April 25, 2011

US Postal News USPS mailer with PURL, QR Code, and Tear-Out Form in one!...... 1 Book/Directory Industry News Yellow Pages Association rebrands as Local Search Association ...... 2 Popularity of books in digital platforms continues to grow...... 3 Kindle users to be able to borrow library e-books...... 4 Catalog/Retail Industry News Macy's making sustainable strides...... 6 Rite Aid appoints new EVP merchandising ...... 6 Direct Marketing Industry News Money-back guarantee for US advertisers to try direct mail...... 7 Magazine Industry News Top May advertising monthlies: ‘Wired’ with humor and ‘Style’...... 8 Out of bankruptcy, Reader's Digest Association goes shopping ...... 10 Wired’s newest iPad issue boasts its best feature yet: Free ...... 10 Bloomberg Businessweek app gets personal with users ...... 11 Tina Brown's Newsweek a hit on newsstands ...... 12 Health mag gets ‘tagged’ with smartphone codes ...... 13 Magazine publishers scramble to streamline their app production...... 13

ECONOMIC UPDATE GDP: (3rd Revision) 3.1% in Q4 2010 (up from 2.6% Q3 2010) (Q1 2011 Estimate Released on April 28) Unemployment Rate: 8.8% in March 2011 (down from 8.9% in February) Consumer Confidence: 67.5 in March 2011 (down from 77.5 in February)

US POSTAL NEWS

USPS mailer with PURL, QR Code, and Tear-Out Form in one! (Digital Nirvana – April 15, 2011) Original Link: http://thedigitalnirvana.com/2011/04/usps-mailer-with-purl-qr-code-and-tear-out-form-in-one/

There was a fold-out mailer on my counter this morning from the United States Postal Service. When I opened it up, I got quite a surprise. The mailer, which was promoting its flat-rate boxes and envelopes, had not just one or even two calls to action. It had three of them! All the ones we love to see: QR code, PURL, and tear-out form.

On the marketing letter was a QR code. When scanned, it took me to an easy-to-navigate mobile site that allowed me to request samples of the boxes and envelopes using an online form. For those not wanting to use the code, there was also a pre-filled insert that I only had to drop in the mail. At the top of the insert was tear-off form with a personalized URL — prioritymail.com/myname.

1 Granted, there were oddities in the mailer. The USPS included a personalized URL but not personalized QR code. The tear-out form was prefilled, but everything on the personalized URL was not. (I assume they used the personalized URL for tracking, but since they clearly knew my name, why didn’t they at least personalize with that? Not to mention boost their form fill rate by prefilling the form with the information they already had?) Even the drop-down menus in the forms were odd in that the Post Office asked my ZIP code, then asked me to identify my state. Shouldn’t the Post Office — of all places — know that?

But the USPS got something right. It understands that not everyone wants to respond to a marketing campaign the same way. Some will want to use their mobile device. Others a laptop or desktop computer. Others traditional snail mail. The fact that USPS offered multiple ways for consumers and businesses to respond to the call to action (free shipping kit), I am certain, dramatically boosted the campaign’s success.

That they used PURLs and QR codes was very encouraging, too. Yet another high-profile marketer mainstreaming and giving a high level of credibility to these approaches.

How many ways do you give your customers (and your customers’ customers) to respond to a campaign? Do you force them into a one-size-fits-all funnel? Or do you give them options to respond in the ways they feel most comfortable?

BOOK/DIRECTORY INDUSTRY NEWS

Yellow Pages Association rebrands as Local Search Association (DM News – April 17, 2011) Original Link: http://www.dmnews.com/yellow-pages-association-rebrands-as-local-search- association/article/200801/

Trade group the Yellow Pages Association will rebrand as the Local Search Association on April 18. The organization decided to change its name because a growing number of its members now work in digital search, said Negley Norton, president of the group.

“We changed the brand because it's really a better reflection of the products and services that our members are offering today,” said Norton. “When you think about their businesses, they have all transformed their business models to include Yellow Pages, local search, wireless platforms, social media, online video and the like.”

Norton said the digital portion of its members' businesses have been “growing steadily,” with the medium representing “close to 30% of revenues” for some companies. He added that the organization timed the rebranding to coincide with its annual conference, which began April 16 in Las Vegas.

