InnovatIons In MaGaZInEs2010 world rEport

A survey by the INNOvAtION INterNAtIONAl MedIA CONsultINg grOup fOr the INterNAtIONAl federAtION Of the perIOdICAl press (fIpp)

JUan sEor John wIlpErs edItOrs

INTRODUCTION EDITORS NOTE PROFILE TABLETS 2D TAGS MAG TV AUGMENTED REALITY PAPER PREMIUM EMBEDDED VIDEO REALITY TV GAMING VERTICAL BRANDING MOBILE MULTI-PLATFORM BRANDING SINGLE-COPY/NEWSTAND DISTRIBUTION GREEN INITIATIVES FUSION JOURNALISM CONTENT IS KING INFORMATION ENGINES COVERS COVER ADS EZINES TRADITIONAL FORMATS BLOGAZINES TEENS DIGITAL CONTENT SALES BRAND INTEGRATION EDITORS AS CURATORS CUSTOMIZATION SOCIAL MEDIA ODD MAGS FUTURE TRENDS MAGTWEETS ABOUT INNOVATION ABOUT FIPP
First edition published: 2010 ISBN-10: 1-872274-71-4 ISBN- 13: 978-1-872274-71-3 INNOVATION International Media Consulting Group 2010 Printed on Galerie Art Silk by Sappi: 170 gsm (inside pages) and 250 gsm (cover). Galerie Art by Sappi: Sheer Consistency
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INTRODUCTION

he most important objective of FIPP, explicit in our mission statement, is to strengthen links between magazine publishers worldwide in order to exchange knowledge, experience, and ideas. To this end FIPP has, over the years, developed an impressive array of platforms and products: Events such as Worldwide Magazine Marketplace Publications like World Magazine Trends A member website and regular e-mail updates Professional development workshops and forums. Now, working with Juan Seor and his team at INNOVATION International Media Consulting Group, FIPP can add to this list our latest product: The Innovations in Magazines World Report. Its surprising that this is the first time a report such as this has been compiled. After all, magazine publishers have proven to be brilliant in creating new markets, federating communities of interest, and innovating in all areas of business from editorial, design, sales and marketing techniques to delivery and distribution methods and production processes. What has driven publishers to innovate has been the desire to excite and attract readers and advertisers (the source of all our revenues), and to create brands that can both endure as magazines and stretch into other media platforms such as exhibitions, broadcasting, and now the exciting digital world of websites, podcasts, twitter feeds, social networks, iPhone apps, and whatever else those clever people in Silicon Valley or within Asias giant information, communication and technology companies can dream up next. In considering their futures, it seems that today all publishers have pretty much the same objective in mind (to develop digital businesses while protecting legacy positions), but the methods chosen to exploit new opportunities are extraordinarily diverse and varied. This inaugural Report has collected examples from all around the world of magazine publishers who have created innovations that are often challenging, sometimes profitable, occasionally mad, but always interesting. Some of these ideas are truly inspiring, but as the twice Nobel-winning scientist Dr. Linus Pauling once said, The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. Read and enjoy.

Chris Llewellyn

President & CEO, FIPP

Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.

THEODORE LEVITT, EdItOr, Harvard BusInEss rEvIEw (1985-89)

EDITORS NOTE

DONT WASTE A GOOD RECESSION WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE BEST RISE TO THE TOP
Magazine closures and the advertising meltdown dominated the news, but behind the headlines, creative thinkers crafted innovative strategies to transition to a profitable future.

EDITORS
Juan Seor John Wilpers
Senor@innovation-mediaconsulting.com Wilpers@innovation-mediaconsulting.com www.innovation-mediaconsulting.com

H
John Wilpers

DESIGN

Javier Zarracina

Illustrations: Luis Graena

ard times provoke panic and brilliance. While many magazines cope with revenue and circulation losses by cutting back and retrenching, many others are countering hard times with hard work, imagination and innovation. This book highlights and celebrates this brilliance. At INNOVATION Media Consulting Group we help magazines the world over to re-invent their products and their businesses for the digital age. A lot of the cases herewith come from our global experience and observation. Indeed, over the past year INNOVATION Media Consulting has found the brightest minds in the industry bursting with innovative energy that is helping their publications to be able to not only weather the storm but also develop new content and revenue streams that will ensure their good health into the 21st century. Good news never makes for blaring news headlines, but there is an abundance of creativity in our industry as technology, out-of-the-box thinking, and old-fashioned hard work are enabling innovation that is delivering new readers, revenues and relevance to magazines around the world. The future of magazines is indeed bright, and in the following pages we will show how and why in the first annual Innovations in Magazines World Report. We are indebted to INNOVATION Board of Directors member Thomaz Souto Corra of Grupo Abril, the person who first proposed this report to FIPP - a true visionary, a brilliant editor, a constant innovator and a great friend. Happy browsing!

CONTRIBUTORS
Jess Porter Abate Diego Areso Sophie Bougneres David Bolton Juan Cao Sam Clarke Carroll Cole Teresa Elsey Chiqui Esteban Diana Garcia Juan Antonio Giner Julia Hass Chris Hyacinthe Laura Imkamp Claire Johnson Meghan Keane Dan Kobialka Kailani Koenig Jennifer Leslie Guillermo Nagore Chris OBrien Nelly Ortiz Lauren Ostberg Ned Prickett Talia Ralph Juan Seor Jenny Seward Kerry Watson John Wilpers Jessica Witschel Deborah Withey

COVER DESIGN CONSULTING EDITORS

Thomaz Souto Corra Juan Cao Juan Antonio Giner

Juan Seor

PROFILE

JACK GRIFFINPORTRAIT OF SUCCESS THE SECRET SAUCE? FOCUS & IMAGINATION

Meredith combined disciplined attention to its finely targeted audience with integrated marketing services to be one of the success stories in 2009.

What are Merediths answers to surviving and thriving in such a tough environment? Its strategy blends old and new: an oldfashioned commitment to top-quality, highly focused content aimed at clearly defined target audience and a new, integrated marketing approach to his relationship with his other clients, the advertisers. Throw in a grounded, realistic online strategy that complements and balances the print products and you have an outline for survival and success.

Illustration: Luis Graena

his book is about answers. Innovative answers. Revenue, circulation, and traffic enhancing answers. In these challenging times for magazines, there is arguably one man who seems to have more answers than anyone else: Meredith National Media Group, President Jack Griffin. In 2 0 0 9 , A m e r i c a n magazines lost 25 percent of their advertising pages, according to Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) figures released in January. That is significantly worse than even 2001, when pages declined by 17.2 percent from the previous year. Of the 249 titles Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) tracks, 227 saw their ad revenues shrink in 2009 compared to 2008. Thats a 91 percent fail rate for the industry. How can it turn itself around? In part, perhaps, by looking to the 22 titles earning more revenue than they did last year. Five of those 22 titles are published by Meredith Corporation. Me rediths turnaround is a small miracle after a 2008 in which it was forced to cut a title and fire seven percent of its workers.

INNOVATION: How have you managed to be one of the success stories in magazine publishing in 2009? JACK GRIFFIN: We have a different model

than the major groups we compete with. I oversee a business called the National Media Group, and inside that group we have a number of businesses in addition to our magazines. As a result, we are at the point where magazine ad revenue represents less than 50 percent of our total revenue. We have a big circulation business, and we have always run that as a major contributor to profits where some others have used circulation primarily to support advertising rate bases. Our circulation business has done extremely well in this environment Meredith also has a big business in brand licensing. If you go into a Walmart, for example, youll find the anchor brand of many of the products is Better Homes and Gardens. We also have a diversified marketing services business called Meredith Integrated Marketing that includes digital agencies, customer publishing, and mobile marketing among other activities, and its quite successful, representing more than 15 percent of the total business. If you take our marketing and licensing and branded digital businesses, they comprise nearly 20 percent of total group revenue and more than that in profit contribution. Advertising declined precipitously last year, but Meredith performed markedly better than others. In 2009, our PIB advertising revenue was up a few points. The industry average was down roughly 20 points. We also took a huge amount of share from our competitors. Why? Several reasons: One has been a reshaping of the mood of the country. Our research shows people have turned inward to

things they have some control over and those are the things our books cover: food, home, family, personal relationships and health. For example, our Family Circle was the most successful magazine in America in 2009. In the US, there were 10 monthly magazines that had more advertising in 2009 than in 2008. Just 10 out of 151! Five were Meredith magazines. So our brands are well-positioned, but theres more to it than that. Back in 2006, we introduced Meredith 360, a cross-platform, media-neutral marketing solutions group. Today, Merediths numerous corporate sales units account for over half of our total advertising revenue. We built Meredith around an audience of adult American women in subject matters that are important to them: home, family, relationships, health, etc. Were not in the entertainment or celebrity business. We have a tight content focus.

I: Does content matter in this age of scrappy messages and information saturation? JG: I believe that branded content will be

the salvation of our business. If you look at the hurricane we are going through, its driven for the first time in media history by a complete absence of barriers to entry. Everyone can be a content provider. Its hard for a consumer to tell whats reliable. We believe brands give content authority, such as Parents magazine, and that will allow us to continue to have a strong connection to the consumer. If youre a new parent and your child is sick, are you going to Google colic or are you going to trust Parents magazine? We are a content and marketing company: our content is our bond with the consumer; the marketing is the monetization.

I: What is Merediths digital strategy? JG: Our digital strategy is two-fold: 1) Our

B2B that resides inside Meredith Integrated Marketing, and 2) Our brands such as Better Homes and Gardens and Parents. We develop high-value content in affinity areas that represent passion groups. We are the brand managers around home, decorating, remodeling, the parents community, etc. We believe our brands matter, and we are building our digital brands online in ways that allow

PROFILE

us to connect with the organised consumer to find like-minded people specifically in the context of one of our brands. If youre a traditional media, you have to choose a path: if you try to do everything, youre competing with everyone, and there are so many players who can beat you. For example, if you try to do a social network or community or recommendations, you cant credibly do it. Its easy to get seduced and off the main line. The digital question is the burning question. Not too many companies are making money. For companies like ours, the financial benefit is hard to discern, but the cost of not doing it is incalculable.

the reason you went to the page youre on.

I: What are your three favorite magazines (outside of your own)? JG: Im a fisherman so I like a magazine
called Northeast Boating and Fishing. I also like The New Yorker, and TIME.

I: What is your favorite cover of all time? JG: The most memorable cover of all time

for me was the TIME Is God Dead? cover. It captured a time and mood and moment in the country like no other media could.

I: How do you see the future of print? JG: I think its hopeful, but I dont think

it resembles the past. Today there is too much consumer choice for content and advertising. Content has to be specific, purposeful, targeted, relevant, and continually refreshed. And even that is no guarantor of success. You will see more and more virtual products that have certain lifespan and go away. Television dramas speak to a cultural zeitgeist, and a good one will go on for a while. But where is it written that a show or magazine must go on forever? Magazines are personal and a part of peoples lives, in particular for women and particularly when they become adults. Its an immersive reading experience. On the other hand, when you are on the web, you often cant remember

I: Meredith is one of the few of the big US publishing companies outside of New York. Does being in Des Moines, gives you a better understanding of the average American readers needs and wants? JG: Our home and shelter magazines are

based in Des Moines. Our editors live the lives of our readers. Our typical reader lives in a family household with a couple of kids and is concerned about schools, family, health and well-being. And they are not shopping at Neiman Marcus. I think thats elemental to Merediths proposition. Another benefit for us is a long term, dedicated workforce and a powerful institutional memory. Many of our staff in Des Moines have been with us 10-20 years and longer. Its a major competitive advantage for us.

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TABLETS

Some fit in a handbag while others look more like magazines; some have colour and ads while others are black and white; and Apple is leading the way.

hen Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey speak, the world listens. When Oprah touted Amazons Kindle as her favorite gadget in 2008, public interest in e-readers skyrocketed. When Apples Steve Jobs announced the iPad in January, the e-world changed forever. The iPad has the elegant iPhone look and, in stark contrast to the Kindle and Nook, offers a large colour screen of almost ten inches (25cm). It is also sleek and light, coming in at half an inch thick and weighing just 1.5 lbs. (680 grams). Its so much more intimate than a laptop, said Jobs, and so much more capable than a smart phone.

Like existing e-reader owners, iPad users will be able to download books. Unlike Kindle and Nook owners, however, iPad users will also be able to get e-mail, play games, watch videos, surf the web, download and listen to music, upload (but not take) photos, create documents, etc. The device will be available in late March for $499 for 16GB up to $829 for 64GB and 3G. Amazons Kindle and Barnes and Nobles Nook retail for $259. The iPad is expected to trigger an even greater flood of e-readers which, in turn, will have an even more profound impact on the parts of the media business already roiled by the Internet. E-readers like the iPad will give publishers whiplash as they must now significantly speed up what has been an agonizingly slow transition from print to digital. Some publishers, however, see salvation in devices that offer publishers exquisite methods of showcasing new, creative, multi-media content and new possibilities to charge for that content. This is really a chance for publishers to seize on a second life, Phil Asmundson of the consulting firm Deloitte told The Economist. Critics were dissatisfied with the lack of a camera, the attachment of the device to AT&T, no support for Flash, the closed Apple store, and the inability to multi-task. But others pointed out the device was not a computer, but rather an enhanced e-reader,

and by that measure, it completely rearranged the competitive field. The e-reader world is quite new but growing at lightening speed. Since the launch of the Kindle in 2007, the market has exploded. Four were released in 2008, and that number tripled in 2009. Even more are expected to inundate the market in the coming year. But the race is not limited to hardware. Publishers are trying to figure out how to present their content on these proliferating gadgets. Hearst has just announced its long-awaited take on the e-reader: a device and service called Skiff due out in 2010. At 29.2 cms., the Skiff e-reader is larger than the Kindle or Barnes and Nobles Nook. The Skiff service will deliver renders an assortment of newspaper and magazine content and will allow users to read it on their own device , iPhone , and other Skiff-enabled devices. Skiff is promising strong layouts and graphics so its content delivered wirelessly to readers from Hearsts new digital publishing service appears similar to their paper counterparts. It will offer content from Hearst-owned magazines, San Francisco Chronicle, and other publishers have also agreed to participate. One critical difference with other e-readers is that Skiff will carry advertisements. The Kindle can be used to subscribe to a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Le Monde, and Forbes. Newspaper subscriptions are $6 to $15 a month, and magazines are $1.25 to $3.49. Barnes and Nobles Kindle clone, the Nook e-reader, debuted in November. It sells for $259, the same as the Kindle. In addition to the E Ink display, the Nook features a color display touch screen. The device also carries LENDME, which allows sharing e-books. Another highly anticipated product is Plastic

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Illustrations: Luis Graena

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Hearst SKIFF

THE TABLET EXPLOSION NEW PLATFORM OFFERS UNPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITIES

TABLETS

Logics Que which was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show, in January . It will be available for purchase in April.The device (retailing for $649$799) is a lightweight e-reader geared toward professionals. Applications for Windows devices and the Blackberry (but not the iPhone) allow documents to be sent to the Que and read on the go. Like most e-readers, the display is powered by E Ink technology. However, it differs from other e-readers in that its screen is made of flexible plastic rather than fragile glass. The Que will have an electronic bookstore

FIVE MEGA PUBLISHERS COLLABORATE ON E-READER INITIATIVE

When the giants of a competitive industry feel compelled to collaborate, it puts an exclamation point on the end of an era of fierce independence. Faced with the migration (mass exodus?) of readers to digital information sources, Time Inc., Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, and News Corp. have created a consortium to develop open standards for an iTunes or Hulu of magazines and to create the technology to allow consumers to read and/or purchase magazine content on e-readers. While the service and storefront were still nameless at press time, the consortium company is called Next Issue Media (nextissuemedia.com). Leading the effort is media heavy hitter John Squires, former executive VP of Time Inc. who directed the development of Time Inc.s digital business model and directed their New Business Unit. (More about Next Issue Media in page 37)

to be provided by the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, which includes 700,000 titles and 500,000 free public-domain books from Google. Plastic Logic has also announced deals with newspapers such as the Financial Times, the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News and USA Today. We havent seen anybody even come close to what were doing with our product, said CEO Richard Archuleta. The eDGe from EnTourage also made its debut at CES in January. It has two screens; one is an e-reader and the other is a netbook. The two work together, so if a user highlights a word in their e-book, they can look it up on the netbook which runs on Googles Android operating system. The eDGe is aimed at students so textbooks, trade books, and free public domain titles will be available. Blio, a new software developed by Ray Kurzweil, turns devices that most people have smart phones, netbooks, and laptops into e-readers. The software uses PDF files to preserve the format of books and magazines, including layout and colour. Additionally, it will support multimedia, video and links. It will be available to be downloaded for free at the end of February, 2010. Forrester Research stimates that e-reader sales have reached 3 million in 2009, with 900,000 sold during the winter season alone. It predicts that sales will double in 2010 to six million, creating a market of nine million consumers with e-readers.

