The glossy weekly named TIME…

In a continuation of transforming the magazine to a weekly of the 21st century (a monthly glossy on a weekly basis), TIME magazine sports five different covers this week to celebrate the fifth anniversary of its The TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World. The magazine asked “several top graphic designers to create bonus covers to mark the fifth anniversary of this issue.” The designers include Chip Kidd, Neville Brody, James Victore and Michael Lee. And if you think the covers are great, think twice about the writing and photography. To quote Richard Stengel, TIME’s managing editor “What does it take to produce 100 profiles by 100 writers, plus great photography and five different covers? A whole world of talent.” Yes, indeed.

Split covers and different stars reach Hip Hop Weekly world…

The two-year old Hip Hop Weekly was published without any fanfare, but since it changed its format from a tabloid to a standard size glossy magazine Hip Hop Weekly started gaining space on the newsstands and I have selected it as one of min’s magazines hottest launches of last year. Now, the magazine that covers the hip hop culture on a weekly basis is learning the tricks of the trade and offering split covers on the nation’s stands. The latest issue comes with two covers, one devoted to Jay Z and the other to 50 Cent….In any case, both covers are a reflection of a culture that is gaining ground in a world surrounded by celebrity news and gossip…Britney, Jen, Paris and the rest of the gang better watch out, Hip Hop Weekly’s covers are off limit to you…but the rest of the Hip Hop stars can now have a magazine they can call their own. Check it out if you are interested in keeping up with the hip hop culture…you will not regret it and you may learn a thing or two…

TIME for the 21st Century… Richard Stengel’s Stuart Bullion Memorial Lecture at Ole Miss

TIME’s managing editor Richard Stengel delivered one of the most thought-provoking, eye-opening lectures to an overflowing lecture hall, with standing-room only audience, at the department of journalism at The University of Mississippi. The entire April 21st lecture can be watched here. I know it is more than an hour-long with questions and answers at the end, but I promise you, you want to watch the entire speech. If you are looking for answers to the many questions regarding the future of journalism and the weeklies, Stengel gives you answers. Richard Stengel changed the covers of TIME magazine from questions to answers with an assertive point of view. It you want answers to your questions, then give yourself an hour and sit down, relax and watch Richard Stengel answer the questions that each and everyone of us are asking: What the future of journalism? Click here to watch the entire speech.
Would love to hear your comments on Richard Stengel’s lecture.

Stop Using the Term Convergence and other Good Advice from ESPN’s Wright Thompson

Students at The University of Mississippi’s department of Journalism received a dose of good advice from Wright Thompson in the third day of Journalism Week. Thompson offered the following advice to the students, which I believe, apply to anyone interested in the profession of journalism today and wants to know where journalism for the 21st century is heading…Here are some of the highlights from his talk:

1. There is no difference in working for a web-site or in working for a newspaper. What people did at the newspaper in the 60s they are still doing now but on the web-site.
2. Stop using the term convergence. It is more of an advertising term or business term and not journalism. Convergence has nothing to do with what we should be doing as journalists and writers.
3. The same fundamental stuff in journalism has not changed. Ask smart questions and find interesting people to ask the questions to.
4. Learn how to write, learn how to report…everything else will be OK.
5. Don’t immerse yourself with the doom and gloom of the industry. Even during the depression there were people who were still traveling and spending time in Europe and other places. The industry is still hiring good folks.
6. Remember the art of storytelling. Learn the skills and try to be a story teller. Every story must have a character, a plot, an outline from the very beginning.
7. The best stories are about Hope and Fear.
8. The 24-hour cable news is nothing but a video blog.
9. In ESPN we do journalism first and then we figure which is the best platform.
10. The internet has created more accountability and more integrity. You can’t get away with things today like you used to be able to do 20 or 30 years ago.

The entire talk of Wright Thompson will soon be uploaded on the department of journalism MCast video service soon. To check all other talks and presentations on MCast please click here.

