BTW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2010
Contents:
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What those prophets fail to see is that we are witnessing the worst economic crisis in our history. Banks are closing, credit lines are frozen, and investment banks are disappearing… and guess what, the web and the internet are not the reason for that… it is the economy. Why is it so hard for our prophets of doom and gloom to accept the fact that this down cycle in the magazine industry has little, if not nothing, to do with the web or the internet, but rather with the economy and the publishing model that our magazine publisher follow in this country since WWII.
The advertising funded model has worked fine for years and years. It is time to change and to start to look at circulation driven models where readers and customers pay the price of the magazine without ad subsidies. The publishing model is broken, and most of the bailout plans that I have seen so far, fail short of a drastic change in the way we do business. If now is not a good time for change, I have no earthly idea when will be a good time.
On another front, it never ceases to amaze me that when I report bad news when it comes to new magazine launches, the prophets of doom and gloom directly post my blog on theirs and spread the news.
When I reported last month about what a great September it was for new magazines, only one newsletter reported the story. In few days I am going to report on Oct. There are still a lot of good news to read and enjoy in our magazine world. Take a look at the 3rd quarter of the new magazine launches. Relax and take a deep breath.
The light at the end of the tunnel is NOT the train coming. The cover of New York magazine sporting the two presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama relaxing on a beach and touching hands received a lot of accolades from the media world including yours truly. Now, The Progressive magazine takes that relationship one step further and produces a poster-like cover with no type showing the two candidates kissing. The cover begs the question how far is too far?
Are the presidential candidates fair game? Part of me, mainly the magazine-person in me, likes the idea of covers that stops you in your tracks, such as The Progressive cover. However, another part of me, the professor-person in me , is bothered with this cover and feels that may seem that it is intended for nothing but the shock and awe effect.
Its an entertaining magazine about things that matter. The aforementioned communities have one thing in common: Whether it is education, politics, money, food, immigration, health GOOD has been on the forefront of the issues. Good is a BIG idea that we became so inspired that we felt like we needed to create a platform for it and the first platform was in print. We now see Good as a collaboration of the people, businesses and non-profits pushing the world forward. We really think there is an exciting cultural moment, kind of what Wired was for technology.
We see ourselves filling that role for social engagement. Whether it is an individual or a business looking to align their self-interest with a broader interest, it is just such an exciting moment. A lot is changing, but we think that this idea is really coming to the forefront, so we want to be both entertaining and relevant.
We want to be both pragmatic and idealistic. We want to be local, but also global, and we want to be fun and serious and always keep a sense of humor, even when we deal with serious topics. That is a brief overview of Good.
Can you briefly tell me a little bit about the genesis of the idea of Good? How did the idea come into being and who was behind the idea? When I was in college and when the other co-founders were in college, I thought that if you look around, you will see that people give a damn. They are hungry for what they can do that is both meaningful, but also can allow them to achieve success. Are you going to be an investment banker or join the peace corp.? What we really wanted was a way that you could do both at the same time, and we knew a lot of other people felt this way. So, we wanted to create a platform for this.
I think simultaneously that the idea of a do-gooder was something that was seen as a pejorative term. It was soft, it was naive, and it was weak. At the same time, we really wanted to make a difference in the people who we really respected and admired. The idea was to make films that were both entertaining and relevant. He called his college roommate and me up and said that he thought it would be a good idea to do a magazine called Good that was all about sensibility.
We kind of knew what he was talking about; it was an idea that we had all been kicking around for a while. We were in the back room of this little office in Los Angeles and were allowed to just think big and dream what would this platform be. It has been such a thrill to see it come to life and see the idea resonate with other people; all of the amazing contributors and businesses that we have been able to partner with. It has been just a couple of years into it, but it has been an amazing experience. What was the biggest stumbling block you faced during that process?
I think the biggest stumbling block that we faced and continue to face is how do you grow print circulation in a cost effective quality way. It is so hard. Direct mail is obviously the way most magazines do it and have done it, and, with the internet, we thought that there has to be a better way. We looked at how expensive it was and all of our advisers, who were really smart and we really respected, basically said you have to do direct mail.
I think it has been a constant challenge to figure out how to grow without really prioritizing direct mail. We came up with the Choose Good campaign, which has been really successful and has built us an incredible community of people and done so in a cost effective way while generating money for non-profits, but the challenge has been scale, so right now we are at a 75, rate base, and we are doing quite well on the newsstand.
