Mr. Magazine

First came the magazine, now the television show. Wild Animal Baby is going 360 and anyone who doubts that children and their parents can multitask have to think twice. Ten years after publishing the magazine for the 2 to 4 years old, Sammy, the explorer skunk, moves from the pages of the printed magazine to the television screen where he and his friends star tomorrow (Oct. 2) in the premiere of Wild Animal Baby Explorers television show on the PBS stations. The goal is to go where the “the kids and their parents are.” The pages of Wild Animal Baby magazine which will also sport a new look starting with the December 2010 issue, will jump, move and explore on the television screen the same way it is doing in print. The goal is one according to Lori Collins the magazine’s editor, “giving children a foundation for a lifelong love of wildlife and wild places.”

I had the opportunity to ask Ms. Collins few questions regarding this evolution from being a print publication to a 360 brand. The Mr. Magazine™ Interview with Lori Collins follows:

Samir Husni: Why television and why now?

Lori Collins: Historically, we’ve grown our subscription base via direct mail. But direct mail has become more expensive and less effective for today’s busy parents. The reach of television is far greater than anything we could achieve through traditional marketing means. By going where kids—and their parents—are, we hope to grow the Wild Animal Baby brand, including magazine sales. By the way, Wild Animal Baby magazine is just one of four children’s magazines published by National Wildlife Federation. As these new Wild Animal Baby subscribers get older, we hope they will move on to our other print publications: Your Big Backyard (ages 4-7), Ranger Rick, (ages 7–14), and Just for Fun (ages 7–14).

SH: How do you see the future of print in this digital age? Is the future all digital or is there print in the future? What are you doing to ensure a print (and do you think it is necessary for kids) future in a digital age?

LC: I think print will continue to play a vibrant role, at least in the near future. Both kids and adults love technology, no question about it. They like the bells and whistles. But kids, especially young ones, love the simple magic only a print product can provide. Our readers look forward to getting mail each month that is not only addressed to them, but also made just for them. It makes them feel special.

More importantly, young children like the quiet time they spend curled up with a parent, mostly at bedtime, going through the pages, looking at the pictures and reading the stories. Most parents cherish those hours with their child as well. Perhaps someday the iPad will allow parents and children to have that cozy, shared experience, but I don’t think we are there yet.

That’s not to say our publications staff isn’t keeping a close eye on where technology is headed. Like other children’s magazines, we’re dabbling with how our wildlife content can be applied to media such as phone apps, software games, and a more interactive website. But for us, it’s a little too early to draw up a specific roadmap. We’re still trying to figure out how to make digital experiences that are as necessary, sufficient, and relevant as the experiences kids already have reading our print magazines.

SH: Launching a magazine for two- to four-year-olds in normal time has been seen as crazy; how about it in digital times?

LC: Our experience is that publishing a magazine for two to four year olds really isn’t that crazy. You have to remember that preschoolers have been enjoying Wild Animal Baby magazine for over 10 years. We aren’t launching the television series because we think the magazine has run its course. Quite the opposite. We don’t have any reason to believe young children won’t continue to enjoy Wild Animal Baby magazine. We’re launching the television series because it allows us to create an experience for preschoolers that is different, but just as valuable as the one created by reading the magazine. We expect our current readers will watch the show and believe viewers will want to read the magazine. Both media offer unique opportunities for us to share our wildlife message.

SH: Will the television show be a lot like the magazine?

LC: As we developed the television show, it was important to us that there be clear connections between the TV series and the magazine. We didn’t want to create another sub-brand for NWF. We wanted to build on the existing Wild Animal Baby brand. So, like the magazine, Wild Animal Baby Explorers introduces preschoolers to the world of animals and helps them develop important observation and problem-solving skills. But we also wanted to make sure that we took advantage of all that television offers. So the series features a unique mix of loveable 3-D animated characters and stunning high-definition wildlife footage that will keep young children engaged and having fun.

Sammy, a young skunk in red overalls, has long been a fixture in Wild Animal Baby magazine. Each month he hides among the pages, and our readers love to find him. (We get more comments about Sammy than any other aspect of the magazine.) So Sammy is one of the five animated characters in the television show. And like in the magazine—Sammy hides at some point during each episode, and the viewers are encouraged to find him.

“I Can” is another favorite feature of the magazine that we incorporated into the television show. At the end of each episode, viewers are encouraged to get up and move to imitate an animal that has been featured in the show.