Richard Stengel on Reinventing TIME

“Curate more and create less,” is the new mantra for the 21st century journalist, Richard Stengel TIME’s managing editor told a standing room only crowd as he delivered the keynote address for the Third Annual Memorial Stuart Bullion Lecture in Journalism at The University of Mississippi. In a speech entitled “Reinventing Time” Stengel told students, faculty and the public attending the lecture, that journalists must focus more on the WHY rather than the WHAT and WHEN. Journalists must be moderators of information utilizing all the new technological tools and must not be afraid of voicing their opinion when they are the experts and authority on the subject matter at hand. He went on to say, if someone else is a better authority on a specific subject matter, you should not be afraid of sending them to that someone else.
Click here for preview from the Qs and As with Richard Stengel after his lecture. I will be posting his entire lecture and the Qs and As on the Department of Journalism website and on the Mr. Magazine website this coming Thursday.
I truly believe what Richard Stengel is doing at TIME and TIME.Com today is indeed building on the DNA that Henry Luce and Briton Hadden founded in 1923. Theirs was TIME for the 20th Century, Richard Stengel’s is TIME for the 21st Century. His energetic speech today was the talk of the students and faculty after he left. “Powerful, visionary and on the mark,” are but a few comments I have heard from students and faculty after the speech. He has his fingers right on the pulse of our industry and those with ears to listen better do so. I agree wholeheartedly and I can’t wait for my tech folks to finish the video processing in order to share the entire lecture and the questions and answers with y’all so you can judge for yourself.
How do I see the future of journalism, well, I have to agree with Richard Stengel, “the cup is indeed half full.” Let us work on filling it up!
For more videos from this and previous Ole Miss Department of Journalism events subscribe to our podcast at mcast.blip.tv
To read the report from The Daily Mississippian about Stengel’s visit please click here.

TIME in RED, BLACK and GREEN

This week, and for the second time in its 85-year history, TIME magazine leaves the red border behind in favor of the green border to celebrate Earth Day and the war on global warming. The only other time TIME left the red border behind was when it issued a special edition after Sept. 11, 2001. TIME took a page from its departed sister LIFE which did the same during its long history with the white LIFE in a red box. LIFE changed the red color twice in its lifetime: the issue after the assassination of president John F. Kennedy (Nov. 29, 1963) when black replaced red, and on Earth Day (May 1990) when green replaced red.

When a color is your trademark, you tend not to mess with it. However, Richard Stengel, TIME’s managing editor writes in this week’s issue,

“This is our third annual special issue on the environment but also a historic first: for this one issue, we’ve exchanged our trademarked Red Border for a green one. By doing so, we are sending a clear — and colorful — message to our readers about the importance of this subject, not just to Americans but to everyone else around the world as well.”

By the way, TIME managing editor will deliver the third annual Stuart Bullion Memorial Lecture at the campus of The University of Mississippi on Monday April 21 at 9:00 a.m. His topic: Reinventing TIME. Click here for more details.

The “Sole” of Michael Jordan…

Sole Collector magazine is celebrating the release of Michael Jordan’s collector’s edition sneakers number 23 by producing two covers, one limited edition sold at Foot Locker shoe stores and the other for national distribution. The issue sold at the shoe store showcases Jordan and the maker of the shoe Mark Smith on the cover, while the newsstand’s edition showcases Jordan alone. Both magazines are a testament to the power of the name Michael Jordan and niche magazines at the same time.
Sole Collector is yet another example of the power of niche publications in reaching an audience still hungry for more information in less time and space than they can find on the internet. There is no shortage of information on the net regarding Jordan and his series of his namesake shoes, but finding all that info with powerful accompanying photography all in one package is still the domain for magazines. Sole Collector presents a powerful issue than ends with Michael Jordan saying, “I made 23 mine. It’s your turn. Own it.”
For more info on the magazine click here.

