Blog Magazine

Wired Magazine Makes Cameo in TV's "Lost"

Last night we noticed a sweet nod--or if you're cynical--a sweet product placement of Wired magazine in the latest installment of ABC's Lost. While the issue that made the appearance was an August 2003 issue of Wired, JJ Abrams, co-creator of Lost, guest-edited the magazine's current issue.

Most Beautiful People Issue Out This Week

Christina Applegate, Michelle Obama and Robert Pattinson are among People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People picks for the celeb magazine's annual issue out this week. "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart, teen music idols Nick and Joe Jonas and "Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel also made the coveted list. The 100 Most Beautiful People issue was originally the 50 Most Beautiful People (both male and female) until 2006. The first issue came out in 1990 with actress Michelle Pfeiffer on the cover.

Real Simple Magazine's Reality Show Ends

Last October Real Simple magazine branched out to TV with the lifestyle makeover show "Real Simple. Real Life." on TLC, which the network reports it won't renew. The idea of the show was to bring the magazine's brand of simplicity to real women in a reality-TV format. The venture marked a unique promotion and sales effort split between the magazine and the cable network.

Business Magazine Folds

Portfolio, Condé Nast's struggling business magazine has folded. According to Folio, Condé Nast spent more than $100 million to launch Portfolio making it the most expensive magazine launch in Condé Nast history.

Vogue Cover Features African-American Model

With its May issue Vogue magazine makes Vogue cover history again--model Liya Kebede is the third (ever) African-American woman to appear on the fashion magazine's cover. The first two African-American women were Michelle Obama in March and Beyonce in April.

Vanity Fair Magazine/Miley Cyrus Scandal: One Year Later

Last week Miley Cyrus'"Hannah Montana: The Movie" topped the box offices and became the highest-grossing opening day for a G-rated live action movie in history, raking in $34 million. So we're guessing this means that a lot of parents have forgotten the sort-of-scandal )that may or may not have enraged them) that Miley Cyrus embarked on almost exactly one year ago today.

Read, Enjoy and Recycle Your Magazines

Along with the other eco-friendly habits you plan to commit to today, please remember to add "recycle magazines" to your list. Whether you take them to a recycle center, share them with friends, neighbors and family members or donate to waiting rooms, schools, library or a reading literacy program, please read and recycle all-year long.

Foreign Policy, Paste Compete for National Magazine Award

Here's part two of our look at the National Magazine Awards finalists for general excellence in the relatively small circulation categories. Like the under 100,000 circulation category, the competition in the 100,000-250,000 circulation category is fierce with previous award-winners.

Finalists in the 100,000 to 250,000 circulation
Foreign Policy magazine:  Moisés Naím, editor-in-chief, for January/February, March/April, May/June issues. This bi-monthly magazine evolved from an academic quarterly in the 1990s and is published by The Washington Post Company. It covers global politics and economics. Writers included Pulitzer Prize winning military reporter Tom Ricks; best-selling author Stephen Walt; law professor, author and journalist Daniel W. Drezner. In 2003 and 2007 Foreign Policy won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.

Los Angeles Magazine:  Kit Rachlis, editor-in-chief; Mary Melton, executive editor, for February, May, November issues. This regional monthly covers the city of Los Angeles capturing the spirit, people, lifestyle, culture, entertainment and architecture of Southern California through award-winning feature writing, investigative reporting and a comprehensive guide to the best of everything in the city. First published in 1961(The Walt Disney Company once owned it) Emmis Communications is the current publisher.

Mother Jones:  Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery, editors, for March/April, May/June, November/December issues. Mother Jones is a bi-monthly independent non-profit magazine with liberal and progressive political values. The 33-year-old magazine, which is named after activist Mary Harris Jones, is best known for its investigative, social and political reporting and has been nominated for 17 National Magazine Awards and won five. Mother Jones is published by the Foundation for National Progress based in San Francisco.

Paste:  Josh Jackson, editor-in-chief, for July, August, October issues.
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment magazine published by Paste Media Group LLC. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture." The seven-year-old magazine first started as a quarterly, then became a bi-monthly and finally in 2006 became a monthly. Paste’s content focuses alternative music including Americana and indie rock and includes a CD music sampler in each issue.