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Plastic Logics QUE

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2D TAGS

POINT YOUR PHONE, SNAP A PICTURE, WATCH A VIDEO, BUY SOMETHING

The use of 2D tags, old hat in Japan, is expanding as magazines adopt them to offer content and advertising at the click of a readers mobile phone.

nnovation is the name of the game for a magazine industry grappling with the disruptive impact of the internet and a global recession. With average pages in the US down 21 percent in 2009 from a year ago, magazines are looking to new technologies among other strategies to lure back readers and advertisers. The use of two dimensional (2D) tags in print products to be used by readers mobile phones might be one of the industrys biggest breakthroughs: converging print and the web for the first time. The technology, invented in Japan in 2002, allows readers to access online content by snapping photos of 2D barcodes. While tagging was initially a Japanese phenomenon, other countries are starting to catch on. Since Microsofts introduction in January 2009 of Microsoft Tag, its patented version, a few brave magazines have tried the technology. Get Married added tags to their TV, web and print ad offerings last October. In November, Golf Digest created editorial tags linking to instructional videos: 18,000 subscribers downloaded the Tags free application after two weeks on the newsstand. And in December, People Magazine joined the ranks with tags in Dodge car ads. Bret Hopman, publicist for Golf Digest, says the magazine decided to incorporate Microsoft Tag after their research revealed that 43 percent of Golf Digest subscribers have a smart phone, and 92 percent of that group use their phone to access the internet. We think Tag can play a role in helping to both enhance the consumer experience within the print industry and shore up the decline in ad spend, said Rich Adolf, who oversees public relations at Microsoft. Tags link to a variety of content maps,

43 per cent of Golf Digest subscribers have a smart phone, and 92 percent of that group use their phone to access the Internet.
BRET HOPMAN. Golf DiGests Publicist.

HOW DOES IT WORK

discounts, videos, offers, text. Content may be changed at any time, and an analytics package measures consumers mobile experience. Tagging is part of a new strategy to restore magazines portability. Youll see a lot of very exciting portable-type devices coming out. Thats the future of our magazine industry, said Doug Carlson, CEO of Zinio. With magazines scoring highest on reader engagement, ad follow-through, and credibility over other forms of media, it makes perfect sense to introduce 2D tags, he added. Other, more expensive strategies such as Esquires e-ink and augmented reality, have increased circulation and boosted ad revenues, but 2D tags are an inexpensive, simple solution to traffic, readership and revenue challenges. While early data suggests only an average of two percent of readers uses the new tags, advertisers and magazines are optimistic. Golf Digests Hopman said: Clients are very interested in this new technology. Consumers will increasingly catch on as they become more familiar and comfortable with this new smart phone technology, said Becca Leish, head of Marketing at Get Married. Its like DVR...it took a while to figure it out, but now its commonplace.

First, you have to have a smartphone. Then you download one of many free 2D barcode scanners to your phone. Then you take a picture of any 2D barcode and your phone will display anything from a website to video, graphics, a menu... whatever the owner of the 2D code wants you to see. Japan first applied the barcodes - originally invented to track vehicle parts - to mobile devices in 2002. By 2005, QR codes, just one version, were widespread and now appear on everything from McDonalds drinks to public signs . Some of the users of Microsoft Tag include: Procter & Gamble Europe, French Auchan HyperGames Magazine, Amsterdam-based public transportation company the Gemeentevervoerbedrijf (GVM), Fox 11 News, The Istanbul University Journal of the School of Business, Turkish Hurriyet Newspaper, downtown Toronto shops, and blockbuster hit Avatar.

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MAG TV

MAGAZINE TV STATION FASHIONISTAS, CELEBRITY LOVERS FLOCK TO SPANISH MAGS VIDEO SITE
Spanish women have made HolaTV the countrys most visited YouTube channel during Fashion Week 2009. The station delivers fashion, entertainment and royalty news.

olaTV, Spains leading womens magazine microsite and YouTube channel, is reaching a growing fanbase thanks to its exclusive access to celebrities, its niche content, and its up-tothe-minute entertainment news. Where other magazines such as Vogue and Grazia have included video on their websites, Hola! had the innovative idea to bring highquality video to its readers every day, not just for runway events and special features. They also expanded their video focus to include coverage of the Spanish royal family as well as lifestyle and entertainment topics. The publications story is one of firsts. Hola! has been the number one womens magazine in Spain since 1944, and it is often cited as the worlds first celebrity magazine. Hola! was also the first magazine in Spain to have a website. The management bet heavily on the importance of the internet, said International Business Editions Coordinator Alicia Hummel. From its launch, the website

has had a full editorial team dedicated solely to the website. Hola! was also the first to create a daily updated website for a non-daily print product. HolaTV is yet another platform the Hola brand uses to deliver what its readers and viewers crave: entertainment and lifestyle coverage at all times. Those viewers, Spains fashionistas in particular, have come to depend almost exclusively on HolaTVs in-depth fashion news coverage; they made it the countrys most visited YouTube channel during Madrid Fashion Week 2009. In 2005, HolaTV became the first website in Spain to broadcast a fashion show live. During fashion week in Madrid and Barcelona, Hola! sends out journalists, photographers, and a film crew to runway shows to write stories, blog, film, and interview attendees and designers providing its loyal viewers with 360-degree coverage. HolaTV not only serves up cutting-edge fashion on the runway, but its team also goes behind the scenes to offer viewers step-by-step instructions on how to achieve the high-fashion looks from makeup artists themselves and asks designers and attendees to dish on their favorite looks. We feel that our status as the number one feminine website in Spain is due to two things: early adoption of distribution platforms and constant innovation, claimed Hummel. In order to launch HolaTV and produce a weekly news programme for the website (something none of our competitors do, said Hummel), Hola! built its own television studio.

The management bet heavily on the importance of the Internet. From its launch, the website has had a full editorial team dedicated solely to the web.
ALICIA HUMMEL. HOLATV INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS EDITIONS COORDINATOR.

The Hola group integrates new tools such as RSS, social networking, and mobile platforms as soon as they become available, said Hummel. That commitment to innovation included being the first among its competitors to participate in Zinios free magazine app for iPhones or iPod Touch devices, as well as agreements with Yahoo and MSN to distribute content on their websites. Because of its newsstand culture, Spains Hola! does not focus on increasing subscriptions. Since its launch, the website has grown tremendously and sales of the print magazine have also increased, showing that in our case, online seems to complement print rather than harm it, said Hummel. When Hola.com first launched in 2000, it recorded approximately 1m. page views, and as of October 2009 it had over 59m. impressive figures for a website whose parent magazine of 50 years could easily be described as old media!

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AUGMENTED REALITY

LIVING PAGES, BRINGING PRINT TO LIFE IN UNIMAGINED WAYS

Magic happens when little square symbols on pages are held up to a computers camera: celebrities dance, models prance, and merchandise pops off the screen.

omewhere in the suburbs of London a young man gets home from a night out. Before he hits the hay he grabs his favorite magazine and flips to a page with a beautiful actress on it. He turns the page to face his web cam, and she pops up on screen giggling and telling him a dirty joke. Across the pond in New York City a mother in her forties is leafing through a fashion magazine. She sees a sweater she likes and holds the ad up to her web cam. She is taken straight to the online checkout, clicks, and buys the sweater. This is augmented reality(AR), one of the hottest innovation in the magazine industry, and its much more interactive and contentdriven than print has ever been. Magazine giants from Esquire to InStyle to Popular Science have all integrated computer-generated images into their issues over the past year. They use movie stars who talk, as well as interactive advertising campaigns in fashion spreads that show 360-degree views of the clothes as models prance in front of the reader. Esquire magazine, always a trendsetter, wanted something groundbreaking for its 2009 Best and Brightest issue. We come up with these ideas by actively scouring the world for cool new opportunities, said David Granger, Esquires Editor in Chief. We meet with vendors of all kinds ink, paper, new technology companies and occasionally something wonderful comes of these meetings. Its a lot of work, but it can make a big impact. So they called Benjamin Palmer, the CEO of The Barbarian Group digital design firm. Palmer knew just what Esquire needed.

We suggested augmented reality as something that would make the reading experience more digital without just giving straight internet content, Palmer said. Its more than just a showcase of the technology. Its something pretty deep. It was a really interesting experiment. We are trying to create something that isnt just about showing off the technology, but actually adds value to the story, explained Palmer. The company actually built a custom program to produce the multimedia issue, which combines animation, graphics, and video. Theres no Microsoft Word or Photoshop for augmented reality, Palmer said. We spent a lot of time building custom tools. The company eventually plans to release the program, called Cinder, to the public. Esquire is not the only glossy to go augmented. InStyles holiday issue is also packed with interactive content, most prominently featured in the magazines advertising section. The magazines use of augmented reality allowed for interactive ads which included video advertisements, and a click-to-buy functionality that readers could use to purchase the products in the magazine. Its important to know that this stuff is not just theoretical, said Ariel Foxman, InStyle managing editor. In an incredibly tough economy, our ads were up 3.6 percent. This issue performed incredibly well on the newsstand, and overall, this technology created an undeniably strong package for both our readers and our advertisers. InStyle is the first womens fashion magazine to use AR, and it also used the technology on its cover, which featured actress Taylor Swift. Its really easy to do a mediocre version of what AR is, says Palmer. But theres something else that people are trying to do with this hybrid media, which is to make legitimate use of the technology. If people do a bunch of lame stuff, [augmented reality] will just be a fad. If we in the industry do something that resonates, it will be more permanent.

WHAT IS AUGMENTED REALITY

According to Wikipedia, augmented reality is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery - creating mixed reality. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology, (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally usable. Artificial information about the environment and the objects in it can be stored and retrieved as an information layer on top of the real world-view.

HOW IT WORKS
The Barbarian Group developed a set of tools to effectively combine and create Esquires augmented reality issue. Programmed in C++ code (the same coding used to build video games), the company essentially built its own program to make AR happen. The augmented reality content is activated by downloading the plug-in software from the magazines website and holding the page in question up to a web cam. The content then automatically opens on your screen.

THE COOLEST THING

One of the greatest things about the use of augmented reality by Esquire was that it actually enhanced the magazines content. Where was this enhancement most tangible? The biggest hit was the fashion spread which featured the model walking and moving in the clothing, as well as switching up his clothes to show how all the separate items looked together. Thats something you could never get otherwise.

We spent a lot of time and effort building custom tools for AR.
BENJAMIN PALMER. CEO Of digital dEsign firm thE BarBarian grOup.

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PAPER PREMIUM

LUXURY PAGES FLOW MAGAZINE BRINGS BACK THE PLEASURE OF PAPER

Magazines can tap into readers desire to take a break from everything digital and relish high-quality paper products embedded in print editions.
ow often does a magazine elicit smiles and squeals of delight? Flow does. Six times a year. This Dutch magazine debuted in the autumn of 2008 with a daring approach that embraces paper media and does not shy away from printing innovation. Flow was conceived by a small creative and editorial team with a cohesive design vision. Originally asked to create a magazine to address health topics, the team experimented with an original research strategy that was equal parts quantitative and qualitative to determine what readers wanted. After online brainstorming sessions with focus groups, it became clear that todays reader will turn to the internet for health and medical information. What was really in demand, however, was a product that could provide Energy; energy to enjoy busy lives to the fullest, to feel revitalised. To deliver this energy, the team decided to buck the trend-chasing formulas of most current magazines, and was motivated in part by the pricey artistic greeting cards and blank journals for which customers happily hand over as much as $6-$15 each. The product of the teams research and inspiration is a visual and tactile wonder, a veritable vacation on paper. To create a product that would succeed in the competitive and glutted market, they returned to magazine foundations; re-examining available paper and printing

In a digital age, Flow is providing a sanctuary from technological onslaught with content and design.

possibilities. But distinctive paper and printing techniques are not applied just for noveltys sake; all the design elements are selected to provide the reader with as much pleasure and perceived value as possible. The reader cannot use costly slick cover type, but will truly appreciate the fold-out creativity calendar and whimsical bookmarks. With this resourceful strategy, Flow has an unmatched look and feel and can afford to provide each reader with paper gifts such as minibooks, stickers and postcards. Each bi-monthly issue is composed of five main thematic sections, with complementary paper choices for each segment. Earthy recycled paper is used for an article on gardening and writing paper is used for a story highlighting the joys of handwritten letters and postal mail. The magazines comprehensive design vision extends even to advertisements, and several companies have voluntarily modified or reinvented ads to integrate with the publication. In a Simplify Your Life section, a page illustrating yoga poses melds into an advertisement for a light-based alarm clock, and on one back cover, a company worked with Flow to include an attractive retro perforated postcard featuring their product in a very subtle way. Even the marketing budget plan was secondary to making the reader experience as imaginative as possible. Flow was unveiled without the customary expenses of a highprofile marketing campaign and discounted

early issues; the team reinves-ted in the product with the hope of creating a steadily strengthening offline buzz. The tactic appears to be paying off; sales have been increasing since the debut, boasting 10,000 subscribers and 50,000 issues sold on the newsstands in late 2009, claims the publisher. Some readers report purchasing two copies: one to read and keep, and one to cut up for art projects. Flow has a wider demographic appeal than was predicted; both older and younger readers report feeling energised and happier after reading the magazine. In a digital age, Flow is providing a sanctuary from technological onslaught with content and design. After a week with screens and keyboards, plastic and pixels, readers are relieved to indulge in to the sensual paper pages of Flow.

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EMBEDDED VIDEO

VIDEO IN PRINT PAGES COME ALIVE WITH EMBEDDED VIDEOS

For the first time in a print publication, Entertainment Weekly put a small video screen in the pages of its September 18 2009 edition in New York and Los Angeles in collaboration with CBS and Pepsi.

ike something out of Star Trek, science fiction had become reality in one American magazine. Entertainment Weekly readers last autumn not only read about the new CBS shows, they also watched videos of those shows in the print edition! As part of an innovative marketing strategy driven by CBS and Pepsi, subscribers in New York and Los Angeles watched previews introduced by the stars of their favorite shows. The magazine succeeded in adding motion and sound to the visual aspect of the magazine experience, and, in doing so, became a hybrid magazine. The September 18 2009 issue of Entertainment Weekly had Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson from the US TV series Fringe on the cover proudly announcing they had the buzz on 85 TV shows. Developed in partnership with Americhip, the magazine contained the first ever video in print editorial/advertising spread, which played previews of CBS fall line-up and included product placement for Pepsi Max. Americhip is a technology company that believes in multisensorising a brand, communicating to a readers five senses.

Entertainment Weekly

This fusion of media was achieved by inserting a thin monitor (2.7 millimeters thick), a speaker, and a lithium battery directly into the pages of the magazine. Similar to the technology that is employed in greeting cards that sing over and over again when opened, the Entertainment Weekly/Americhip presentation could play continuously for an hour but, unlike the greeting card audio battery, the Entertainment Weekly battery could be recharged or even reprogrammed using a computer USB port. This product took the company two years to develop. Brand futurist Martin Lindstrom, author of Brand Sense, has nothing but praise for what Americhip has achieved with its product. A brand is more than a name. It is an opportunity to create a sensory journey, wrote Lindstrom recently. Americhip is among the few to create brand journeys that captivate all our senses. CBS, which paid an undisclosed amount for the technology, sees the format as the next step in the promotion of their own brand. It is leadership in innovation, which we really stress at CBS in every part of our company, CEO George Schweitzer said of the ads in Entertainment Weekly, The

evolution of marketing television in the fall used to be as simple as this, Schweitzer said, holding up a vintage copy of TV Guide. It was axiomatic in those days. If you took an ad in TV Guide, people watched your programme. Not anymore. While the technology is impressive, it raises some questions about the practical application of this type of marketing. Fun, but futile was the reaction of Michael Davies, a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management writing in the Harvard Business Review. Whats the point? One hopes the stunt is justified by the media buzz naming the companies involved as it breathlessly proclaims the birth of the video magazine, because little will justify it otherwise. While a remarkable technological achievement by Americhip, morphing the physical form from print to video misses the point of why print-based publications are so challenged. It does nothing to facilitate feedback, which is what advertisers want, or to give consumers the control over content they are coming to expect. Undeterred, Entertainment Weekly editors say they are even now looking at new and exciting innovations to keep the magazine experience vital and fun for their readers.