But we didn’t just want the magazine to inform the show. We also wanted to include elements of the television show in the magazine. So starting in November, each issue of the magazine will feature a cartoon-style story based on Sammy and his four new friends—Skip, Izzy, Benita, and Miss Sally—that appear in every episode of Wild Animal Baby Explorers.

SH: Are you attempting to be a 360 publisher? TV, print, web, apps, products, events, etc.

LC: NWF is a conservation organization that has a long-standing commitment to educating people—especially children—about wildlife. We view our children’s magazines as educational tools—but not the only possible tools. Our goal is to share our appreciation of the natural world with as many people as possible. That means we need to meet people where they are—watching TV, surfing the web, playing with apps, attending special events, or reading magazines. We’re really just trying to share our love of wildlife and to nurture children’s inherent love of animals.

SH: Five years from now, where do you want the Wild Animal Baby brand to be?

LC: I’d like Wild Animal Baby Explorers to be in every preschooler’s home in the United States—and in homes in several countries overseas as well!

I’d also like for Sammy to have become a beloved character to millions of children, much like Big Bird, Barney the purple dinosaur, and our own Ranger Rick. If that were to happen, it would mean that we were successful at a lot more than selling magazines and producing TV shows. It would mean we were successful at giving children a foundation for a lifelong love of wildlife and wild places.

SH: Thank you.

A good thing just got better. Two more speakers have been added to the great line up of keynote speakers for the Magazine Innovation Center’s first ACT Experience. Anne Russell, editor in chief of the digital only magazine VIVmag and Jeanniey Mullen, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Zinio will speak on “How to launch an all-digital magazine without a blueprint; the story of VIV Magazine” and “three secrets to worldwide Digital publishing domination,” respectively.

Jeanniey Mullen, is the executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Zinio and its sister company, the exclusively digital magazine, VIVmag. Jeanniey is recognized as a pioneer and visionary in the digital marketing and advertising space, with an expertise in e-mail marketing.

Anne M. Russell is the editor in chief of VIVmag, and has an extensive background in health and fitness journalism. She previously served as editor in chief of Shape and prior to that was the editorial director of FOX Television’s Health Network, where she oversaw the Network’s website, as well as on-air content.

The two aforementioned speakers will join a host of keynote speakers in Oxford, Mississippi October 20 – 22 for the three-day event “Reimagining the future while we still have time.” And talking about time, now is the time to register for the event. Limited spaces are still available. To check the complete roster of speakers at the event and to register for the ACT Experience click here.

Limited space is still available at the first Magazine Innovation Center’s ACT Experience. The three days of Magazines, Music and Mississippi themed “Reimagining the future while we still have time” is going to take place on Oct. 20 thru Oct. 22.

To be part of this inaugural event click here.

Today, I am also pleased to release the poster for our first ACT Experience. The poster was designed by J. Kevin Tugman, executive vice-president for creative services at the Sunshine Media Group, one of our Magazine Innovation Center sponsors. Check it out and hope to see you in few weeks.

If the iPad and its many cousins and relatives are Game Changers for the publishing industry, then the question one needs to ask is, “Who is playing the game and who is leading the changes?” The publishing industry, historically speaking, is not known for its quick moves when it comes to change, or the will to join a new game if not invented and created by the industry itself.

Well, times have changed. And more people from outside the publishing industry have been leading the innovation and change in our industry ( The name Steve Jobs comes to mind ). But that is the topic for another blog.

One innovation that has caught my attention this week is Mozines™. The company behind Mozines™ is Thumb Media Group (TMG). The company has developed Mozines™ a software for mobile publishing platform and advanced mobile on-device application technology for mutiple Smartphone handsets including iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian. Our Mozine™ mobile publishing platform allows clients to quickly and cost effectively build a mobile audience and reach customers.

The brain behind Mozines™ is Mike Cartabiano, CEO, TMG. Mr. Cartabiano’s intentions for Mozine™” is to be another media channel, the mobile media channel.” He added in this segment of the Mr. Magazine™ Interview, ” Mozines™ are a bridge to online viewership and advertising and user adoption. It’s also a bridge to print, so it facilitates exposure to the print offerings of publishers.” What follows is my interview with Mike Cartabiano, CEO of the Thumb Media Group and his take on the future of our industry:

Samir Husni: What was the rationale behind developing Mozine technology, and what do you expect to accomplish?

Mike Cartabiano: I come from a background where I am constantly engaged in bringing brands and their messages to target audiences. At Thumb Media Group, we have developed the technological and business methodology to do this, and believe that magazines — more than any brand-driven business — are in need of our solution.