Time Out New York:  Michael Freidson, editor, for June 12-18, December 11-17, December 18-31 issues. Time Out New York is one of 23 city guides from Time Out Group Limited publishers. Like its international counterparts Time Out New York provides readers with the ultimate resource of information on everything the city has to offer like film, theatre, fashion, literature, nightlife, food and more.

Variety of Magazines Vie for Prestigious Award

Next week the American Society of Magazine Editors will hand out its prestigious National Magazine Awards winners on April 30. The awards, also known as the Ellies because of the elephant-like statues handed out, are the highest magazine industry award, akin to the prestige of the Pulitzer Prizes.

For the general excellence awards magazines in six circulation categories are recognized and since two of those circulation categories are small—one under 100,000 circulation and the other 100,000 to 250,000—we thought we’d take a closer look at the lesser-known finalists. What we found is a varied group of magazines and stiff competition.

The general excellence award honors “the effectiveness with which writing, reporting, editing and design all come together to command readers attention and fulfill the magazines unique editorial mission.”

Finalists in the under 100,000 circulation category:
The American Scholar: Robert Wilson, editor, for Spring, Summer, Autumn issues. This literary quarterly is the magazine of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the oldest honor society in the U.S.; it was founded in 1932 and named for Ralph Waldo Emerson’s speech delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College in 1837. It has won four previous National Magazine Awards including General Excellence and Feature Writing. The magazine covers public affairs, literature, science, history and culture. While essays, articles, criticism and poetry have been mainstays in the magazine for 75 years, The American Scholar began publishing fiction in 2006.

Aperture: Melissa Harris, editor-in-chief, for Spring, Summer, Fall issues.
Aperture magazine showcases the finest in creative photography from acclaimed masters to today’s new talent. Legendary and visionary photographers Ansel Adams, Dorthea Lange, Barbara Morgan and Minor White along with others founded Aperture, a non-profit foundation in 1952 and its publication of the same name to serve photographers and photography enthusiasts worldwide. Since 1952 the Aperture foundation has expanded to include books and a 3,000 square foot gallery, which opened in New York City’s Chelsea art district in 2005. Aperture won the General Excellence award in 2004, 2006 and 2008 and has also been nominated for National Magazine photo awards.

Bidoun:  Lisa Farjam, editor-in-chief, for Winter, Spring/Summer, Fall issues.
This quarterly arts magazine covers the contemporary art, fashion and culture of the Middle East and those who create it. Lisa Farjam started Bidoun, in the fall of 2003. She graduated with a BA in Literature from Bard College in 2000. She lives and works in New York City.

Print:  Joyce Rutter Kaye, editor-in-chief, for February, April, October issues.
Print Magazine is a bi-monthly magazine founded in 1940. It covers a broad range of art and communication including advertising, graphic design, corporate identity, television, film, computer-aided design, illustration, photography, typographic design, corporate identity, design, packaging and environmental graphics. Print is a four-time National Magazine Award winner, most recently in 2008.

The Virginia Quarterly Review:  Ted Genoways, editor, for Winter, Summer, Fall issues. The Virginia Quarterly is the 83-year-old award-winning journal of the University of Virginia. In the fall of 1924 University of Virginia president Edwin A. Alderman announced the establishment of The Virginia Quarterly Review, saying that it would provide "independent thought in the fields of society, politics, and literature...in no sense a local or sectional publication...[but inviting] as contributors to its pages men and women everywhere who think through things and have some quality of expressing their thoughts in appealing and arresting fashion." The inaugural issue appeared in the spring of 1925. Since 1925, each issue has contained outstanding work in contemporary literature. Contributors of essays, short stories and poems over the years include: Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas Wolfe, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Penn Warren, Robert Frost, Conrad Aiken and many more. 

Seventeen Magazine is 65

America's oldest teen magazine Seventeen turns 65 this year. The magazine was first published in 1944 by Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications and is now owned by Hearst. Unlike its long-time rival YM, Seventeen weathered the explosion of competitors in the 1990s, few of which are left standing now. The content of Seventeen, despite its name, is targeted at 13 to 20 year-olds with information and advice on fashion trends, beauty, celebrities and health with a mostly positive and light tone.

Recently Seventeen partnered with O magazine to survey about 1,000 teenage and young women and 1,000 mothers of daughters that age about daughter-mother communication including the almost always-dreaded sex talk. O magazine editor-at-large Gayle King and Seventeen magazine editor-in-chief Ann Shoket joined "Good Morning America" to discuss the survey's findings.