Mr. Magazine

On a recent trip to Estonia I picked up a copy of a new Russian magazine called Sex and The City. Yes you read that right. A monthly magazine that have been published for seven months now carrying the name of the big HBO hit series, and now hit-to-be movie, Sex and the City. The magazine reminded me a lot of Cosmopolitan and was divided into two main sections, you’ve guessed it, sex and the city. The 224-page issue seven of the magazine carries a variety of articles that feel and look like pages of Cosmopolitan (which by the way, is also published in Russia). The surprising fact is this is not a one shot special issue of the magazine dealing with the Sex and the City series (more about that in a later blog) but rather a monthly addictive dose of information sprinting off the name of the famed television series. The examples below illustrate the similarities with the pages of Cosmo and the cover above (for those who can read Russian) probably provides a lot of cover lines selling the power and addictiveness of Sex and the City.

A very interesting magazine that merely seems to add to the mix of women’s magazine titles and begs the question to whether such a magazine can survive on the American marketplace considering the success of the television series?

The news from across the pond that the editor of Eye magazine is now the owner of the magazine. Haymarket Media Group announced their decision to release ownership of Eye magazine to its editor since 1999 John Walters. John and two of the magazine founders Simon Esterson (Eye’s art director) and Hannah Tyson (business director at Esterson Associates) have formed Eye Magazine Ltd. a new company that will continue to publish one of the best graphic design magazines any side of the Atlantic …
What caught my attention is that those three people embodied for me the true passion found in individuals and the way they interact with the products they create. It is what I call the passion of publishing formula: you dream it, you launch it, you love it and you buy it.
Haymarket Media Group may have lost Eye, but the aforementioned trio together with thousands of graphic designers around the world gained a highly prized magazine that will continue to land on their door steps once every quarter.
Best of luck and keep up the great work. I will continue to keep an eye on Eye!

The first anniversary issue of Monocle is starting to make its ways to our shores. The magazine, launched by Tyler Brule last year in the UK, answers a very important question regarding the future of ink on paper and the role the digital revolution is playing both positive and negative. Brule answers the question he has been asked too often since he launched Monocle, “Why we decided to so something in print rather than an exclusively digital venture?” His answer, “We’ve developed a brand that employs both formats and uses them to the best of their abilities. Paper and ink for pictures and words, the web for audio and video.” Brule added, “I think it’s more a case of media owners forgetting how to innovate with paper, and the web has provided a perfect excuse for a market that’s been stagnating for far too long.”
Well this issue of Monocle, like the previous ten, is a perfect example of innovation with paper. Check the cover story on digital photography and check the pictures in Monocle and compare them to other magazines. When Brule promises a “briefing on global affairs, business, culture & design,” he delivers. Check the magazine out here or get your copy from a newsstand near you. It is worth the $10.00. I paid 12 euros (almost $19) in Amsterdam to buy this issue. It is worth it.

I have no doubt that you are familiar with all the perfume and cologne strips in most magazines. Those samples, loved by some and hated by others, have been a fixture in the magazine business for some time. So, when the folks at the Romanian edition of Esquire magazine decided to offer a sample of BVLGARI inside their March 08 magazine, they literally did that. They dug a hole in the magazine (from page to page) in the shape and size of the cologne bottle they wanted to offer their readers. The bottle was nestled inside the hole in the magazine and all the pages of the magazine had to be designed taking into consideration the design of the bottle. An insert extending beyond the magazine regular size announced the free gift to the readers. See the cover above and some sample pages below.

I love British newspapers and all the innovation taking place across the pond. That is no secret, but when I read a blog on The Guardian web site by Roy Greenslade I was surprised, to say the least, not by his blog, but by the comments of one smart reader responding to his blog. Mr. Greeslade repeated on his blog on Thursday March 13 the same arguments I have been hearing from all the prophets of doom and gloom about the demise of print and print companies because their stock market prices are going down. He wrote

I am often accused of taking too negative a view of the future of newspapers. One commenter this week said I should stick up for our own trade instead of appearing to relish its death. But, as I said in response, I am merely recording what is happening and, based on that reality, predicting what will happen. In the face of the depressing truth, even if I was to “talk up” newspapers, it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference.

At the risk of repeating that overworked phrase – it’s the economy, stupid – I base my views on the flight of advertising revenue and declines in circulation, another revenue drain. Investors, needless to say, are doing the same. So let’s take a look at some up-to-date facts from across the developed world that illustrate the parlous state of newspaper publishing.

I’ll start with the media sector on the British stock market. Shares in the Daily Mail & General Trust, publisher of two national titles that are regarded as the nation’s most successful papers of the past two decades, go on falling week by week. The Daily Mail ‘A’ ordinary share price today stands at 435p, down from its 52-week high of 875p, a decline of more than 50%.

To read the rest of his blog click here.

One reader responded to the Mr. Greenslade blog by writing:

Using newspaper company share prices – and therefore investor confidence – as a proxy for long-term structural fortunes is an interesting approach. But given that Google’s share price is also down almost 50% from its 52-week high, doesn’t your method imply that Google is facing a comparable fundamental structural challenge? Not that I mean to dispute your conclusion – newspapers in many markets clearly are facing the sort of challenges you describe. But I’m not sure investor confidence is a good measure for that, given that the same thing is also going on with the share price of the main winner from the shift of attention, and therefore ad revenues, to the web.

Need I comment? I don’t think so. However, what surprised me even more came from Mr. Greensdale himself the next day. In his Friday’s March 14 blog he describes his journey into the heart of Rupert Murdoch’s new print heaven. Mr. Greensdale wrote

For once the word “awesome” is justified. It is, without any shade of doubt, the most amazing newspaper publishing factory I’ve seen since I started in the business on a weekly in 1963.
Superlatives fail. It is the biggest, most efficient, least labour-intensive press plant in the world.

To read his record of the visit click here. What a difference one day makes…