SH: The web has proven to be very elusive when it comes to paid content and money making for publishers. Why do you think mobile and digital delivery is different?

MC: Consumers on mobile platforms are more accustomed to paying for goods and services than they are on websites. As long as our value propositions fall within mobile consumer expectations, we are able to monetize mobile content. We have also found mobile transactions are much more impulsive than online ones, as they are available to consumers anywhere and at anytime. In addition, consumers tend to trust mobile transactions because they have not been hit with too many scams or worthless products. Last, mobile consumers have advocates in the form of their wireless carriers and third party application storefronts that can solve problems for them and screen out undesirable products and services.

SH: Some believe the business model for mobile applications should be similar to that of print: making money from both distribution and advertising. What are your thoughts?

MC: This is absolutely true, BUT the business model must be integrated with the characteristics of the mobile media channel, which is vastly different from that of print. End user expectations, from the user experience to various transaction models across different operating systems, devices and distribution channels are all unique to mobile platforms.

SH: A lot of platforms are using replicas or replicas plus of print magazines. How are Mozines™ different and how can you help publishers?

MC: Mozines™ are never replicas of print, which sets them apart from other magazine apps. Instead, Mozines™ provide optimized brand communication to all smartphone users in the mobile landscape. Mozines™ can reach millions of targeted mobile consumers worldwide with the best possible brand message in the mobile space. In addition, Mozines™ do not replace print or online. Mozines™ complement these media channels and serve as a bridge to let consumers tap into a brand across a variety of media.

SH: What differentiates Mozine™ from similar applications? What makes Mozines™ more attractive?

MC: There are two plea points that stand out. The first is that we’re about promoting the publisher’s brand. They’ve invested in their intellectual property. They have an audience. I even call that audience a fan base because that audience wants to see that brand everywhere they go, whether they’re in a waiting room holding a magazine or they’re in line, or whether they’re online and they’re searching that brand out and experiencing that. Or whether they’re on mobile, where they’re 24/7, everywhere and anywhere with mobile. We push the publisher’s brand and then we push that brand across multiple platforms.

SH: How many clients do you have? Can you handle newspapers?

MC: We can handle newspapers. We can also handle product brands. We are at WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) working with their magazine group. But they’re also a product brand. We have a project with Miller/Coors in Puerto Rico and that’s a marketing configuration. It’s a mobile newsletter. We reach out to magazine publishers, newspapers and brands who have an audience and a message to deliver to that audience on smartphones and tablets.

SH: Who do you consider your biggest competitor in the marketplace?

MC: There are some good companies out there. Texterity is a real good company and they’re offering one solution. Pixel Mags has a good solution and bite-size candy. But those groups, what they provide for the publishers, is a digital replica. We don’t do that. A digital replica on a smartphone is not a very good user experience. We provide an optimized experience. We aggregate content from the publisher and put it in a new format. So we’ll take magazine articles and features and advertising and we have some proprietary technology where we format that, compress it, optimize it and distribute it to all the Mozines™ applications in distribution. We also take feeds from a publisher’s website, their blogs and their Twitter, we integrate those and offer those through the application. Then again, we have the storefront; the ability to pick subscriptions, so there’s the monetization. On top of that, we have the advertising. Our competitors don’t have the support systems to have that combination of features, nor the support systems to provide that to the publishers.

SH: At what cost? Are you free to discuss the cost per publisher? Do you work on a commission, on a partnership?

MC: Our basic business model is that we have a low-cost monthly fee. This is a services fee that covers hosting, actual development and quality control, submission through app stores across different platforms. We keep updated with the upgrades, new technology, new platforms, make those improvements. We handle all that distribution, we handle customer service and we also provide reporting.

We have a very detailed weekly report. Soon we’ll be able to provide hourly reports so that a publisher will be able to log in to a dashboard and they can see on a hourly basis how many Android, how many Blackberry, how many iPhone downloads were done in different territories worldwide and on different phones. In that reporting we’ll also have a unique user account, so we’re able to provide a publisher with a database with user profiles.

But we also provide integrated advertising through a number of mobile media networks like Millennial, Ad Mob, iAd, and we also provide the ability for the publishers to offer campaigns for their advertisers so that their ad sales group can go to a advertising client and say, “We can offer you a bundle, here’s print, here’s online, now here’s mobile and iPad advertising package.” What we’ll do is create and deploy campaigns and track those campaigns for publishers.

