Blog Magazine

To Survive, You Must Give Up the Goods

Should magazines offer up their content for free on the web? Some think if they do that the entire medium will die, others think it is the only way for glossies to survive in this new media marketplace, like Eileen Naughton, Google's director of media platforms:

"Make sure search engines can find your stuff," she urged. "Don't put it behind paid walls, don't put it on lockdown. Tag your story archives, photos, video clips and make them freely available."

Read more.

Better Than Ever

Learn about the redesign of Better Homes & Gardens, the magazine of the year, at AdAge, where they've run a wonderful feature about those behind the overhaul:

Better Homes readers, it turned out, were interested in a constant replenishment of ideas, Ms. Butler says. "It's not only about the results but also about the joy [the reader] has, how much she enjoys accomplishing things in her home. Based on that, everything we did was to fuel her creativity, surround her with ideas, give her the direction to accomplish what she set out to accomplish."

The changes came almost as soon as the calendar turned. With its February 2007 issue, Better Homes introduced a redesign that added architecture to help readers find the content they want, more white space to rest the eye, better separation between advertising and editorial, new typography, shorter articles, and a new emphasis on the designers and personalities that contribute to its pages.

The results have been gratifying, not least among the magazine's owners at Meredith Corp. Newsstand sales, perhaps the best measure of a title's vitality in the short term, shot up 35.5% from the first half of 2006, before the redesign, to the first half of 2007, according to figures filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

"We are unbelievably excited about what's going on around here," Mr. Sareyan says, sounding more credible than the usual crowd of magazine executives claiming excitement. "We have taken an 85-year-old brand and made it as exciting and vibrant and fresh as any brand out there today -- and not just as a magazine."

Read the rest. Subscribe to Better Homes & Gardens.

Paste Your Own Price

First it was Glossary, then it was Radiohead (despite reports that they were first) and now it's Paste. The music mag is allowing subscribers to decide for themselves how much their publication is worth. Readers can pay as little as $1 for 11 issues or they can go above and beyond the standard rate of $19.95:

For the next two weeks, new subscribers and old readers can pay what they think an 11-issue, one year’s subscription is worth, from a minimum of $1 to above and beyond the standard $19.95 a subscription normally runs. Multiple subscriptions are allowed, and giving one as a gift is encouraged. In addition, anyone paying more than the standard price will be thanked in print, their names published in a future issue of PASTE.

PASTE hopes to attract new readers and make them regular subscribers, the theory being that they will stay for the content after coming in for a cheap price. They also note that as unconventional as the offer is, it gives them insight into just how much their regular readers think the magazine is worth.

The idea came about during a discussion about Radiohead’s new album and "Good to Great," a Jim Collins book that picked the most successful 11 companies out of over 1,400, and examined just what made them so great. The book includes various topics that seem to go against traditional business sense, much like this campaign.

You can only name your own price for two weeks. Hurry if you want to pay less than ten cents an issue.

Time Right On Time with Article about Libertarians?

Katherine Coble, an outspoken libertarian blogger, isn't quite so sure what to make of Time magazine's recent article about those of her expressed political persuasion. Read her thoughts, read the article (not concurrently, obviously), then maybe other libertarians can weight in here about what they think.

Making Them Cover It Up

Will magazines and their designers have to rethink their covers due to a new Post Office mandate?:

There’s been a bit of chatter lately about U.S. Post Office rule changes coming down the pike, which would, among other things peg mail rates to inflation. All to the good—at least our business manager is happy about that—but what has magazine designers spooked is the proposed change in mailing label placement, which would “likely cover a magazine’s nameplate-needing to be either parallel to and within three inches of the top edge, or perpendicular to and within two and a half inches of the top edge….Arial preferred”—according to Folio’s latest e-newsletter. I know, I know, it’s shocking enough that anyone could mandate Ariel—but wiping out the logo? This confirms what I’ve long suspected: the PO doesn’t want to leave me with any room for art or type at all!

Let's hope this is a red tape mix-up, and not something that actually comes to fruition. Read more at Designing Magazines.

Brijit: Aggregating Magazine Articles on the Web

"Search engines are proficient at quickly returning a big pile of results to a query. But what's the best stuff in the pile?"

