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magazines
The Housing Market's Revenge
Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore gave an internal presentation indicating the company might be looking to "trim" some of its magazine titles. Weak advertising performers recently include This Old House, Cottage Living, and Coastal Living. This could signal a coming crisis—will someone please think of the needs of the old coastal cottage dwellers? [Ad Age]
Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore gave an internal presentation indicating the company might be looking to "trim" some of its magazine titles. Weak advertising performers recently include This Old House, Cottage Living, and Coastal Living. This could signal a coming crisis—will someone please think of the needs of the old coastal cottage dwellers? [Ad Age]
dead trees
Porn Money Fine With Time Writer, But Not Actual Porn
Time writer Lisa Takeuchi Cullen thinks her publisher is obnoxiously proud of its Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, which it slipped into everyone's office in the dead of night, and which contains, gasp, pictures of young women in various states of undress. The women don't even look real, and the bikinis are of no interest to Cullen because she's pregnant, so Cullen shouldn't even have to be bothered to throw away what she accurately describes as "porn." But she'll happily cash her paychecks every few weeks, even though they come from the annoying porn; according to Time Inc. and Cullen's own blog post, the "Swimsuit Edition franchise... is the most profitable of any single magazine-branded franchise." Basically, the Time writer doesn't want to have to come face to face with how her publisher makes its money. And who can blame her: if she took a hard look and started engaging that topic a bit more closely on her blog, there would be no office to come back to. [Folio]
the chart
The demise of Conde Nast's scrapbook site for teenaged girls, Flip.com, was a reminder. How is that other big website launch of 2007 going? 23/6, a joint venture between Barry Diller's IAC and Kenny Lerer's Huffington Post, was two years in the making. The political humor launched in November to lackluster reviews; but maybe it's caught fire since, what with the elections and all. Who are we kidding? A quick search on Compete.com shows 23/6 is as stillborn as Time Inc's Office Pirates, Viacom's Virtual Lower East Side — and every other site that springs from the loins of New York's media titans. They really should have read The Innovator's Dilemma, that standard reference book for young-at-heart moguls, more carefully.
When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
The demise of Conde Nast's scrapbook site for teenaged girls, Flip.com, was a reminder. How is that other big website launch of 2007 going? 23/6, a joint venture between Barry Diller's IAC and Kenny Lerer's Huffington Post, was two years in the making. The political humor launched in November to lackluster reviews; but maybe it's caught fire since, what with the elections and all. Who are we kidding? A quick search on Compete.com shows 23/6 is as stillborn as Time Inc's Office Pirates, Viacom's Virtual Lower East Side — and every other site that springs from the loins of New York's media titans. They really should have read The Innovator's Dilemma, that standard reference book for young-at-heart moguls, more carefully.
revenge layout
Portfolio Takes A Dig At Competition Via PhotoShop
Was Portfolio's production team projecting just a smidge when they chose to illustrate a column this month about the city's declining commercial real estate market with a "foreclosure"-stamped photograph of the Time-Life,
rumors
'Entertainment Weekly' And The Cushy Staff Retreat
We hear that Entertainment Weekly flew their entire Los Angeles staff into New York for the Time Inc. holiday party, in advance of a magazine-wide staff retreat. Staff retreats? What is this, 1995? Who can afford those anymore, other than white-shoe law firms and ClearChannel? Apparently EW can—staffers were put up at Le Parker Meridien (home to Norma's and its infamous $1,000 caviar omelet). Well, the negotiated corporate rate at Le Parker Meridien for Time Warner is $300 a night—so can we assume that the once-renowned perks at Time Inc. properties (Beverage carts! Company car rides home to Greenwich! And in-house medical and childcare—Oh wait, never mind, they still have those), all but eliminated in 2002, are back? What's more, if the job boards are any indication, EW is on a bit of a hiring binge. So did all that cost-cutting and laying-off work?
theories
Is Time Inc.'s Hiring Craze Actually Not-So-Good News?
Time Inc. seems to have many many job openings all of a sudden! The company is looking for a chief marketing officer along with sales, marketing and finance staffers. In the past week, its magazine properties (especially Essence, People.com and Real Simple) have been advertising heavily—for executive assistants, ad salespeople, event planners, and online production folks. Fortune just launched their redesign, and CNN/Money.com is pouring money into online videos, according to Crain's. Given that it's a stressy time for publishers, and also the irritating fact that where there's a hire, there's often a fire, we're wondering if these titles are planning to balance their budgets by slashing some of their print and newsroom-only support staff in the next month? Could be! Hey, everyone else is doing it! We're all ears!
