Reaching Young Readers
A new initiative by MPA gives free digital editions of magazines to college students hoping to convert them into magazine readers and to test the viability and popularity of digital delivery. Five publishers are participating in this initiative. Read more

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World's First Mag
The Gentleman's Magazine was the first general-interest magazine. It was founded in London by Edward Cave in January, 1731. The original complete title was The Gentleman's Magazine: or, Trader's monthly intelligencer. More>>

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30 YEARS
Merrill Lynch report on the state of the newspaper industry does not see online representing over 50% of total newspaper ad revenues until more than 30 years from now.More>>

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    Magpie

    Why Magpie? Because I like observing these sleek birds with a tapering tail. And like Magpies, I live with the burden of being a 'chatter', even though I believe that I am rather shy, reserved and unobtrusive :).

    Tuesday, May 30, 2006

    Article: No Magazines for Intelligent Readers like You and Me :)

    Many new English-language media outlets have launched around Asia since the demise of the Far Eastern Economic Review and AsiaWeek (since December 2001)but none have been able to replace them.
    Country-focused Web sites and other regional magazines have yet to find the right formula. As a result, a highly literate and sophisticated market across East Asia remains ill served reports iht in its article: Asia's English readers miss in-depth media

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    Wednesday, May 24, 2006

    Study: No Link Between Magazine Engagement and Ad Success

    Debunking the conventional wisdom, a new report conducted by Starch(R) Communications, a division of GfK Custom Research, North America, disputes the belief widely held in many advertising circles that ads in magazines with thorough, passionate and frequent readers are more likely to be noticed and read than ads in magazines with less "engaged" readers.

    According to the report The Myth of Reader Engagement: "Advertising readership and engagement with a magazine are mutually independent phenomena. ... Advertisements in magazines with relatively large, committed audiences are not more likely to be seen and read than ads in magazines with less committed audiences." The report also found that the key to advertising effectiveness is the creative content of the ad.

    Read the industry perceptions of the study in AdvertisingAge article: Study Rebuts 'Engagement' Assumptions

    To request your copy of the report visit: GfK website

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    Tuesday, May 23, 2006

    Trends: Digital Issue leads Print Edition

    Nylon, a trendsetting magazine that covers music and fashion, plans to release a free digital edition of its music issue on MySpace from May 24. The digital issue will be available for a free download at the magazine's website and what is notable is that the print issue won't be available until May 31. So here's a case where a digital issue leads a print edition :).

    Be sure to download your personal edition of their June-July music issue.

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    Friday, May 19, 2006

    Awards: 2006 ASME National Magazine Awards

    In the world of magazines, no recognition is more highly coveted than an "Ellie," presented by the American Society of Magazine Editors. This is the magazine equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize Nominees and winners are chosen by hundreds of editors, educators, and art directors from over a thousand submissions.

    The 2006 National Magazine Award winners are:

    General Excellence (over 2,000,000 circulation):
    Time

    General Excellence (1,000,000 to 2,000,000 circulation):
    ESPN The Magazine

    General Excellence (500,000 to 1,000,000 circulation):
    Esquire

    General Excellence (250,000 to 500,000 circulation):
    New York Magazine

    General Excellence (100,000 to 250,000 circulation):
    Harper’s Magazine

    General Excellence (under 100,000 circulation):
    a
    Personal Service: Self
    Leisure Interests: Golf
    Reporting: Rolling Stone
    Public Interest:The New Yorker
    Feature Writing: The American Scholar
    Profile Writing: Esquire
    Essays: Vanity Fair
    Columns and Commentary: The New Yorker
    Reviews and Criticism: Harper’s Magazine
    Magazine Section: Backpacker
    Single-topic Issue: Time
    Design: New York Magazine
    Photography: W
    Photo Portfolio/Photo Essay: Rolling Stone
    Fiction: Virginia Quarterly Review
    General Excellence Online: National Geographic Online

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    Tuesday, May 16, 2006

    LAUNCHPAD: OK!

    This week Britain’s famous celebrity weekly, OK!, hits the stands. Published in India by VJM Media, the magazine is a monthly priced at Rs 100 and will contain 116 pages of glossy entertainment. The magazine’s India editor is ex-‘Mid-Day’ columnist Sonali Kamat.

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    Saturday, May 13, 2006

    Trends: Posterzines

    Fox and Marvel are partnering with Future publishers to produce X-Men "posterzines" to promote the upcoming X-Men movie.

    Premier edition of the new 'posterzine' line consists of nine glossy poster-sized photos of the X-Men characters [Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Cyclops (James Marsden), Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and many more])folded to magazine size, as well as actor bios and an interview with the director .

    Selling for $5.99, 200,000 copies are due at newsstands on May 25th--the day before the movie is slated to open.

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    Thursday, May 11, 2006

    Newspapers: How Telegraph.co.uk became visually closer to print after relaunch

    Europe's oldest online newspaper Telegraph relaunched on May 9, with a cleaner white look, wider front page and the reappearance of the paper's traditional logo in the site masthead.


    The left-hand navigation has been slimmed down and incorporates services like podcasts; a breaking news ticker has also been added and the home page contains just one advertisement. The website has been redesigned in response to suggestions from reader focus groups and more closely resembles the print edition.

    The edit team's writeup about the redesign process How we redesigned our front page has some interesting insights into the differences in approach between web and print designers.

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    Wednesday, May 10, 2006

    Article: Print and Online Work Together, Not Apart

    Online presence is an opportunity that magazine publishers cannot afford to ignore for long! But an online presence need not merely be restricted to putting your latest issue and archives on the web.

    My colleague is working on an end user technology website for a magazine publisher. As we were discussing the possiblities and scope of the portal, we realised that this particular media house and also other print publishers in India have not really leveraged online medium to build a community focussed around an area of interest. The only two good examples we could come up with are techtree and Channeltimes by ITNATION.

    Today's opportunity is for the publisher to leverage a magazine brand as the host of a vibrant online community where people not only can find content that they need, but also interact with editors, vendors, and each other.

    The magazine sites that do this best end up looking very little like print publications.

    Bob Carrigan's article Log Off: Print and Online Work Together, Not Apart from OMMA Magazine's May 2006 issue provides some food for thought for magazine publishers and media consultants.

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    Monday, May 08, 2006

    LAUNCHPAD: Liquid and Open Sky


    First week of May saw two magazine launches:
    Open Sky: India’s first magazine aimed at the aviation industry from the Business Standard group. This will be given free with the May 5 issue of BS.
    Liquid: India finally has a magazine on spirits! This magazine on the beer and wine industry in India was officially launched with fanfare in Mumbai. MD and Publisher, Nadir Billimoria (brother of the Cobra beer head Karan) launched the magazine with an awards ceremony to celebrate some of the best hotspots of Mumbai.

    More on these magazines when I manage to source them in Goa.

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    Wednesday, May 03, 2006

    Article: The Right Way To Do Brand Extensions

    Daniel E. Aks of Folio: argues that too many magazine-industry professionals believe that simply repurposing magazines for the Web constitutes a successful strategy.

    He believes that the challenge is more complicated than just creating companion Web sites or reformatting and reusing content for different media. Publishers need to focus on audience segments and develop an entire range of profitable information services and products for that audience—not only for various media.

    More ideas on generating business leads in his article "The Right Way To Do Brand Extensions"

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