Flower is but one of 202 magazines that were born in the first trimester of 2007. Two trends appear to go hand in hand for the first four months of 2007 when it comes to new magazine launches: the first is the drop in the number of special issues and one time publications (almost 33% drop from last year); and the second is the drop of the number of magazines with a frequency of four times or higher (almost 20% drop from last year). As I mentioned earlier on this blog, this is NOT an unnatural occurrence in the field of magazine publishing. Every few years we see a market correction and the numbers drop. It is not new. This market correction has happened every few years, both before and after the birth of the internet. However, the silver lining in all of this is that the number of magazines with four times frequency or more is closing the gap with the numbers of the specials and one-time titles. So, here goes the numbers (at least for now as we keep on updating the numbers as we receive titles we’ve missed) for this year compared to the numbers of last year. In the first trimester (Jan. through April 2007) at least 202 new magazines were launched with the following frequencies: Four times or more, 79 titles (100 in 2006), Specials, 104 titles (155 in 2006), Annuals, 12 titles (25 in 2006) and the remaining seven titles were published either two or three times a year. For a complete list of all the titles of the first trimester click here. To send us a first issue that we’ve missed from the first trimester click here for address.
New Magazines: The numbers for the first trimester
May 8, 2007Lessons to learn from a Newspaper not committing suicide…
May 7, 2007“And a witness from their own testified,” so goes an old Arabic proverb. And so does Walter E. Hussman publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal today about the reasons newspapers are sinking rather than growing. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is one of few, very few, newspapers that does not offer free content to its readers and in fact, send readers back from the web to the paper. An excellent road map for anyone who is interested in seeing their paper not only survives but also thrives. Check it here.
Alef magazine or the Middle East like you’ve never seen…
May 6, 2007
Alef is the name of the new quarterly magazine that aims to “showcase a progressive vision of the Middle East and to spotlight the cultural contribution of people of Middle East origin.” For those of you not familiar with the Arabic language, Alef is the first letter of the alphabet; same as the A in English and the Alpha is in Greek. What the editors promise, the editors deliver. It is indeed one of the best showcases of the Middle East and is unlike any showcase you may have seen from the Middle East. No war pictures, no killings and no stereotypical content, but rather art, fashion, lifestyle, travel, music and architecture spreads that will stop you every turn of the page. It is a stunning reversal of the image you see on your daily television shows or in the movies when it comes to the Middle East. The second issue of the magazine (Spring 2007) is now out and available for your “indulgence and pleasure” about an area of the world that you’ve never seen presented this way. Check Alef magazine here or pick up a copy at your nearest bookstore or newsstand.
The power to HEAL and more (Hot and New this Week, take 5)
May 4, 2007Once a week, I highlight three new magazines on my web site www.mrmagazine.com. This week the three new magazines are Heal, Laid Low and Map. Read here about these new launches. To be considered for review on my web site, please send a copy of your first issue to Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, Department of Journalism, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677.
The VIP Factor in Magazines
May 4, 2007For years I have been telling my students and my clients that the Visual Impact in Print (the VIP factor) depends on marrying the photography with the typography to create a visual impact that will stop you and make you pick up the magazine. Well, today while scanning the newsstands I found a great example of how not to achieve that impact. In fact it was just the opposite. The cover of the new special from Cook’s Illustraded magazine on Summer Grilling & Entertaining stopped me in my tracks for the complete wrong reason. Summer grilling screams the name and berry pie screams the picture… My brain kept showing me images of a grill and barbecue and my eyes kept showing me a delicious cold pie ready to eat…confused by the mixed messages I started to walk away, but then I remembered it is a first issue that I need to add to my collection plus, I thought, it will make a great blog on what NOT to do with your magazine cover. Well check the cover for yourself. It is grilling below this blog…
Meet the world’s Chief Magazineologist
May 3, 2007
I met Ravi Pathare for the first time at the Amsterdam Airport last March. We were on our way together to the We Love Magazines Colophon 2007 meeting in Luxembourg. His card read “Chief Magazineologist” at Mag Nation Pty Ltd. in New Zealand. Mag Nation is a chain of magazine stores in New Zealand and Australia. Having never met a Magazineologist I was delighted to meet him and learn more about this Magazineologist background. Well, enough suspense…here is the story of the world’s first Chief Magazineologist in his own words.
“I graduated in 1979 as a doctor, completed my post graduation in Pathology four years later (nothing as gruesome as BONES and other whodunnit thrillers) and practiced as a Consulting Pathologist in busy Bombay to develop a very flourishing private practice in a few years time. Got tired of the rat race and chucked it all up to enjoy the green pastures of down under NZ where I moved to in 1994. Got sucked into the world of magazines in 2000 (and delighted for it), chucked up my profession and been doing it for the last 7 years. It was originally called Mega Mags but rebranded to Mag Nation in March 2006.Currently have 4 stores, 3 in Auckland and 1 in Melbourne. Our flagship Melbourne store stocks close to 4000 titles. Our 4th store (3rd in Auckland) opened in March 2007 and the fifth one opens in Melbourne in Sept. 2007. Plan to have 6 stores by the end of 2007 and 14 by end of 2008. We do trendy, quirky, innovative stuff like having theme weeks in the stores – T-World week, Sneaker Freaker Week, Knit in Week, Stencil art week in conjunction with POL Oxygen magazine etc. There. The story of my life.”
