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******* ******* Psst! If there's a random wacky ad at the top of this newsletter, know that it's not Ed's. It's just what you have to put up with for a free newsletter service..
******* Marc Jacobs might not think he is the new Andy Warhol, but Interview sure thinks so. With a white mop of hair, crisp button-down shirt and tie, the designer looks mighty Warholian on the cover of the magazine's June-July double issue. White wigs and fake eyelashes aside, Jacobs does have some Warhol tendencies — the way he runs his business, his artlike advertising, stores that feel like clubs and collaborations with Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince — according to Interview's Glenn O'Brien, who penned the cover story. "Andy was always talking about how new art is business art," O'Brien said. Jacobs, who crossed paths with the Pop Art artist a few times, was floored to be the front man. But he is still not sold on the similarities. "I don't think of myself that way," he said. "Warhol is Warhol. He's practically a god. I thought, 'I'm going to get a lot of hell for this.'" MORE ONLINE
2. WWD
If publishers weren't nervous about the economic downturn a few months ago, they should be petrified by now. According to Media Industry Newsletter, most fashion magazines reported significant declines in ad pages for the first six months of the year, as the broader recession has clearly begun to affect the magazine business. And, if June is any indication of things to come (with many fashion titles posting double-digit declines for their June issues), publishers are going to be hard-pressed to grow business over the course of 2008. Overall, the luxury fashion magazines are still performing better than the mass market titles — as most will argue, the rich keep shopping no matter the state of the broader economy, and luxury brands are still doling out dollars to market to that fat-pocketed demographic. Among the high-end fashion titles, Elle and Harper's Bazaar are reporting gains and Vogue and W are reporting relatively flat numbers. At Elle, which tacked on page gains for every issue in the period except June, ad pages jumped 6 percent through June, to 1,175. Harper's Bazaar increased ad pages 9 percent, to 890. Vogue reported flat numbers, coming in at 1,328 ad pages. W reported a 2 percent drop in ad pages, to 878. Meanwhile, the mass titles were challenged during the first half. Cosmopolitan posted a 15 percent decline in ad pages, to 791, a loss of 141 pages for the six-month period. Glamour's ad pages dipped 8 percent, to 859, and Marie Claire reported a 7 percent decrease, to 600. In Style, which is prepping for a major redesign with its August issue, reported a 9 percent decline in ad pages, to 1,349. Shopping magazine Lucky reported a 13 percent decline in ad pages, to 718, and More, which lost editor Peggy Northrop to Reader's Digest late last year, reported a 23 percent drop in ad pages, to 452. With such dismal results for the first half of the year, publishers are going to be under pressure to drum up business for those usually advertising-heavy September issues to make up their losses. But even matching last year's results in this climate seems unlikely — several magazines trumpeted their best Septembers ever in 2007, before the full brunt of the economic downturn took hold. MORE ONLINE
3. WWD
On the long road to rebranding itself as a content company rather than a magazine company, Time Inc. has tried many Internet strategies over the years — restricting magazine content online to subscribers and AOL users, experimenting with and then retreating from online-only brands and pushing many of its print writers to file and break news online. Health.com, relaunching today, represents a slightly different tack: spinning off the Web site of an existing magazine into a separate brand that is more a general health portal than a women's lifestyle or fitness site. It's been taken out of the hands of Southern Progress Corp.'s digital operation and Health magazine, and put under the leadership of Scott Mowbray, who has been editor of Popular Science, editorial director of Time4Media (sold to Bonnier Group in early 2007) and executive editor of Time Inc. under John Huey, to whom he still reports. "This has been a complete Web immersion," Mowbray admitted. "I'm an old media guy." He has an editorial team of about 10 and a "fleet of freelancers" who will produce stories and video on a range of health issues. The site will have the same diagnostic data licensed by other health sites, but the hope is that adding service-oriented stories — for example, how to tell your kids and boss about a health issue — will be a key point of differentiation, and though some articles will be repackaged from Health magazine, the emphasis is on Web-only content. "This company has learned a lot about how you drive readers in print to the Web....We know a lot more about that than we used to," said Mowbray. Such as? "The fundamental thing we've learned is that the information ecosystem on the Web is different. People come to you differently, and they're less brand-conscious and more content-hungry." He added, "Some of the habits of being in print proved to be dysfunctional on the Web, and other things we have found through our success — journalism, great writing, getting it first — are absolutely central to the Web." John Brown, Health.com's general manager, said $20 million worth of in-house ad inventory in consumer magazines and banners across Time Inc. sites would promote the new site. MORE ONLINE