The trade group is also developing an online local search directory for its members to interact with one another, said Norton. 2 The organization also said it has signed new members, including online local business directories CityGrid Media, MerchEngine and Kudzu.

“These would never be companies that would join the Yellow Pages Association,” said Norton, adding that the group's pivot towards digital attracted them.

Popularity of books in digital platforms continues to grow (Book Business – April 18, 2011) Original Link: http://www.bookbusinessmag.com/article/popularity-books-digital-platforms-continues- grow/1#utm_source=bookbusinessmag.com&utm_medium=home_page&utm_campaign=today-in-book- publishing-tab

Powerful continuing growth of books on digital platforms both eBooks and Downloaded Audiobooks are highlights of the February 2011 sales report of the Association of American Publishers, which is being released today.

The report, produced by the trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry, tracks monthly and year- to-date publishers' net sales revenue in all categories of commercial, education, professional and scholarly books and journals.

According to the February results, once again e-Books have enjoyed triple-digit percentage growth, 202.3%, vs February 2010. Downloaded Audiobooks, which have also seen consistent monthly gains, increased 36.7% vs last February.

For February 2011, e-Books ranked as the #1 format among all categories of Trade publishing (Adult Hardcover, Adult Paperback, Adult Mass Market, Children's/Young Adult Hardcover, Children's/Young Adult Paperback).

This one-month surge is primarily attributed to a high level of strong post-holiday e-Book buying, or "loading," by consumers who received e-Reader devices as gifts. Experts note that the expanded selection of e-Readers introduced for the holidays and the broader availability of titles are factors.

Additionally, Trade publishing houses cite e-Books as generating fresh consumer interest in--and new revenue streams for--"backlist" titles, books that have been in print for at least a year. Many publishers report that e-Book readers who enjoy a newly-released book will frequently buy an author's full backlist.

For the year to date (January/February 2011 vs January/February 2010), which encompasses this heavy post-holiday buying period, e-Books grew 169.4% to $164.1M while the combined categories of print books fell 24.8% to $441.7M.*

According to Tom Allen , President and Chief Executive Officer of AAP, "The February results reflect two core facts: people love books and publishers actively serve readers wherever they are. The public is embracing the breadth and variety of reading choices available to them. They have made e-Books permanent additions to their lifestyle while maintaining interest in print format books."

3 Allen added that book publishers have been leaders among content providers in identifying and serving new audiences. "Publishers have always strategically expanded into all the markets and formats where readers want to find books, whether it was Trade Paperback, Mass Market or now digital. By extending their work as developers, producers and marketers of high-quality content to emerging technologies, publishers are constantly redefining the timeless concept of 'books.'"

Other highlights in the February 2011 report (all February 2011 vs February 2010 unless otherwise noted): E-Book sales were $90.3 Million, growing 202.3% vs February 2010. Downloaded Audiobooks were $6.9M, an increase of 36.7%.

Trade categories: Adult Trade categories combined (Hardcover, Paperback and Mass Market) were $156.8M, down 34.4%. Children's/Young Adult categories combined (Hardcover and Paperback) were $58.5M, a decline of 16.1% *Year-to-date 2011 vs YTD 2010: E-Books increased by 169.4% while all categories combined of print Trade books declined by 24.8%

Religious books: February sales of $48.5M were an increase of 5.5%; this reflects growth as well in the category for year-to- date, up 6.1% to $93.9M.

Education categories: Higher Education sales for YTD (January and February 2011) were $406.9M, down slightly by 5.6% vs YTD 2010. In K-12, YTD sales were $173M, declining 8.9% from 2010.

Total sales for professional books and journals were $42.9M, a slight drop of 3.6% vs February 2010. Combined sales of University Press (hardcover and paperback) were $6.7M, falling 6% vs last year.

The AAP monthly and year-end sales report represents data provided by 84 U.S. publishing houses representing major commercial, education, professional, scholarly and independents. Data on e-Books comes from 16 houses. The report does not include all book and journal net sales but provides what's acknowledged as the best industry snapshot currently available.

Kindle users to be able to borrow library e-books (The New York Times – April 21, 2011) Original Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/technology/21amazon.html

Amazon said on Wednesday that it would allow Kindle users to read e-books from more than 11,000 public libraries on the devices beginning later this year, a reversal of the company’s previous policy.

“We’re excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries,” Jay Marine, director of Kindle at Amazon, said in a statement.