Condé Nast Portfolio: The Most Notable Launch of 2007

Drum roll please…from a field of 715 new magazines launched in 2007, Condé Nast Portfolio is our choice as The Most Notable Launch of the Year. 2007 will be remembered as the year that saw the return of the prophets of doom and gloom and at the same time as the year folks like David Carey and Joanne Lipman showed the world that print is and can be alive, well and kicking. Our hats off to the folks at Condé Nast Portfolio and the 714 other magazines that showed the doubting Thomases that print is still a very vibrant medium in this day and age. A recent Dutch newspaper adopted the tag-line “News is free but information you have to pay for.” And that is exactly what CN Portfolio has done as it approaches its first anniversary issue. The magazine has provided in depth information on business issues ranging from food, gender, oil, media… you name it. The information in each issue is presented in an in-depth fashion merging the power of words and images to deliver the best visual impact of print (VIP). This VIP enhances CN Portfolio’s addictive, exclusive and timely, yet timeless content.

With the power of print alive, well and kicking on the pages of CN Portfolio magazine, the same can be said about Portfolio.com website. CN Portfolio provides a complete package of information that makes it a must to today’s movers and shakers. Whether ink on paper or pixels on the screen CN Portfolio deserves the honor of being named the Most Notable Launch of the Year. A well done job in the midst of a very rough year both on the business and media fronts.

Indeed, 2007 has been a rough year for media across the board, but what we have seen in the last 12 months isn’t new. It has happened before. In just one short year we have seen overseas news bureaus shutdown, a television and movie writers’ strike that has altered viewing habits, a move to free internet media content by some big name papers, the slashing of approximately 1000 titles from Wal-Mart’s newsstands and now you see that we have the lowest total number of new magazine launches in five years. So what should I do? Should I say some of you were right? That we are actually a dying industry?

I can’t and I won’t.

If I were to say those things and side with those who believe media is doomed I would not only be ignoring some key events that happened this year, but I would be ignoring what happened when new mediums burst on to the market in the middle of the last century. Newspapers and magazines were supposed to die after radio wowed the world. A few decades later radio, newspapers and magazines were all agreed to be dead after we fell in love with television. And today the talk seems to be that everything will suffer because of the internet. Just for a quick historical piece of information newspapers and magazines, like any other product, have a time to be born and a time to die. That was true in 1690 when the first American newspaper was born and the same was true when it died after the first issue was born. There is nothing new under the sun when it comes to the life cycle of all things that have a time to be born and a time to die.

Well here we are: it is 2008, we still have television, we still have radio, we still have newspapers and we still have magazines. That will not change. Most of the world is having no problem with media consumption. Newspaper circulation and readership is up all over the world with the exception of the American market (that is the subject of another blog), a paper mill was recently completed in Germany at a cost of €486 million, a printing press was also recently opened in the United Kingdom unlike any we’ve seen before and foreign newsstands are more crowded than ours and still European consumers want more.

But you don’t even need to look as far as Europe to see that print is well, alive and kicking. The 2007 new launches totaled 715. That is, still nearly two new magazines launched each day on average. And while 2007 count is nearly 200 titles fewer than 2006, it is still substantially higher than the number than the number of new launches in 1991, the first year that commercial use of the internet was allowed. And don’t forget the golden goose. Condé Nast felt so sure of the current desire for good content that they fed over $125 million into the launch of CN Portfolio, our Most Notable Launch of the Year. So far I haven’t heard one whisper of disappointment concerning that investment, except of course from the prophets of doom and gloom.

I’ve been saying this for some time now, we are in the midst of a market correction. We saw the market correct itself in 1999 and we are seeing it again this year. What we are seeing is, in some ways, similar to what the housing market or national economy is doing. Anything involving money has a tendency to be a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs. There may be those that are complaining as we are at a low point, but be certain, those same individuals will be praising our industry when the numbers swing back up like they have time and again over the 20+ years I have been tracking new launches. Enjoy.

Can you spot the real National Geographic?