A brand is more than a

Amerchip screen

name. Its an opportunity to create a sensory journey.

MARTIN LINDSTROM, AUTHOR OF BRAND SENSE.

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REALITY MAGS

SERIAL MYSTERIES/REALITY TV DAILY MINI-THRILLERS, REAL-LIFE EPISODES HELP KEEP VENERABLE TITLE AGELESS
A 75-year-old magazine might seem stodgy but not Libelle which launched mysteries in daily three-minute episodes and filmed a dozen female readers in a Spanish B&B for a month.

he certainly doesnt look 75. Libelle, the most popular womans magazine in the Netherlands and 2008 Mercur Magazine of the Year award-winner, has managed to stay ageless, and to stay on top, with technological and print innovations plus strong brand extension. Until a few years ago, the womens weekly was seen as aging with its shrinking audience. To battle declining subscriptions, Libelle began a unique revitalisation strategy. Libelle was fast to the internet scene, with a magazine-integrated website launched in 1997. The website remains contemporary and popular, with nearly 6.5 million page views a month and 467,000 unique libelle.nl viewers a month. From this digital foundation, Libelle branched into online reality TV with two unique productions. Women enthusiastically lined up for the chance to appear on Casa Libelle: a crossmedia web-based show following readers living together and managing a B&B (bed and breakfast) in Barcelona for a month at a time. In 2009, Libelle launched the online thriller series Deadline: three suspenseful minutes each day for a month chronicling the fictional mystery of three magazine editors being held hostage by an unhinged man, enraged by a recently published interview. Taking cues from the popularity of their websites reading and book discussion forums, Libelle launched a monthly series of Bookazines:

full-length books printed in magazine format and praised for their affordability and portability. These approaches surely contributed to the awarding of the 2009 Mercur Editor of the Year to the one at the wheel: Libelles Editor in Chief Franska Stuy. Stuy and her team certainly have a vision, and plans for the future, and that future is looking anything but gray. Its a great feat to create a magazine that several generations enjoy, said Franska Stuy. There are few magazines that have such a broad and large audience which speaks to my grandmother and my 17-year-old daughter. Libelles innovative marketing and brand extension efforts include the Summer Week festival: an annual beachside shopping and cultural extravaganza. The profitable festival draws over 80,000 to a temporary city

complete with a designated train station. Young and old alike flock to experience the veritable buffet of vendors, Libelle-sponsored music and art events, educational talks, and interactive displays. Libelles tactics in the competitive print market have been successful in slowing the progressive decline of new subscribers and in maintaining the loyalty of existing subscribers.

Libelles innovative marketing includes the Summer Week: an annual beachside shopping and cultural festival.

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Libelle Summer Week

GAMING

DIGITAL GAMES EXPLORE TOMBS, SAVE THE WORLD WITH YOUR MAGAZINE
National Geographic uses high-end digital games to extend its brand to readers who are seeking digital fun and adventure, and are willing to pay for the pleasure.

here is a digital game in every exciting magazine story. The challenge is to find it, and then produce and sell it. National Geographic is leading the way in the creation and sale of content-related digital games. In November 2008, National Geographic launched subscription-based NatGeo Games Community. One year later, NatGeo had created five unique and highly successful games for its online community, which also hosts hundreds of other non-NatGeo games available for unlimited free play. Most of these games offer simple, arcadestyle fun such as memory games, jigsaw puzzles, and word scrambles. Joining the online community at NatGeo Games also allows you to save high scores, chat with fellow players, create a personalised avatar, and customise your homepage. But lately NatGeo has ventured into larger, for-sale games, such as Herods Lost Tomb and Eco Rescue River. NatGeo Games offers these either through their website or through a feeder site that churns out casual games for profit, like Big Fish Games or Real Arcade.

NatGeo has created five unique and highly successful games for its online community.
After more than a year in operation, the community seems to be working online and off. Gaming CEO Chris Mate said that its gaming content has reached millions of players and that financially it have exceeded expectations. He warns, however, that the price tag to create these games is steep, estimating it at around $150,000 and even more for a single quality product. But theres good news: Mate added that the estimated time to recover costs is about 16 months. He credited this quick turn-around to the power of the National Geographic brand, saying that without it they would not have reached over 15 million downloads on their first game, Herods Lost Tomb a game almost entirely promoted within their existing audiences on paper, online and on television via existing websites and TV channels. The secret to success is simple, according to Mate: To make a game that stands out among the hundreds of thousands already online is to make something people would enjoy playing and to understand that there is a digital game inside every magazine story. After that the gamers and consumers will come to you.

Magazine: Top Gear Game: Amphibious Challenge Drive different amphibious cars across the Channel Magazine: Cosmopolitan Game: Boy Toy A cheeky game where the player controls what a guy does and the more he keeps the user happy, the more points are gained. Magazine: Sports Illustrated Kids Game: Sports Dude Players have the options of different foods and activities to find a healthy balance and make sports dude happy. Magazine: Vanity Fair Game: Proust Questionnaire Answer questions about you and your personality traits and see what celebrities answered similarly.

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VERTICAL BRANDING

SINGULAR FOCUS HUNGARIAN MAGAZINE HOOKS READERS WITH LOVE HOROSCOPES ONLINE, BY PHONE AND ON TV
How does a womens magazine distinguish itself from the intense competition? Story satisfies readers thirst for love and horoscopes with 360 availability on every platform.
tars are a sure thing for magazines like People, Entertainment Weekly, and US Weekly. But one Hungarian magazine focuses on stars in a different way. While many popular tabloids look at movie stars and starlets, Story looks to the heavenly stars. Story is a popular Hungarian magazine that follows domestic and foreign celebrities but also, and more importantly, Story also dazzles its readers with an extremely popular love horoscope service. Readers can get their love horoscopes via text message, online, on TV, or in print. Whether youre in Hungary, Honduras, Honolulu or anywhere else, Story makes it possible to get your romantic astrological reading by clever vertical branding of its content on all platforms. The horoscopes are tailored to Storys target audience which consists of Hungarian women age 18-49 with families, according to Storys parent company, Sanoma Budapest.

Storys use of astrology is by all accounts successful. The magazines website is the number two womens site in Hungary, according to Krisztian Szavuly, StoryOnlines publisher. In addition, Story has significant display advertising revenues, despite the difficult economy, said Szavuly. Story sets itself apart by including weekly horoscopes not only in the print edition but also on Story TV as well, where one of the most popular programmes is EZO TV, an astrology programme that airs seven days a week. The programme focuses on psychic readings, horoscopes, and tarot card readings. Viewers can call in to receive tarot card readings from professional astrologists. StoryOnline looks to the stars as well. Both kinds. StoryOnline gives readers not only their personal horoscopes, but also the horoscopes of celebrities. If StoryOnline readers dont have internet access, they dont despair as the magazine will send them their love horoscope via text message. StoryOnline offers subscriptions to Horoscope SMS, a love horoscope service, offering daily or weekly love horoscope text messages to its subscribers cell phones. StoryOnline will grow its active registered user-base and will learn how to make them more interactive on the site, and how to monetise their presence, said Szavuly. StoryOnlines mobile platform will grow its user-base.

MORE CONTENT FOR STORYS READERS

Storys readers have an appetite for horoscopes, but they also enjoy delicious food. As a result, Story has cooked up ways to provide its audience with recipes and cooking advice. StoryOnline provides readers with recipes for easy-to-cook meals. StoryTV has a popular cooking programme as well, A Szomszed Foztje. Need help with your sex life? Not to worry, Story can help. StoryOnlines Dr Emese Toth is a professional sexologist who answers questions from readers. Readers can ask difficult questions in an open forum, and can expect to receive responses from an expert. Since the questions are asked online, readers get the advice they need without embarrassment. Want to contact a star? StoryKlub gives readers the opportunity to do just that. StoryKlub is available through StoryOnline, and is free to join. It gives readers the opportunity to ask questions to celebrities such as teen star Lola. In addition, StoryKlub offers readers exclusive celebrity gossip and reports from celebrity parties.

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MOBILE

MOBILE PLATFORMS MAGAZINES IN READERS POCKETS; MONEY IN PUBLISHERS POCKETS

Magazine apps for cell phones are growing like topsy as is the sector revenue, predicted to hit $10 bn annually this year. Some apps are so true to the print version that ABC is counting a download toward circulation.

our favorite magazines can fit in your pocket. All of them. At once. Mobizines are taking over the cell phone application market, and millions of people around the world are already buying this kind of content. Magazine apps are becoming so popular that any magazine without a mobile strategy is already way behind. By next year, the mobile phone application market could possibly reach $10 bn alone in the US in annual revenues, according to a recent report by Chetan Sharma Consulting. That makes mobile one of the fastestrising revenue channels within media. While print ad and subscription revenues are decreasing, mobile application downloads are rising at a rapid pace as more and more people purchase iPhones, Blackberries, and other internet-enabled devices. But today only 45 percent of business magazines and 42 percent of consumer magazines have specific mobile versions of their websites, according to a recent survey from the American Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) and ABC Interactive. Within the next 12 months, as more and more consumers purchase smart phones and Droid phones, these numbers should be considerably higher. The survey also says that 51 percent of print and magazine publishers believe mobile visitors are vital.

GQ, one of the leaders in the mobile magazine market in the US, its launching a new iPhone app that provides a copy of the magazine so true to the print product that the ABC is, for the first time, counting a download toward the overall circulation of the magazine. Every page and ad is reproduced exactly as it appears in the print magazine, and many of the ads are actual links straight to the advertisers websites. We are excited to see GQ on devices that have been synonymous with envelope pushing and creative innovation. The iPhone and iPod touch allow us to showcase everything GQ can offer, said Jim Nelson, Editor-in-Chief at GQ. People trust GQ to keep them plugged into whats going on in the world of style and mens lives. This allows us to reach more people in new and different ways. While GQ is the first to exactly reproduce the magazine for the mobile phone, all of the Hearst magazines have mobile versions of their websites that can be reached via phone by typing in m.cosmopolitan.com, m.esquire.com, m.seventeen.com, etc. Magazines mobile phone apps also provide up-to-the-minute breaking news and features that no print product could ever imagine. From TIMEs daily quotes and Pictures of the Day to urgent links to breaking news, these apps can create a continually updated user experience unparalleled by any other media. As more and more people are exposed to this kind of technology, the audience for mobile magazine applications is also expanded. Whether the applications are supported by advertising and given away for free, or whether the publication charges a few dollars for access, theres substantial potential for revenue. The mobile advertising industry will grow

substantially rising 18 percent this year alone, according to a recent study from private equity and investment company Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Most mobile advertising currently comes from sponsorship and banner ads, but many publications are also looking at location-based (geographic) and Common Short Code (CSC) mobile advertising. The debate now moves to whether these sites and applications are used as a promotional tool for the regular print and web product or as a mode of consumption in and of themselves. While many mobile sites and applications are free, those that charge make it easy. Unlike most magazines online, people dont have to find their wallet and credit card number to purchase a story. The phone company already has their information and tags the extra cash onto their bill, making the transaction much more likely and easier. Not surprisingly, newspapers have been leading the way in many markets in developing news apps for their titles. In the UK, in just 30 days following its launch in December 2009, The Guardian newspaper sold almost 70,000 of its apps at $4 each, or roughly $3.2 million. More than 300,000 users downloaded Telegraph.co. uks free, ad-supported iPhone app between its February 2009 launch and December 2009. With the ad revenue, the company says its recouped 10 times its development costs. Beyond app sales and ad revenues, some publishers are getting creative. Magazines like Seventeen (extremely popular on the mobile front due to the time teen girls spend with their cell phones) and Runners World have links next to each of the products they feature a buy now and find near me link. It allows mobile users to become interactive in a new way while enabling the publications to generate a completely new revenue path. So, while the rest of the magazine publishing industry is coping with serious revenue and subscriber decline, mobile applications are one of the only publishing platforms on the rise. And with the advent of internet enabled slates and tablets, magazine apps are sure to become a clear business model for how to make money online.

FORBES ON-THE-GO
For doing business on-the-go, the mobile version of Forbes.com includes a personaliseable My Stocks section, and an offline function which downloads selected articles to the phone for reading without an internet connection.

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BRAND INTEGRATION

360-BRANDING ONE RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

While other titles were shuttering, Food Network Magazine launched and is succeeding with key ingredients of TV tie-ins, great recipes, celebrity chefs, and inside information.

ith the magazine industry being subjected to a get-slim diet lately, publishers and editors could really use a little comfort food. The Food Network Magazine (FNM) launch offers just the kind of repast the industry needed to keep alive the hopes of healthier days ahead. Launched bravely during the beginning of the recession, the FNM has been a muchneeded success story in the United States, especially with the closing of Gourmet last fall. FNM started cooking with a circulation of 300,000 and never looked back. The magazines readership is expected to top one million in January 2010, about a year ahead of schedule. Whats their secret ingredient? Going back to basics, but with a modern outlook of food and entertaining. The FNM reaches across all platforms of multimedia, online, TV, and print, whipping up all these components to complement each other perfectly without overpowering one another.

With other foodie magazines folding, FMN is selling like hot cakes and is the largest multi-platform launch in magazine history. FNMs intense research found their audience was craving a magazine to accompany the Food Network television shows and web content. With the Food Networks powerhouse status, it serves as a perfect platform for marketers. The key is the 360-degree integration of the brand, said Vicki Wellington, the magazines publisher. On television, the Food Network is considered a modern, fun take on cuisine with engaging celebrity chefs. The magazine could be a sloppy version of the website, with content and recipes shoveled onto the pages, but instead it is a carefully executed example of brand extension and brand integration. Wellington admitted luck played a role in the magazines success. We were in the right place at the right time, but nonetheless there was extreme attention paid to the target audience, Wellington explained. Food Network Magazine is selling a targeted and engaged reader who is involved with the pages of the magazine, spending time with it, cooking from it, and keeping it on the shelf for reference while TV is fast and fleeting and serves a different purpose, said Wellington in an email. What also makes this magazine a crowdpleaser is quality, exclusive content, she said. FNM has not one but several rock-star chefs, as Wellington calls them. The magazine allows the readers to get a behind-thescenes glimpse of celbrity chef Paula Deens kitchen or read Bobby Flays favourite grill tips in a more in-depth way than the fastpaced TV network could offer. And who better to serve up the magazines fun features

than celebrities? The large cast of chefs gives the magazine star power unlike any other home entertaining magazine. Its also served with fabulous presentation, luxurious glossy paper and stunning photography. The magazine is a new way for a Food Network fan to experience one of their favourite brands, plus it makes reading a magazine more fun. While other food magazines resemble your grandmother painfully walking you through every step of her famous broccoli casserole recipe, The Food Network Magazine is your energetic, colourful friend who always has a new tip to share.

THREE-IN-ONE-COVER

Triple-step cover in November. Food Network Magazine is the first magazine in the US to feature a triple step cover a layered concept for subsequent covers. Within 48 hours of being pitched, Truvia sweetner bought the advertising. They had no money in their print budget, so Truvia went into their broadcast budget for the money.