If this isn't the money quote, then I don't know what is. The above sentiment was expressed in an article in the Washington Post about Brijit, an online magazine article aggregator. Brijit is a web service that compiles 100 word abstracts of print magazine articles which are then published and rated, both by users and an editorial team. Think Digg crossed with hand-selected recommendations by site editors.

The idea was hatched by Jeremy Brosowsky, a father of four, who loves magazine content but couldn't find time to read his ever growing stack of glossies.  He wished that someone could swoop in and tell him the most intriguing or important stories in the stack. Noting a need for such a service he took the task upon himself. According to the Post, "Brosowsky's latest idea is attracting interest and nearly $1 million in venture capital from about 10 investors, including Norman Pearlstine, former editor of Time magazine and now with Carlyle Group.":

There are precedents for the idea. Reader's Digest became America's most popular magazine for decades by condensing content to short, easily readable articles. And magazine analyst Mark Edmiston notes that "The Week," the National Review's weekly magazine summary of news, written with attitude and wit, has made a solid business.

"I think [Brijit] makes a lot of sense," Edmiston said. "I think that's where the Web is going."

The Web is moving toward the combination of human reviewers with Internet search. WebMD founder Jeff Arnold has said that if the latest evolution of the Internet, Web 2.0, was about the consumer -- meaning user-generated sites such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube -- then Web 3.0 will be about the editor.

...
So far, Brijit is reviewing magazine articles and some television shows, such as PBS news programs. Brosowsky said Brijit is adding 60 to 75 abstracts per day.

Many of the 100-word abstracts allow readers to click directly to the article on its publisher's Web site. But some do not, because some magazine Web sites require users to pay to read their articles online. But that's less of an issue now than when Brosowsky dreamed up Brijit months ago. For instance, the Economist recently took all of its online content dating back one year out from "behind the wall" -- an Internet publishing term for making paid content free.

This seems like a pretty smart idea to me. Here is an example of an abstract for a popularly-rated National Geographic article to give you an idea of their descriptions:

The Pacific island kingdom of Tonga emerges from its isolation and obscurity through Teague's descriptive prose, which draws the reader into the beauty and madness of one of the world's last true monarchies. The passing of their beloved king has left this highly literate but traditional people subject to the whims of an unreliable crown prince. Teague's lengthy exposition of a rising democracy movement flies by, reading almost like a novel.

Go take a gander. Obviously, sites like Brijit add more value when more people participate. I'll certainly have my eye on this venture, and I wish it much success.

UPDATE: Brijit's managing editor talks more about the service at Jossip.

Better than Some Others

Phyllis Fine wrote a fine (so hard to resist) compelling review of Better Homes and Gardens. It's a very fair and thorough take on the read, and the critique kinda makes me want to run out and find a copy to read this rainy afternoon. As much as modern design appeals to me and crafty homemaking is not my bag, I always find myself engrossed in a copy of Better Homes and Gardens from time to time, and I always find something special worth smiling about. Here is Fine's take:

[I]t's presentation of decorating topics — the core of the book — is excellent, marked by clear prose and appealing graphics. BH and G pages feature more floor plans and before-and-after photos than any other shelter mag I’ve seen — typical of the pub’s straightforward, step-by step approach, which aims to show exactly how a room or garden is put together.

Checking out two recent issues, I saw plenty of gorgeous kitchens, and a chest of drawers I wanted to take home. I picked up a few useful tidbits — from the name of a particular fall cabbage to plant in my garden to the existence of a thermometer that measures temperature with a swipe across the brow.

But wait, there’s more.

BH and G’s focus on the practical carries over into its tightly written features on relationships, health and parenting. According to its editor, the mag has been covering such subjects for years. Still, who would think to look to BH and G for an exercise routine — beyond rearranging furniture? Yet the September issue has a short but co for ymprehensive overview of strength training.

Read the rest of Fine's review at Magazine Rack.

Buy Better Homes and Gardens for yourself, your mom or anybody into down home craft-y goodness for less than $15. Pretty thrifty gift.

