March 2009

Launch: Style Sample Magazine

A fashion blogger is taking her online posts to the next level with the launch of a digital magazine called Style Sample Magazine, scheduled to be released next Monday. It’s the first magazine specifically for and about fashion bloggers—meaning all the content is about, and contributed by, fashion bloggers and online fashion entrepreneurs. Its goal? [...]

Ad Agency Moves $20M from TV to Online Video

Reckitt-Benckiser, a major ad agency that Ad Age called “the most successful major package-goods company of the past five years in sales and profit growth,” will shift $20 million in TV ad dollars to the web for more than 15 of its brands, including Lysol, Air Wick, Mucinex, Finish and Clearasil. This is significant for [...]

Launch: LIFE.com

LIFE magazine and photo agency Getty Images have teamed up to bring the iconic LIFE brand back to life—this time in the online world. The new LIFE.com, launched today, lets you prowl through the LIFE and Getty photography archives for free, promising “the photos you won’t forget.” Portfolio’s Jeff Bercovici reports in his blog: LIFE.com [...]

Mr. Magazine: "What Recession?"

Thumbnail image for Mr. Magazine: "What Recession?"

Last month was the best February yet for magazine launches, according to Samir Husni, aka Mr. Magazine. In a recent blog entry, he reports: “81 new titles appeared for the first time on the nation’s newsstands in February.” Husni, who is launching a Magazine Innovation Center this August, attributes the surge of launches to publishers [...]

Launch: Weekend Getaways

American Express, Time Inc. and CNN are launching a new take on the travel guide with “Weekend Getaways,” an initiative that delivers travel content through print, online, mobile and broadcast. It’s a smart cross-brand, multiple-format solution jumping off the success of last year’s Infiniti-sponsored “City Guides” initiative. The three-part “Weekend Getaways” booklet will run in [...]

Launch: ESPN Outdoors Saltwater magazine

ESPN Outdoors is launching ESPN Outdoors Saltwater magazine in April. The magazine, created for saltwater-fishing enthusiasts, already boasts more than 250,000 subscribers. It will tap into the ESPN Outdoors Saltwater Series, which debuts on ESPN2 on March 29, and will also include tips and techniques, photo essays and more. It’s already available online. Check it [...]

Launches: U.K. Magazines

Thumbnail image for Launches: U.K. Magazines

New magazines have been quietly launching across the pond. Condé Nast launched a twice-yearly British style magazine, titled The Love, earlier this year. Plus, the U.K. version of Wired is relaunching next month. Now the newest announcement is from H Bauer Publishing, which is launching a new consumer magazine that will focus on a trend [...]

Send E-Offers That People Will Actually Read

Consumers are very selective about what they allow into their inbox. So what’s the best way to prevent opt-outs from your email offer or e-newsletter? The key is relevance. Pull reports on click-throughs and track your response rates and demographics like a hawk. Then, tailor your email offers so they are targeting the right readers. [...]

Keep Your Brand Afloat

In today’s troubled economy, usually the first business expenses to be slashed are advertising and marketing. But hold the red pen, because cuts like these can cause short- and long-term problems, according to Kevin Randall. In this article he says “hundreds of studies of marketing over ten recessions in the 20th century have concluded that [...]

Mobile Magazine Apps: Growing and Garnering Awards

The launch of Apple’s iPhone App Store opened the door for media companies to explore an all-new, interactive way to distribute content and engage readers. Magazines were exploring the mobile world before then, but the iPhone App Store suddenly made everything amazingly accessible—and magazines went to task creating some can’t-live-without mobile applications. Take the Style.com [...]

Customize Your Own Magazine?

The Internet is customizing the advertising you see based on your browsing history; why can’t magazines customize their content and advertising based on your likes and dislikes, too? Maybe it will be possible with a new 10-week magazine experiment devised by Time Inc. and Lexus. The initiative, called “Mine,” lets Time Inc. editors customize a [...]

Video of the Week: Count Me In

This week’s installment of “Video of the Week” is a promotion for “Count Me In,” a support network for women-owned businesses. The video promotes their campaign “Make Mine A $ Million”, a campaign to push women to raise their businesses’ revenues to the million dollar mark by using the resources provided by the non-profit. The [...]

Is Teen.com TV the new MTV?

Alloy Media + Marketing recently launched Teen.com TV, a digital entertainment network delivering original, short-form video programming tailored the youth audience. The TEEN.com Network has more than 20 million users, a major piece of the coveted always connected millennial market. TV Week ponders whether Teen.com TV could become a powerful brand for teens and tweens [...]

Hey! You're in my Favicon!

Do you know what a favicon is? Everyone’s got one. In fact, it’s on your screen right now. It’s that tiny 16-x-16-pixel square in your web browser to the left of the URL. Smart Car started an ingenious online advertising campaign by packing retro arcade games into people’s favicons, creating consumer interaction and proving that [...]

Magazines Are NOT Dying

The magazine industry is mulling over yesterday’s article in The Big Money where Gabriel Sherman argued that magazines are not—in fact—dying. Instead, Sherman says, some magazines or spinoffs  were created solely to capture certain booming segments of the market. Now that many of those segments are booming no more, those spinoffs became the martyrs of [...]

The Micropayment Debate Rages On

The debate continues over whether or not to charge for online content (Walter Isaacson’s “How to Save Your Newspaper” article in the Feb. 5th edition of Time magazine initially brought the topic to the general public’s attention). This week, the New York Observer sat down with outgoing Time Inc. managing editor Jim Kelly to continue [...]

Getting “In” with Online Media

This year’s Magazine Publishers of America‘s digital conference, called 24/7, was focused on a number of topics, including the importance of bringing print media online. ESPN magazine is experimenting with digital editions for email, and applications for the iPhone. Click here for more tips and information.

Online Banner Ads: The Comeback

Making use of ever-expanding Web technology, top advertising agencies are beginning to focus on online banner advertising again. New technology, such as 3-D modeling (augmented reality) and interactive GPS mapping, is quick to catch a web user’s eye. Could this be the comeback for the ancient banner ad? Take a look at Visa’s new “Go” [...]

USA Today: More and More Marketers Choosing Online Video

USA Today has an article today about how fast online video is growing and how marketers from corporations and associations are turning to the medium to directly communicate with their audiences. USA Today interviewed Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Brightcove who said that most of his clients are NOT media companies but organizations like the AFL-CIO, [...]

Washington Post's "Voices of Power"

The Washington Post has an online video series called “Voices of Power” which features top Obama adminstration officals including Senior Adviser David Axelrod, Social Secretary Desiree Rogers and Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. The Obama administration has put an emphasis on allowing Americans to have access to the White House and this is a great [...]