We also offer revenue solutions that are integrated with the program. We have subscriptions on a month-to-month basis, or six months, or a per-download basis and through National Publisher Services and Fry Communications, we also offer mobile optimizing in storefronts.

There’s the ability to sell goods and services. After a short period of time, the publisher can actually cover their monthly service fee and start seeing positive revenue flow. Once it gets to that point, we move from a monthly service fee to a revenue-funded program. So there is no fee commitment.

SH: How are publishers charging for Mozines™?

MC: With Nylon, they’re giving it away. You were asking about the end user, it’s free with advertising in that. With WWE, a subscription of $2.99 a month and a user gets four weekly issues and they also get daily updates through blogs, Twitter and RSS feeds.

SH: Will the Mozine™ application work on any device?

MC: The Mozine™ is a single app that is distributed simultaneously and seamlessly across all platforms. We are currently deployed on iPhone/iPod Touch, over a dozen Blackberry devices and over 40 Android smartphones. All of these are available globally.

We are developing on WinMo, Palm and Symbian, and have Mozines™ for Feature phones. We are also developing for iPad so can offer our clients incredible consumer reach very economically and efficiently with a very high quality, consistent user experience.

SH: Part of what we do at the Magazine Innovation Center is try to help amplify the future of print. Where do you see the future of print going, and what role do you see Mozines™ taking in the future of print?

MC: Print will always have a huge audience but must evolve as media-savvy readers use their mobile devices and tablets to access information that is important to them. The role of publishers will be as creative sources of great IP targeted at their audiences. Distribution solutions will be the responsibility of firms like Thumb Media Group.

Mozines™ intention is to be another media channel, the mobile media channel. And by the way, tablets are somewhere between online and mobile. They exhibit characteristics of both and provide new and unique characteristics. But Mozines™ are a bridge to online viewership and advertising and user adoption. It’s also a bridge to print, so it facilitates exposure to the print offerings of publishers.

We sell subscriptions in Mozines™ to print. And we’re working with publishers to bring the promotion they have in a print magazine, like the blow-ins, we’re bundling subscription offers with Mozines. Though, if you subscribe to the print by Mozines™, for example, you would get a promotional discount on a print subscription.

We also cross promote, so, in the Mozines™, we promote the print. So there’s promotion in the print, an online presence of publishers that talk about Mozines™ and what they’re about and where to get them.

SH: One of the things that grabbed my attention when I found out about Mozines™, is that somebody is finally doing something different than the norm. It’s not saying, “Let’s grab you another replica, or replica-plus or replica-plus-plus.” I’ve been telling people no matter how many pluses you add, you’re still staring with a replica.

MC: Exactly. The thing is, for example, when online has really developed into a media channel of its own. You don’t have digital replicas necessarily there. When there is a digital replica, there isn’t a great following to that. Publishers have a hard time getting the subscription revenue in digital online versions of their products. So they have to think of the media channel, “What’s the difference about it? What are the end users’ expectations about that media channel?”

We have to tailor their intellectual property and their brand and their revenue models to that media channel. So, mobile is an entirely different media channel. We’re a little bit unique in that we bring really deep wireless experience to consumer application and development and distribution.

SH: What are your expectations for Mozines™ a year from now?

MC: We provide a great end-to-end, seamless, mobile media publishing solution with more revenue models and three times the distribution than our closet competitors. In a year, we will have significantly grown our client base, and because of our association with Fry Communications and National Publisher Services, we will be able to offer our services as a true cross-media, one-stop publishing solution integrating mobile, print, online digital and all popular tablets.

SH: Anything else you’d like to add?

MC: What we’re doing also on the iPad, let me talk about. That is a digital replica, but the foundation is our Mozine platform, which supports Android and Blackberry and iPhone. Consequently, when the new tablets from, let’s say, a Google or Blackberry come out, we already have a foundation in place to support those tablets. We have an iPad solution right now, and we’re working on a couple of projects for our clients, so we’re offering our clients a bundle. There’s efficiency to working with them to take that content, their content, and we deploy it across the different platforms. We’re supporting the iPad now and we’ll be supporting the other platforms as they come out.

We’re not a developer. We’re a solution. We’re an end-to-end service solution. We know the problems that publishers face with resources and financial challenges, especially today. We do not want to go in there and tax their limited resources. We have a very seamless process. We’ve had great feedback from Nylon magazine and WWE. They’ve confirmed that it’s seamless and it works very smoothly for them. They don’t have to worry about it.

