Magazine gets funeral following its demise

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 4 April 2006 at 14:31
Tags: Magazines, United States

When magazines die they don’t usually get a funeral. But that was what happened following the closure of Budget Living, a magazine that everyone thought had a great future.

Its target was the ultra-thrifty. At a memorial service in New York, attended by many former employees, most wearing black, there was even a casket – filled not with copies of the magazine, but bottles of cold beer. It was flanked by a blow-up of the magazine’s last cover draped in black lace and flanked by a funeral wreath.

Despite its promise, and several awards, including the coveted General Excellence Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors, plus a circulation of more than 500,000, the magazine lasted a mere four years.

What went wrong? Budget Living – according to its publisher Don Welch – faced too much competition from bigger glossier magazines and without help from advertisers who were not interested, he claimed, in people who are trying to live on a shoestring.

Rather they are after the big-spenders. Welch, a veteran publishing executive who at one time worked at Rolling Stone and Outside magazines, “We were fighting Goliaths with big circulations and big budgets.�

Incidentally that coffin, in keeping with the magazine’s aim was bought on the Internet – for a very thrifty $10.

Manila press targeted for official intimidation

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 4 April 2006 at 13:59
Tags: Journalism, Phillipines, United States

For the first time since President Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown more than 20 years ago, the news media in the Philippines is suffering, it claims, from Government pressure.

Normally the most free-wheeling in Asia, the press in Manila – according to a dispatch published in the New York Times – is the target of official intimidation.

The pressure includes harassment lawsuits, surveillance of journalists and threats of arrests on charges of sedition. Although no journalists have up to now been arrested and no newspapers or news organizations have been shut down, local journalists are unnerved.

Recently troops set up cordons around several television stations for more than a week. Also lately in the wake of what was claimed to be an attempted coup against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo several gatherings said to be critical of the Government have been banned. At the same time the Government is said to be targeting the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism, which has a reputation as a watchdog and has been in the forefront lately in exposing what its claims has been Government corruption.

The centre is credited with bringing down Mrs Arroyo’s predecessor, Joseph Estrada. It was also in the forefront in the battle 20 years ago that overthrew the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.

Rolling Stone hits the Great Wall

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 4 April 2006 at 13:50
Tags: Journalism, United States

Has Rolling Stone run full tilt into the Great Wall? It seems like it.

Plans to launch a Chinese edition of the popular American magazine have run into problems. It involves what’s been described as a bureaucratic bungle over the licensing of the title. The first Chinese language edition – with the usual scrawling Rolling Stone logo across the top, but the name Audio Visual World in Chinese and smaller type underneath – hit the news-stands in China in late March.

According to Advertising Age, it was a big hit and sold out within days. It featured a mix of local stories and translated features and pictures from the US edition.

The cover featured Cui Jian, one of the first Chinese musicians to incorporate Western rock into his songs. His best-known song, “Nothing to My Name�, was often sung by students during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989.

However it wasn’t the contents that apparently upset the Chinese authorities. Chinese regulations stipulate that a foreign title of a magazine must be “significantly smaller� than the local title. Although the magazine has not been officially banned - at least not yet – changes will have to be made, it’s said, before the next issue can be published.

Officially Rolling Stone hasn’t commented on the problem, but in American publishing circles, it’s seen as one of the difficulties of putting out a publication in China without making sure it has the official blessing – and approval – of the government. And conforms to all the rules.

Car ads slump hits US magazines

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 29 March 2006 at 13:09
Tags: United States

Advertising is down of course in almost print publications. But the biggest drop-off, according to Advertising Age, is in ads for cars.

The big auto companies — several of which, including General Motors, have been laying off workers and closing plants — was down in January by almost 23 per cent or almost $100 million in revenue.

Last year Ford’s spending on print ads fell to 21 per cent of its total ad budget; DaimlerChysler’s print spend fell to 18 per cent, and General Motors to 16 per cent.

American magazines say that getting ads in Detroit is the toughest anyone remembers. Time, Newsweek and magazine publishers the Meredith Corp are even cutting their ad sales staff in the Motor City.

US mag seeks new term for ’senior citizens’

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 29 March 2006 at 12:57
Tags: Journalism, United States

A new name for Senior Citizens?

No not Oldies!

Parade magazine, after soliciting suggestions from its readers, came up with the following: “Seasoned Citizens”, “OPALS” (”Older Persons with Active Life Styles”), “Geri-Actives, “the Sage Age” and the “PS Stage” (that’s “Post Sixty”).

Real estate tycoon Donald Trump, who is 59, came up with “The Best-Yet Stage”, while Naomi Judd, the country singer who has just turned 60, suggested “The Rockin’ The World Generation”.

“Sixty is the new 40,” she insisted.

