The Publications 'Influentials' Are Reading
Which magazines do trendsetters read? Mediamark Research Inc., which tracks magazine readership for publishers and advertising agencies, just released a report detailing what percentage of the...
View ArticleNew Beauty Is Anything But Natural
Want a new look for the new year? A really, really new look? Then there's a new magazine just for you, New Beauty, a sort of shopping guide to help one find the plastic surgeon of one's dreams. New...
View Article'Mr. Magazine' Picks The Best of 2004
Samir Husni, a dapper Lebanese-born journalism professor, is known as "Mr. Magazine" because he tracks every new magazine published in America. Mr. Husni, who teaches at the University of Mississippi,...
View ArticleEssence Defies Hip-Hop Stereotypes
Last week was a busy one at Essence Communications. Time Warner acquired the remaining 51% of the company, which publishes Essence, the leading magazine for black women. The price tag was estimated at...
View ArticleA New Direction For Mediabistro
At Michael's the other day, I had lunch with Laurel Touby, the perky impresario of Mediabistro.com, the Web site that many reporters, editors, and the like click on to daily to check out the latest...
View ArticleSeating Arrangements: The Hierarchy of Who Sits Where
Fashion Week starts today, and it is a time of fierce competition, obsessing about what to wear, and sniping one-upmanship. And I'm not talking about the designers who will be showing or the models who...
View ArticleEuropean Publishers Hachette, G&J, and Bauer Boost American Presence
They're back! Europeans publishers, some of whom made a foray into the American market several years ago, are once again returning to our shores, encouraged by the uptick in magazine advertising and...
View ArticleInside TV Erases the Line Between Editorial, Advertising
The line between advertising and editorial in magazines has grown fainter and fainter in the past few years. Some blame the new shopping magazines such as Conde Nast's Lucky and Hearst's Shop, Etc.,...
View ArticleInvasion of the British Editors, Part II
The British are coming! Yes, once again, British editors and reporters are arriving in droves on our shores to show American magazine and weekly staffers how it really should be done. More than a...
View ArticleFrank McCourt Pens First Signed Review at Publisher's Weekly
Publisher's Weekly, which is read avidly by publishers, booksellers, authors, and librarians, is doing something completely different. Though it has been reviewing books since 1932 and gives a book one...
View ArticleAfter Years of Courting Luxury, Hearst Launches Down-Market Weekly
And yet another new magazine for women! But instead of going upscale as so many magazines have done lately, Hearst plans to launch a decidedly down-market women's title this summer. Called Quick &...
View ArticleGet Ready for the Ellies - It's Awards Season in Magazineland
It was nomination week in Magazineland. The American Society of Magazine Editors on Thursday announced the finalists for this year's National Magazine Awards, which will be handed out at a luncheon at...
View ArticleIs the New New York a Success?
It has been a couple of good weeks for New York magazine. The weekly, which has been revamped since being bought in December 2003 by Wall Street deal-maker Bruce Wasserstein, was nominated for three...
View ArticleWho Cares What's Inside? It's the Cover That Counts
Magazine editors stay up at night worrying about who or what to put on a magazine's cover to make it sell at the newsstand. The trouble is nobody knows, and a cover winner can turn into a cover loser...
View ArticleCondé Nast Lines Up Its Domino
Condé Nast will launch yet another shopping magazine later this month, following in the footsteps of its own very successful Lucky. Domino, unlike its fashion-mad older sister publication, is about the...
View ArticleNew Yorker Takes 5 Ellies
Like a jumping jack, the New Yorker's editor in chief, David Remnick, popped out of his front-row seat and onto the stage five times to receive National Magazine Awards at a luncheon yesterday at the...
View ArticleThe New 'Can Do' Attitude
Two sisters are making a dream come true for their third sister, a young woman, who died on United Flight 93 on September 11. Her dream was to publish a book. The sisters Vaughn Lohec and Dara Near...
View ArticleA View From the Top
Gossip columnist Liz Smith says she can't live without it. "It's the media's own little secret publication," she gushes. "So clever, so comprehensive." No, she's not talking about the most in-the-know...
View ArticleWe Are All Paparazzi Now
A picture, they used to say, is worth a thousand words. Now it's more like half a million dollars. That's what Us Magazine is said to have paid last week for some innocuous photos of Brad Pitt and...
View ArticleWhat's in a Name?
Do magazines that are tied to celebrities really work? It depends. Once in a while they are smash hits. Think of O, The Oprah Magazine, for example, a partnership between Hearst and Oprah's own company...
View ArticleBack on Your Radar
It's ba-a-a-ck! Next week the much buzzed-about, now better-financed new issue of Radar magazine hits the newsstands. Though it's called the "premiere issue" in its official Radar magazine "Fact...
View ArticleUnited Nations of Magazines
Almost 900 publishers - some from as far away as Cambodia - are in New York to attend the 2005 World Conference of the International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) at the Waldorf Astoria....
View ArticleBookExpo's Back
BookExpo America - the publishing world's largest annual get-together - is in town this weekend. More than 25,000 book-industry people - publishers, bookstore owners, librarians, retailers, television...
View ArticleWeekend Reading for The Second-Home Set
The notion of a magazine all about the weekend has been around for several years. A decade ago Metropolitan Home used to produce individual issues all about what to do with your weekend (and your...
View ArticleThe (Questionable) Truth About Hillary
It is the book of the week. Edward Klein's much buzzed-about biography of Hillary Clinton was published on Tuesday. Currently bounding up best-seller lists - it was no. 4 on Amazon the last time I...