SH: Thank you.

Truth in Reporting: During my interview with Mr. Cartabiano I learned that one of his partners in this venture is Fry Communications, who are in turn the sponsors of the Mr. Magazine™ website and blog. Needless to say that this information changed anything in the interview and in my views regarding Mozines™ and whatever future role it may play in the future of our industry.

How can you make your good magazine remarkable? How can you go beyond being just a content provider, no matter how good your content is? Well, the answers to the aforementioned questions are really simple and innovative if, and only if, your name is McSweeney’s. The magazine is the brain child of David Eggers and issue 35 has just hit the newsstands.

To quote from McSweeney’s website, “McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern publishes on a roughly quarterly schedule, and we try to make each issue very different from the last. One issue came in a box, one was Icelandic, and one looks like a pile of mail. In all, we give you ground- breaking fiction and much more.” What they don’t tell you as how innovative each issue is and how much that innovation adds to the great content and changes the magazine from a mere content provider to an experience maker.

The latest experience making issue comes with no explanation and a lot of heat-sensitive ink on the cover and inside flaps. The cover illustrations of folks walking in the rain transfers to a pond filled with all kind of fish when you hold the cover and rub the ink. The heat makes things appear and disappear. But it does that so fast that one can’t scan the cover to show you the after result. So, I had to video the cover to illustrate that latest innovative technique with the magazine. Click on the movie below to see the cover in action.

Unlike other magazines that alert their readers to such innovations, McSweeney’s makes you work for it. Inside the back flap of the magazine there are a few cover lines that one needs to rub too and see everything vanish except the phrase HOLD & SEE. Well, sorry for letting the secret out, but without the help of my assistants, I would have continued to think that someone has messed up my clean magazine and the folks at McSweeney’s are using just cheap ink and not magic ink.

A great read, a great experience and yet another example of the power of ink on paper used well. Very well indeed. Enjoy.

In this “all things digital” age, one have the tendency to forget how powerful print can be if it is used to deliver what it is supposed to deliver: powerful, relevant, necessary and sufficient information. Be it pictures or copy, the lasting impact of a cover image, staring you in the face, on the newsstands, in your mailbox, or on your coffee table, will never be matched with a digital image on a platform that “now you see it, now you don’t.”
Case in point, the cover of TIME magazine this week. In the words of TIME’s managing editor Richard Stengel, “Our cover image this week is powerful, shocking and disturbing. It is a portrait of Aisha, a shy 18-year-old Afghan woman who was sentenced by a Taliban commander to have her nose and ears cut off for fleeing her abusive in-laws.”
Print in general, and magazines in particular are much more than content providers. If created for the purpose they were invented, to be experience makers rather just mere content providers. Readers and customers will not feel the need or the urge to go to other sources to engage in a “powerful, shocking” and even “disturbing” experience. A job well done in print is an experience of a frozen moment in time that you can relive time and time again.
Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it. Pick up a copy of this week’s issue of TIME magazine and let your own experience begins. Trust me, it will be relevant, powerful, and yes, sometimes disturbing, but above all it will create an addictiveness that will leave you asking for more.

The Magazine Innovation Center is proud to announce the first ever Magazine Innovation Center Experience. Named ACT for Amplify, Clarify and Testify, the event will be held on the campus of The University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi from October 20 to 22, 2010. The first ACT experience is themed “Re-Imagining the Future While We Still Have Time,” and is slated to be the first “think-and-do” meeting for folks interested in the future of the magazine business. To keep the Experience interactive and engaging–exactly like our magazines–the ACT Experience will be limited to the first 100 people who register for the event.

Thomaz Souto Corrêa, (upper left hand followed by alphabetical order clock-wise) vice president of the Editorial Committee for the Abril Group in Brazil will be the opening keynote speaker for this exciting new annual event. In addition to Mr. Corrêa the following keynote speakers have been confirmed for the first Magazine Innovation Center experience; however, more are sure to be added as well. They include Baird Davis, circulation consultant to the magazine publishing industry; Stephen Duggan, president, Athlon Media and former Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Media Group, publisher of Maxim magazine; James G. Elliott president of the James G. Elliott Company, Inc.