Ravi Pathare
Ravi recently send me the above three first issues of new magazines to add to my growing collection of first editions. Thanks Ravi and it was great to have met the world’s first ever magazineologist. I can’t wait to visit Mag Nation and have a cup of Java while spending a few hours, make that days from the look in the pictures of the stores, in yet another “heaven on earth” magazine location Down Under.
Everything you always wanted to know about me… and a little bit more
May 2, 2007Mark Glaser the host of MediaShift, a weblog on the PBS website that tracks “how new media—from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism—are changing society and culture” interviewed me yesterday for his weblog. The interview Digging Deeper:’Mr. Magazine’ Believes We’ll Always Crave Ink on Paper, starts with the following lead:
“When Lebanese journalist Samir Husni was teaching students at the University of Mississippi about magazine journalism in 1986, one student had trouble pronouncing his Arabic name and took the simple route, calling him “Mr. Magazine.” The student eventually gave Husni a plaque with the moniker engraved, and the name was so apt for the lover of print magazines that he eventually trademarked the Mr. Magazine name and launched a website with the same name. Now almost every news story about the magazine business includes an expert quote from Husni, whether it’s about Teen People closing shop online or about Garden & Gun magazine’s awkward name . He’s done consulting for magazine companies, and he’s written the popular Magazine Guide profiling each year’s magazine launches for 22 years running.” To read the entire conversation click here.
“Heal”ing after the Cure: a great role for magazines
May 2, 2007
First there was Cure the magazine for Cancer Updates, Research and Education. Cure launched in 2002 as a “quarterly magazine that combines the science and humanity of cancer for those who have to deal with it on a daily basis. CURE provides scientific information in easy-to-understand language with equally understandable illustrations.” Now comes Heal: Living Well After Cancer, a magazine “for cancer survivors from the day treatment ends, and for the rest of their lives.” For anyone who doubts the power of magazines in creating communities that can be felt, connected and shared, those two magazines are the prime example for that. My friend Eija Ailasmaa, CEO of Sanoma Magazines recently sent me a copy of Magazine, a book celebrating Sanoma’s Magazines fifth anniversary. In it I found this wonderful quote that best describes Heal and Cure among many other magazines. “Today, lifestyle magazines answer the question of how people can realize the potential in themselves and overcome all anxiety. How they can handle their human relationships, how to show to others a favorable picture of themselves; and how to set and achieve their life goals. People read these magazines with great enthusiasm. The chaotic richness of the problems described and their suggested therapies by magazines is astonishing. There are a wide variety of questions which arise with answers provided for all.” I guess the comments of Elemér Hankis, a Hungarian sociologist and philosopher, will more than suffice as a comment on both Heal and Cure.
God and War: Newsweek’s Meacham “favorite things” and other words of wisdom
May 1, 2007
This week’s cover of Newsweek happens to reflect editor Jon Meacham’s “two favorite topics”: God and War. Meacham shared his views about his favorite topics and many others in an hour-long Q and A session with the journalism students at the University of Mississippi during a meeting with them on the Oxford campus. The Newsweek editor told students that these are “interesting times” and that the business of “printing on dead trees” will continue to be with us in the future. Armed with a circulation of over three million copies every week, a readership of over 20 million readers, and five to five and a half million unique visitors on the web, Meacham compared the reading habits of consumers in print and online. Meacham said “people do not read long form on the internet. 500 words is the max. An average cover story of Newsweek is 4,000 words, so it takes eight pages on the web.” Meacham asked the students to guess the percentage of viewers/readers who go from page one to page two on the web. “80% DO NOT…they drop before they flip to page two.” And how many stay until page 8 on the web with the story, he asked and quickly answered, “My mom will be the only one.” He reminded the students that journalism is not for the faint hearted and the future is always going to be for good writing…however he warned the students that we have to earn people’s attention and respect their most precious resource, time (I am sure he did not mean TIME). “In a blizzard of choices,” Meacham said, “To reach your audience, you need to be eloquent in the narrative with something new on every page to stop the readers.” Good words of wisdom for everyone who believes that our future is based on good reporting, good writing, good editing and above all a good sense of news judgment. Thank you Jon, we indeed live in “interesting times.”
The Good, the bad and the ugly…
April 30, 2007
Just came back from Helsinki. My first stop was (of course a newsstand) at the Detroit Airport. Two things stopped me, both National Geographic and Time magazine share the same cover story. I guess great editors think alike. Walked a little bit more towards my gate and received my first welcome back surprise. A different cover of National Geographic at another newsstand stopped me. Same story but different cover within a few feet. (It seems that more than one distributor serves the Detroit Airport). My second surprise was that the covers of the magazines were not the same as their European edition covers that I bought in Amsterdam. I perfectly understand that the technology makes it easier for us to deliver relevant content to relevant audiences in relevant locations. So the decision of Time to have a story on European Soccer was perfectly understandable. But when I look at the cover story of the National Geographic European edition on India, I have to ask myself the question, how is a cover story on India more relevant to Europe than the story of America’s birth. All three insides of National Geographic are the same. There were no major changes inside National Geographic like those inside Time magazine. One thing I give credit to the National Geographic folks: they managed to confuse me here and abroad with this cover strategy. Please explain the relevance of having two different covers here, and of using India as the European cover story instead of either of the American covers. On the other hand, I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the direction Time magazine has taken since its revamp, and I can completely understand and expect the different covers of their overseas editions with their different content. The story of split covers will continue…
Mr. Magazine 