One for the Price of Two

Are readers of InTouch and Life & Style magazines getting the same coverage in both glossies, even though they are paying separate prices? Some media critics say yes:

Is Richard Spencer’s double duty at In Touch and Life & Style costing the two Bauer tabloids their singular identities? Critics are quick to say “absolutely.” Naturally!

Not only are both magazines running very similar content and storylines, but there are also instances of the weeklies having their cake and inhaling it too, by supporting a celeb in one rag and trashing him in the other.

“They’re definitely trying to have it both ways,” says one veteran staffer at a competing tabloid. And when they run “what’s basically the same story in both magazines, they look cheap.”

The media gossip blog, Jossip, has side-by-side screenshots of articles and photographs from both magazines that reveal a striking similarity. Go see and judge for yourself.

Best of the Best: ASME Cover Contest

The American Society of Magazine Editors revealed their finalists for the 2007 Best Cover contest. There are several categories including Best Cover Line, Best Celebrity Cover and Best Fashion Cover. I like their selections--be sure to click the "+ view all entries" to see all the finalists.

Do you have a favorite?

BusinessWeek Gets Makeover, Designer Approves

Armin at the blog Brand New deconstructs the new design overhaul of BusinessWeek magazine:

The logo, in this case, is not the most important aspect of the redesign — although the 180-degree shift from serif to sans serif acts as the perfect statement to signify change, shoving the old, stodgy logo out of the way for a new, bold, no bullsh*t logo in a surprisingly well kerned sans serif typeface that looks to be a customized version of, my best guess at the moment, Univers, but I wouldn't bet my mortgage on it. It's inside that the magazine feels more relevant with a clean design and consistent typographic treatments that sway you from beginning to end. Simple size shifts from front of the book to feature stories to back of the book are enough indicators that you are changing sections without resorting to extra fancy opening spreads for the feature stories. I mention this in light of, and as a personal response to, Wired magazine's opposite approach where each section is all fireworks all the time and the back of the book stories are usually painfully disjointed from the feature stories. But I digress. With its redesign, BusinessWeek has poised itself to play in the same field, in terms of shelf presence as Time, something it couldn't quite accomplish before. In terms of content, BusinessWeek is going to great lengths in convincing us that this is the best magazine everclaims it's "a new kind of print medium that will be the model for magazines to copy in the years ahead." While this may be a happy exaggeration, I am pleased to agree that this redesign feels like a great step forward for BusinessWeek, and I'm almost certain that, when the next redesign happens, I will remember what it's previous incarnation felt and looked like.

There is much more at Brand New, with visuals for comparison.

GOOD Designer on Good Design

 For me, a piece of design (or anything) is good when it was made with care and effort and a point of view. If it's apparent that the person making it was thoughtful about the world and took pride in his or her work, then it feels good to me—whether I agree with all of their decisions or not. -GOOD Design Director Scott Stowell

Read the entire interview at Speak Up.

Understanding Islam with Magazines

This article makes me very happy to see. I spend a lot of time online (where there are polarizing opinions to be sure) and read far too many bigoted and alarmist things in regards to Muslims that are seemingly born out of ignorance. Perhaps this is a way to allow narrow-minded individuals who fear or hate Muslims to see there are many sides to the vast number of individuals representing this often misunderstood religion. From Islam Online:

With glossy covers, modern layouts and polished writing, Muslim magazines are fanning out across the shelves of American newsstands to address the imperfect representation of Muslims in the US media, reported the Chicago Tribune "I think there is a whole wave of new publications that are arriving from the second generation with a great urge to express themselves," said Ihsan Bagby, professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky. "They're trying to lay out a viewpoint that corresponds to that second-generation mentality: more moderate, more engaged in society." With eye-catching design and high-quality photographs, the magazines are discussing Muslim culture in the intellectual and social contexts of the West. They discuss different issues ranging from foreign policy, women's empowerment to teen fashion. "There is a tendency on the part of non-Muslims to view Muslims as a monolithic 'other,' and the need to exhibit the many dimensions of Muslims was very important to me," said M. Salahuddin Khan, the Chicago area-based publisher of Islamica magazine. "In so doing, we are communicating the essential humanity of Muslims."