Roger Fransecky, founder/CEO of The Apogee Group, a global management consulting and leadership development organization, will be the welcoming keynote speaker setting the stage for the entire experience. In addition, John Harrington president and CEO of Harrington Associates; Lisette Heemskerk, managing director, Mood for Magazines, The Netherlands; David McDonald, CEO of Sunshine Media Group; Bob Sacks, founder and president of the Precision Media Group; Haines Wilkerson, Chief Creative Officer of Morris Visitor Publications; and Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, founder and director of the Magazine Innovation Center.

The first ACT experience will include focus on five tracks and will be divided into two and half days of think-and-do activities. On Wed. evening Oct. 20, 2010, a welcoming keynote on “Re-Imaging the Future While We Still Have Time” by Dr. Fransecky will kick off the Experience. The Experience continues on Thursday with presentations by all keynote speakers from morning until mid-afternoon, followed by a trip and tour of the Mississippi Delta, home of the Blues. On Friday, the focus shifts to the tracks of interest among the participants. There will be five tracks to choose from – editorial, consumer marketing, successful magazine launching, advertising and marketing, and the digital future. Participation will be limited to 20 individuals per track. One can register for up to two tracks based on first come and first serve basis. The Experience will conclude at the end of the day Friday with closing remarks from Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni.

So, if you are interested in learning and doing something about the future of the magazine industry, now is the time to ACT. Join the Experience and register for three days of Magazines, Music and Mississippi. Click here to start the Experience.

With deep roots in the past and new branches for the future, the new reinvented Fortune magazine gives a new, and positive, meaning for a blast from the past. Born in 1930 in the worst of economic times, Fortune magazine has reinvented itself 80 years later, also in the worst of economic times. (To the right is the new cover of the reinvented Fortune, and through the interview are sample pages from the magazine. Also to take a tour of the new Fortune click here).

Andy Serwer, Fortune’s managing editor wants the magazine to “start the conversation, again.” The new Fortune “wants to take the business issues of the day and be ahead of the curve,” he told me in The Mr. Magazine™ Interview. The new reinvented Fortune magazine, is the core of the Fortune enterprise, Mr. Serwer told me. The new Fortune reminded me so much of the original Fortune magazine, the Henry Luce’s Fortune of the 1930s and 1940s of the last decade. Delivering information through story telling, info-graphics, great photography and a hefty dose of the visual impact of print (that rare combination of typography and photography) all caught my attention and led to this interview with the man in charge of all these changes Andy Serwer.

And, as we every Mr. Magazine™ magazine interview, here are first some sound bites followed by a very lightly edited version of the interview with Andy Serwer:

Andy Serwer’s sound bites:

On the changes in Fortune magazine: “We decided to ensure the future of Fortune magazine by optimizing the frequency, and doing the magazine right. So, we’re investing in the physical properties of the magazine. We’re using better paper stock. Starting in this issue, we’ve invested in better paper that’s costing us more because we want the physical product to be better for our readers and for our advertisers. We’re rethinking our magazine to make it more relevant, more differentiated. There’s more utility in the front of the book.”

On whether he is an optimist or a pessimist: “You’ve got to be optimistic to an extent, positive in a realistic way. I won’t lie to you, sometimes its tough. You have to be realistic about what you’re doing, understand the limitations, and really embrace change. If you don’t like change here in the print business, you will be out of business very soon.”
On the future of the three major business magazines, Business Week, Forbes and Fortune: “There may not be a future for three of them. We’re certainly going to be one of them. I can tell you that.”

On the multi platform approach to the magazine business: “We understand that Fortune is a brand that is consumed across different platforms so obviously we’re exploring that. The magazine itself is the core of the enterprise.”
On his best advice to create a magazine: “You have to commit to doing a magazine, listen to your customers, respond to your customers, but also get out ahead of them and create a first class publication and that’s what we’re doing.”

And now for the full, lightly edited, interview with Andy Serwer, Fortune magazine managing editor.

SH: Fortune was launched in the worst of times, and from its very beginning, as a monthly magazine, it had a focus on customers who count rather than counting customers. With a cover price of $1, Fortune was an in-depth read and it answered the simple question, “What’s in it for me?” back then in 1930. How’s the new Fortune compared to the original Fortune of the 1930 that Henry Luce started?

