Mr. Magazine

Before I get accused, although for some the verdict has been announced already, of being a Condé Nast Portfolio’s magazine groupie or cheerleader, let me give you a quick brief on why I love this magazine and why I am neither a groupie nor a cheerleader for CN Portfolio. I came to America in 1978 and continued my hobby of collecting first issues and studying them since then. I used first issues as my base for my academic studies, books, website, and now my blog. I have accumulated more than 23,000 first editions of all kinds of magazines. I have seen magazines come and I have seen magazines go. I never paid attention to the hype the media gives any given title. I always had my own views and my own opinions. All were and are based on my careful analysis and research on the new titles, how relevant they are, and how they relate to a specific audience. Yes, of course I also pay a lot of attention to my gut feeling about the titles. When I selected In Touch Weekly as the launch of the year of 2002, the traditional media and media reporters completely ignored the title and wrote it off. The magazine now has a circulation over 1.2 million and growing. My friend Steve Cohn wrote in MIN last week about the decline of new titles in the first quarter of 2007, “but it will not be a “slow” year with the onset of CN Portfolio, which Husni “has a good feeling about.” He was not pre-launch optimistic over the just-as-hyped Talk (1999) and Rosie (2001), and both failed.” It happened with Brill’s Content before them. While some media reporters are betting on how long CN Portfolio is going to be with us, and others are questioning the wisdom of the launch techniques, I am celebrating the fact that a major magazine company is still committed to launch a major title rather than pulling the plug on one. Passion and love (two words are so foreign to most of the media crowds) are what took my magazine hobby, turned it into an education, and in turn to a profession… the same passion and love that I see now in the way the folks at Condé Nast are launching Portfolio. I love Portfolio, even before I see its first issue (a first for me), because I love the commitment and courage of Condé Nast in launching this title. Bloom in the midst of plenty of business magazines doom…wow what an encouraging event for the future of magazine publishing and those who still believe in this business…