Read the rest of this article.

I hope it works, because I think that we can all agree that peace between varying nations and their religions best serves all involved. (I suppose there are those who think we are better off at war, but I like to imagine they are a very tiny minority.) If you are of the opinion that Christians are much more tolerant of Muslims than Muslims are of Christians, then perhaps you can agree that leading the process of understanding by example is a most powerful strategy.

Which Brad Pitt Lover Will Sell The Most?

Okay, this is a pretty brilliant idea:

Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston will always be rivals as they both have both loved the same man, actor Brad Pitt. Jolie was believed to be the cause of Aniston and Pitt’s divorce.

Now the actresses are pitted against each other again. This time the women are competing on separate covers of the same issue of ‘W’ magazine.

Jolie might have won Brad Pitt, but a recent study shows Aniston is the best selling celebrity face.

How To Increase Your Magazine Website's Traffic

Rank bloggers...a hundred of them.

Fashion Magazine Fashion

Though these snapshots are from this time last year, this is the first time I've ever run across them, and they are too great not to share.

The photographer, Vidiot, says this was when "TimeWarner, who together with the NYC Host Committee hosted the party, promoted their cable channels and (as seen here) their magazines. " Very creative.

Save the Non-Emaciated Models!

"We retouch to make the models look bigger, healthier," says Self's art director. 

I read fitness magazines. My personal favorite is Women's Health, but I pick up Shape or Self on occasion. They inspire me to work out (sometimes), and they have tasty recipes that are low in fat and calories. I've always been surprised at how just plain skinny some of the models are in these reads, even as they are promoting bigger muscles and healthy meals in the copy alongside them. "Why not choose a model with a form like Jessica Biel's," I would wonder, since she looks more like someone who is active and eats, as opposed to someone who starves themselves and smokes. Little did I know that these spindly models are actually skinnier than they appear, which makes no sense.

As the blogger at Jezebel notes, there are attractive women out there who move around a lot and eat a well balanced diet who would be optimal for the pages of fitness magazines. Instead they hire impossibly rail-thin women who haven't seen a gym in a month of Sundays because they haven't eaten in nearly as long.  Girls look to the pages of glossies for tips on fashion, weight and beauty--we owe them better role models.

Vegetarian Times Goes Green

Vegetarian Times' decision to do a little playing with their name is incredible intriguing. According to WRAL.com VT is experimenting with the name Greens for its veggie-focused glossy:

Vegetarian Times magazine may be going even greener. The 33-year-old bastion of meatless cooking is considering changing its name to Greens, a move editor-in-chief Elizabeth Turner says is aimed at broadening the appeal of the magazine.

She says only about half the magazine's readers are vegetarians; the rest only dabble with meatless cuisine. The magazine wants to see how many other dabblers could be attracted with a new name. But Turner says that's all that will change.

"The mission of the magazine would not change, but we thought we might reach more people and get more people excited about eating low on the food chain," she says.

To test the new name, the magazine is printing two versions of the newsstand copies of the September, October and November/December issues, some with the traditional Vegetarian Times logo, others with Greens.   ...   The magazine's content also is getting an eco overhaul. It will regularly offer tips to help readers make ecologically sustainable choices and regularly highlight eco-friendly products with its "Greenie Award."

With "green" being the most hyped buzz word of the moment, one has to wonder if VT editors are just jumping on the trendy train. But I think that the move is one that came about for different reasons. The word "vegetarian" carries with it some negative connotations in some parts of our society. Discussions about meatless eating can turn very heated in a short amount of time, with omnivores and herbivores debating everything from health to animal rights. I think that VT's decision to toy with the name Greens allows them to separate themselves from a term that carries with it a stigma--be it deserved or not.

What do you think about Vegetarian Times' possible name change?

Break Out Your Inner Critic

Have you ever subscribed to a magazine you were really looking forward to only to discover it just wasn't the right read for you? Do you have an all-time favorite magazine that you'd love to tell the world about? Well, now you can share your thoughts on one or all of our more than 1,600 titles when you submit a review at Magazines.com. It easy and fun to compare your ideas on particular titles with the readers who came before you. And Magazines.com has just implemented new ways to give your opinion about the magazines that you love...or don't so much love.

