By Lucia Moses - http://www.adweek.com/news/press/ripp-rallies-time-inc-troops-first-management-meeting-152376
Incoming Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp rallied the troops at his first meeting for top execs, saying they need to be empowered and work efficiently for the company to succeed once it spins off from Time Warner. “We can’t really consider ourselves a magazine company anymore,” he said at the quarterly management meeting, according to people present. “We’re a media company. If you’re People magazine, your competition is Facebook, Twitter.” There were no big announcements, but Ripp fielded questions from Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer, then the audience, on a range of topics from acquisitions, compensation and church-state issues. READ THE FULL ARTICLE
By: Michael Sebastian
New Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp told roughly 300 employees at a town hall-style meeting Wednesday that the company's executive suite has been a place "where ideas go to die," according to staffers who were present. "If I have my way I'm going to close that damn thing down," Mr. Ripp said, addressing an audience of managers and executives. The company, the publisher of magazines such as People and Sports Illustrated, is keenly looking to Mr. Ripp for clues to its uncertain future. Parent company Time Warner plans to spin Time Inc. off into an independent company early next year, and Mr. Ripp last week became the third Time Inc. CEO in three years.
Mr. Ripp later sent a memo to all Time Inc. staff, encouraging them to present him with ideas. "I know you have ideas and I want to hear from you directly," he said in the memo. "That's an open invitation. I don't plan to spend all my time on the 34th Floor. So, you'll be seeing me around the building."READ THE FULL STORY
BoSacks Speaks Out: There is an old expression that says if you have nothing nice to say you better not say anything. As it turns out I do have a few nice things to say.
Tina Brown was once on top of our game. She was editor-in-chief of the British magazine Tatler at ripe age of only 25. Later she rose to prominence in American media as the editor of Vanity Fair from 1984 to 1992 and of The New Yorker from 1992 to 1998. In 2000 she was appointed a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her services to overseas journalism, and in 2007 was inducted into the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.
All of that is quite remarkable, and truth be told she did a splendid job for some 25 years or so. Then, like one of those old sports legends who stay on the
By: Michael Sebastian
Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp and Daily Beast Editor in Chief Tina Brown will not renew her contract after it expires in January and plan to part ways, people familiar with the matter confirmed on Wednesday. The news was first reported by BuzzFeed.
Ms. Brown plans to start her own company, Tina Brown Live Media, once she leaves The Daily Beast, one of the people said. The company will be an extension of an events business she started at The Daily Beast with its Women of the Year event. Tina Brown Live Media will expand upon that, the person said, to feature "flash debates" and other events. Ms. Brown will run both the business side and programming at the events.
The standalone company is expected to start operating by the end of the year, according to the person, who said it remains to be determined whether Ms. Brown will bring employees over from The Daily Beast. READ THE FULL STORY
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
After a two-decade-long relationship between the magazine giant Time Inc. and American Express, Time Inc. plans to close quickly on its purchase of American Express’s publishing division.
“This 20-year courtship is finally being consummated in matrimony,” said Ed Kelly, president and chief executive of the American Express Publishing Corporation. He joked in a phone interview that after such a long engagement, there was no reason to delay the wedding; Time says it expects to close the deal by Oct. 1. On Tuesday, both companies announced that Time Inc. would buy for an undisclosed sum all of American Express’s publishing titles, which include Food & Wine and Travel & Leisure READ THE FULL ARTICLE
http://www.adweek.com/news/press/details-uses-bloggers-native-advertising-152201
In the latest example of a publisher blurring the line between advertising and editorial, Details is tapping its Details Network, a collective of 150 men’s style bloggers who share their work with the magazine’s website, to create content for advertisers.
In what Details is calling its version of native advertising, where ads are designed to look and feel like editorial content, the magazine tapped nine bloggers from the network to style outfits featuring fall 2013 apparel from advertisers like Gucci, Prada and Versace. For this Style.Feed campaign, stories written by the bloggers that feature their outfits are appearing as posts on the Details Network site (like this entry from blogger Scout Sixteen) and the stylists’ blogs, and on the fashion brands' own promotional and social channels. Photographs and excerpts from the bloggers' stories were also aggregated into a digital magazine that readers can find on Details’ Facebook page or on Details Insider, Details' promotional site. READ THE FULL STORY
Could Oyster be the Netflix for books? By Beth Kowitt, writer
FORTUNE -- Could Oyster be the Netflix for books? It's the question many industry-watchers have been asking since last October, when the New York City-based startup received $3 million in funding led by Founders Fund.
Today's launch of Oyster in Apple's App Store gets us closer to an answer. With Oyster, subscribers get unlimited digital access to more than 100,000 books on their iPhones for $9.95 a month. Backing from a venture capital firm with the star power of Peter Thiel gave Oyster an important seal of approval, but up until now, with just over 100 users trying out the service in beta, it's been virtually untested.
Oyster's founders don't shy away from the Netflix (NFLX) comparison. Even the interface "feels like the Netflix experience," says co-founder Willem Van Lancker. READ THE FULL ARTICLE
By: Michael Sebastian
Time Inc., bracing for a spin-off from Time Warner early next year, is rolling out an ad product called Time Engage that's designed to use the company's vast reader data to better target ads not just in digital media but in print. Johnson & Johnson has recently signed on for Engage, which began as a pilot program in 2012, and Time Inc. is looking for other takers. The pilot last year saw Toyota, one of Time Inc.'s 10 biggest advertisers, and its agency Saatchi LA try to use Engage to raise awareness of its Venza cross-over among baby boomers, according to the companies. READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Advocacy groups warning of a potential 10 percent increase.
BY ARTI PATEL
http://www.foliomag.com/2013/magazines-ready-offensive-possible-exigent-rates-near#.UifY7sasiM4
Direct mailers are up in arms and banding together as the United States Postal Service (USPS) circles a potential exigent rate increase for 2014. With the USPS Postal Board of Governors set to convene on Sept. 5 and expected to discuss a possible path toward solvency, periodical publishers are preparing to argue against what they believe is an additional financial burden.
"This is not a bluff on behalf of the postal service," says James Cregan, executive vice president, government affairs, for the MPA-The Association of Magazine Media, in a phone interview. "Among knowledgeable people working within the mailing industry, it's commonly known that this exigent rate increase is very much on the table." According to Cregan, Washington, D.C. insiders are expecting the USPS to pursue an exigent rate increase of up to 10 percent across the board for magazines, effective Jan. 2014. READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Many people are claiming that these new Meganews Magazines autonomous newstands could save the print industry. That's maybe a bit optimistic, but at the least they'll help reduce the mountains of wasted paper from unsold magazines since the over-sized vending machine only prints publications when they're ordered, in just two minutes. The kiosk has access to a remote server where publishers upload the latest editions of their periodicals, and using a touchscreen interface customers can browse more than 200 different magazines, newspapers, or journals. READ THE FULL ARTICLE
What is the BoSacks FREE newsletter all about?
It is purely a very "personal" and slanted collection of news gathered daily over the Internet, which to me seems relevant and useful about the publishing industry. I do this as a labor of love and to keep myself as up to date as is possible with the ever changing and advancing "Information Distribution Industry" formerly known as "Publishing".
And how much does it cost?
The price for this service is nothing. It is Free. It is just as easy for me to copy three or four of my industry friends as it is to carbon copy the current list of 16,500 publishing professionals.