Until now, library users who borrowed e-books could read them on Barnes & Noble’s Nook, the Sony Reader, the Kobo reader, and on laptops and smartphones.

4 Librarians, who have grown accustomed to telling disappointed Kindle owners that they cannot be used for free library e-books, said they were relieved that Amazon was opening its device and its Kindle app to libraries.

“That’s always the question we get — you lend out e-books? How can I get them on my Kindle?” said Ingvild Herfindahl, the children’s librarian at the Kasson Public Library in Kasson, Minn. “People will be thrilled.”

Bobbi L. Newman, who writes the blog Librarian by Day and is a manager at the Richland County Public Library in Columbia, S.C., said Amazon’s decision proved that libraries were “a key player” in the e-book business.

“We’ve been waiting for Amazon to play ball with libraries since they came out with the Kindle,” Ms. Newman said. “Even Amazon can’t overlook us anymore.”

E-book use in libraries has been growing at a rapid pace, particularly in the last year as more consumers have bought e-readers. The New York Public Library said last month that e-book use in its system was 36 percent higher than it was one year ago.

Some publishers have remained uneasy about allowing their e-books to be borrowed from libraries at all. Borrowers can download the books easily from home, so there is less incentive to buy. Two major publishers, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan, have still not allowed their e-books to be available in libraries.

HarperCollins, which has allowed its e-books to be lent by libraries, angered librarians last month when it announced a new policy requiring that e-books be checked out only 26 times before they expire, forcing libraries to buy them again.

Roberta A. Stevens, the president of the American Library Association, said that considering the growth of e-books in libraries, Amazon’s decision was all but inevitable.

“I can’t say that I’m surprised,” she said. “They were just shutting off a whole part of the market place. It’s just logical that this would happen.”

Amazon said it would work with OverDrive, a large provider of e-books to public libraries and schools. Barnes & Noble introduced its first e-reader, the Nook, in 2009 and opened it up to library e-books.

“This is not news for Nook customers who have always had access to library services on their Nook Color, Nook and Nook Wi-Fi devices given Barnes & Noble’s open platform and Adobe technology partnership,” Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, said in an e-mail.

5 CATALOG/RETAIL INDUSTRY NEWS

Macy's making sustainable strides (Retailing Today – April 21, 2011) Original Link: http://retailingtoday.com/article/macys-making-sustainable-strides?ad=news

Macy's Inc. announced that it is taking new steps to become a more sustainable company.

"Our company has embraced the principles of sustainability, and we continue to take actions that are tangible, measurable and meaningful in reducing our use of scarce resources and improving the efficiency of our business in serving customer needs," said Tom Cole, Macy's chief administrative officer. "We have made significant progress over the past several years, and we continue to move forward with new ideas in 2011 and beyond."

Macy's said that, beginning this fall, it will use environmentally-friendly matte black hangers for most apparel merchandise sold in its stores, replacing clear hangers that have been the industry standard for several decades. According to the company, which uses nearly 300 million hangers, the new hangers can be manufactured using recycled plastic materials, saving on the new petroleum-based resins used to make clear hangers. Macy's will be asking its apparel vendors to begin shipping merchandise to Macy's on black hangers in fall 2011, with the transition expected to be complete in spring 2012.

In addition, Macy's, in partnership with ECOtality, said it is expected to become the first major department store to pilot the use of self-serve electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, through The EV Project. The company plans to install two electric vehicle charging stations this fall outside each of six Macy's stores in the San Diego metropolitan area (locations are being identified). The charging stations will provide an added convenience to EV drivers and help promote the reduction of fuel consumption and the transition to clean, renewable energy.

The company also announced that it has become a Recyclebank Rewards Partner, allowing customers across America to earn special discounts at Macy's when they increase household recycling, reduce household energy usage and practice green lifestyles.

Rite Aid appoints new EVP merchandising (Drugstorenews.com – April 18, 2011) Original Link: http://www.drugstorenews.com/article/rite-aid-appoints-new-evp-merchandising

Rite Aid's SVP category management Tony Montini has been promoted to EVP merchandising, the pharmacy retailer said Monday.

In addition, SVP business development Bryan Shirtliff has been promoted to the new position of SVP merchandising.