We've just introduced rating dimensions [see Cooking Light's review to see in action] that allow you to rate individual attributes of the magazine in addition to your overall score. For instance, you can give the design 5 stars while giving the ad relevance 1 star. This helps to show in more detail why you feel the way you do about a particular title. Our sliders allow you to rate whether a magazine is something a kid might want to pick up, or whether the material is geared more for adults. You can also use a slider to show whether the publication is ad-free or ad-heavy or somewhere in between. Our pros and cons sections allow you to highlight the good and the bad of the magazine, giving everyone a balanced view of the selection before them.

Your reviews at Magazines.com allow buyers to get real opinions from real people like you who know our titles better than anyone. Share your likes and dislikes about all your favorite reads today with Magazines.com's new and improved user review features. Simply browse for the title you want to review then leave your thoughts. Easy breezy. Be the Roger Ebert of magazine reviews! You know you've always wanted to.

Where is Least Likely to Succeed?

Many a list ranking the top magazine covers of all time has been compiled, but here's a fun one that employs the use of superlatives. Most provocative, most awkward and most creative are just some of the Best Of's bestowed Your Cover. See the full list.

Krazy Kids' Magazine Design

How bad is the design in children's magazines today? Are the fonts too garish, the ordering of elements too haphazard? Do kids' reads really need to SCREAM at their short stack readers? Jandos doesn't think so. Today he takes a look at magazine design for the ankle biter set, and finds it has changed from when he was reading such publications as MAD and Ranger Rick:

Kids magazines certainly weren’t always as bleak as the current versions. The magazines I remember loving in my childhood—Ranger Rick, Dynamite—a pop culture journal from Scholastic with a snarky (by 5th grade standards) sense of humor, and Mad all featured stories that sustained for pages, a comparatively challenging vocabulary and more sophisticated (and toned-down) color pallets and typography. Kids liked Mad, even though it was black and white and had jokes they didn’t get because it seemed grown-up and cool. I see no big change that requires Kiddie Time to be the way it is now—it’s aimed at kids in third, fourth and fifth grades who are, by that time, reading chapter books–gawd-awful chapter books—but chapter books! And without pictures! So why is TimeMaxim and Lucky and not for Time and Fortune?

It would be tempting to blame child psychologists–those killjoys who thought that smurfs and dragons working out tedious interpersonal problems would somehow make for better television than 16-ton anvils and cliff plunges. But, I would guess that, while every kids glossy claims a team of shrinks and educators on board, they’re probably not actually paid, they probably don’t really come into the office, and they probably have especially little to do with how material is packaged—instead contenting themselves to object to a word or sentence here or there. I would love to hear from someone with experience on the design or review side of kids magazines on this. It seems more likely that the wacky colors come from fuzzy inherited wisdom—inspired by the aesthetics of cartoons and toy packaging.

Find more on this topic at Designing Magazines.

This Should Turn a Few Heads in the Doctor's Office

The latest cover of New York magazine. Read the cover story.

Tribute to a Fallen Four-Legged Friend

Lovers of The Bark, or just softie dog lovers in general,  might like to get their hands on both versions of the latest edition's cover as a collector's piece. You see, when I pulled my favorite dog magazine from within my mailbox this month I was given pause by the melancholy face featured on the front. It is a gripping cover. A forlorn-looking dog with glassy eyes adorns the cover, but there is no copy at all to be found beyond the masthead and the words "Dog is my Co-Pilot" at the bottom right corner. I wondered why The Bark's editors would choose such solemn artwork for their fall edition, but I quickly learned after cracking the cover. The inspiration for The Bark, the creator's first dog, had passed away. There is a touching tribute to the dearly departed dog inside, as well as a photo spread. The editor explains that subscribers got the somber cover of her beloved pet, while newsstand buyers got a more jovial cover image.

I love the trend of multiple covers, especially when it is executed so well like this. I'm going to scoop up a newsstand issue to pair with the one I got in the mail. As a tribute to one woman's best friend.

ALSO: Check out The Bark's blog