This is not an April 1 joke…this is for real. For real as a Harvard Lampoon Parody can be. The issue on the left is the real April issue of National Geographic, the one on the right is the parody issue. One offers Hawaii’s Wild Coast and one offers Paris Hilton After Dark. Both spines of the magazines read National Geographic April 2008. The real contents read: The Sahel. Biomimetics. India Rickshaws. Hawaii’s NA Pali Coast. Senegal Chimps. The parody issue’s spine reads: A Harvard Lampoon Parody. Sex. Sports. Beer. Science. Clothes. Animals.
So you be the judge on this April’s fools day. Which one of the two magazines you will pick and take home to enjoy. If you choose the parody be prepared to pay an extra one dollar ($5.99 for the parody vs $4.99 for the real NG). No one said fun is cheap. After all you get what you paid for!!! Enjoy

Seven Questions and Answers with the 30 Most Notable Launches (5): Garden & Gun and Heal

Today we present two more 7 questions and answers from our interviews with the editors and publishers of the 30 Most Notable Launches. The interviews will be published based on the alphabetical order of the names of the magazines. Today’s magazines are Garden & Gun and Heal. To read a short profile about each of the aforementioned magazines just click on the magazine name. We have asked the editors or publishers to answer the same 7 questions. You can scroll down the blog to read the previous days questions and answers. What follows are today’s two notables:

Rebecca Wesson Darwin of Garden & Gun answered our questions:

1. What do you consider the single most important achievement your magazine has accomplished in today’s marketplace?

In a highly competitive and saturated market, Garden & Gun has carved out a unique niche, addressed an underdeveloped subject and reached a new market. It is indeed a new breed of magazine that has resonated with readers and advertisers. What started as a celebration of the sporting life and the Southern land has evolved into a magazine full of experiences and sights and sounds that engages not only those living or intrigued by that lifestyle but also by those who appreciate the art and culture of the South. It is “21st Century Southern America.” It has filled the big shoes that we originally carved out. In fact, a recent Associated Press article called a Garden & Gun “Saucy, Southern glossy.”

2. Looking back, what was the most important hurdle you were able to overcome?

No question – our “no-excuses” name. It has been most often a door opener, an attention grabber, and as one writer said, “The best damn name I’ve heard for a magazine ever!” It has been on only one or two occasions a door slammer. But most importantly, it has been a point of discussion. We have always said, take a look before you form your opinion, and have encouraged an open mind. And we have delivered. A senior ad agency executive recently wrote “Well I am just really impressed with Garden & Gun. It has turned out to be everything you promised it would be.”

3.What was the biggest pleasant surprise?

That the literary component – the caliber of the writing – has become such a hallmark for us. But beyond just the big names, the “A” list of contributors, it is the
quality of all the writing in the magazine – and the photography. Our writers bring their experiences to life. And readers have responded by telling us that they feel like they are right there in the hunt or on the boat in the Biloxi Marsh. Quite frankly, Garden & Gun has surprised people – and made them proud – that such a high quality and literary product is coming out of and celebrates the South. The positive outpouring of calls, emails, and letters from readers and their dedication to the magazine has been beyond our wildest dreams.

4.What is the biggest challenge you are facing today?

It would be easy to quickly respond that the biggest challenge is improving revenues – both in advertising and circulation. But it goes deeper than that. Our
biggest challenge is getting folks to understand that we aim to be a national magazine with a regional focus (our subject matter is regional; our market potential
is national). This impacts where we are positioned on the newsstand, how media buyers view us, which ad campaigns we get considered for and on and on. We are clear on our position and we continue to look for talented individuals who can communicate that message effectively and have some upcoming exciting
announcements on additions to our talent pool.

5.Imagine you have a magic wand and you can strike the magazine and make it human? Describe that human being.

That’s a touchy question because they would have to be androgynous – half garden and half gun! But if pressed, the magic wand would produce a good looking guy, age 43 (but looks 37)
Hometown: Mobile
Education: UNC
Profession: Architect (specializes in green building)
Secret desire: To be a fishing guide
Second home in: Cashiers, North Carolina
Last trip: Bonefishing on Andros Island
Drink: Makers Mark on the rocks
On his bedside table: Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen
Favorite cause: The Nature Conservancy
Thing he never brings to dinner: His Blackberry

6.The number of new magazine launches has been on a steady increase. What advice do you offer someone wanting to start a new magazine?