As EVP merchandising, Montini, who began working for Rite Aid in February 2010, will oversee field merchandising and new store format development in addition to his current category management responsibilities. He will continue reporting to COO Ken Martindale. Montini's new responsibilities include the Wellness stores, Value + stores and co-branded Save-A-Lot Rite Aid stores. 6 Shirtliff will report to Montini and will continue to be responsible for store segmentation initiatives and front- end merchandising.

“Tony has done a terrific job this past year in strengthening our category management department and further building upon our strong relationship with suppliers,” Martindale said. “With his broad-based retail experience and expertise in chain drug merchandising and marketing, he will be a great asset in strengthening our field merchandising capabilities and continuing the development of the new store formats that are part of our segmentation strategy.”

DIRECT MARKETING INDUSTRY NEWS

Money-back guarantee for US advertisers to try direct mail (Post & Parcel – April 18, 2011) Original Link: http://postandparcel.info/38225/news/money-back-guarantee-for-us-advertisers-to-try-direct- mail/

The US Postal Service is hoping to win a bigger slice of the $90bn US media advertising market by offering some of the nation’s top advertisers a money-back guarantee to test out direct mail campaigns.

From as early as next month, it will be offering 16 major advertisers the chance to try out direct mail in a market trial called “Mail Works Guarantee”.

The companies will be those spending at least $250m a year on advertising, but do not currently use the mail for a significant amount of promotional activity – those where postage represents less than 0.36% of their advertising budgets.

The companies taking part in the Mail Works Guarantee trial, which could last up to two years, will each be expected to mail between 500,000 and a million mailpieces of First Class Mail or Standard Mail.

Should the direct mail campaign to achieve a number of agreed targets, the USPS would provide a refund of postage costs, up to a maximum of $250,000.

Targets might include an increase in store traffic for large retailers, an increase in web traffic for e- commerce companies or an increase in sales for a product or goods supplier.

Refunds would not cover print and production costs, and would be paid out as credit, according to documents filed with US regulators on Friday.

The USPS said it believes there is “huge revenue potential” in boosting its current 3.1% share of America’s media advertising market, which currently translates to about $3bn a year in revenues.

7 Filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission, it said: “This will create new volume for the Postal Service. Each of the companies selected will pay the list prices for current products just like any other mailer and will only receive a refund if their use of the mail does not result in a specifically defined benefit to their company.”

The new Mail Works Guarantee initiative comes as part of efforts by the US Postal Service to counter declining First Class Mail volumes and bring in additional revenue to turn around its multi-billion dollar annual losses. The business-to-consumer channel is one of the key priorities for Postmaster General Pat Donahoe at the moment.

Depending on the results of the Mail Works Guarantee market trial, the Postal Service said it could seek regulatory approval to expand the trial to additional companies.

MAGAZINE INDUSTRY NEWS

Top May advertising monthlies: ‘Wired’ with humor and ‘Style’ (MinOnline – April 18, 2011) Original Link: http://www.minonline.com/news/Top-May-Advertising-Monthlies-Wired-with-Humor-and- Style_16910.html

The monthlies' May ad pages, as has been the case throughout first-half 2011, were mixed with 87 out of the 153 magazines up in min's boxscores. Standing out in the crowd with the month's largest page gains are three from Time Inc.--InStyle, People StyleWatch and People en Español--followed by Wired (Condé Nast) and Redbook (Hearst Magazines). Here are the "top 5" profiles:

1) InStyle InStyle continues to be advertising "fashionable" with May's 50.38 ad-page increase (+24.27%) boosting the year-to-date-differential to +8.20%. InStyle also is becomes the first monthly in the boxscores to surpass 1,000 ad pages through May (1,001.45 to be exact).

“The strength InStyle showed in May is directly related to our growing Best Beauty Buys franchise," says publisher (since January 2009) Connie Anne Phillips, with beauty advertising's +40% the major catalyst. "We know that Best Beauty Buys get consumers into the store: Our research shows that 84% of our readers purchase products directly from this annual feature.”

2) People StyleWatch People StyleWatch has rapidly grown since its inception in 2007, and with May's +46.04 ad pages (+54.06%; +51.69% year-to-date), the winning streak for StyleWatch is now 22 issues (since April 2009), as the magazine increases frequency from 10 to 11 issues per year in 2011.

8 “In our May issue, we are continuing the momentum with our key, endemic categories of fashion (+80%), retail (+88%) and beauty (+23%),” says StyleWatch publisher (since February 2010) Karin Tracy. “There are 76 pages of new advertisers in the issue including Gucci fragrance, Roxy and Macy’s.”