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SINGLE-COPY/NEWSTAND

MAGAZINE RETAILING, A BUFFET OF OPTIONS IN REAL TIME AND ONLINE

If readers are consuming information on many platforms, shouldnt magazines be available everywhere, too? Innovative entrepreneurs show how to reach readers where and when they want to be reached.

iches are nirvana for visionary magazine retailers. A group of innovative entrepreneurs are shaking up the magazine retailing business at a time when betting your money and your future on print publications might be considered a risky venture. MagNation, Maggwire, Zinio and a consortium of big-name magazine publishers are turning traditional retail practices on their head. While magazines are a sideshow at bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble, MagNation, based in Australia and New Zealand, is a magazine superstore, stocking more than 4,000 titles. And, contrary to the philosophy that browsers arent buyers, MagNation offers a hip atmosphere with comfy chairs, coffee, and free Wi-Fi. Its website is hyper-interactive and offers global subscriptions to its supply of mostly international niche publications. Mainstream weeklies are actually loss leaders at MagNation. The store is popular for its plethora of specialised niche publications, some of which cost up to $200 Aus, geared toward an urban savvy audience. We target fast-thinking, innovative people in town and they go out and spread

the word for us, co-founder Sahil Merchant said. MagNation has no advertising budget but thrives on social media like Facebook and Twitter, as well as on guerilla word-of-mouth. For example, Merchant found a location for a new store in Sydney by commissioning an army of Twitter followers to scope out spaces for lease. MagNation was named the Most Innovative Retailer of 2007 by the Australian Retailers Association. On the web, magazine retailers are evolving to meet the dynamic and mobile demands of consumers in the digital age. Zinio.com is the worlds largest virtual newsstand, digitising thousands of magazines for accessibility by computer, e-reader and mobile devices. All-digital magazines are available in 15 languages and can be paid for by multiple local currencies in most countries worldwide. Zinio leverages an approach called Unity to help enhance the successes that publishers and advertisers are experiencing with books and magazines online. Zinios Unity platform supports the optimization of design, device accessibility and distribution channels. Zinio automatically enhances the way content is viewed on various-sized screens (for example, their text reflow on the iPhone) and supports publishers dreams in creating compelling content. Many of Zinios publications have included polls, video, quizzes and 3D design. If a publisher doesnt have the resources to design such content, Zinio will assist in creating their content, for a fee. The epitome of this dynamically designed evolution is Zinios in-house publication, VIVmag, a completely digital, hyper-dynamic publication. Zinios mission is to make magazines and books a completely convenient multi-media experience. With Zinio, the convergence of compelling content with consumer convenience is a key driver for success. Maggwire is spearheading the personalisation of the magazine experience. The platform is a discovery tool that introduces the concept of channel surfing to magazine reading. CEO Ryan Klenovich said Maggwire operates by the

push-pull theory. Historically, a magazine publisher would push a 100-page magazine book to its readers and say This is what you should read, he said. However with technology, users are becoming accustomed to efficiently pulling content by only selecting the articles theyre interested in. The company, which emulates iTunes, is currently free, but Klenovich is working with publishers to ultimately create premium, paid channels. And in December, 2009, Cond Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation, and Time Inc. announced a new four-fold, digital magazine initiative. The partnership will develop: A common reading application capable of rendering the distinctive look and feel of each publication A robust publishing platform optimised for multiple devices, operating systems and screen sizes A consumer storefront offering an extensive selection of reading options, and A rich array of innovative advertising opportunities

AMAZON AS MAGAZINE RETAILER

Amazon.com is the online epicenter of global magazine retail, offering subscriptions to over 36,000 international publications. From popular titles to specialized journals, Amazon stocks what consumers would be hard-pressed to find anywhere else.

MAGCLOUD: RETAILING FOR THE LITTLE GUY

MagCloud.com enables the general public to create and sell magazines. Schools, businesses and any other independent publishers can simply upload their design and MagCloud will print it and sell it online. Consumers browse the website and can order an issue to be printed on demand and delivered to their home.

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DISTRIBUTION

DIGITAL CONTENT SALES TEXT MESSAGE AT NIGHT, MAGAZINE ON YOUR DOORSTEP IN THE MORNING
How do you convert occasional readers into frequent readers, or even subscribers? The Economist sends text messages the night before publication guaranteeing crack of dawn deliveryfor less than newsstand price.

he Economist is working to replace the newsstand with your cell phone and is getting to know its customers better in the process. The magazine launched Economist Direct in August 2009 in the UK. The service allows registered users to respond to free weekly text alerts sent the day before the magazine hits newsstands that preview the issues content. If you are interested, you simply reply BUY and the magazine shows up on your doorstep the next morning. The postage and packaging is free and it is in fact cheaper to buy from Economist Direct (2.80) than the newsstand (4), according to Caroline Marrows, the UK Brand Communications Manager for The Economist. Registered users will have the cost taken from their accounts, while unregistered readers simply call a customer service center to pay. Marrows said that they recognised that consumers are demanding more flexibility and convenience from all kinds of brands, and new technologies offered The Economist the ability to give their readers that convenience. Readers often want the convenience of a subscription delivery service, but not always the weekly commitment, Marrows said. We wanted to offer something beyond a normal subscription service, something which placed them in control about how often, or not, they chose to receive the magazine. The Economist is using a number of postal providers to make sure their customers receive their orders as quickly as possible. Marrows said the biggest challenge in developing the service was figuring out

how to receive and fulfill an order quickly enough. We commissioned (custom) software, and the entire process from customer order to dispatch can now be completed in 20 seconds, Marrows said. Economist Direct is not beneficial for the consumer alone, but for the magazine as well. Traditionally non-subscribers have been anonymous to us and we wanted to better understand how large a group they are, what motivates their purchases, and what value we bring to them, Marrows said. With the programme, The Economist is able to have direct relationships with nonsubscribers. Marrows said that the feedback from readers has been encouraging and that The Economist sees Economist Direct as a long term feature in how we develop our business.

The Economist launched a second Economist Direct test program in New York in the autum, and hopes to go national in the US with the service soon. In the UK, Marrows said that they are working to make the service available on other channels, particularly on popular social media like Facebook and Twitter. Marrows said that it is all about giving their customers options and flexibility. We believe that the easier we make it for our customers to do business with us, the more often they will, she said.

Consumers are demanding

CAROLINE MARROwS, The economisT.

more flexibility and convenience from all brands.

With free online breaking news available through laptops, iPods, and mobile phones, the three-step process of using a cell phone, going online, then ordering a hard copy just to receive it the next day seems cumbersome. MARIA WEN ADCOCK. FOLIOMAG.COM But how appropriate is such a waiting period for twitter users for example? A whole day of waiting can turn into eternity for internet users, used to simultaneous content acquisition. Some people argue that in the days of simultaneous actuality there isnt any time to wait for issues. Lets hope theyre wrong. EUROPEANMEDIABLOG. How do you make it easy to buy? It can be simple if you sell a magazine, but whatever you sell by making it simple you increase the likelihood that people will buy. Thats great PR, because making things easy helps people talk about you and public relations is getting people talking and then they too will buy! That makes good economic sense! MORGAN PR The economist has made a good business of multiple pay models. This latest move represents an intriguing (and paid) way to market subscriptions and provide yet another way for users to spend money with the magazine. BILL MITCHELL. POYNTER.ORG

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GREEN INITIATIVES

ENVIRONMENT CAN YOU BE MORE GREEN AND PROFITABLE? MAGS TRY ECO-FRIENDLY STRATEGIES
Imaginative ideas such as stone from paper and dissolving wraps paired with less sexy efforts such as recycled paper appeal to eco-conscious readers.

aper made from stone? Magazine wraps that dissolve in water? Carbon footprint calculators for magazine publishers? Magazine companies are doing all of that and more as they seek innovative ways to print and distribute their magazine while being on the cutting edge of protecting the planet. One of the most fascinating and ecologically friendly innovations is paper made from stone. US title AQUACabana Living Well Magazines paper is 100 percent tree-free, chlorine-and bleach-free, and is produced without creating hazardous waste. As a luxury resort and spa magazine, it is a bonus that this paper is also waterproof and is able to withstand harsh UV rays without fading or becoming yellow or brittle outdoors. The so-called C-Stone paper requires no water to produce and is made from inorganic stone mineral powders, mainly l i m e s t o n e collected from existing quarries. It can be recycled to make new paper or plastic products, or recycled for the construction, steel, farming, and glass-making industries. Though C-Stone paper costs 20 percent more than standard paper, it can also be very competitive and even less expensive compared to other high-end or specialty paper.

One of the most fascinating and ecologically friendly innovations is paper made from stone.
Plastic wraps can also be made green, Creative Review magazine sold its US newsstand bulk issue with a biodegradable wrap. The packaging was created by Cyberpak, a company that makes harmless compost, bubble bags, air pockets, and the incredible dissolving plastic bag. The plastic wrap completely dissolves in water, but only when that water is above 60 degrees, so there is no need to worry if it gets wet in the rain. The wrap is completely non-toxic and degrades naturally due to molds and yeasts which exist in natural environments. After the wrap has dissolved in water, it becomes carbon dioxide, water and biomass. The wrap is three times stronger than polythene, the most widely used plastic, so less is needed and less energy is used. Creative Review is the first company to use this packaging, and judging by readers comments posted on the Creative Review blog, the reaction has been widely enthusiastic. Cost, however, remains a major factor when determining how to become more ecofriendly, according to Jessica Macdermot, the

AQUACABANA MAGAZINE
Using C-Stone paper: 20 trees saved 42 lbs waterborne waste not created 7,480 gallons of water/wastewater flow saved 167 lbs solid waste not generated 236 lbs atmospheric emissions eliminated 25 million BTU of energy saved

publisher at Creative Review. Creative Review decided to use Cyberpaks green packaging on a trial basis in October 2009 in exchange for advertising. It is unclear if Creative Review will continue to use the dissolving bag for future bulk issues, though Macdermot said they will continue to look for more avenues to please their readers demands to be green and minimize their own costs. BBC Magazines as part of the BBC Worldwide is also committed to helping the envi-

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GREEN INITIATIVES

CREATIVE REVIEW
In October, Creative Review magazine sold its newsstand bulk issue in a revolutionary new bag that simply dissolves in hot water. No waste. No landfill. The packaging, created by Cyberpak, completely dissolves in water above 60 degrees, so no need to worry if a copy gets wet in the rain.

BBC MAGAZINES LTD

. Has reduced waste by around 2.5 percent by having a sales-based replenishment program across the majority of the major UK multiple retailers to increase the efficiency of its supply chain. BBC Worldwide has designed the PAS 2050aligned UK Periodical Publisher Association calculator to measure the environmental footprint of UK-based magazine titles, the total of which comes to around 37,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum. CBeebies Art (a pre-school magazine) has the smallest total carbon footprint of all UK titles In The Night Garden magazine has the smallest carbon footprint per copy

ronment, including publishing the magazine with the smallest carbon footprint among all UK titles. It has received a Platinum status in the Corporate Responsibility Index which measures business performance including having high environmental standards. Having a Responsible Forest Products Purchasing Policy in their contracts has contributed to their achievement in the CR Index. BBC Magazine also uses a carbon calculator to help determine its footprint, increase the efficiency of their supply chain to help minimise waste, and reduce overall energy consumption and waste including that in the office and transportation. In contract negotiations, BBC Worldwide has always ensured a premium is not paid for FSC paper, helping dispel the idea that certified wood should cost more, said BBC Magazines MD Peter Phippen. Approximately six months goes into researching some of the products that the BBC uses to make certain which products are recyclable and have green certificates. Often the greener the product, the greater the financial gain: In an age of increasing environmental awareness and accountability, no right-minded company can afford to ignore green issues. In the medium and long-term this invariably makes good business sense, Phippen added.

Top of the Pops magazine and Top Gear magazine have the smallest carbon footprint per kg, i.e. are the most carbon efficient titles!

In 1999 we became the first publisher in the world to produce a magazine on FSC-labelled paper (BBC Wildlife). Today all paper used in our magazines is FSC certified.
KATHERINE EVERITT, Ethical ExEcutivE, BBc MaGaZiNEs ltD

Audiences reaction to the experiment was unanimously favourable: This is a great idea! I am going to buy an issue just to try out the bag! Cathy Mason. I dissolved the bag last night. Incredible, It started it in a bowl of lukewarm water and you can slowly feel the texture changing, almost thinning out.Then poured boiled water on top and remaining bag dissolved in front of my eyes. Tom Muller.

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FUSION JOURNALISM

FUSION JOURNALISM

BLENDINg THE DISpARATE TO MAkE A SATISFACTORy WHOLE

Van Gogh once said that great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together. He would have considered this to apply to art, but in the world of magazines the chance to create a work of beauty is sometimes missed.

uring the summer of 2008, the Portuguese magazine nica was searching for fresh ways to carry out a muchneeded relaunch. The magazine, the colour supplement of the hugely successful weekly newspaper Expresso, had lost its uniqueness in a saturated market and that was beginning to impact the sales of the parent publication. Consultants were brought in, the editorial team was revamped, and new ideas began to flow that would allow the supplement to live up to its name. Fast forward a year and nica has reinvented itself so successfully that Mafalda Anjos, the Editor, claims that the magazine is truly unique in the Portuguese market, and readers readily recognise it, and welcome its originality. How has this been achieved? Two words. Fusion journalism. The application of multiple journalistic tools interviews, extensive reporting, analysis, photo essays, etc. to cover a single subject from various angles. To put into a simpler context, nica creates a theme, and the content of the magazine is then driven by that theme, usually a word or an image. Fusion journalism conveys various fundamental messages: newness (as in modernity and innovation), harmonisation of different ingredients, and luxury, as an expression of excellence and the combination or fusion - of multiple elements.

NICA creates a theme,

usually a word or an image, and the content is then driven by it.

This allows the magazine to provide an intellectually stimulating, multi-faceted indepth look at a subject or an issue. By using a multi-dimensional approach to examine a single topic, a cover story turns into a cover subject, examined from a broader perspective. For example, one issue of nica was entitled Black. Originally conceived to recognize the achievements of Barack Obama, the magazine was able to explore other elements including blackness in fashion, science (black holes in space), literature, society (equality and inequality, including the concept of the black sheep), sports (the role of black athletes) and humour (including socalled black humour). By using a common theme the process of storytelling can become more versatile. Interviews, photos, opinion columns, investigative reporting and current affairs can be drawn into a single point of reference. Since nica was re-launched, it has become a collectible commodity that invites to consider a bigger picture. When asked about the experience of refocusing, Anjos says the newsroom has grasped the concept of fusion journalism and we have found it much simpler than we had initially thought. Its a model that requires hard work, but once you get the hang of it, its not difficult.

READ, WATCH, LISTEN, INTERACT. FUSION JOURNALISM IN A VIRTUAL WORLD

Fusion journalism is more than a just a buzzword for print media, The concept can also be applied online. Digital magazine Flyp (www.flypmedia. com) is the first fully integrated multi-media publication. When the reader enters the, site the invitation to read, watch, listen and interact seems to be no different from a myriad of other online media sites, but what sets Flyp apart is the quality of content that it offers, both above and below the fold. Clicking on what looks like a traditional magazine page layout, the reader is able to access content which is not limited to words and pictures. For example, a piece about the release of the guitar-friendly film It Might Get Loud is enhanced by clips from the movie, information about the director and the chance to hear a signature riff. As digital media still strives for an identity, fusion journalism may be what separates the wheat from the chaff.