ESPN got sportswriter Rick Reilly from Sports Illustrated for a "five-year, $10 million package." Time Inc. says they would have countered with $1.5 million a year. Seriously? What? Nothing against the dude, but for real? No wonder these people have to lay everyone off once in a while. [NYP]
It was a big deal when Time magazine's Rick Stengel sent a memo to the whole staff, saying that "I suspect that some of you regard writing for TIME.com as an obligation, and not what you came to TIME to do. But... [i]f you care about what you do - and I know you do - then you need to display your talent, your expertise, and your dedication online as well as in the magazine." Well, the Newspaper Guild has put a stop to that—the newest proposed agreement between the union and Time Inc. says that "there will no negative impact on any employee for not volunteering to do Web site work." While we totally get that most companies are making journalists take on more work for no more money, which blows, still; this is the first time I've ever felt a tiny bit of sympathy for Rick Stengel! [WWD]
How are women like former Glamour blogger and current People scribe Alyssa Shelasky destroying feminism? By sending out change of contact emails that say things like "I can't figure out how to order a Time Inc blackberry. Me and corporate America are not exactly bff....!" OMG LOL you two are so not but let's go talk about it over manicures and then rehash "The Hills" okay? God, my mother would strangle her with one hand.
lonely at the top
Ann Moore Definitely Sits Alone At Lunch
Nary a kind word for Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore in Keith Kelly's 1,200-word Sunday New York Post profile. Well, she has overseen the elimination of 1,000 jobs at the magazine in the last year, so you'd expect bits like this: "I think she's a one-trick pony," one 'former executive' told the Post. Moore aims to make Time Inc. a leader of the digital age—so, her groundbreaking vision for the future? "Page views plus minutes spent will be the new gold standard." Eureka! Time Inc. editor-in-chief John Huey's take? "I wouldn't be the best judge of morale today, [Ed. You don't say!] but I sense that we're on the comeback trail." Here's a better judge of morale: "Remember, the layoffs may not be over," warns Keith.
tmz dmz
Can Magazines Possibly Get As Sleazy As The Internet?
"Ink-on-paper magazines" are having a "long slow sunset," according to Felix Dennis, fun-loony former Maxim owner—but they're not making up the cash on the web, in part because publishers just won't lower their standards far enough. Time Inc., the Economist says, "has stuck to its big magazine brands with People.com and with SI.com, its website for Sports Illustrated. The price, competitors say, is that Time Inc cannot do the sort of sarcastic, bitchy celebrity gossip that people like on the internet for fear of tarnishing the brand of People, and therefore cedes first place for entertainment to TMZ.com (also owned by Time Warner), which excels at it." Well, that doesn't mean they're not gonna try to take on TMZ! After all, not only did People hire Alyssa Shelasky, Glamour's former dippy blogette, they hired David Caplan, the mad ungenius behind the now-defunct 24Sizzler, the worst celebugoss site to ever tarnish the internots. So surely they're up to some secret standard-lowering project?
the drowned and the saved
The Time Inc. Holocaust
From today's Keith Kelly "Media Ink" column:
Not everyone who was spared in the Business 2.0 meltdown is going to Fortune. Erick Schonfeld, who was an editor-at-large based in New York, has decided to end his 14-year career and jump to Michael Arrington's influential blog, TechCrunch.Nice one, Erick! Staying on at Fortune after your magazine folds is exactly like being spared from the gas chamber. Happy Yom Kippur!
"It's true," said Schonfeld, "I've accepted a position to be co-editor at TechCrunch."
"There was a 'Schindler's List' at one point, but I took my name off it so I'd be eligible for a severance package," he said.
Off the list [NYP]
departures
'Business 2.0' Finally Dead
Despite the protests of literally twos of thousands of Facebook members, Time Inc. has kicked Business 2.0 to the curb. According to an unusually emotive blog post in the Times and its dry print follow-up, editor Josh Quittner and nine staffers will be shuffled over to Fortune. (The rest of 'em will be sending you resumes when the kill teams are done a-killing.) We'd be bitchy about this, but it always sucks for actual real people when a company runs a magazine into the red and then won't let a willing buyer turn it into a competitive product. The only silver lining: Mrs. Quittner, AKA Michelle Slatalla, the Times' Andy Rooney-of-the-internet, will have plenty to columnize about now with these hubby troubles!
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