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New York Times Sells Front Page Ads The recession is driving publishers to make significant changes. A big change was announced today at the New York Times. They have started selling ads on their front page. They reported on themselves in an article here. They say CBS purchased the first front page ad.
The first such ad, appearing Monday in color, was bought by CBS. The ad, two-and-a-half inches high, lies horizontally across the bottom of the front page, below the news articles and a brief summary of some articles in the paper. In a statement, the paper said such ads would be placed "below the fold" - that is, on the lower half of the page.It's a significant move considering the Times front page had been strictly devoted to containing editorial content only but probably a very necessary move for a newspaper in need of revenues. The ad was on the lower-half of the paper's front page. You can read more articles on the Times decision here, here and here. Posted on January 5, 2009 Permalink | | | Comments (View) 
JPG Magazine posted on their blog that they will be closing down. JPG was a unique magazine publishing peer reviewed photography.
We've spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we've reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but just weren't able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success. As a result, jpgmag.com will shut down on Monday, January 5, 2009.The publisher of the magazine 8020 Media is also closing reports the New York Times Bits blog. 8020 also publishes one other magazine called Everywhere Magazine. They also employed 18 people who have been let go. Posted on January 3, 2009 Permalink | | | Comments (View) Organic Beauty Magazine Debuts  Sovereign/Homestead is launching Organic Beauty, a bimonthly magazine that will cover natural, eco-friendly products and organic beauty. The premier issue is themed "Green and Gorgeous." It hits stands New Year's Day and will contain information about green alternative choices in personal-care products and cosmetic surgery.
Rona Berg, former beauty editor of the New York Times Magazine and editorial director of Elle, is the editor-in-chief. She says going green is a new lifestyle. "Going green is no longer just a trend, it's a lifestyle," says Berg. "Organic Beauty will provide a smart, sophisticated resource for women who want to cut through the confusion and find more natural alternatives." "We are very excited to be teaming up with Rona to publish a magazine that will help women be healthy and beautiful," said Diane Hintz, publisher of Organic Beauty. "The organic and natural personal-care product market has hit a phenomenal $7 billion in annual sales. The demand for organic beauty products may be the most important issue to affect the beauty industry in its history." Posted on December 29, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View)  Mediaweek reports that the Washington Post and the Tribune Co. owned Baltimore Sun have agreed to a content sharing and collaboration deal. The content includes local Maryland coverage as well as international stories. The content sharing arrangement begins on January 1st.
"The Post and the Sun have agreed to share the newspapers' day-to-day coverage of certain Maryland news and sports," the papers said in a joint announcement. "In addition, the Post and the Sun may draw on each other's national, international and feature stories that are distributed by the LAT-WP News Service, to which both contribute. The exchanges will allow each paper to take advantage of the other's strengths and expertise in specific subjects around the region and the world."The idea for the rival papers to collaborate on some stories began in October according to a Dow Jones story. See also articles from Reuters, Washington Post and paidContent. Posted on December 27, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View) Magazine Launches Plunged 13% in 2008 Crain's New York reports that new magazine launched plunged 13% in 2008. There wre just 335 magazine launches in 2008 compared to 386 in 2007 and 431 in 2006. That's over a 23% plunge in new launches since 2006. 2009 doesn't seem likely to be a year that is going to start out with tons of new magazine launches either. The 335 new magazines of ’08, which tended to be small titles with a narrow focus, was down from 386 in 2007 and 431 in 2006, according to MediaFinder.The future of magazines is digital not print. There are clearly going to continue to be new print magazine launches but there are likely to be less and less of them year after year. Posted on December 20, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View) Dead Zone Roundup 12-16-08 It's nearly impossible to keep up with the rate of salary freezes and layoffs in the media and publishing industry here at the end of 2008. The pace seems to be quickening as we head into 2009. Here's some depressing highlights of recent layoffs, cutbacks and closures. Posted on December 16, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View) Singular Magazine Targets Happy Single People  Singluar magazine is a new publication that targets affluent unmarried adults. It isn't a dating magazine. It targets people who are satisfied being single. Here's an excerpt from the press release.