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CONTENT IS KING

CONTENT IS, afTEr all, KING; dESpITE HYpE, SOCIal MEdIa IS NOT THE MaGIC bullET
Do readers come to your website for interactivity or content? One of the earliest social media innovators has backed away in favour of its core competency.

hat if you threw a social journalism network and nobody came? If you did all the right things allowed readers to blog alongside your own columnists, post personal profile pages, join local networking groups, pose questions to your experts and one another and still the night ended with you looking sadly at your slick but lightly used new web interface and seven untouched bowls of guacamole? What if you were putting up dozens of blog posts each day, a mixture of those by your staffers and experts and those by your rea-ders, covering topics from the smart grid and Facebook to China and high-tech opera, but you could count the comments, and by extension, the eyeballs, on one hand? And what if it wasnt the first time this had happened? What if you had started the very first business social network back in 1997? If the breathless New York Times headline about how you were converting those online followers into conference attendees had been Fast Company Magazine Takes Community of Readers Idea to New Extremes? But still no one mentioned you among the Facebookers, Friendsters and Orkuts in their histories of social media. But then another question: what if it didnt matter? What if you had weathered the toughest climate magazines had ever seen not because you had fearlessly embraced the brave new media world, but instead, for that most mundane of reasons: because you had killer content? What if people were blogging about you and Twittering your news and Digging your

articles not because you empowered them to be journalists and wooed them with fancy personal profile pages but because the stories you published were fascinating enough to make them want to share them? Not to mention your obsession with lists Fast Companys 2009 Masters of Design, Fast Companys Top 50 Innovative Companies, Fast Companys 100 Most Creative People in Business, Fast Companys City of the Year which both the traditional media and the blogosphere found irresistible. Fast Company launched its social journalism network in February 2008, promising to let readers interact with the magazines writers and editors and one anotherin unprecedented ways. In his squib describing the sites new features, Edward Sussman, president of the site network, talked up Fast Companys social media roots from its declaration Computing Is Social on the cover of its very first issue (in 1995) to its founding of the Company of Friends network (in 1997: before social networking on the Web was called social networking). The blogosphere was intrigued: Blog World excitedly mentioned the launch on February 9, 2008, linking to a variety of responses from around the web. New media marketer Chris Brogan raved, FastCompany.com has gone totally social crazy (in the very most beaming and loving of ways) . . . Is this the first major print publication that totally turned over their website to being something much better than a digital clone of the print edition? (Some of

Traditional media
and blogosphere find Fast Companys obsession with lists irresistible

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CONTENT IS KING

the response was more lukewarm: Mashable checked out the features and dubbed the site a lightweight version of LinkedIn.) Other publishers ears perked up, too: Sussman recalled, I gave a speech at the Online Publishers Association, for example, atten-ded by about 40 of the largest publishers in the US. The interest in our project was intense from other news organisations. And Sussman, who no longer works at Fast Company, is also bullish about the results of that social journalism experiment: From a business perspective, other publishers were heartened that our advertisers did not balk or retreat from us because of the new approach, and I believe that emboldened them to take on social media experiments. From a journalism perspective, I believe other publishers were heartened that our readers were very active, used their real names, and contributed valuable content. We had 3,000 readers blogging on FastCompany.com within the first six months, and about 150,000 members of the site. And yet, almost two years after the social journalism launch, a vast emptiness seems to echo through the Fast Company site. When you visit, its not clear where all the people are. (Though they must be somewhere: the new site imported 95,000 user profiles from Company of Friends.) The directory of groups has 472 listings. Social Responsibility, the group with the most recent activity, has one message, 49 comments, and 280 members. The 492 members of the Boston

group have produced exactly zero messages, zero comments, and zero events. Even the sites own writers have zero comments on their blog posts. Edward Sussmans own profile begins with a notation that he has zero professional recommendations. Comparing the Fast Company homepage of early 2008 with that of today reveals a melting away of the social journalism focus. The site launched in February 2008 was run by a team no longer a part of the company; since then, the digital and print operations have merged into one unit. Editor Robert Safian acknowledged, Social journalism launched in 2008 did not go as well as we had hoped. However, a quite different sort of social journalism has been a critical element in the rejuvenation of our site during 2009. What Fast Company learned from its social journalism experience, said Safian, is that the scale of the audience was insufficient to generate the volume of content needed for the site. So instead, the company chose to refocus on what Safian calls its core

competencies the bread-and-butter reporting the Fast Company brand was built on and to build the social journalism around that. As Noah Robischon, Executive Editor Digital, described the change: The new focus is on daily news and analysis. Community is still a hugely important aspect of any online media effort, but the ones that were built here before did not dovetail with our strengths as a news gathering organisation. Whats changed? The magazine is more selective about what we curate out of social journalism, says Safian. Though he notes that crowd-driven services like Digg are objectively better at ranking user-generated content, Fast Companys value-add is the way we curate it, choosing things that are appropriate to our brand, what we are trying to develop on the site. Fast Companys brand is the quality of its content. And, it just so happened that the right new media tools were the ones that capitalised on that. The results? The sites audience has more than trebled in the last year. In October 2009, the site boasted more than two million unique visitors. Print circulation, which outpaced site visits a year ago, has meanwhile remained at a constant 725,000 copies per month. And Fast Company in print is also posting plenty of successes by traditional periodical publishing measures. AdweekMedia named Fast Companys Robert Safian its Editor of the Year in March 2009, crediting him with reinvigorating the brand in print and online. Editorial recognition two National

Magazine Award nominations in 2009 was coupled with commercial success industry watchers noted 20 to 30 percent increases in Fast Companys ad pages through 2008, when other magazines were rapidly shedding them. The company continues to innovate in the new media arena, adding such features as the 30 Second MBA (see sidebar), working to improve the functionality of its existing social features and build new ones, and keeping a few new tricks up its sleeves that Safian isnt quite ready to describe. Lesson learned? Its not just a matter of being first on the bandwagon with the new media innovations, but rather about using new media to focus and magnify the existing strength of the brand. And for most magazine publishers, that means content.

faSTCOMpaNY.COM
Quantcast reports that FastCompany.com receives 1.7 million visitors monthly. Site traffic has grown steadily, even as Fast Company has downplayed its social journalism features over the last year. According to Quantcast, the majority of visitors are passers-by (those who visit only once in the course of a month), a good indication that site traffic is driven by people sharing incidental links to articles or other content, not repeat visitors using the site for social networking or blogging.

30 SECONd Mba
Fast Company continues to experiment with its online presence. A recent project is the 30 second MBA, which poses a weekly question (What is the role of imagination in leadership? How do you know innovation when you see it?), and invites their volunteer faculty (mostly CEOs and company presidents, including such names as Alan Mulally and Craig Newmark) to answer with a 30 second video. A constantly updated Twitter feed and other social networking buttons encourage visitors to spread the content.

The scale of the audience was insufficient to generate the volume of content needed for the site.
rObErT SafIaN, Fast company

ObSESSEd WITH lISTS

From Masters of Design to City of the Year, Fast Company (both in print and online) is obsessed with compiling lists which both the traditional media and the blogosphere find irresistible. They span numerous fields and disciplines, thus sparking conversations all over the web.

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INFORMATION ENGINES

WORKING SPACE TRANSFORMING INTO AN INTEGRATED INFORMATION ENGINE

Magazine editorial departments can no longer use linear work-flows where all they produce is text and pictures, but embrace the full experience of interactive digital narratives by combining a fusion of text, photos, infographics, video and audio

Fully Integrated on/offline

Rolling Deadlines

Consumers

PRINT

Networkers ONLINE

Creators

MOBILE

Public gallery Community desk Viral desk Mini TVRadio studios

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Radar desk Two-screen computers Digital Walls

platforms. INNOVATION has been designing and building these working spaces for more than a decade and has come to a number of insightful conclusions and methods derived from our stints and research in all manner of creative working spaces, from Pixar to Google to the BBC and of course publishing houses the world over who are steadily making the transition from print to digital. INNOVATIONs vision for magazine companies is that they must migrate from readers to audiences and from audiences to connecting and creating profit communities who will consume their content on any platform at any time.

The challenge facing newsrooms is to understand how this increasingly complex community can be kept in constant contact with our content.

Consumers now play an increasingly vital role in the gathering, production and distribution of the news and information coming in and out of the magazine editorial department. They fall into four rough categories:

CONSUMERS: KEY ELEMENTS NETWORKERS are those who will actively join a site, aggregate content or connect with other readers. CREATORS will actively create higher level content such as photos, videos, blog posts. PASSIVE CONSUMERS are people who just receive news and information. COMMENTERS are people who will post comments on stories, post reviews, or react in some fashion.

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Infographic: Chiqui Esteban

hese new digital narratives of the 21st century require a complete re-invention of working spaces so a single editorial team can be in touch with its potential audience all the time and across all

Assignments desk

SUPERDESK

Graphic desk Hot Desk Innovation desk

INFORMATION ENGINES

R
WIRES

e-inventing a paper-focused editorial department into a fully integrated Information Engine requires deep re-engineering of traditional workflows where creativity, planning, and content development across all platforms are at the core of the production process. The audience is always the starting point. INNOVATION studies, charts and analyzes the information consumption cycle of a magazine audience and build departments that produce multimedia content that is relevant to them throughout the day on paper, online, on air, and on mobile. The daily editorial workflow should reflect the daily workflow and content consumption habits of audiences. This means the editorial departments should become real Information EnginesTM divided along Intake and Output. INTAKE is the organisation of all sources of information as they come into the daily workflow, whether it be sources, social media, public relations, and reporters, writers, contributors and correspondents. They form the role and function of content creators and work on a platform agnostic way for all platforms: paper, online and mobile.
VIDEO POOL

Content creators are organised by subject in many cases or by audiences and are led by MACROEDITORS rather than section editors or beat editors. They sit in the middle at a Superdesk and form the heart of the operation by selecting content from Intake and conducting it and migrating it to Output.

OUTPUT is the organisation of all elements of production of specific platforms, titles and outlets. They interact with the Macroeditors and edit, copy edit, design, illustrate and apply video, audio and infographics to the content in shared Production Pools.

INFORMATION INTAKE

PRODUCTION OUTPUT

AUDIO POOL GRAPHIC POOL

PRINT

LOGISTICS PLANNING

TEXT

ONLINE

ONLINE
INFOGRAPHICS AUDIO / VIDEO

MOBILE

ONLINE

REPORTERS

BLOGSCOMMENTS

PR SOURCES

ASSIGNMENTS MACROEDITORS

MOBILE

AUDIO VIDEO

PHOTO

TEXT

MOBILE

DESIGN POOL PHOTO POOL PROGRAMING POOL

TABLET

CREATION

ELABORATION

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COVERS

Be innovative with type

Successful magazines keep showing us new ways to make those endless rooster of blurbs appealing.

LAWS FOR PERFECT COVERS FROM DEAD CELEBS TO HUMOUR, GOOD COVERS SIMPLY SELL
Legendary editor Richard Stolleys eponymous Laws have inspired magazine cover design for decades; Innovation offers a concise 21st century set of cover guidelines.
Have sense of humour

Even the most serious topics can be treated with humour.

ichard Stolley, the founding editor of People magazine (the most successful magazine in US publishing history) devised his Law of Covers in the late 1970s. Stolleys Laws have shaped the design of modern magazines for almost four decades now. To celebrate his brilliant cover commandments, we re-produce them here and present Innovations Laws for Covers in the hope we might also inspire a new generation of editors and publishers to produce perfect magazine covers for many decades to come.

Under-design your cover. Less is more

STOLLEYS COVERS LAWS

1. Young is better than old 2. Pretty is better than ugly 3. Rich is better than poor 4. Movies are better than television 5. Movies and television are better than music 6. Movies, TV and music are all better than sports 7. Anything is better than politics 8. Nothing is better than a dead celebrity

There is a trend towards simple covers. Being overwhelmed bythe excess of design in news -stands, this cover with very little design stands out more.

Design covers with real impact

In some cases, we shouldnt wait for the image to come to us, but create it. This cover inspired the city of New York to install two beams of light where the towers sat before September 11, 2001.

RICHARD B. STOLLEY

PEOPLES FOUNDING EDITOR

TAKEN TOO SOON

PEOPLE COVER SEPT. 1997

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Humanise your cover

Due to boredom with conventional cover blurbs, in the last few years the trend goes towards grafittistyle covers.

Celebrities sell. Try being innovative in how you treat them

Be bold and provocative

One word can be worth a thousand. Take risks, and you will be remembered..

If you can tell a story right on the cover, you will conquer the reader.

Use storytelling

If you can tell a story right on the cover, you will conquer the reader.

Find a consistent style readers will recognise and identify with

Typography, graphical elements, photography ... Try to use these elements consistently to enhance your branding quality and make fans of your readers.

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Get inspiration from popular culture

This was the advice of George Lois, arguably one of the most successful cover makers of the 20th-century. Todays designers draw inspiration from him.

May 2005

October 1968

Some ideas are better explained with straight talking

You dont need to use a picture to make an impact cover. You can even do three different covers so readers pick the one they want.

Use infographics, but only in meaninful ways

If done well, a chart can be turned into a work of art, and also be fodder for deep thinking.

Take advantage of the physicality of a magazine

Play the competitive advantage of the physical nature of the magazine against the intangibility of the internet.

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Conceptualise your cover

Surprise readers with your thinking. Simple ideas ares often expressed best with visual metaphors that make them memorable.

COVERS

An image is worth a thousand words

Less is more. Good covers cry on the newsstands, just like posters or advertisements. And in some cases, saying a word is superflous.

If youth is one of the magic ingredients in a successful cover, the magazine industry must maintain a youthful tendency toward innovation and forward thinking. In the 21st century, that could include using the digital media world to enhance the print media experience.

MULTIMEDIA COVERS

TOTAL FILM

Have a little surprise

Readers like it.

In December 2008, Total Film in the US used the iconic imagery of The Terminator to produce a cover that had blinking LED eyes to publicise the upcoming Terminator: Salvation movie. Total Film Editor Aubrey Day said, The cover utilises two push-button LED lights (a magazine first) for that iconic blinking red eye look. Every time you push the button, the cover flashes 15 times and it should be good for 800-1,000 pushes! But this was merely a clever piece of marketing and paved the way for the next generation.

The cover utilises

two push-button LED lights for that iconic [Terminator] blinking red eye look.
AUBREY DAY EditOr, tOtAL FiLM

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COVERS

CLASSIC ROCK

2010 is going to be a
TOnY CHAMBERS, EditOr-in-chiEF, WALLpApEr*

great year. It even looks great typographically.

The December 2009 issue of Classic Rock featured rock band Pink Floyd in mind-warping 3D. The cover had an exclusively created Floyd montage in dazzling 3D featuring much of the bands iconic imagery, from the 1970s and early 1980s including the hammers, pyramid and flying pig.

WALLPAPER* AnD AUGMEnTED REALITY

In its January 2010 issue, Wallpaper* revealed the 10 new developments that could change the world in 2010. The first one was augmented reality or AR These developments are listed in an 11page feature, in which the cover and every page has AR technology, triggering both videos and animation. Tony Chambers, Wallpaper* Editor-In-

Chief, said: This issue of Wallpaper* is all about the top trends and technologies for 2010, so we couldnt resist having some fun with the mind-bending, pixel-popping, multimedia minefield that is augmented reality. We do like to push creative boundaries here at Wallpaper*, and with this issue, readers can see the magazine grow into a whole new dimension.piece of marketing and paved the way for the next generation.

COLLECTIBLE MULTIMEDIA COVERS

Esquire December 2008 goes for Total Film issue 15 goes for

on eBay; on Amazon new it is $ (newsstand price was $3.99)

7.99

15

$ on eBay; (newsstand price was $3.99)

29.99

Classic Rock December 2009 sells for $ on eBay (newsstand price was $6.00)

24.95

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ADVERTISING

COVER ADS BREAKING A TABOO

One editor and his publisher boldly push past the unwritten rule while others hide ads under folds and fake covers, but all are counting new cash.

espite the global advertising revenue meltdown, some editors remain adamantly opposed to placing ads on magazine covers. At least one editor disagrees. Last April, Scholastic Parent and Child magazine Editor Nick Friedman bucked the historical unwritten rule and ran an ad on his US cover. Every month since then his publisher has cashed checks for nearly $100,000 for the privilege of being a pioneer. Friedman told us that while the industry overall has been going through tough times, Scholastic Parent and Child actually came from a position of strength on their decision. We were up in ad revenue growth over the year prior at the time we made the decision, and saw cover ads as a way to offer our advertising partners more alternatives, Friedman said. We have remained positive in ad growth since then. From an editorial standpoint, we saw cover ads as a next frontier in the continuing growth of unique ad placement. Consumers are used to seeing ads pop up on their TV screens while watching other programmes. Theyre used to product placement in movies. Theyre used to seeing ads on the front of their newspapers. Theyre used to seeing ads surround the pages they visit on the Internet, Friedman said. Given this trend, we felt they would be receptive to an ad on the cover of Scholastic Parent & Child. In fact, we surveyed our reader panel prior to making the decision and received a very positive response.

