Yesterday I interviewed Scott Carlis, executive director of marketing at Conde Nast’s GQ, for an event marketing story for the March issue of Magazine Event Strategies. GQ really has it right. It knows its audience and it knows what its readers want and what forms of media they are most responsive to.

GQ has not one, but two Web sites, men.style.com/gq and GQ Connects. The GQ Web site is fairly traditional— chock full of editorial content and ads. But it’s the GQ Connects Web site that’s leading edge. This completely promotional site is where GQ readers can go to find out about promotions, contests and events, get style advice from an expert and download weekly podcasts.

GQ Mobile is a huge part of the GQ Connects More...

American Business Media announced the finalists for its 2007 Jesse H. Neal Awards today. Considered the “Oscars” of business journalism, the Neal Awards, now entering its 53rd year, represent the best of b-to-b journalism.

So how come “the best” always seems to be the same handful of large publishers? A look at this year’s finalists reveals some familiar names: Nielsen Business Media (seven nominations), Hanley Wood (10 nominations), McGraw-Hill (eight nominations), Crain Communications (five nominations) and Advanstar Communications (12 nominations?!?). Some of the usual magazine standbys are here as well: Ziff Davis’ Baseline (Grand Neal Winner in 2005), Nielsen’s Editor & Publisher and Advanstar’s Medical Ec More...

Fellow b-to-b magazine blogger, Paul Conley, emailed me a note about his latest post. It seems Ziff Davis’s eWeek has begun using IntelliTXT’s keyword linking technology in its Web site editorial. I’ve written about this before, as has Conley, who this time suggests that pressures stemming from owner Willis Stein’s efforts to sell Ziff Davis have resulted in a revenue-at-all-costs Web site strategy:

Ziff Davis has had a dismal performance of late in print. But online revenue has risen. And that has given investment bank Lehman Brothers, which is advising Ziff Davis on a sale, something to push. And when you have a private equity company and an investment bank both intent on boosting online revenue in the short term to hel More...

So the excitement is finally over. Maybe. Between its layoffs and the sale of 18 of its magazines, Time Inc. has had no shortage of headlines over the past few months. Whether the company is done laying off remains to be seen, but at least the question of who will buy the magazines from its Time4Media and Parenting groups has been answered. And the sale of the publications to Bonnier Magazine Group and their merger with World Publications is good news for Time Inc. and for the magazines it's shedding.

For one, it gives Time Inc. executives the opportunity to focus their full attention on repositioning the company for multimedia growth. Time CEO Ann Moore has had to deal with a tremendous amount of pressure in the past few months f More...

Talk to any smart magazine marketer, and they will tell you that working with competitors is one of their top marketing methods. They trade subscriber lists with competitive magazines and even buy booths at competitor’s industry events. Most magazine marketers understand the value of working with the other industry powerhouses, whether they have a directly competitive magazine or not. Being a part of an industry means having relationships with all associations, organizations and vendors, and if you are confident enough about your product, you won’t feel threatened by a little healthy competition.