Economist’s Baltimore sales blitz

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 29 March 2006 at 12:49
Tags: Economist, United States

The Economist, which has just promoted its former US editor John Micklethwait to the post of editor-in-chief, is launching a major marketing campaign concentrated on Baltimore, which the magazine regards as a typical American city.

The objective is to test new methods of promoting sales on newsstands as well as subscriptions. The test, will involve major advertising of the magazine, including posters, print ads, radio commercials, direct mail and online ads. The Economist is also giving away to sidewalk cafes outdoor umbrellas emblazoned in its trademark red with the slogan: “Talk about more than just the weather!”

It’s estimated the campaign, which is scheduled to last six weeks, will cost around $500,000.

The Economist’s world-wide circulation is just over one million, about half of which is in the United States.

Manhattan media’s building boom

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 29 March 2006 at 12:33
Tags: United States

Just like Fleet Street a decade or so ago, the publishing scene in New York is physically changing. Entire offices are being moved.

Work is nearing completion on the new headquarters of the Hearst Corporation, a 46-storey glass and steel skyscraper designed by Sir Norman Foster and costing something like $500 million, which is going up on the site of the old Hearst offices close to Central Park and Columbus Circle.

One of the unusual and spectacular features of the new Hearst offices will be an indoor waterfall – the biggest private waterfall in the country, some claim – which will cascade at the rate of 15,000 gallons of water an hour over a 75 ft wide, 30 ft high glass wall in the building’s lobby.

The water will come from rain collected on the roof and recycled. There will be no wasted water, New Yorkers have been assured. The water will come from rain collected on the roof and recycled. There will be no wasted water, New Yorkers have been assured.

Meanwhile despite circulation and advertising woes, work is also progressing on a new headquarters for the New York Times — again a new skyscraper which will loom high over the West Side of the city.

The old Times building – close to Times Square and fronting onto the famous Shubert Alley - is being turned into apartments and shops. The ground-floor bays through which trucks delivered reels of newsprint and picked up papers all night from the basement presses will be converted to glass-fronted stores, a bookshop and possibly a restaurant.

The only publishing company in New York that doesn’t have big plans is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Despite being scattered in rented offices around the city, News Corp has rejected several overtures from companies eager to build a new headquarters for the Murdoch Empire, even though the city has made what it considers attractive tax-abatement offers.

Bush holding private chats with Washington reporters

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 29 March 2006 at 12:12
Tags: Associated Press, Journalism, United States

They are hardly “fireside chats”. The informal, off-the-record meetings that President Bush has started having with members of the White House Press corps are more like fence-mending.

The meetings, usually in the president’s private quarters or his office, were initiated when Bush’s relations with Washington journalists appeared to have hit a new low.

Although not absolutely new — President Clinton had similar meetings at the time of the Monica Lewinsky scandal — it’s the first time President Bush has done so since he took office.

Journalists who accepted the invitation were asked not to write about the meetings – or what was discussed. Most have limited their comments to saying Bush was “pleasant, thoughtful and frank”.

Not all newspapers accepted the invitation. At least one, the New York Times, said it didn’t see off-the record chats were any benefit to its readers.

“As a matter of policy and practice, we would prefer when possible to conduct on-the-record interviews with public officials,” Philip Taubman, the paper’s Washington bureau chief, said in a statement.

News organizations that have so far accepted the invitations have included The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Los Angeles Times and Associated Press.

The newsmen were all served iced tea and soft drinks. No liquor. The meetings lasted about an hour. One newsman, quoted by Editor & Publisher, said it was “a little surreal“.

Absolute saved

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 21 March 2006 at 13:38
Tags: Magazines, United States

Absolute has been saved.

The glossy celebrity magazine which laid off its 30 American staff because of a copyright suit brought by the Swedish company that makes Absolut Vodka, has been rescued by a wealthy American real-estate developer William May.

He has taken over the magazine, which was owned by a Spanish company and reportedly had lost $10 million since its launch in the United States a year ago.

The lawsuit was adding millions more in legal costs. The latest issue, which had been printed but not distributed, is now on its way to readers.

Times Square honours for journalists killed in Iraq

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 21 March 2006 at 13:29
Tags: Journalism, Reuters, United States

As a tribute to the journalists who have died covering the war in Iraq, Reuters is devoting space and time on its super-size advertising billboard in New York’s Times Square to remind Americans of the sacrifice journalists have made.

Until the end of this month, the 7,000-square-foot electronic sign will run non-stop the names of the 67 journalists who have so far died, plus some of the harrowing pictures out of Iraq, Four of the 67 who have died worked for Reuters. A fifth died in a car crash.

Altogether Reuters has had more than 50 full-time journalists assigned to Iraq over the past three years, and nearly 20 part-time journalists, Plus numerous support staff such as drivers and interpreters.