly comfortable fit with our affable and affluent audience. But I felt the magazine could do more to truly reflect the diversity along the Gulf Coast.
Homage on the Range
I came up with the idea for our most recent cover [pictured above, right] while at a photo shoot for a piece on New Orleans pride as part of our new “Southern Breeze Hot List.” In previous years Southern Breeze has had a “Best Of” issue but trying to fit almost 30 topics into six to eight pages resulted in scattershot, albeit eclectic, feature. After seeing the photos at the shoot, I suggested using this as a cover option when my art director, Catherine, was not overly enthused by the other shots she had in her canon.
Once she sent out cover comps to me and my staff, we took a look at all 12 of them, and I picked the one above as my favorite [the one to the left is a typical cover from before my reign]. As my staff and I looked at the printouts, my assistant editor noted that the one I chose was just like a Time Out New York cover.
And then it hit me: Hell yeah, it looked like a TONY cover because that is my all-time favorite magazine and I’ve gleaned ideas from inside—and now, outside—its pages for a while, even before coming to Southern Breeze. For example, while managing editor at the late, great Lighting Dimensions we instituted a redesign and I suggested a “5 Questions With …” for the front of book, similar to TONY’s “Three Questions For …” in its FOB. It was included and proved to be a popular featurette. (The “5 Questions With …” survived Lighting Dimensions’ merger with Entertainment Design to become Live Design, which is more than I can say for the managing editor!)
So I guess my question is: Is it wrong to borrow from other magazines? It’s certainly not due to a lack of original ideas on our part, but I feel that if you see something that another magazine is doing that you think would work in your own publication, then why not? Besides, when I look at some of Southern Breeze’s competitors, it’s obvious they’ve borrowed a fair amount from us. Thankfully, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
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Radar’s Spencer for Hire

Dylan Stableford — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:14:03 -0400

For awhile, two stories in Radar’s April issue were contending for the coveted title of Most Buzzed About. One was John Cook’s no-holds-barred examination of Scientology’s recent struggles with anonymous hackers, outspoken ex-members and leaked internal videos featuring Tom Cruise’s steely-eyed reveries. The other was the 350-word debut of a new advice column, “Yo Spencer!,” in which Hills heel Spencer Pratt helps readers grapple with their personal quandaries.

On the surface, the pieces—a hard-hitting investigative feature and a cheap blog-baiting stunt—couldn’t be more different. But they spring from the same basic impulse. In both cases, the aim was to go where other publications generally fear to tread (I don’t know what’s worse, being on the Sea Org’s bad side, or on Lauren Conrad’s). As a new magazine in a crowded marketplace, Radar has no real choice but to take risks whenever possible. Otherwise we duplicate what’s already on the newsstand, in which case, why bother? We’ve published nine issues under our new owners, but there are still plenty of potential readers out there (millions, by my count) who have never heard of us. The cheapest, most effective—and frankly the most fun—way to reach them is by assigning and running stories that foment these little media frenzies we all love so much.

At the moment, it looks like Spencer Pratt is pulling into the lead in that regard. Even the Associated Press covered his foray into magazine journalism, which turns out to be, to my mind, one of the more enjoyably frank advice columns available. Nevertheless, the idea has been a bit controversial around the Radar offices. Some colleagues wondered if Spencer could really write. (He can.) Others decried the idea of soliciting advice from a guy most of America is convinced is nothing but a Machiavellian hustler. (Who better?) And then there were the hardcore haters, who crinkle their noses at the merest mention of the new addition to our writing stable.

Of course, most of this last bunch are card-carrying members of Team Lauren, still fuming over Heidi’s “betrayal” of their doormat diva. To them I can only point out that we put their Hollywood heroine on our March cover and declared her the most influential fashionista of the moment. After all, we always strive for balance.
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