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) disagreed and issued a slap on the wrist to the magazine. I completely respect their position, Friedman said. Within the industry, no one has objected that we know of, and in fact we received words of support from some peers. Every issue since April except for December has had an ad on the cover, and advertisers lined up early for 2010. Friedman was not alone in pushing the traditional prohibition. Just days after Scholastic Parent and Child published its first cover ad, Us Weekly published a fake cover promoting a new HBO TV series, Grey Gardens. The real cover appeared under the promotional one. The advertising cover appeared only on subscribers copies, not on newsstand issues. In an email, the ASME CEO, Sid Holt, stated his position: ASME firmly believes that advertising cannot obscure the cover in any manner whatsoever, especially advertising that mimics editorial. Two other magazines, ESPN The Magazine and Entertainment Weekly, also tested the limits last April. EW included a tab in its April 3 cover that read Pull This! When readers pulled the tab, they saw a promotion for a new ABC show, The Unusuals.

Within the industry, no one has objected that we know of, and in fact we received words of support from some peers.
NICK FRIEDmAN . ScholaStic Parent and child magazine editor

ESPN The Magazine did not defile its April 6 cover, but instead obscured half of it with a wrap-around ad for energy drink Powerade. Only months earlier, Esquire included a so-called trap door on the cover with instructions to Lift Here. When lifted, readers saw editorial content underneath, but also saw an ad on the underside of the trap door. Rolling Stone also experimented with cover advertising with an April 2 cover that had no text on it, only the words: To See Whats Inside and an arrow leading readers to pull the cover back. Underneath was a full cover with text and tease facing a foldout advertisement on the back of the outer cover.

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EZINES

EZINES HOW TO DELIVER WHAT PRINT PUBLICATIONS ONLY DREAM ABOUT

Digital magazines mix the wow factor of video, audio, and Flash with old-fashioned high-quality reporting, writing and photography.

s the entire publishing industry does cartwheels and back flips to figure out new ways to make money, glossies are going crossmedia, and in some cases ditching shiny paper all together. When they go digital, they really go digital. Sometimes its all about high-end videos. Other times they opt for exquisite audio. Most often, its glitzy flash animations. If they want to be fancy, they toss in a 3D quiz. At some start-ups, limited funds drive creativity, and while a few are sticking with the standard layout (with virtual page-turns added), most digital magazines are letting the juices flow. As the rest of the world becomes relentlessly more mobile, the digi-mag is in a perfect position to capitalis e on that trend. The need to develop a digital version of print content has become even more imperative with the advent of tablets being launched in 2010. As of today, there are up to 11 different ways to access digital magazines, said Zinios Chief Marketing Officer and Global Executive Vice President Jeanniey Mullen. From cell phones and computers to e-readers, tablets and televisions (either web-enabled or hooked up to a webenabled gaming station), and the platforms with access to multimedia content are multiplying at a dizzying rate. The most important thing I see in the future of the industry is the fracturing of the audience, said Nxtbook Medias Marketing Director Marcus Grimm. Three years ago, all your readers were sitting at a computer. Now theyre walking around with smart phones, theyre walking around with Kindles, theyre walking around with all these products. Finding ways to make sure that we can find readers, wherever they are, is really the greatest challenge that

were actively working on for the next couple of years. Grimm said hes come to the conclusion that a magazine publisher will soon be re-titled as a content publisher and that his key staffers will include talented developers to format all of his companys content for every outlet. Several e-zine publishers are blazing some impressive trails. Zinios online-only, luxury womens magazine, Vivmag, is an elegant example. Every issue contains all the basic magazine elements: text, photos, and ads. Then come the slideshows, the video clips, the flash and after a reader has watched a video or slideshow or flash presentation, he or she can often click on a button to buy the outfit they just saw a celeb wearing! Or they can mouse over an item to find out where the accessories are from. Click an arrow to flip the page, and the experience begins anew. Issuu, on the other hand, is more low-key. While the tiny companys Chief Commercial Officer, Astrid Sandoval, said Issuu publications arent as video- and flash-heavy as those from publishers like Zinio. Issuus expertise and the attraction of their publication is what Sandoval calls social publishing. The Issuu platform is based on reader comments and ratings, as well as on openness and what Sandoval touts as share-ability. If you think about it, when you purchase a magazine, or when you even get a catalog in real life, theyre shared, said Sandoval. Its moved around, its torn apart, and by the end of the month, its completely dirty and tattered because youve moved it around so much. In the digital space, where sharing has become the norm, it has to be that way or people are unhappy. But it is still as clean and crisp and elegant as the day it was published. And another option for e-zines to set themselves apart is gaining popularity:

The most important thing I see,is the fracturing of the audience, meaning three years ago this was a lot simpler.
MARCUS GRIMM. Nxtbook Medias MarketiNg director

personalised digital magazines. Texteritys President Martin Hensel said the future of digital magazines will be tied to either charging for content or delivering individualised editions of the magazine to readers based on their subscriber profile. Some publications are already experimenting with this tactic, including the online-only music magazine Idiomag. Sandoval said one German publisher (she did not want to disclose the name) told her his company had been working on it for a long time. By tailoring each edition to each individual based on what he or she has read in the past, publishers can deliver completely unique issues, something print publication can only dream about. Issuu already has a remix capability that lets readers search for content and compile it into their own issue. Its an important move for the future, Hensel of Texterity said, because the nature of the connection that happens between magazines and their readers is the strong one. Making the digital publication dynamic so its more contextually based, and the advertising is more directly linked to the readers experience, will be something to watch, Sandoval said. Im in awe because theres just so much potential, and I think as a new generation of publishers emerges, were going to start to see companies expanding even more. What we read ten years from now has not even been imagined yet, but magazine companies like Issuu and VivMag and IdioMag could lead the way.

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TRADITIONAL FORMATS

MOOKS LESS IS MORE?... FOR SOME, MORE REALLY IS MORE

Two adventurous, trend-bucking publishers have proven long-form journalism on paper really does sell well in the Age of Twitter. And not just to older readers, either.

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aunched by Tyler Brl in February 2007, Monocle is a premium media mook brand that sells magazines, perfumes, bags, agendas, swimming suits and $2,440 branded blackberries in 90 countries In brief: Monocle is not a magazine. Its a brand. Its a trendy business. Its a design concept. Its a way of life. Its an experience. Its a unique club. Its a community.

It is also a leading example of a new magazine category called mooks magazine-books which bring long-form narrative stories together to form one entity with a set theme. With Japanese origins(originally referring to adult-cartoon-based magazines), mooks have the colorful layout of a magazine and the tighter direction of a book. Pagination is also twice or three times that of a quality features magazine. Monocle has 250 pages. And the price also trebles. Monocle costs $10. When its founder, Tyler Brl, was asked what he would do differently if he had to launch Monocle today, his response was: Nothing. Its performing beyond plan.

Beyond plan means that they are expanding their foreign bureaux (Hong Kong is next), adding journalists to the staff, opening new stores (Tokyo, New York and Hong Kong in 2010), more supplements (food and drink, and transport), making money online (you must buy a yearly subscription at $150 to access their online archives), and getting more readers and advertisers for what editor Andrew Tuck calls, an optimistic magazine for globally minded people. The secrets? A charismatic publisher with a great editor and a talented newsroom and management, focused on the needs of a very specific audience, producing first class unique products on and offline.

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TRADITIONAL FORMATS

And obsessive attention to detail which means every letter or email is answered at once and if you buy any product from any of their shops you will get it exquisitely wrapped as if it were jewelry.

More of a book than a magazine, Monocles designed to be highly portable

LINFORMATION GRAND FORMAT XXI, LE FRENCH MOOK

When in January 2008 reporter Patrick de Saint-Exupry and editor Laurent Beccaria told people about their idea for a quarterly book-like magazine (or a mook) with more than 200 pages, they were politely skeptical. When they added it would have no advertising, it would be sold almost exclusively in bookstores and it would cost 15 euros ($22), they emphatically told them they were nuts. And yet, by all accounts, XXIs almost mono-thematic and long-form narrative content (articles are an average of 10 pages long) and mook format is today a success. In twelve months, 140,000 copies of XXI have been sold: an average of 35,000 per issue. Thats extraordinaire, proclaims Patrick de Saint-Exupry, Editor-in-chief and great grandnephew of the famous aviator and writer. Our slogan is linformation grand format. As an editor I was often asked to synthesise a report in three pages. Formats are being standardised more and more in the press - an article of two pages now is regarded as a long story, whereas ten years ago, the press published stories of twelve pages. Indeed, XXI is exactly the opposite of light journalism. According to French magazine analyst Francois Brabant, Since the death of LAutre Journal, in 1992, and Actuel, in 1994, that kind of non-standard magazine disappeared from the francophone press, but XXI is a mook which is leading a renaissance in long form journalism with great acceptance. The phenomenon of XXI is less marginal than it seems to be. Long form literacy journalism is coming alive again in Latin America, personified by the Colombian magazine Gatopardo and it carries on in the Anglo-Saxon press with emblematic names such as Granta,The New Yorker and Vanity Fair.

MONOCLE IN NUMBERS
Newsstand distribution: 60 markets. Global distribution: 150,000 copies (30% UK, 20% Europe, 30% Americas, 20% Australasia). YOY Newsstand Growth: (+28% UK, +13% USA, +76% Hong Kong, +35% Singapore, +13% Italy). Subscriptions: Over 10.000 subscribers at $122 annually (+36% year-onyear growth). Average reader income: $398k. Monocle.com monthly unique visitors: 173,882 (+59% year-on-year increase). Average time on site: 12 min 35 sec (+67% year-on-year increase).
Tyler Brl

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BLOGAZINES

ATTRACTING THE FEMALE READER: BONNIE FULLERS RELATE-ABILITY FORMULA

Women crave stories about celebrities, but for more than prurient pleasure: they put themselves in the celebs shoes and look for advice on coping with crises.

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he web-only blogazine HollywoodLife.com burst on the scene in late November 2009 and in a few short weeks was getting more than a quarter of a million unique visitors a month. Focusing on juicy celebrity news as well as on lifestyle, health, fashion, and beauty, and led by a magazine industry celebrity, Bonnie Fuller, HollywoodLife.com already looks like it could be a poster child for one route to magazine success in the 21st Century: a paperless, powerful, lean, tightly focused niche publication. HollwoodLife.com already has advertiser pub execs drool over (Old Navy, Sony Pictures, Peoples Choice and WE tv) and partnerships with iVillage, OK magazine, and AOLs Popeater. Fullers credentials for the job are unequalled: Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan and Glamour magazines; creator of the first celebrity newsweekly, Us Weekly; the Chief Editorial Director of Star who transformed it into a glossy magazine; and editor of the U.S. launch of European brands like Marie Claire. To get a handle on HollywoodLife.coms formula for success, INNOVATION interviewed Fuller in the middle of a busy day, getting bits of inside information while she directed multiple changes on the blog throughout the interview.

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INNOVATION: Whats the magic saucethat enabled you to go from a standing start to hundreds of thousands of uniques in one month? BONNIE FULLER: The magic sauce is

actually just knowing our audience (women, 18-35) and really thinking about what their interests and needs are and what will excite and entertain them. Ive been the editor of a number of magazines before and learned a lot about what women like. Youve got to make it accessible. They have got to be able to go there and see something that will catch their eye and be grabby.

The magic sauce is actually just knowing our audience (women, 18-35) and really thinking about what their interests and needs are and what will excite and entertain them.
why my signature and my picture are there and why the pictures of some of our other writers are integrated into the design.

are the ones with that relatability factor. The big moments in celebrities lives getting married or pregnant or divorced are all life moments women can relate to. And so, as the news breaks, our readers can trust us to have it. But its how we follow it up, how we develop that relatability that makes the difference. On the Elin story, for example, no one else is going to do a story on What can you do to save your marriage or What are the ten things to look for if you think your guy is cheating. On the songwriter Alexa Ray suicide attempt, we did posts on heartbreak-related depression: Could you be suffering from it? Here are the 13 signs if you think you are suffering from it, Here is what to do about it, Here are other celebs suffering from it. Plus, well stay on a story. We wont just do a one-time news story and move on. If we think there are angles that are interesting, well keep posting.

theyre talking to and whos behind the writing. A lot of people are interested in who the editor is, but its even more important online. Online is even closer to TV than print because if you think about the shows women watch, a large part of why they watch a TV show is the personalities. They ID with Kelly or Meredith or the ladies of The View. They dont want it to be different every day or faceless; they want to know whos giving them the goods.

I: What things have you done and what lessons have you learned that members of FIPP could take and apply to their magazine websites? BF: 1. They shouldnt be afraid of online or

I: Your content partnerships are so anti-Old Media. Why did you do them, and how are they working? BF: It is really important to have

I: Why is your design (bright colours and lots of very, very big celebrity photos) so radically different from other magazines in your space? BF: First of all, we wanted to make it very

female-driven, very visually appealing. Women like bright, colourful things. Pink is a powerful colour for women, so we have a lot of pink around the website. But we wanted to do it in a different way. We wanted to make it look like and feel warm like a conversation with a best friend. So its a warmer colour of pink. And yellow is nice and bright, so we used a lot of that. We wanted women to feel good and have a happy moment in their day, a relief from all the pressures. We didnt want it to be work, we wanted it to be fun and engaging and like gossiping with your friend. When you talk to her, you have LOTS to talk about, so we have LOT to talk about on the website. And we wanted to have handwriting and our own portraits because thats personal and thats

I: Often times, you and your competitors have to cover some of the same stories. What makes your treatment different on those kinds of stories? BF: It depends on the story. If it is a big

breaking news story, our audience wants the news, so its important to get it out there quickly. The next steps are where we distinguish ourselves. We look for issues related to women. Our philosophy is that women are fascinated with celebrities because they see them as mirrors of their own lives. So we always try to find an angle thats relatable. Thats why the Tiger Woodsstory was so powerful they could relate to [his wife] poor Elin. Every woman has a friend whos been cheated on or they have been cheated on themselves. The angle of relatability is Elin. So in every one of these situations, there is something a woman can relate to. The stories that stick around

partnerships, or what we call link friends. The online world is all about Fren-imizing. Youre not enemies at all anymore. The people you used to think you were competing with? You are all together now. Were finding these link and content partnerships are very helpful the more the better. They send you traffic and you send them traffic. Women and sports fans share a powerful trait when they are really interested in something, they will just go and go and go and go looking for more information. Everywhere. So we want to BE everywhere. No amount of information is too much if they have an issue frizzy hair or depression or an obsession with something they will go on a tear to get more and more and more. We even have a print partnership with OK! magazine.

see it as the enemy. It is the way of the world. Women are going online in greater numbers all the time and now make up a greater percentage than men. But you cant just take your product and dump it online. You have to adapt to a different medium. Take the time to determine what your audience needs and likes and what excites them, not simply what you do in your magazine. You have to be different. 2. Immediacy. Be instantly on top of developments in your space. 3. Have a clear, distinct voice and point of view. We are friendly, best-friendly, and look at the news from that perspective. 4. Make it visually exciting and make great use of visuals. Women are very visual. 5. Be very open to evolving. Do not be locked into stone. Be open to evolve as your audience lets you know how they like to use the site. 6. We really believe it is essential to have original content; its not just about aggregating. But on the other hand, it doesnt need to be all original content. You can add originality to stuff thats out there, but you must have lots of original content.

