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Did you hear...
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...that they're planning a possible 90210 spin-off? (Woop woop to it coming eight years after the fact: http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-News-Blog/Todays-News/Veronica-Mars-Boss/800035491) Now the ever-aging Ed could wax on about how THAT was a seminal show for him, but he won't...

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Ed2010 2-Day Conference (All About Magazines!)
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We're matching 10 magazine classes with present and former editor in chiefs and other leaders in the field--like Stephanie Izarek, Editor in Chief of Scholastic Parent and Child and Lauren Brody, Deputy Editor of Glamour! Every magazine area is represented as you're taken through strategies which score full-time jobs and win writing assignments. Here's the lineup for Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1 (out-of-towners: share a hotel room through a special message board below):

May 31

10:00 Show opens, Welcoming Address, 11:00 Feature Writing, Stephanie Izarek, Scholastic Parent and Child Editor in Chief, 12:00 Women's Magazines, Lauren Brody, Glamour Deputy Editor, 1:00 Lunch Break, 2:00 Entertainment, Mike Hammer, Former Editor in Chief of Stuff, 3:00 Travel, Glenn Haussman, Editor in Chief of Hotelinteractive.com, 4:00 Technology Writing (Speaker TBA), 5:00 Networking, 6:00 End of First Day

June 1

10:00 Day 2 opens, Job Interviewing Tips From EdSchool, 11:00 Web Writing, Laura Rich, Portfolio.com Editor and Former Editorial Director of Inc.com, 12:00 Health, Nicole Beland, Deputy Editor of Women's Health, 1:00 Lunch Break, 2:00 Business, Diane Harris, Asst. Managing Editor of Money magazine, 3:00 Blogs, Maud Newton, MaudNewton.com (as mentioned in the New Yorker), 4:00 Freelance Writing, EdSchool's Eric Butterman, 5:00 Networking, Extended Freelance Writing Q & A, 6:00 Show Closes

Where: Manhattan Theatre Club, 311 West 43rd St., 8th Floor, NY, NY

Cost: $185 before April 15, $225 after

To Sign Up: RSVP to freelance@ed2010.com is REQUIRED as space is limited. You'll get an email back with the PayPal URL.

Hotel Room Message Board: www.chatzy.com/944943712368

BTW, Ed doesn't endorse the random non-Ed advertisement you see at the top of the newsletter. It's just what happens when you use a free e-newsletter service.

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News
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1. WWD
Memo Pad
By Samantha Conti, Amy Wicks, and Stephanie D. Smith
3/13/08
http://www.wwd.com/memopad/article/123374

PORTFOLIO TURNS A PAGE

Lauren Goldstein Crowe and portfolio.com are parting ways — so what does that mean for fashion coverage at Cond? Nast Portfolio and its Web site? Goldstein Crowe, who's been at the site for a year, said she will leave portfolio.com when her contract expires later this month. She said she decided not to renew under the terms offered to her. "It was always meant to be a part-time gig I could do while writing the unauthorized Jimmy Choo story," she said. "It taught me a lot about the Internet, and I have no regrets."

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ATHLETES CAN DRESS UP

The 10th anniversary issue of ESPN The Magazine hit newsstands with a cover line that reads, "Wow We're 10! Now What?" Fashion, it seems, is one of the answers. The magazine plans to increase fashion coverage, has hired its first style director and will begin running fashion credits. Right away, one of the new covers (there are 10 in the anniversary issue) points to the changes: Venus Williams is wearing a white Emanuel Ungaro gown and sister Serena appears in a white gown by Donna Karan. "People want to know what athletes are wearing to and from the ballpark," said Steven Binder, vice president of magazine sales. "ESPN should be doing this." It's also a great opportunity to tap into those fashion ad dollars, although the current economic climate might make that more difficult. Binder said the magazine is also seriously considering putting on an event in Milan during the spring shows. ESPN's average reader is male, just over 30 years old, with an income of less than $70,000, so labels such as Hugo Boss and Z Zegna will make more sense than a designer collection, Binder added. ESPN The Magazine's circulation last year was two million.

