So it seems. When Reader’s Digest published Families magazine back in the early 80s, they were able to produce a very high class, good looking magazine. However advertisers were slow to come and the magazine folded. Years later Family Fun, Wonder Time and Cookie are doing what Families did and indeed succeeding where Families failed. The same is true with Rodale’s Organic Style, they were ahead of the times and died before organic became the in thing. Although Rodale continues to publish Organic Gardening, but it fails to offer something to write home about today. Now enter Organic Spa, take two growing categories and merge them in one magazine and you get a magazine that hopes to capture the times, not behind nor ahead, just in time. Hoping to combine Spirit, Sustainability and Soul the new magazine launched to “serve the growing number of consumers committed to integrating personal wellbeing with an environmentally sustainable lifestyle.” The quarterly is published by Oceans Publishing Company and is available year round through a web-based digital edition that you can see here. The magazine follows the latest trend of splash pages to introduce its different sections and to help the readers navigate easier through the content. The four main sections of the magazine are At Home, At Work, At Play and At Rest. Pick up a copy and enjoy it at home, or at work, or at play or even at rest. Have some organic fun today.
Can you be ahead of the times?
April 22, 2007Where do reporters get their facts?
April 20, 2007My friend Rex Hammock alerted me to a news story in the Financial Times where reporter Joshua Chaffin writes, “In the history of US magazine launches, the high point may have been August 1999, when Tina Brown’s magazine debuted.” I guess his definition of history is the 1990s or 1999 to be specific. He goes on to write, “These days, new magazine launches — let alone big-budget events — are few and far between.” Well, if he just bothered and checked the facts he will find out that we publish now-a-days more magazines than we did at any other period of the history of American magazines. Even if you exclude the specials and one shots, here are some of the numbers of new magazine launches going back to 1984. Keep in mind these are all new magazine launches with at least four time launch frequency. Starting in 1984 the numbers are 134, 203, 299, 300, 284, starting in 1990 the numbers are 325, 363, 443, 417, 458, 510, 535,459, 518,360 and starting in 2000 the numbers are 333, 301, 290, 454, 473, 350, and 332 in 2006. There is no need to explain any of these numbers. I think they speak for themselves. I hope reporters, especially those in the print media, stop promoting the myth of print is dead and no one is doing anything in print any more…. Just give the story due diligence and go visit a newsstands first or a post office and then tell me print is dead…
Hot and New this week…take 3
April 20, 2007Once a week, I highlight three new magazines on my web site http://www.mrmagazine.com. This week the three new magazines are Road Bike Action Magazine, Toddler and The World of Rods. 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.
When Digital Marries Print: The Result, A Wonderful JPG
April 19, 2007
So can ink on paper and pixels on a screen live happily ever after. Well, here is an example of a publication that shows that when pixels on the screen marry the ink on paper, the result will be the creation of a community that interacts with each other and that have connectivity and usefulness second to none. To take from the words of its founders: There are magazines, and then there are magazines and then there’s JPG. And they couldn’t be more right. JPG took the mold of an industry model and completely smashed it, proving that technology is not the enemy to print as all the prophets of doom and gloom preach. Read my interview with founder Derek Powazek here.
The magic of numbers…
April 18, 2007
It never ceases to amaze me how much we love numbers and lists. You give me a list and I am reading it from number one to number 399. You tell me there is 101 (somehow, odd numbers always work better than even) ideas to improve my home, and I start reading. But the questions that I always ask myself are the following: When those numbers exceed a certain amount, let’s say a 1001, how many continue reading or care? What is your limit? And, further more, have you ever taken a magazine to task to proof to you that the numbers on the cover are in there? Take for example the new issue of Women’s Health. The May issue sports a cover line that says, “2263 Amazing New Health, Sex, Fitness & Nutrition Tips.” Well, what are you waiting, go grab a copy of the May issue and start counting. It will be interesting to see how much more time you are going to spend with the magazine doing that. It may become addictive, you will fall in love with the magazine, and they will gain a reader forever…
A Swedish Rosie magazine is born…
April 17, 2007
I do not know what is the reason for this flurry of European new magazine titles trying to either revive titles that have come and gone in the States such as George, or the use of proper names for their new magazines following the footsteps of O, the Oprah magazine. I know it is not a new trend to name the magazine after a proper name, but the recent increase in this trend is what caught my attention. The Dutch have their Linda and Catherine, The Finns have their Sara and Olivia, and the Swedes have Laura, M and now Rosie… However as much as I can tell, the Swedish Rosie is a new magazine for outdoor living, and if you can speak Swedish you can read all about it here, or for more info about Rosie and other Sewdish magazines click here to read the comments in English from vassaeggen.se (thanks for the info folks)…I hope they have a better luck dealing with the outdoors rather than the indoors and the courts….
True Green…True Digital
April 17, 2007
Just so you would not think that the whole magazine world has ceased to exit because of CN Portfolio’s launch, I have some other news to report on. The folks at Green*Light magazine sent me an e-mail earlier today to present their magazine to me “as an example of (what we think is) great digital magazine presentation. We are interested in Monkey too and think it brings great visibility to the digital magazine genre, but like ours better.” Green*Light magazine launched in 2005 and has completed five issues in digital format so far. I visited the magazine site and flipped through the pages of the latest issue and liked what I saw. Relevant content, and relevant design, all in a made-for-digital format. The size of the type is good, the amount of words are great for the screen, and the pictures are right for pixels on the screen. However, what the magazine lacks is the interactivity and the movement Monkey magazine and other similar platforms offer on the web. A good start and a good “put your money where your mouth is,” but you need to check it for yourself here.
Thank God Condé Nast Portfolio is a monthly…
April 17, 2007What was I thinking when I wrote earlier that I will be reviewing the first issue of Condé Nast Portfolio as soon as I find a quiet place to sit down and read the “whole glowing issue.” Well, little I knew that the magazine is so addictive, the articles are so captivating, and the photography will freeze your flipping movement for a long long time… there is no way I can finish this issue today or tomorrow or even the day after. I am so glad it is a monthly and so glad that the information in it is timely yet timeless…I am going to take my time and sip it like that great glass of wine that ought to be drunk one slow, very slow sip at a time.
Remember those black boxes…
April 16, 2007
If you recall those black boxes in the picture of the Condé Nast Portfolio’s staff two days ago, well I received one this morning, and let me tell you it was worth the wait. First impression, wow… second impression more wow… I know I am not going to have time to actually sit down and read the whole issue now, (For those of you who do not know me, I am the chair of the Journalism Department at The University of Mississippi and they really pay me to do other things beside reading magazines). The funny thing is that media critics are issuing their verdicts without even giving the magazine the chance to hit the newsstands (a week from today)… If it were up to the print (funny to say that) media “Some analysts question whether Condé Nast’s new Portfolio magazine will fare better than other business magazines,” read the caption accompanying the picture of the cover of the new magazine in the New York Times Business Day section this morning. Some even went as far to state “I don’t think they (Condé Nast) would make the same decision to launch a business magazine now because the climate ahs changed since they announced.” The sad part those analysts have forgotten the history of the magazine industry plus they did not even see the magazine or any of its content. Just as a quick reminder about launching a magazine in the worst of times, Fortune was launched by Henry Luce in the midst of the Great Depression with a dollar cover price (think one dollar in 1930). There will more on the first issue of Portfolio as soon as I can leave my office and find a quite corner and read the whole “glowing” package.
Why do I love CN Portfolio? read on …
April 16, 2007Before 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…