View ArticleYour Company Name Here
Viacom Incorporated's co-president, Leslie Moonves, who runs CBS, has declared that product placement "is becoming more and more relevant to every television show." Expect a "quantum leap" in placement...
View ArticleWho Makes the Deals In the Magazine World
Although advertising for magazines may be soft and newsstand circulation challenging right now, one aspect of the magazine business is booming. More and more publishing companies and individual titles...
View ArticleThe Press's Obsession With Itself
Remember when newsmagazines simply reported news and were not themselves the subject of news reports? In the last couple months, both of the biggest have made headlines. News stories focused on...
View ArticleThe Future of Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest will celebrate its 1,000th issue this week with a party that its public relations agency promises will be "star-studded, futuristic and interactive." That's because the 1,000th issue,...
View ArticleSecrets of The Beauty Industry Exposed!
Women's magazines, and those who run them, take themselves very seriously. And, as Nadine Haobsh has discovered, can sometimes have absolutely no sense of humor. Last week, Ms. Haobsh was an obscure...
View ArticleTwo New Weeklies Hit the Stands
Two big magazine launches this week could roil the waters in some major magazine categories. On Thursday British publisher Richard Desmond will try to extend his publishing empire with a launch of an...
View ArticleA New Name at Jane
Can a magazine named Jane succeed with an editor named Brandon? We'll soon find out - Brandon Holley, currently editor of Hachette Filipacchi's ELLEgirl, has just been appointed editor in chief of...
View ArticleWhat You'll Be Reading in 100 Years
The Magazine Publishers of America, the trade association of the industry, was once known for golf outings and glad-handing, especially at the American Magazine Conference, its yearly get-together....
View ArticleDo You Know Me?
With Jane Pratt about to leave the magazine she named after herself, Tina Brown off writing a book about Princess Diana, and Bonnie Fuller struggling to keep the Star competitive, it looks like the age...
View ArticleThe Men Try To Get In Vogue
Men's Vogue was launched across the country on Tuesday, a very sophisticated younger brother of Conde Nast's hugely profitable Vogue. The magazine, which costs $4.95 for newsstand buyers, will be sent...
View ArticleCapturing 30-Something
The women's magazine that most major publishing companies wish they could start is a big magazine for women in their 30s. But not another celebrity magazine like the ones they are now reading: The...
View ArticleCelebrity Titles Crowd Women's Magazines
While some well-established women's magazines struggle to retain their circulation, the celebrity weeklies, now selling more than 7 million copies a week, are almost as vibrant as Angelina Jolie's...
View ArticleBoomer Time
"Let's live to be 100 or die trying," the ebullient 45-year-old founder of Eons.com, Jeff Taylor, said. Eons.com, a Web site devoted to baby boomers, launched this week with considerable hoopla. This...
View ArticleFashion Magazines Bulk Up for September
The September issues of fashion magazines hit newsstands this week, thick with ads and advice on what to wear and buy. Fashion advertising is vigorous in magazines this year. Leading the pack is...
View ArticleEditor Puts Her Stamp on Marie Claire
The new editor in chief of Marie Claire, Joanna Coles, shares more than just her British heritage with noted editor Tina Brown. Like Ms. Brown, Ms. Coles also has a talent for creating buzz. And then,...
View ArticleWho Let the Girl Into the Boys' Club?
There is no doubt CBS should get a bang for its buck when Katie Couric takes over as the first solo woman anchor in the history of network nightly news. Ms. Couric, who is reportedly earning a whopping...
View ArticleRosie to the Rescue, Or Is It the Demise?
It's Rosie to the rescue! Yes, Rosie O'Donnell takes over as the moderator on ABC's "The View" today, with a mission to knit together the fabric of this fraying daytime show. Now entering its 10th...
View ArticleWhat Do Women Want? Gloria Steinem Knows
Rosie O'Donnell is really into girl talk these days, and not only as co-host of "The View." Ms. O'Donnell, along with Jane Fonda, Billie Jean King, Gloria Steinem, and "Friends" creator Marta Kauffman,...
View ArticleEco-Mags Go High Gloss
It's getting easier to be green at least in the publishing world now that interest in protecting the environment is hot. Both Vanity Fair and Elle devoted their May issues to the subject, and Al...
View ArticleThe Magazine Industry Ponders Its Future
"What kind of business are we in?" is the rather plaintive title of a panel at this year's American Magazine Conference, which began Sunday in Phoenix. And that is exactly the question that magazine...
View ArticleFast Meals Lead To Ad Sales
While the circulation and advertising for most magazines are as flat as a collapsed souffle, magazines about food are doing surprisingly well. Leading the pack is Every Day with Rachael Ray, which...
View ArticleMoney Magazines Get Smart
"Business is a glorious subject," the editor of the new business magazine the American, James K. Glassman, said. Launched recently by the American Enterprise Institute, the magazine is called the...
View ArticleShifting Strategies
A fire alarm went off as Cathleen Black, president of Hearst Magazines, began speaking to a group of magazine executives at the University Club recently. Delivering her first "state of the state of...
View ArticleCondé Nast Launches New Business Magazine
Condé Nast's much-hyped new business magazine, Portfolio, hits newsstands this week. A megamillion dollar investment by the publisher of Vogue and Vanity Fair, the magazine aims "to chronicle how...
View ArticleYoung Women Swoon As Jane Says Goodbye
It's goodbye to Jane, the magazine for 20-somethings created a decade ago by editor Jane Pratt. The magazine had been struggling for several years with declining advertising pages, and Ms. Pratt...
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