MOVING UP

Two teen titles shuffled the decks this week. At Seventeen, Ann Shoket upped two edit staffers from the Atoosa Rubenstein era: Jessica Musumeci has been promoted to creative director from design director and Mike Reddy to design director from art director. Musumeci has been with Seventeen since September 2003 and Reddy since February 2005. Meanwhile, David Stuckey was named associate publisher of Teen Vogue. Stuckey had been associate publisher at Marie Claire since 2006.

2. Media Industry Newsletter
MPA Aims to Improve Measurement of Magazine Audience and Readership
Staff
3/13/08
http://www.minonline.com/news/

The Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) recognizes the need for change. The organization has been a publishing industry staple for its approximated 1,400 magazine titles for over 87 years. Their newest initiative is to develop an improved approach to magazine measurement for advertisers based on audience and readership. Essentially, they are helping to service the need for magazines to be measured in way comparable to other media.

Nina Link, MPA’s president and CEO told minonline, “We're working on an improved system that will more accurately reflect the value of magazines to advertisers.” The initiative is a collaborative effort between the MPA, magazine industry leaders and the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Individual ad engagement metrics on an issue-by-issue basis is one of the initiative’s goals. “We are not the first to attempt this method of measuring user-engagement. There have been beta tests and several vendors who are already doing ad recall. But what we’ll be doing is much more in-depth.”

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3. Mediaweek
Magazine Publishers Push for Total Audience Metric
By Nat Ives
3/11/08
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=125640

The magazine industry went public this week with its plan to get advertisers to acknowledge every reader, not just those who buy subscriptions or newsstand copies. But its effort won't be easy or the last word -- not when so much other research, not to mention negotiation and even some self-interested posturing, continues to press its own importance.

Are advertisers, to start with, interested in basing their ad buys on audience instead of paid circulation? "No," said a senior print buyer at one major media agency. "No one has given me a compelling reason as of yet. We have to be convinced that we should pay for pass-along. Magazines are trying to take focus away from their circulation woes and the fact that they continue to devalue and commoditize their products."

That echoes the market's verdict thus far at Time magazine, which has offered to give advertisers guarantees for its total audience, including those copies passed along from paid readers to friends or family. Almost everyone has demurred, preferring to keep using paid circulation guarantees.

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4. Associated Press
`Hills' Villain Gets Column in Radar Mag
By Staff
3/12/08
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVDMbXVKwXB_qLGhIIPPw_iyDTnwD8VC6BR00

If you've got a problem, yo — Spencer Pratt will solve it. Pratt, who torments Lauren Conrad on "The Hills," is getting his own advice column in Radar magazine. Pratt and his squeeze, aspiring pop star Heidi Montag, are Conrad's archnemeses on the popular MTV reality show, which returns with all-new episodes March 24.

Pratt's new column — titled "YO SPENCER!" — will debut in Radar's April issue, on newsstands March 25, the magazine announced Wednesday. "Spencer is never afraid to speak his mind," Radar editor Maer Roshan said in a statement. "When asking for advice, it's good to have someone who will be brutally honest with you, and tell it like it is." The magazine featured Pratt, 24, in a Q&A in its November 2007 issue.

5. New York Post
Sale of Jossip Gossip
By Keith K. Kelly
3/13/08
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03132008/business/sale_of_jossip_gossip_101682.htm

Jossip Initiative, the company that owns the snarky, mediacentric Website jossip.com and other ventures, is on the block, sources say. The company, founded by David Hauslaib in late 2003, is believed to be making money, although it remains something of a boutique industry.

In addition to jossip.com, it has three other sites: mollygood.com, a celebrity site; queerty.com, a gay lifestyle site; and stereohyped.com, aimed at a black audience. Reached yesterday, Hauslaib suggested a joint venture or a minority investment - rather than an outright purchase of the whole company - might be in the offing. He declined further comment.

Pumping the price somewhat is a wild rumor that Cond? Nast might have taken a look. How serious that interest may be is open to debate. One insider at the Cond? Nast parent company, Advance Publications, said that "the odds of us trying to buy the site are between zero and negative numbers." Cond? Nast spokeswoman Maurie Perl said, "We never discuss the subject of acquisitions. We have no comment."

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6. Folio
People on the Move
By Jason Fell and Joanna Pettas
3/13/08
http://www.foliomag.com/2008/people-move-03-10-08