AS: It’s interesting in fact, Samir; we’re 80 years old as of February. We do have this incredible tradition. There are some things that remained constant and some things that changed a lot. I think really, fortunately, one thing that has still made us very differentiated and very relevant is our long-form journalism. We’re really proud of that—our narrative, deep-dive stories. We did that in the first issue of the magazine, in February 1930, and we’re doing it today. Readers know that’s what we stand for, that’s a part of our brand. That’s a constant. The rest of the magazine has changed a lot. It’s shorter, the departments are shorter, there are all kinds of photography, and especially information graphics now that are off the chart, pun intended. I think behind it, there’s a business intelligence that is also constant. And of course, all the tertiary parts of the magazine, or of the enterprise I should say, are completely different, which is to say the websites and conferences and all of that. As far as the magazine itself, I think the long-form has stayed the same, and the essential core IQ of the magazine is another constant.

SH: One of the things I keep telling my students is that we’re no longer just in the information delivery business. We are more like experience makers. As I flip those old, old issues of Fortune, almost every issue had an experience that related to that audience and engaged that audience. As I look at some of the new designs, I look at some of the briefs–the info-graphics–it seems to me, its all designed to create an experience with the reader. How do you expect this is going to change where almost every magazine is now headed in that direction?

AS: We never want to insult the intelligence of our readers. I think that you could argue that a strategy where you have to say, “Hey, this important” isn’t the best. I think that everything we do has a high journalism IQ, especially our longer pieces, and our shorter ones as well. We’re adding value by having the smartest people in the business work here and do journalism. I think often our great work speaks for itself, not that we don’t emphasize great display type and great points of entry all that we can. But, I think you can over label.
SH: There was a lot of talk two years ago about the fate of business magazines, especially when Condé Nast launched Condé Nast Portfolio. Portfolio folded, Business Week was sold, Fortune is cutting its frequency and Forbes is in changing. You name it the troubles facing magazines, and they are all found in the business magazines. Is there a future for a business magazine in this day and age?

AS: I think there is a future for business magazines in this day and age. Was there a future for four of them? The marketplace said no. There may not be a future for three of them. We’re certainly going to be one of them I can tell you that. One of the other magazines went from perfect bound to saddle stitch and they reduced their frequency without being up front about it. We like to say we’re a little more transparent than that. We tell people that and we’re not blind to the marketplace. We need to optimize our business model. We don’t just cover business, we’re practitioners as well. We’re not so arrogant as to ignore the marketplace. We understand that Fortune is a brand that is consumed across different platforms so obviously we’re exploring that. The magazine itself is the core of the enterprise. We’re in good shape here. The other ones are in not as good shape as we are. Our mission is clear. We have great people. We have an environment where I get phone calls from people at other publications who want to come work here.

SH: Back in 1978 when Fortune changed to a bi-weekly magazine, people referred to the late ‘70s, early ‘80s as the “Golden Age” of magazines. In this digital age, what are you doing to ensure a future for print, especially with Fortune magazine?

AS: First of all, that “Golden Age” thing, I think it’s interesting you said that Samir, because people talked about the golden age of radio, the golden age of Hollywood, and both radio and especially Hollywood are as vibrant as ever. The ‘30s were a golden age in Hollywood, the ‘70s were a golden age in Hollywood and while you may not think that Avatar is a great, great film in the same way those classics were, it’s still doing okay. In other words, we can have a great new market for journalism, a digital marketplace that is essentially addictive. There’s never been more demand for business information, for news generally, than right now. An important point, Samir, is that the pie is getting a lot bigger. To me, by no means is it a foregone conclusion that magazines are not a part of that equation. They predicted the death of radio with television… Well, what am I doing? We decided to ensure the future of Fortune magazine by optimizing the frequency, and doing the magazine right. So, we’re investing in the physical properties of the magazine. We’re using better paper stock. Starting in this issue, we’ve invested in better paper that’s costing us more because we want the physical product to be better for our readers and for our advertisers. We’re rethinking our magazine to make it more relevant, more differentiated. There’s more utility in the front of the book. People said they wanted to know about careers and jobs; they wanted to know about entrepreneurism: we have two new departments to speak to that. They want to know about global business: we have a columnist, Michael Elliot from Time magazine that is going to address that. They want to know more about Washington and business: we have a “Washington Watch”, part of the front of the book that addresses that; we have a new columnist, Nina Houston, who is our Washington editor, who is addressing that. You have to commit to doing a magazine, listen to your customers, respond to your customers, but also get out ahead of them and create a first class publication and that’s what we’re doing.

SH: Our most valuable player is our customer and one of the things that I really liked out of the sample of pages I saw was the fact that they had that flashbacks of the ‘30s and ‘40s that I used to see in Fortune as I flipped through those old copies. There was always this “meet and exceed” the expectation of the readers, in which the magazine is previewing the future and validating that information. How are you going to use digital to enhance that print experience?