Issue No. 3 Spring 2011
Can you tell me more about the genesis of the Choose Good campaign? Circulation was the key and direct mail was their solution and, basically, the only way to go. It just came to us that all of these amazing non-profits inspired us, and it just came up as a crazy idea and everyone liked it, so we went live with it. I think it really helped convey this idea to people.
What do you think was the most pleasurable surprise that faced you through this process? There are several things that have stunned me. One is when the physical issue was out there and you could see it. I was at a coffee shop the other day, and this really cool looking person was reading a copy of GOOD; It always stuns me to see a normal person reading it. Just seeing the process of it going from an idea to actually being a real thing in the world was a really moving thing for me.
Going into these incredible institutions and being treated with respect and having so many wonderful organizations want to partner with us has been an incredible experience.
- The Difference Between Art and Design | Webdesigner Depot.
- Good Art Is Interpreted. Good Design Is Understood.?
- Robust Statistical Methods with R.
- Victoria and Albert Museum.
I think that all of that has been encouraging and really exciting. Are you now more into a community business?
New PlayStation Plus Sign Up OFFER And Content For September And October
Tell me more about the Good community. I think that is the key. We really think of GOOD as an idea and as a collaboration. The print form has been really amazing. We love it, and we love what we can do whether it is the magazine or print extension in The New York Times, but I think we are really excited about how we can best use this idea to connect businesses and individuals and move the world forward. I am taking on more of a role and thinking in a broader sense how that applies to print, online and in personal experiences.
Do you think that is the future of publishing? I am not one to necessarily predict the future, but I think that integrated media is a good thing. What is behind the idea of presenting information using info-graphics and charts? That has been a really fun section in the magazine.
Casey Caplowe, who is a co-founder and our creative director, has done an amazing job at coming up with this transparency stuff and design. Also, our Design Director Scott Stowell has done such incredible work for us. He is such a pleasure to work with.
The two of them took this idea of how we can convey information in a really powerful way, and they go out to different design firms each time.
It never fails to remind folks all the time not to write-off the launches of new magazines from the media landscape. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Coat inspired by s garments in the Jaeger archive. Is it going to continue or is it just the election? Stockdale introduced similar details into his first menswear collection at Holliday and Brown, having them subtly woven into the fabrics he designed. Wendy Dagworthy emphasises the enormous benefit of fashion history in understanding silhouette, cut and materials.
The results have been really fun. I think we live in an information age, but there is still so much noise, and I think it is fun to take a relevant piece of information and present it in a dynamic way. I guess that is the challenge each time. What makes you tick in the morning? I think this has been my dream job. It has been such a wonderful opportunity to create something you believe in and work with such incredible people. Got my money back in the first month alone. Cloud game saves Some sort of extended warranty discounted to plus subscribers And we all know the community want cross game chat which I believe Sony are working on anyway: Warhawk and Quest for Booty?
If you guys are already scraping through your back-catalogue of old games what is it going to be like in a few months time? Just a couple of things. People like me tend to buy games on release date or soon after. I think they need to be of more expensive games we put off buying at first due to cost. For more info or to change settings, click here. Log in to comment Log in. Share this post Reddit Pinterest Email. Street Fighter 2 HD Remix minis: Syphon Filter Full Game Trial: Wannabe and Rising Star Avatars As before, you can rest assured this is not all that will be available each month; look out for some more exclusive, surprise treats, coming to Plus in September and October.
Hopefully there is plenty there to entertain you! Enjoy all this and keep an eye out for some extra exclusive treats during the month! PlayStation Store's new Christmas weekend discounts kick off today. New Christmas weekend discounts are live on PlayStation Store. New on PlayStation Store this week: The Witcher Tales, more. React to this post. Show latest first Show oldest first Show most liked first. D Today i shall be on Abes Oddysee making constant farting sounds and giggling like i used to back in the day: Looking forward to the other Plus surprises this month too. So, I signed up from day 1, do I get Quest for booty?
Is there any news on PS2 Classics on the store? In the pipeline at all? Again already own most of this content dont think ill be renewing my subscription. What about the people who allready own burn zombie burn? Will they get the home item too? Are you planning on offering anything above and beyond PSN store game content? Hi, thanks for the SS suggestion, its a good one and something we will look into for you.
Same as 10 I signed up from day 1, so do I get Quest for booty? There should be one per month…. Am I right in thinking that Quest for Booty does not support trophies? Look at all the great content we have already and its only been a few months. What more do you want? Thanks for the update, looking forward to Sam and max. Most comments this week.