4. New York Post
BlackBook Media lost its second top exec in a week as Maxim raided Editor-in-Chief Steve Garbarino to become an editor-at-large at the laddie magazine. "He's a great writer and a great editor,' said James Kaminsky, the editorial director of Maxim, said of the new hire who will be involved in "all aspects of the magazine's execution," including recruiting writers and editing and assigning stories. BlackBook last week lost publisher Joe Landry to Out magazine. MORE ONLINE
5. New York Times
Of all the dot-com publishing franchises, Wired seemed the most likely to end up as road kill on a superhighway it helped create. The seminal artifact of the Web 1.0, it was bought by Cond? Nast Publications in 1998 and then lost two-thirds of its ad sales during the bust from 2000 to 2002. Its newsstand sales dropped by over a third in the same period, and its Web site was no help because, well, it didn’t even own its site. Chris Anderson, then of The Economist, was dropped into the crater in 2001 as editor in chief. A few months into his tenure, he and I sat in a booth in the Cond? Nast cafeteria as he earnestly explained that Wired was not a confection of the digital age, but a magazine about the culture to come. MORE ONLINE
6. MediaWeek
While In Touch builds its circulation mostly on newsstand sales, it has been quietly soliciting more subscriptions. The celebrity weekly recently started running blow-in cards in every issue. Mark Oltarsh, vp, publisher, insisted that In Touch isn't looking to increase its reliance on subs, which averaged 3.4 percent of total circ in the second half of last year. "[Subscriptions are] a very small source of revenue,” he said. Still, there's no denying In Touch has seen its sales soften since it raised the cover price to $2.99 last fall, a move that forced it to cut rate base 17 percent to 1 million. Dan Capell, editor of Capell's Circulation Report, said blow-in cards are a cheap, efficient way of goosing subscriptions. But magazines tend to cannibalize newsstand sales when they lean more heavily on subs. "You can't have it both ways,” he said. MORE ONLINE
7. MediaWeek
With Bonnie Fuller's abrupt exit from Star publisher American Media Inc., the current parlor game has people guessing where the tabloid diva will go next. Fuller hasn't divulged her plans, but some former colleagues hear she's been meeting with TV executives during her frequent West Coast trips as AMI's vp, chief editorial director. Others say she's been looking into Internet ideas, having met with venture capitalists to shore up financing for a women's portal. Fuller's magazine credentials are well-established. She gave women what they wanted as editor of Hearst Magazines' Cosmopolitan and Cond? Nast's Glamour and transformed celeb weeklies with makeovers of Star and Wenner Media's Us Weekly. Many assume that between burned bridges and a lack of openings, another magazine job is unlikely for now, however. MORE ONLINE
8. MediaWeek
About two years after buying Wired.com and reuniting it with its print counterpart, Cond? Nast announced its latest effort to cater to tech-savvy readers with the purchase of Ars Technica, a tech news and analysis site for PC enthusiasts. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The site will become part of Wired Digital. Cond? Nast also announced that it would relaunch Webmonkey.com, a Web developer tutorial site; and Web magazine HotWired.com. Cond? Nast recently bought both entities from Lycos Inc., which also owned Wired.com until selling it to Cond? Nast in July 2006. Later that same year, Cond? Nast bought Reddit.com, a Web site that aggregates and ranks news based on users' feedback. MORE ONLINE
************ JOBS ...that NYMag.com may be seeking entertainment reporter with strong knowledge in film who can BREAK insider news stories. Do NOT mention Ed! For even more jobs, go to http://www.ed2010.com/jobs/whisperjobs or click here. INTERNSHIPS ...that there may be a one-year paid research internship, at the rate of $8/hr, at New Jersey Monthly Magazine in Morristown, NJ. The main job responsibility is research and fact-checking editorial content, but there are plenty of opportunities for writing short articles, as well. Some administrative duties are involved - sorting editorial mail and e-mail, answering phones, mailing comp issues of the magazine to freelancers, etc. Other duties include proofreading, soliciting products for photo shoots, uploading stories to the website, helping out at special events, etc. Interns are treated as part of the editorial team because the magazine has such a small staff, and are always welcome to contribute ideas and input at the weekly editorial meetings. Send cover letters, resumes, and clips to research@njmonthly.com. They will then be forwarded to the editor-in-chief and/or managing editor. Do NOT mention Ed! For even more internships, go to http://www.ed2010.com/ed-campus/internships/list or click here.
********* Whisper jobs or internships to share? Send 'em to whispers@ed2010.com. Ed'll keep it anonymous for you. Blogalicious! Catch up with Ed's Guy on the Hunt and Ed’s Determined Freelancer at ed2010guy.blogspot.com and www.ed2010.com/boards/section/ed-campus How to unsubscribe from this newsletter: How to subscribe: |
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