AS: Just to speak to that fact that you felt like it was evocative of our history, that was done in part by design. Our design director went back and set out to have a healthy flavor from that era for the new magazine. Our new fonts and our new logo speak to our tradition, and the information graphics as well. If you’re a great brand like ours, with a long history, you want to be cool, but you also want to show your tradition. I can think of a couple brands that aren’t journalistic. You think about BMW and Levi’s. These are brands that have a look and feel to them, they’ve been around for decades and decades, yet they’re really cool and cutting edge and that’s what we’re looking to do. As far as the digital piece goes, it’s interesting because it’s sort of like the website is the website and the magazine is the magazine and nary the two shall meet. Except, behind both is a shared value system. Part of our brand that is so important is trust and accuracy. We work very hard to preserve that on the web. I think there’s a story in the New York Times about a study that magazine websites are lacking in that department. There are tremendous time pressures with a web business. We’re not perfect, but we really strive to try to have the same standards with the website that we do with the magazine. We want to have the website be sort of a digital reflection of the magazine. We want it to speak. When you go to our website, we want it to really scream from the treetops, “This is Fortune magazine’s website.”

SH: How do you see the new Fortune playing a role in defining what journalism is? Everything else is changing. Do you view media today as changing the definition of journalism? Can we use Fortune as an example for the students, saying, “Here is an example of the new journalism of 2010 and beyond.”

AS: I’d like to think that Fortune is going to be in sort of the vanguard of how a magazine can adapt to this new age. It’s pretty clear that magazines are going to be around for quite some time. I’m very excited about the iPad. I’ve used one, although to be honest, the magazine’s functionality is not at the fore of that particular product, but it will be and it will be that and others. Magazines are going to be around. You go to a train, you go to a swimming pool, you go to a living room, you go to someone’s country house, you go to someone’s office, you go to doctor’s office, there are magazines all over the place and there are people reading them all over the place. They’re not going to stop doing that, so the same kinds of things hold true today that held true four years ago, which is to say you want to be very creative and ahead of the curve. But also you really need to do things that you can’t find online and that’s a conscious part of what we’re doing now. It’s not commoditized. If it ever was commoditized, your magazine, it sure as hell better not be today.
SH: That’s a very good point. What are the two or three things you have on your to-do list of the future? What do you expect from this reinvention of Fortune? What, at the end of the day, will someone say, “Andy, job well done, we’ve achieved our expectations.” What will that be?

AS: We want to be part of the conversation. That’s the big thing, which is to say, people talk about the magazine, “Did you see the article in Fortune?” They have to be able to do that. We have to be able to be something that people discuss. We have to take the business issue of the day and get ahead of the curve. We have to look great. That’s another piece. We have to have some utility as well. I would say those are the three things. We have to be something that people say, “Aha! That’s something I could actually do, or use in my life.” I think those are sort of the three pieces.

SH: What has been your biggest obstacle or biggest challenge in reinventing Fortune?

AS: I would say speed. I’ve always wished we could work faster and faster. I’m someone who likes to work practically around the clock and fortunately, most of the people here work around the clock. We’re working at a tremendous pace, but it never seems to be fast enough to my liking. I always wish we could change things quicker and be more responsive and get out ahead even better. But sometimes you have to take some time and parts of the process will take a little bit longer than you want them to.

SH: What was the easiest thing in reinvention of Fortune?

AS: The easiest thing I think about reinventing the magazine was getting people here to buy into it. It’s really great having a staff of business journalists because when you have to do really tough things like downsize the magazine and change the frequency, you can explain it to them and they can say, “Listen, I was just looking at GE’s business, I understand. And looking at our business, we understand. We need to do those things.” And when you talk to them about reinventing the magazine and making it more appealing to a reader in 2010, and not being so 2005 anymore, I mean, then people will hear, “When do we start?” It’s been a great effort by everyone here.

SH: Do you consider Andy the eternal optimist or do you think at some time in this business in the last few years you’ve felt some sense of pessimism?

AS: I’m definitely a “glass is half full” kind of person. Someone called me a happy warrior one time. I don’t know about that, but to lead any organization, you’ve got to be optimistic to an extent, positive in a realistic way. I won’t lie to you, sometimes its tough. You have to be realistic about what you’re doing, understand the limitations, and really embrace change. If you don’t like change here in the print business, you will be out of business very soon.

SH: Thank you.