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News
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1. Mcall.com
Rodale names group publisher
By Dan Shope
9/23/05
http://www.mcall.com/business/local/all-rodalesep23,0,4671586.story

Mary Ann Bekkedahl has been named executive vice president, group publisher, for Rodale Magazines, the company said Thursday.

The Emmaus publisher also announced that Tom Beusse, president of Rodale Magazines, has left the company to pursue new opportunities. ''In her three years as publisher for Men's Health, the magazine saw unprecedented ad sales gains - jumping from 697 pages in 2001 to 1107 pages in 2005,'' said Steve Murphy, president and chief executive of Rodale.

Bekkedahl's appointment was effective immediately. Previously, Bekkedahl was senior vice president, global brand director for Men's Health. As group publisher, Bekkedahl will be responsible for further building on the growth that many Rodale titles have experienced over the past few years.

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AUDIENCE CIRCULATION STATEMENTS HAVE BECOME the bane of magazine advertisers and media planners for two big reasons: They take so long to process that the data often comes in too late to be practical for many ad buys; and the validity of some circulation data has been called into question. Now, new steps are being taken that could address both those issues. On Thursday, circulation auditor BPA Worldwide unveiled plans to deliver statements on a "per-issue" basis, and it was disclosed that federal investigators have launched a probe into the certain circulation practices by consumer magazine publishers. In response to frustration among media buyers over the long lag in time it takes to get magazine circulation data, the BPA said it's a task force has recommended a new process that would make circulation data available for each issue of a magazine, as opposed to the current twice-yearly method.

The so-called "top-line" circulation data would consist of both paid and non-paid qualified subscription copies and single copies, taking into account the appropriate subtotals and overall qualified paid/non-paid total.

The BPA said the task force was in the process of developing a specific reporting model, which would in turn be reviewed by media buyers and advertisers. The model would then be beta-tested by a group of BPA consumer titles. Meanwhile Time Inc., the nation's largest publisher of consumer magazines, has been subpoenaed by federal investigators to provide information about the industry's circulation practices, the company confirmed Thursday.

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It was 10 minutes past 5 p.m. on Monday and everyone agreed it had been a slow news day. No nannies or strippers alleging affairs with married movie stars. No sightings of celebrity cat fights. No wardrobe malfunctions.

The editors were just about to close the upcoming issue of Us Weekly when Peter Grossman, the magazine's liaison to the paparazzi, raced in. He was excitedly waving a printout of an image that had been snapped just minutes earlier. It had been taken from the back and at a weird angle -- but the subject was unmistakable.

It was Brad Pitt. And he was carrying Angelina Jolie's adopted Ethiopian daughter, Zahara, who was sporting a pink knit cap, and holding hands with her adopted Cambodian son, Maddox, who was in camouflage. A baby bottle was tucked into Pitt's back jeans pocket.

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4. Business Week Online
Inquiring Minds Want Results
By John Fine
9/23/05
http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_40/b3953027.htm

How weird is the print world these days? You can't even count on appealing to the lowest common denominator.

This is the reality facing David Pecker as chairman and CEO of American Media Inc., publisher of The National Enquirer, The Star, and Shape. Pecker speaks, at hyperspeed, with a Noo Yawk accent that's all rasp and sinus. His father laid bricks in the Bronx. He became a mogul.

In 1991, at 40, Pecker became CEO of Hachette Filipacchi's U.S. magazine division, which owns Elle and Road & Track. Pecker is a cost-cutter's cost-cutter, and he boosted revenues and profits. An accountant by trade, he remade himself into a relentless salesman. (I once saw him hit a roomful of private equity guys with a sell so audacious that some audience members weren't sure whether to guffaw or write checks.) A plan to take his unit public was rejected, and he split for a better deal.

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5. WWD.com
Memo Pad: Chasing Out Youth??¦Federal Case???¦ Money Men
By Sara James
9/23/05
http://www.wwd.com/issue/article/101498

CHASING OUR YOUTH: Sources within Cond?© Nast say Cond?©Net's next big venture will be a teen extension of style.com. The site, said to be called teen.style.com, is expected to be affiliated with Teen Vogue. One source within Cond?© Nast's Web division said, "We are exploring that market. We'd be silly not to, since they are the next generation of heavy Internet users." And, according to an editor at Cond?© Nast, the company's editorial business director, Rick Levine, who worked on the launches of Lucky, Cargo and Domino, recently moved over to work more closely with Cond?©Net.

A Cond?©Net spokeswoman declined to comment on teen.style.com. (Cond?© Nast, Cond?©Net and Teen Vogue are, like WWD, part of Advance Publications Inc.)

In other news, style.com had its biggest fashion week ever this month, with 34 million page views from Sept. 12 to 18. That represents a 36 percent increase over the same show period last year, and a 21 percent hike over the site's previous weekly high, which was during the 2005 Oscars and Paris fall collections.

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