Singular magazine, created to serve Los Angeles' fast growing demographic of affluent unmarried adults, has hit regional newsstands and 63,000 households. Along with its companion website SingularCity.com, the magazine delivers an editorial voice that validates what it calls the "singular" lifestyle, recognizing being single as a satisfying, enjoyable lifestyle.The publication launched in September and its holiday issue with Amy Sedaris recently hit newsstands and was direct-mailed to 70,000 subscribers. Elisabeth Eaves at Forbes writers that "Marital status, it seems, does not a target market make." Singles aren't a very organized group and they have wide-ranging interests just like married people. However, the number of people not getting married does seem to be growing and if Singular can get the word out then they might be able to interest some happy-to-be-single unmarrieds in reading their publication. Posted on December 14, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View)  Google has launched the Life Photo Archive. It's a collection of Life photos dating back to 1750. The searchable database of Life photos includes many that were never published in the magazine. Posted on December 10, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View) Comedy Central Launches Jokes.com  Comedy Central has launched Jokes.com - Viacom has owned the domain since 2002. CNET reports that the new jokes hub contains 5,000 funny videos and 12,000 text-based jokes.
"Stand-up comedy and comedians have always been the backbone of the network," said Erik Flannigan, executive vice president of digital media at MTV Networks Entertainment Group, the Viacom division that encompasses Comedy Central.It's a good domain name for Comedy Central. It's pretty clear what you are going to find at Jokes.com. Posted on December 8, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View) Michael Wolff Talks Rupert Murdoch Jon Friedman from Marketwatch talks with Michael Wolff about the movement of news to the Internet and about media mogul Ropert Murdoch. Wolff's recent book is called The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch. Wolff calls Murdoch the last great newspaper man. Wolff says Murdoch's views the media world is as an ongoing newspaper war. Wolff thinks Murdoch is now thinking about the Wall Street Journal 90% of the time. Posted on December 1, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View)  Twitter.com is a microblogging service that allows users to quickly post short 140-character updates while they are sitting at their computer. Updates can also be posted via email or with a cell phone or other mobile device. The service is also being used increasingly by the media for delivering news and by retail outlets to correspond with customers. A Twitter profile named Black Friday has been set-up that tweet news about the latest Black Friday ads and deals and the latest Black Friday happenings. Black Friday tweets from everyone on Twitter can also be found by using Twitter Search and searching for the test "Black Friday." Black Friday is a big event in the blogging world as bloggers discuss the latest deals - you can find some of the latest blog posts by searching Technorati or Google Blog Search.
Posted on November 20, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View) US News and World Report Switching to Monthly  The Associated Press reports that the U.S. News and World Report is going to cut back on the number of issues it publishes. They will be switching to monthly and focus more on the website.
The Washington Post, citing unnamed staffers briefed on the decision, said the magazine's print edition will focus on popular consumer guides such as its annual ranking of colleges, while its Web site will offer expanded features.This news comes not too longer after the Christian Science Monitor announced plans to also move to a monthly print cycle and focus more on its news website. Posted on November 14, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View) Conde Nast to Fold Men's Vogue Into Vogue  Bloomberg reports that Conde Nast is folding Men's Vogue and also cutting back the number of issues of Portfolio from 12 to 10.
Conde Nast Publications Inc. will fold Men's Vogue into the larger women's Vogue magazine and cut the number of issues at its Conde Nast Portfolio business title because of faltering advertising sales.Layoffs will be about 17% at Portfolio says Bloomberg. Portfolio will shrink to 10 issues a year from 12 and the publisher will cut staff by about 17 percent, said David Carey, group president for Conde Nast.Portfolio's website can be found at portfolio.com. Vogue's online counterpart is located here on Conde Nast's style.com website. Posted on November 12, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View) Christian Science Monitor to Cease Daily Print Edition  BusinessWeek repots that the Christian Science Monitor will be ending its 100-year-old daily print newspaper in April, 2009. The newspaper plans to move its focus to the Internet. They will maintain a weekly print edition. The image on the right is a sample of what the weekly print edition will look like.
The Christian Science Monitor, which turns 100 years old this year, is announcing on Tuesday, Oct. 28, that it will cease daily publication next April. The newspaper will shift to a weekly print format while increasing its emphasis on its Web site, says its editor, John Yemma.A more detailed article about the transition can be found here on the Christian Science Monitor website. The article says the print edition "has trended downward for nearly 40 years." Posted on November 8, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View) Editorial Dead Zone Roundup Here are some recent news highlights having to do with layoffs, cutbacks and ceased publications.
Posted on November 7, 2008 Permalink | | | Comments (View)
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