I: The launch announcement said the bling of the site was you (that has to be a first for an editor!). What does that mean? BF: I am the readers BFF [best female

Take the time to determine

what your audience needs and likes and what excites them, not simply what you do in your magazine. You have to be different.

friend]. We positioned me that way because its important for the readers to know who

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TEENS

ONLINE STRATEGY ALL TEEN GIRLS, ALL THE TIME , ON ALL PLATFORMS
Brazils Capricho has passed Teen and Seventeen to become one of the most popular teen girl website in the world but they dont stop there, extending their brand with events, TV and products.

oys. Make-up. Skin treatment. More boys. Celebrities. Fashion. Fragrance. And still more boys. A teenage girls paradise. Online. In print. On TV. In person. Brazils Capricho is the worlds fastest growing website dedicated to teenage girls. And, in August 2009, its dramatic, colourful, multi-faceted website passed both Seventeen and Teen in monthly unique visitors, making it the most popular teen website in the world with 1.4 million unique visitors per month (Teen.com has 1.13 million and Seventeen.com 708,000 unique views per month) Capricho is hot because its editors know their audience and how to reach them. And the girls respond. At least 15,000 votes are cast in every poll. Ten million votes were cast in one contest alone last summer. Their live event sold out (18,000 tickets) in three days. Their blog about boys has two million

visitors a month, and the several Capricho Twitter accounts about boys have in excess of 100,000 followers each. Their female teen audience is not an exclusively online audience. Caprichos print circulation grew from 79,000 to 149,000 in two years and boasts renewal rates of 55-65 percent. Caprichos branded products are a success as well, more than doubling in sales (from 3.7 to 8.1 million units) and almost doubling in revenues (from $800,00 to almost $1.8 million) from 2006 to 2009. How do tHey do it? We had the ambitious idea that we could migrate Caprichos content to any platform print, website, events, TV programmes, and products (such as make-up, fragrance, skin treatment, school bags, lingerie, bikinis, notebooks, Easter eggs, candies, etc.), said Capricho Publisher Brenda Fucuta. The print product stands out. Weve got the best coverage of teen celebrities and precise coverage of teen girls lives (boys, friends, family) using short stories, lots of girls testimonies, and practical advice. In fashion and beauty, we have the most fashionable images and ideas, but in a way girls understand and want to wear, and we maintain a girly and cute atmosphere. We also do not reproduce our magazine content online the way other magazines do, said Fucuta. Our website is updated at a frenetic pace, providing new information all day. We also have a family of 12 websites under

Brazils Capricho is one of the worlds fastest growing website dedicated to teenage girls.
the capricho.com.br banner, including themed sites about make-up, boys, photo tools, etc. We extend our brand using different sites for different needs and we attract sponsors interested in focused audiences. How does CapriCho create a buzz? We have five buzz initiatives, said Fucuta. First we have our Girls of Galera Capricho and Fraternidade Capricho teams who are carefully selected brand ambassadors. They have privileges such as testing new beauty products, watching movies before theyre launched, and having backstage access at events and TV programmes. That creates an enormous desire to be Capricho. Second, we use all the social networks such as Orkut, Twitter, Facebook, and our own channel on YouTube. Third, we encourage girls to participate, sending pictures and opinions, and talking to each other at Repblica Capricho. Theres also Colrios Blog where girls elect the cutest boy on earth. Fourth, we created a TV programme in which fashion students compete to be fashion intern in the Capricho office. Fifth, we promote our own team, making them celebrities among girls.

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DIGITAL CONTENT SALES

ONLINE PAYING MODELS THE HOLY GRAIL? DEAD ON ARRIVAL? WILL PAID-FOR CONTENT WORK?
Publishers are trying everything from free bottles of wine and free print publications to partial pay walls and freemium models

as the barn door been open too long? Is it simply too late to begin charging for online content? Or, can magazines go the freemium route, continuing to offer much of their content for free while charging for unique content available nowhere else? The pioneers of paid content in the magazine world are trying radically different tactics. One of those strategies is the use of incentives. Magazines with paid-for content are offering freebies to attract paying subscribers. The freebie could be as simple as including the print edition free with the online subscription. In June 2009 ESPN Magazines paid for combination service with their already established ESPN Insider service. Before this endeavor, ESPN already had 350,000 paying readers for its Insider subscription. Despite adding more content to their subscription with the addition of their magazine, they did not increase their annual cost. They offer three ways to pay: a one-time payment of $39.95 for one year, a one-time payment of $59.95 for two years, or a monthly payment of $6.95. With their subscription, readers also get merchandise, including an ESPN T-shirt and travel cooler. The UKs weekly political magazine, The Spectator, took the idea of freebiesto a unique level. The Spectator offers six different payment methods for buying the magazine online, including one-day access, monthly, annual, and a per-month payment for the Kindle version. However, their most unusual incentive is a tasty one. With a

monthly or annual subscription, readers receive up to six free bottles of wine. Additionally, on their website, they provide descriptions and pictures of each wine. Not all of these magazines charging for content are jumping straight to paid access. Starting December 10 2009, Variety began requiring one out of every 10 website visitors to register for paid access. The magazine offers a single payment option, a $248 flat fee, which gives access to their digital and print edition. Despite this type of offer, some magazine publishers may find success simply because they offer specialised content with original reporting available nowhere else. Emap, the UK media company, has put up a pay-wall for 19 of their business-to-business magazines. One of these titles, Retail Week, started charging on November 13 2009; the timeframe for the other magazines is unknown. EmapCEO David Gilbertson told PaidContent.org that readers will actually make money by subscribing. If readers spend 5 (for the magazine online) and make 100 in extra revenue through better decision-making (based on our content), theyll happily part with more cash. Other big-name media companies are discussing pay-walls, with Rupert Murdochs News Corp. leading the trend. In 2009, Murdoch announced that all of his newspapers and magazines would charge for online content by June 2010, though recent reports indicate hell only hit that deadline for some of his publications. Hearst, Cond Nast, Meredith, and Time plan to start charging by creating an as-yet unnamed digital newsstand.

Earlier this month, Cond Nast released its GQ magazine as an iPhone application, with a $2.99 price tag. Esquire is moving in the same direction, charging the same price for its magazines iPhone version. Two magazines have even tried to increase their appeal by creating a plan for technology that doesnt exist yet. Wired and Sports Illustrated magazines have demonstrated dramatic, colourful, multi-media content for tablet computers for when they are released throughout 2010. The concept is to charge for access to tablet magazines. A big concern for magazine publishers who want to charge for content is how to handle major news aggregators. Google has created a First Click Free programme, which helps publishers control the number of times a reader can access articles without registering. Overall, there is consensus that the 2000s represented a decade of free content online which has now come to an end. The next decade will see publishers reclaiming their content from the free digital bonanza through hybrid models and not a single neat solution. It is widely accepted that magazines must charge for some online content to stay afloat financially, but not all content should be behind a pay-wall. Commodity content should be freely accessible, while specialised reporting should have a price.

Magazines with paid-for content are offering freebies to attract paying subscribers.
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MULTI-PLATFORM BRANDING

360 BRANDING BBCS GOOD FOOD BRAND INCLUDES EVENTS, COOKWARE, TV SHOWS, BOOKS, SPECIALTY PUBS
What started modestly as a magazine in 1989 has successfully expanded in every direction and on every platform. Today millions of people read, watch and buy Good Food products in ever increasing numbers.

hereareplacesyouexpect to find good food a well-known restaurant, your grandmothers kitchen, the mouth of a connoisseur. You might not expect to find it, say , all over your mobile phone, or mingled with the beard of a Hairy Biker. But its there, ubiquitously. The BBCs Good Food brand, which launched in 1989 in the UK as a magazine and a single live event, celebrates its twenty-year anniversary with a new iPhone app, a cookware line, a dedicated television channel, and a three-year licensing deal with the popular MasterChef television series. Add that to some great numbers (see sidebar), six-digit bookazine sales, flourishing international editons, a popular web site, well-attended live events, and even thriving magazines want to know Good Foods secret recipe. Their strategy is irritatingly simple: offer quality products on all available platforms. Take, for example, the website. In terms of numbers alone, its been a godsend for the Good Food brand. Web traffic has increased by 75 percent every year since its launch in 2006, and its readership is five times that of the magazine. But, wait, 2006? That seems late in the game. It wasnt until 2006 that we had the capacity to satisfactorily digitise our recipes, explained Alfie Lewis, Publishing Director of the BBC Worldwide Groups. Now that 1.8 million unique users visit the site on a

monthly basis, mostly for recipes, Good Food is doubly pleased to have built a site that is up-to-date for tech savvy consumers, and upto-scale for blue-chip food advertisers, who recently began to invest online. The frenzy over free content (web recipes in this case) hasnt taken food from the mouth of the magazine subscriptions reached an all-time high of 153,976 this year. Why no erosion with the use of free content? More marketing 101: Know your consumer, differentiate your products. Every product works in a complementary way to the other forms of the brand, summarised Lewis. While the website generates fast solutions to accommodate the five-second attention span of an internet browser, the magazine is meant to inspire readers during luxurious, cover-to-cover reads. And the live events? Those are about fun, networking, gushing over the crme de la crme with fellow foodies. Good Food knows this, so they fill the schedule with celebrity chefs, local culinary contests, and creative meals in theatric settings. If you build it, they will come and 250,000 came to these events in 2009. Good Food occasionally spreads itself too thin. Gourmet Good Food, an edition released more than a decade ago, simply could not find an audience; a vegetarian magazine dwindled in circulation and frequency until it was absorbed as a section in a more successful magazine. But the unlikely offshoot is still worth

Every product works in a complementary way to the other forms of the brand
ALFIE LEWIS, Publishing Director of the bbc WorlDWiDe grouPs.

the venture. In the past five years, impulsebuyers have purchased more than one million of Good Foods 101 Recipe books. The brands presence (and approaching omnipresence) has attracted new business. In August 2009, Good Food landed a three-year licensing deal with the producers of Master Chef, a popular British television series with an audience of more than three million. When asked, What next? Lewis doubles his speed. On the docket: developing MasterChef in print, a Christmas cookware co-llection, numerous iPhone apps, six issues of a magazine focused on Italian food, three new bookazines, and anything else the team dreams up, provided its fantastic.

GOOD FOOD BY THE NUMBERS

Abc 323,171 (Jan-Jun 2009) readership 1,029,000 subscriptions 153, 976 (an all-time high) 8th most popular paid-for monthly magazine in the uK World presence: four international editions, including Australian Good Food: Abc 71,000 in 2008, its launch year

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EDITORS AS CURATOR

CONTENT SELECTION MAGAZINES ARE PLAYING A MOST WANTED SERVICE BY SORTING THE BEST CONTENT FROM CYBERSPACE
As editorial staffs shrink and reader appetites swell, editors must find new content sources. Acting as curators, magazines add the best reader-created content to staff work.

ntil recently, curators existed only at zoos and museums. Today, curators can be found on the editorial staffs of magazines. Curators at publications such as Fast Company and Skiing Magazine find the very best bloggers writing about topics of interest to the magazines readers and recruit those bloggers to appear on the magazines website. No money is exchanged; its a pure contentfor-exposure play. The magazines win by getting top-notch content; the bloggers win by getting a large audience well beyond anything they could generate on their own. The curators were preceded at magazine

websites by aggregators who simply created pages where anyone could post a blog virtually without editing or organisation by the magazine editorial staff. A good example of an innovative magazine curator service is that of US title Taste of Home. Taste of Home curates cooking videos. Whether you want to cook a Thanksgiving turkey or a grilled cheese sandwich, Taste of Home provides videos that suit any readers appetite. The videos have been successful, said Taste of Home VP Publisher Lora Gier. Our readers are very happy with the videos on our website. Taste of Home began curating videos just weeks after its 2008 launch. The innovation led to an increase in Taste of Homes videorelated page views by 50 percent according to VideoNuze. If youre ever in an Empire State of mind and want to view videos about New York entertainment, fashion, or travel, New York magazine curates reader-generated videos as well. In less than six months after the May 2009 launch of reader videos, New York magazine more than doubled its website traffic. From May to September 2009, NYMag.com saw an increase of 150 percent in total video traffic, according to a Magnify case study. In addition to traffic, these magazine curation efforts have created a new revenue stream. Taste of Home and New York have partnered with Magnify which sells contextual advertising space around those reader videos. The magazine receives 50 percent of the revenue from the ads Magnify sells. Have you ever wondered who the most

influential commentators in the United States are? The Atlantic did, and the result is The Atlantic 50. The Atlantic 50 is part of the Atlantic Wire, and contains an all-star list of some of the most influential and controversial commentators in the United States. Magazine curators have burst onto the scene. There is no telling how successful magazine editors acting as curators will be in the future but one thing is certain: you wont have to only go to a museum to find a curator anymore. Magazine curators have burst onto the scene. There is no telling how successful magazine curators will be in the future but one thing is certain: you wont have to go to a zoo or a museum to find a curator anymore.

COMBINING CONTENT

Often, a side dish is just as important as the main course. Steak and eggs, roasted potatoes and lamb chops, french fries and a hamburger: some foods are great together. Taste of Home curates some of its videos using successful recipe combinations. The magazine curates videos for complimentary side dishes and main courses close to each other on its website. In doing so, Taste of Home provides its readers easy access to recipes they can use to make delicious meals.

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CUSTOMISATION

PERSONALISATION FORBES TAILORS THE MAGAZINE EXPERIENCE TO THE READER

Publishers cannot print individual editions for each reader, but they can offer personalisation widgets to allow readers to make the website uniquely theirs.
ne of the keys to success on the internet is the power to personalize. Successful magazine websites are embracing this power. Leading the charge in the personalised internet experience is Forbes magazine, providing customisable tools for the investor, the business owner, and the casual browser. The Forbes Attach window floats on the right of the website, aggregating oodles of information in a convenient drop-down bar. An investor can follow stocks in real time. Sport fans can keep track of the latest scores. News relating to specific industries can be monitored. Attach even gathers RSS feeds and stores important links. It can also deliver the weather. And colour choices range from girly pink and purple to a manly sage green and steel gray. This powerful and hyper-flexible tool, added to the website in 2005, turns just another magazine website into a valuable home page for savvy businessmen. More recently, in 2007, Forbes launched its OrgChartWiki. The Wiki is a visual way to navigate the complexities of a companys

MOBILE PERSONALISATION
For doing business on-the-go, the mobile version of Forbes. com includes a bespoke My Stocks section, and an offline function which downloads selected articles to the phone for reading without an internet connection.

hierarchy. Users can view companies employee structure as an interactive flow chart. If the company is not in the database, readers can add it and can also add employees to the organisational charts of existing companies. This public whos who database makes it easy to identify possible contacts for networking in the business world. Were always looking at new features and tools to enhance the site experience for Forbes. com visitors, said Jim Spanfeller, Forbes.com President and CEO of allbusiness.com. The Forbes.com Corporate OrgChartWiki offers an element of user-generated content that underscores our mission to innovate with state-of-the-art features and functionality.

The Forbes Attach window floats to the right of the webpage, aggregating oodles of information in a convenient drop down-bar.
Other customisable tools that users can tinker with include the Entrepreneur Toolkit for business owners to evaluate how their business compares to others in their industry, and the Portfolio Tracker which provides an in-depth look at real time market and individual stock data.

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SOCIAL MEDIA

SOCIAL NETwOrKING: GO TO THEM, DONT wAIT FOr THEM TO COME TO YOU

Social media strategies allow magazines to reach out to readers, pushing great content readers might not otherwise see and pulling in reader feedback and content.

Seventeen magazine has 98,000 Facebook fans and 59,273 Twitter followers

uman beings are social creatures. They require interaction with others to develop new skills, create new friendships, build new societies, and ultimately evolve. This has been the path of development for millennia. New means of social interaction used to take years to evolve. Not anymore. Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and local imitators the world over have become part and parcel of our daily lives and are evolving to become a marketing tool that can deliver instant feedback. Social networking is swiftly becoming Social media. According to Nielsen Online, social networks are the fourth most popular online activity (76 percent of American Netizensuse social networks, while in China the figure is an astounding 92 percent). The majority of magazines now offer readers the chance to follow them on Twitter or to become their fan on Facebook. But most magazines experimenting with social media have not gone beyond merely linking to their homepage or to individual stories within the body of the site itself. There are some exceptions to the rule. US female-teen-friendly publication Seventeen magazine, which has 98,000 Facebook fans and is followed by 59,273 users on Twitter, routinely asks its readers questions that will result in future content being driven by the user. By using Twitter to ask questions such as Do you struggle with your weight?

or Have you or a friend lost weight through sport, the magazine invites the audience to provide real-life experience that can be turned around to promote issues that editors know affect teenage girls. Global male-orientated brands such as Mens Health, Esquire and FHM have also used social media to cater to their target consumer. On Twitter, for example, Mens Health (24,389 followers) and Esquire (9,875) use the 140 characters to highlight what is going on in their respective worlds while offering tips and advice on fitness regimes, health products, and grooming suggestions. FHM has separate addresses for its different circulation areas ranging from the UK, Australia, Germany, South Africa, and the USA to Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey and Norway. Owen Van Natta, Chief Revenue Officer for Facebook, believes that for magazines to use social networking sites to enhance their brand is a no-brainer. Van Natta said, Magazines should figure out how to get their dialogue to happen at their place of presence on the web. Through message boards, mail and online conversations, Facebook is an aggregation of real dialogue among people. He thinks that magazines have only just begun to wake up to the opportunities that exist within social media and that its been a challenge for magazines to figure out how to take their brands to where the online communities are forming. Sites like Facebook help magazines engage with their readers, get new readers attracted to your content, and even create buzz about their events. The clever use of social media is indeed helping magazines to build their brand in myriad ways inconceivable less than a decade ago, but it is not enough to use these platforms for linking and traffic generation one still has to tell a story in 140 characters or have conversations with digital Facebook fans.