3) People en Español New to our top 5 is People en Español, with +35.50 ad pages (+61.19%; +46.68% year-to-date). We tracked down outgoing publisher Lucia Ballas-Traynor to see what is happening at the 15-year-old People spinoff.

“Our success is the result of securing upfront commitments by providing advertising partners with exclusive, actionable and measurable consumer insights; enhancing and extending franchises like 50 Most Beautiful, Premios People en Español and Festival People en Español, and leveraging retail programs."

Ballas-Traynor will end her three-year stint at People en Español on April 29 to start a consultancy. No successor has been named.

4) Wired A banana cream pie was delivered to the min office on Friday, April 15, to celebrate Wired’s first ‘Humor’ issue. The purpose was to throw a 'pie-in-the-face', but that was a big ‘NOT’ for this minsider, it was too delicious. Wired VP/publisher (since Feb. 2009) Howard Mittman told min about the mag's huge May success with +36.92 ad pages (+61.93%; +40.58% year-to-date).

“Wired has experienced a renaissance over the last few years as consumers and advertisers have figured out that our brand is not focused on the cult of the Internet, but rather the culture of technology. This sea change is how the Wired world has come to dominate business, and popular culture has allowed us to continue to expand our programmatic offerings and embrace a wider category of advertisers.” With advertisers such as Chanel, Ray Ban, Radio Shack and Computer Associates, Wired's reach is affluent, influential, men.

5) Redbook Redbook celebrates its first-ever Family issue with all six Kardashians posing on the cover. The 108-year- old woman's monthly wraps our top 5 with +33.03 ad pages (+26.49; +0.62% year-to-date).

Redbook VP/publisher/chief revenue officer (since July 2003) Mary Morgan tells min: "May is the perfect expression of Redbook's unique market position, brought to life in our first Family issue: it's about the energy and joy of a particular time in women's lives, which we celebrate each month."

With beauty being a substantial part of the May issue, the Kardashians cover has a John Frieda-sponsored gatefold. Redbook's annual MVP Beauty Awards and an Avon-sponsored beauty booklet are inside. "Other exceptional 360 marketing programs in the issue include an exclusive Sauza tequila entertaining booklet, a custom Coldwater Creek fashion advertorial and a six-page special section from HGTV for its Green Home programming and contest," says Morgan.

9 Out of bankruptcy, Reader's Digest Association goes shopping (Adweek – April 20, 2011) Original Link: http://www.adweek.com/news/press/out-bankruptcy-readers-digest-association-goes- shopping-130800?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mediaweek- Magazines-And-Newspaper+%28Mediaweek+News+-+Magazines+and+Newspaper%29

Now that it's out of bankruptcy, Reader’s Digest Association is loosening its purse strings. A little over a year after emerging from a pre-packaged bankruptcy, the publisher of the eponymous pocket-sized magazine is set to announce its first acquisition Wednesday morning.

RDA is buying online vertical network Haven Home Media, expanding its footprint in the home and DIY market, where RDA already publishes homespun titles like Family Handyman and Birds & Blooms. RDA has had its eye on expanding in this space for a while; a few years ago, it took a look at the HGTV magazine concept. (it took a pass, though, and HGTV found a partner in Hearst Magazines.)

Since coming out of bankruptcy in early 2010, the RDA, led by Mary Berner, has taken steps to expand its flagship to digital platforms and made small moves to expand its home and health titles. But the acquisition is the most significant about-face after the cost-cutting that’s dominated the company in recent years.

New York-based Haven Home was founded in 2009 by Daniel Meehan. A former Scripps digital salesman, he built Haven Home into one of the biggest aggregators of home and garden content online. It claims to have a network of more than 70 websites representing an audience of 14 million. Meehan will join RDA as vice president of integrated solutions and digital development for the Lifestyle Communities division. The price that RDA paid for Haven Home was not disclosed.

Wired’s newest iPad issue boasts its best feature yet: Free (All Things Digital – April 15, 2011) Original Link: http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20110415/wireds-newest-ipad-issue-boasts-its-best-feature- yet-free/

Remember when iPad magazine apps–and Wired’s app in particular–were big news? That was a year ago. Now Wired would like to remind you that it’s still publishing on the iPad, and the Conde Nast title is offering a pretty good incentive to give it another look: Its newest issue, which should go online today, will be free.