There are a lot of good ideas. There are only a few great ideas. To put those ideas to the test, one needs to write a strong business plan and clearly carve out a position in the market. One needs a group of people – be it a board, a set of mentors, whatever – that asks the difficult questions and makes one think through all the challenges that are sure to come up once launched. It is important to have a real affinity for the idea and to be able to defend it again and again. And, in the best of all worlds, it is a strong advantage to have investors who have deep pockets and understand the commitment of time and money that will surely be involved. But money is not all it takes. Starting a magazine from scratch like Garden & Gun vs. launching a magazine from an established magazine company is a whole different game! It takes guts and confidence and a willingness to do any job and make mistakes.

7.Finish this sentence: In 2011, your magazine will be….

In 2011, Garden & Gun will be around, profitable, and a cross-platform brand. G&G (that’s what everyone will call us then!) will be a community that
encompasses the magazine, the television show, the radio program, the books, the retail store, the catalogue, and a vibrant web presence. It will be one title in
a stable of magazines started by this new magazine division of Evening Post Publishing Company. We will be fighting off bids from other publishing companies to acquire us, but EPPC will be pleased that they invested in a new strategic business and proud that the magazine division is performing so well!

Kathy LaTour of Heal magazine answered our questions:

1. What do you consider the single most important achievement your magazine has accomplished in today’s marketplace?

The fact that Heal provides a unique (and much-needed) voice amid a cacophony of health magazines. Before Heal, no magazine targeted all of the nation’s 10.5 million cancer survivors and their family members, a demographic only recently acknowledged as having specific and multiple information needs as a result of their cancer.

2. Looking back, what was the most important hurdle you were able to overcome?

Making it clear that there is a difference in cancer (as well as with many other illnesses) between being cured and being healed, the former being a physical state and the latter an emotional and spiritual one. Furthermore, each state (cured or healed) can be achieved without the other. To be well is to be cured, but to be whole is to be healed.

3. What was the most pleasant surprise?

Learning just how directly and intimately we connect with readers. An example: Just before Heal launched, our sister magazine, CURE, heard from a young cancer survivor who had been told that her diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia meant she could never have children. She was looking for information about other young women with her type of leukemia who’d had a child. The managing editor was able to tell her that our cover feature about to appear in Heal’s premiere issue was an inspiring story about a woman who did just that. Time and time again, we’ve been reminded that we make a real and tangible difference in the lives of people who’ve had cancer.

4. What is the biggest challenge you are facing today?

There is an assumption by many, including the news and entertainment media, that someone with cancer stops living. Our challenge is to show that the millions who continue on after facing cancer are living life to the fullest through the prism of cancer survivorship. This may mean numerous unique challenges for some and only a few challenges for others. But most revel in a new appreciation for life, and they — along with their caregivers, family and friends — want a roadmap to show them how to stay healthy on their journey after cancer treatment ends.

5. Imagine you have a magic wand and you can strike the magazine and make it human? Describe that human being.

Actually, we’ve done this in creating a My Space profile for Heal, who in that realm is a 46-year-old Virgo woman. (Incidentally, she has made quite a few friends there). But to extend that description, and add a little bit of wishful thinking, Heal would be androgynous – to represent survivors of all cancers. Our Heal person would be a seeker of knowledge and wisdom, perhaps wounded but not bowed by a life-threatening disease, who wishes to seize every day and to follow a rich and textured path on his or her journey of life.

6. The number of new magazine launches has been on a steady increase. What advice do you offer to someone wanting to start a new magazine?

Clear your personal calendar for at least a year. Then devise a product that doesn’t just fill readers’ heads, but lingers in their hearts.

7. Finish this sentence: in 2011 your magazine will be…

the essential guide to cancer survivorship for every American who has experienced cancer and his or her family and friends. They have heard the words “You have cancer,” endured treatment and its fallout, and then wondered, “Now what?”