FACEBOOKS GLOBAL DOMINATION STALLS IN CHINA

While Facebook and Twitter dominate social media in the west, they arent even on the radar in the growing digital landscape of China. Under the watchful eye of the government, Chinas social media is controlled by local companies serving the largest country in the world.As of June 2009, China had 338 million Netizens and 92 percent of them actively use social networks. Of those users, 66.7 percent are younger than 30 and 86 percent of Chinese youth spend significant amount of time online. The real place where conversations about brands occur is on the Chinese internet according to Kaiser Kuo, Director of Digital Strategy, Ogilvy China. Facebook with it global presence has only 12 million more users than Chinas social media by itself.Chinese social network sites such as QQ, 51.com, Baidu, and Renren (formerly known as Xiaone) dominate the market in China with no room for western-based sites.

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ODD MAGS

WACKY FORMATS A WhiMSiCAl Revue OF ODD TiTleS WiTh publiC ACCepTAnCe

Frisbees, T-shirts, scen-ted pages, a can full of surprises, and misplaced belongings are a few of the things being used to crate magazines that really stand apart in a sea of bland pages.
hile most magazines are t u r n i n g t o technology to spark appeal among their readers, these m a g a z i n e s have done that with their mere creation. And, although some may find these magazines unusual and quirky, others appear to be enjoying the unique aspect they bring to the world of print media. Take Freestyle magazine, a bi-annual magazine which is made into a circular shape to fit perfectly inside a flying disc that we all know as a beloved childhood toy, the Frisbee. Created by Editor in Chief Jason McGlade in Berlin, Germany, Freestyle captures unique ideas within the realm of art, design, photography, fashion, and others. The pages are put together by both promising artists and fashion designers, which can be best described by its creator as a piece of plastic that is so simple yet it can fly and inspire people a true design classic. T-post is known as the worlds first wearable magazine. Based in Sweden it takes stories of interest from around the world and presents them in T-shirt form. The story is first sent out to several artists, then one of the artists portrayals is chosen to be made into an issue. Afterwards, a T-shirt with thought-provoking design is created to share with everyone, only if you have a subscription that is. Mm! smell that? You are getting a whiff of the citrus scented pages of Lemon magazine. Created by Grady & Metcalf, Lemon is described by its creators as being a vintage LIFE re-imagined for a sophisticated

contemporary audience featuring celebrities as comic book heroes ready to recount their experiences, while also taking on whatever the theme of the issue entails. Unfortunately, Lemon is only published annually and sold in select stores so you wont be finding the next issue on your neighbourhood newsstand. La Lata is a magazine object which comes in a can (lata in Spanish) From restyled food cans to the latest issue, an eight-litre paint can with a fabric fringe, each annual edition is hermetically sealed like a tin of canned soup. Once you have applied kitchen utensils to open it, inside each can is a collection of unique objects created around the main theme of the magazine. La Latas creators, Manuela Martnez said she wanted to decontextualise the object of the tin, and generate an element of surprise surrounding the sealed contents. Each issue is published in a limited edition

Freestyle Magazine

While most magazines are turning to technology to spark appeal among their readers, these magazines have done that with their mere creation.

of a few hundred and costs 26. Produced Spain, the magazine is launched every year at the Madrid annual art fair ARCO. Ever been hurt by a lover? Ever want to apologise for something but werent able to muster up the courage? You are not alone. FOUND magazine is a publication created by Davy Rothbart and Jason Bitner that consists of no stories and no original content at all and instead publishes items they find left about in the streets of big cities. Its pages include lost love letters, hate letters, apologies, homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, drawings, and pretty much anything one may find in their daily life. So if youre feeling like nobody may know what youre going through, pick up a copy of FOUND or a copy of its sister magazine dirtyFOUND for more risqu findings; who knows maybe your situation is more common than you thought.

La Lataq

T-post

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T-post

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FUTURE TRENDS

ON THE RADAR WILL PAPER, EVEN COMPUTERS, DISAPPEAR IN FAVOUR OF VIRTUAL WORLDS?
Magazine readers of the future may be able to call up information from virtually any source onto virtually any surface.
he line separating the digital and physical world is being blurred more and more every day. In the not-toodistant future, new devices will far-outpace todays webcams and mobile phones to seamlessly meld the virtual world of internet with finite, everyday things. Magazines will be no exception to this trend. Hints of that future are popping up today. Imagine holding up your mobile phones camera. On the screen is the image of the street in front of you, but it is enhanced with information about what you are looking at reviews of the best pubs in the area, where to find the nearest public transportation stop, or even a virtual tour of a museum. This is the idea behind Layar. Introduced in the Netherlands in June 2009, Layar bills itself as the worlds first mobile augmented reality browser. It works by taking the view through the phone and adding content, including audio and video, known as layers on top of the view on the phones screen. Layar is quickly adding to its repertoire by teaming up with numerous directories, companies, schools, museums, transportation agencies and others to provide content in the U.S., the rest of Europe, and Japan. With hundreds of layers already available, and more being added each day, this technology is set to take off. To create a layer, a company teams up with a developer who customises it to the companys needs. Jeroen Meijer from US Muzar.org is one such developer. He is currently in talks with magazine publishers about how to expand this technology to aid magazines. If one sees magazines as a way of communication, and sees a publisher

as a distributor, Layar is a new form of distribution, explained Meijer, It adds to the possibilities of magazines. Dagbladet, one of Norways largest newspapers, has already created a layer that provides reviews of restaurants taken from its website. However, the power of Layar remains largely untapped by the magazine industry. Now imagine not even having to bother to take out your cell phone and fiddle with its buttons and touch screens, but still having constant access to the digital data about the world surrounding you. Wearable user interfaces may soon make such dreams a reality. Take for example SixthSense, designed by Pranav Mistry, a Ph.D. student at the US MIT Media Lab. Mistry looks through the eyes of a clairvoyant, imaging a world in which everyone wears their own personal computer. SixthSense uses hand gestures to call forth information from the digital world as needed, including video, audio, or other additional or updated content that just cant be put in print. Talking at a TED India conference in November 2009, Mistry explained, You can carry the digital world with you, wherever you go. Use an index finger to draw a circle on your wrist and SixthSense projects an image of a watch face, a virtual timepiece. It also has the power to replace e-readers and tablets, allowing digital versions of magazines to be projected onto any available surface, a wall, a piece of paper. For example, using SixthSense will enable a magazines to show daily events information, theatre listings on the go in any street, or a video of an event projected on the print version itself. No more looking it up on your computer. However, those diving into the future must

remember the present, at least for a while. If you want to start a relationship with new technology, offer on it what you cannot offer in print complement your product, cautioned Samir Husni, Director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi. Indeed, even in an ever-changing digital world, the success of magazines will not be digital deliverance via new technological platforms but providing the content and storytelling for these platforms. It is the wine and not the bottle.

WHAT IS LAYAR?

Layar transforms the real world, through a mobile phone, into an interactive digital world, also known as augmented reality. For example, in Ireland, Pubs Galore finds community written reviews of bars on the street and nearby. The Layar app lets the user switch between reality, interactive street maps, and other information. As the view and location changes, so does the information.

HOW DOES SIXTHSENSE WORK?

SixthSense is simply a mobile phone, a camera, projector and software that allows the wearer to project and interact with digital information in the real world. Stereotyped hand gestures activate and control its many functions. For example, making a window with the thumbs and index fingers, la Madonna Vogue, asks the camera to take a picture of the scene.

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MAGTWEETS

MAGTWEETS INFORMATION BYTES

In an age of scrappy messages and information saturation, INNOVATION here presents our edited selection of the best morsels of useful information about magazines today of course, in 140 characters, or so.
92% of US adults read magazines.
(Experian Simmons)

OPIUM magazine has a story on its June 2009 cover consisting of nine words which will take 1,000 years to finish. If regularly exposed to sunlight, one word appears every century.

The UK consumer magazine industry is worth 2.8 billion pounds.

(PPA Marketing)

Tatler magazine will be celebrating its 300th birthday this year, while also believing to be the worlds oldest magazine. Magazines drive web search more than any other medium. More than double Internet and social media.
(BIGResearch Media Usage Study)

Esquire Magazines technology revolution hasnt been online. Its been in print. (Derek Thompson. The Atlantics)

80% of women and 67% of men choose to read a consumer magazine in the UK.
(Magazine Week)

Consumers spend more than $86 million each week in the US on singlecopy magazines.
(Nielsen)

The number of consumer magazine websites grew 78% between 2005 and 2009.
(Mediafinder.com)

75% of all magazines sold in New Zealand are published locally.

(Nielsen)

Who says that iPod-addicts teenagers have left magazines? 75% of teens read magazines.
(MRI Teenmark)

85% of UK adults read consumer magazines.

(PPA)

On average, a magazine is read for a total of 50 minutes.

(Magazine Week)

Around 21 million adults in the US own electronic book readers.

(MRI Fall 2009 Survey for American Consumers)

In focus groups readers sometimes describe their favourite magazines as a friend.

(PPA Ireland)

The U.K. sells a total of 2,600 magazines every minute of each day.
(Magazine Week)

Michael Jacksonthemed magazines in July 2009 drove an extra $55 million in sales.
(Advertising Age)

Magazines love the internet. Almost 25% of all new subscriptions come from the internet.
(Internet Subscription Survey 2009)

Japanese family-run magazine publisher, Kodansha, celebrated its 100th birthday in December. More than 600 new magazines were started in 2009, although many were one-timeonly publications.
(National Public Radio)

Wallpaper*, opened its first retail store in Milans La Rinascente department store.

Starting in 2010, Germanys most popular womens magazine Brigitte will no longer be working with professional models. This is because the magazine would prefer to use images of real life women instead. 92

The internet generation reads more magazines than any other generation.
(Magazine Week)

Many in-flight magazines had record issues this year.

(Print Week)

If you stacked all of the magazines that were sold in the UK in just 30 mins, the tower of magazines would be equal to the Burs Dubai Tower, the worlds tallest building.
(Magazine Week)

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ABOUT INNOVATION

wHo we Are Good journalism is good business We are a global consultancy firm with a difference. We focus exclusively on the news business both editorial and management. And our focus is helping our clients innovate and embrace new digital platforms, and find bold new strategies as well as new revenue streams. We have been described in the press, both as The McKinsey of the news business, and one of the most famous firms specialising in news media. We invite you to be part of the digital news revolution and benefit from INNOVATIONs knowledge and hands-on expertise of more than two decades advising some of the best-known media brands in the world. MAnAGeMent And strAteGY services We believe that old media companies should become new Information Engines, and transform by shifting from readers to audiences and from audiences to communities. Our clients talk to us when they need to make decisions that will have lasting consequences for their teams, operations, revenues and news brands. They approach us when insights are difficult to develop and implement internally, and when they need fresh global and experienced thinking. Our work does not stop with the insight, concept, or business model. We commit to its launch, implementation and proven results until they succeed.

editoriAL services exploring new opportunities Our clients call us when they face pressing issues ranging from editorial re-organisation to a need for re-invention of their products, or the development and execution of new editorial or commercial strategies. They approach us for objective, honest, analytical, smart and experienced advice. We believe in fundamental - and when required - radical innovation as the only way news businesses can thrive. We believe in clarity of thought, elegant and fresh presentation of content and products, absolute professionalism, quality journalism, visual journalism, independence and putting audiences first. innovAtion LAbs We agree with the saying that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. And the only way to invent is to develop a prototype. We are all constantly prototyping new products, news genres, business models and management techniques. We do this across every platform: online, mobile, print, broadcast.

MAGAzines

Unlike newspapers, magazines are bought for other reasons that make them more appealing on print than the immediacy of newspapers. We believe, however, the genre must be re-invented to survive and thrive. We have developed ground-breaking new concepts, and formats with demonstrable success. We re-invent business models that extract value from print to attract advertisers and sponsors. We re-organise news operations to adapt a matrix based on audiences rather than products.

How we work We believe that change is not imposed but is negotiated and agreed upon. We take into consideration all scenarios, opinions - and only after thorough analysis, evaluation, and testing we present our final recommendations and action plans. One way to visualise our process is to think of it as a threestep effort: audit, diagnostic and implementation. We lead in-house teams to be at the heart of innovation in their firms and deliver on a new product, content or strategy. Although all projects are made-to-measure, the phases of any change process are always similar, and apply to any editorial, graphics, technical, management or commercial consultancy.

www.innovation-mediaconsulting.com senor@innovation-mediaconsulting.com

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ABOUT FIPP

FIPP InTernATIOnAl FederATIOn OF The PerIOdIcAl Press

The International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) works for the benefit of consumer and business media providers around the world, focusing its activities on freedom of the press, intellectual property, information provision, freedom to advertise, freedom of distribution and environmental protection.

ey to its activities is providing information resources, networking opportunities and professional development for international magazine publishers and related industries around

the world. Today, FIPP has more than 700 members, including subsidiaries, across 69 countries consisting of 52 national associations, 470 publishing companies and 180 associate companies. FIPP represents more than 6,000 member magazine titles which include almost all of the worlds leading magazine brands. Specialised networking opportunities organised by FIPP include the annual magazine matchmaking licensing fair, Worldwide Magazine Marketplace (WMM). It also holds the must-attend FIPP World Magazine Congress every two years, and an annual Digital Magazine Media Conference. The association offers a wealth of data, contact information and publications helping publishers plan and develop their international publishing business. These include the fortnightly e-newsletter Magazine World Update, and its flagship quarterly print title, Magazine World. Magazine World reports on changing magazine markets around the world. Each issue features industry news,

events, regional analysis and international commentary. Magazine World is distributed in 90 countries with a BPA-audited circulation of 7,300. Tracking the growth of magazine markets around the world is the annual research publication FIPP World Magazine Trends. The authoritative source of international data on consumer and B2B magazine markets around the world, it is a primary source of worldwide magazine publishing trends. FIPP also provides professional development opportunities for tomorrows senior magazine professionals with the Magazine

Management Certificate (MMC). An intense experience-based modular programme, this is run in London during 18 training days spread over a course of a nine month period covering knowledge areas and management skills required by magazine publishing executives who are preparing for senior responsibilities now or in the near future. Additional special-focus courses and events include the Digital Publishing Certificate, the Ad Sales Workshop and the Research Forum. For more information about FIPP membership, services, events and activities visit fipp.com.

FIPP has more than 700 members, including subsidiaries, across 69 countries.

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ABOUT FIPP

FIPP

Queens House 55-56 Lincolns Inn Fields London WC2A 3LJ UK Tel: +44 20 7404 4169 Fax: +44 20 7404 4170 info@fipp.com fipp.com Contacts: Chris Llewellyn, President and CEO Christine Scott, General Manager

dIArY OF eVenTs
1-2 March 2010 Digital Innovators Summit 2010 3rd FIPP/VDZ Digital Magazine Media Conference Deutsche Telekom Center, Berlin, Germany www.vdz.de/innovators-summit-news.html Contact: Christine Scott, christine@fipp.com 18-19 March 2010 FIPP Research Forum Sanoma Magazines, Amsterdam, The Netherlands fipp.com/events Contact: Christine Scott, christine@fipp.com 16-17 September 2010 Worldwide Magazine Marketplace Sao Paulo, Brazil magazinemarketplace.com Contact: Claire@fipp.com 10-12 October 2011 38th FIPP World Magazine Congress New Delhi, India fipp.com/events Contact: Claire Jones, claire@fipp.com

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