The one-time promotion comes via a sponsorship from Adobe. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, given that Adobe and Wired have been working hand in hand on tablet publishing for nearly two years now.

Wired has also added a few more bells and whistles to the app, including the ability to share stories via Facebook and Twitter. There’s also an e-commerce partnership with Amazon, where readers can purchase items the magazine writes about via the online store, but without leaving the magazine app itself.

None of that is revolutionary, but it does show you how relatively crude Wired’s first app edition was when it launched last May. In retrospect, for instance, it seems astonishing that it hasn’t had social media links: Any app that launched without them now would be hooted down.

So. Twelve issues in, how’s the app performing on the business side? Conde won’t share many details; Wired publisher Howard Mittman says that monthly download totals have settled into the 20,000 to 30,000

10 range. That’s down considerably from the first issue, which racked up more than 100,000 downloads, but not surprising.

Those figures might well go up if Conde Nast decides to work with Apple’s subscription plan, which would likely lead to a lower per-issue cost. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.

On the other hand, Mittman says that advertisers are even more willing to bet on the app than they were a year ago. Which is surprising, and contrary to what I’ve heard from other publishers about their own titles. Mittman won’t release figures, but he says that today’s issue will generate more advertising dollars than Wired’s first issue a year ago.

Bloomberg Businessweek app gets personal with users (Audience Development – April 19, 2011) Original Link: http://www.audiencedevelopment.com/2011/bloomberg+businessweek+app+gets+personal+users

Bloomberg Businessweek is giving readers an up-close look into its content production with podcasts from columnists and video interviews with editors.•

App users can see behind the scenes videos about the cover story and its artwork every week from editor Josh Tyrangiel and creative director Richard Turley. Individuals can also hear interview podcasts from columnists like Charlie Rose and Tom Keene. The print publication has a rate base of about 900,000. According to Oke Okaro, the Global Head of Consumer Mobile Business for the Bloomberg Multimedia Group, 17 percent of subscribers currently have an iPad, which is a target market of about 153,000 potential app readers. The publication declined to say how many times the app, which was launched April 11, has been downloaded so far.

“It’s a very important device for us to be on. We started out from the standpoint of let’s bring our magazine to our audience on a device that they increasingly carry,” says Okaro. “One thing we do know, without a doubt, is that it’s been incredibly well received by our readers and the market place.”• • Print subscribers are able to access a full subscription of the Bloomberg Businessweek iPad app for free if they enter their account number, e-mail address or home mailing address when they log on to the app. Individuals can download a free test issue of the magazine or become a subscriber for $2.99 per month.

Okaro says the group didn’t want to monetarily alienate their print readers. “One of the things that is most important to us is to treat our best customers the best and our best customers are people who subscribe to the [print] magazine today --- we wanted to make sure that we don’t penalize them for wanting to read the magazine on another device.”••

The iPad app offers several interactive features to, as Okaro puts it, enhance the reader’s experience. A user can create a personal archive of articles of interest by digitally clipping content which they can share on social media sites; the app affords the user the ability to increase or decrease the font size to make any

11 story more legible and an app user can choose to flip pages in landscape mode or interact with the text by scrolling down the screen in portrait.••

“We’ve provided multiple ways for people to discover content,” Okaro says. “We wanted to make sure that we enhanced the experience in ways that were important to our readers.”

The app gives readers the most current information while submerged in a story – if an individual is reading a piece that mentions Microsoft or Apple they can click on the company’s name and find the latest market information and the latest news on the company. Other features include the ability to search across multiple issues for related content.

The app also lets readers know what kind of commitment they are making with a story by telling them how many pages a story is “up front. It’s very important for the user because they want to know what sort of a commitment they’re making – do I have the time to read a five-page article now or do I more have time for a two page article now?” Okaro says.

Users of the app will also have access to something the print edition lacks – a table of contents and a highlights section that notes the top articles from different areas of the magazine. Additionally, related content appears at the bottom of every article to allow users to continue to read.

“We wanted to give people the ability to dig a little deeper and learn a little bit more,” he says.

Tina Brown's Newsweek a hit on newsstands (Adweek – April 21, 2011) Original Link: http://www.adweek.com/news/press/tina-browns-newsweek-hit-newsstands- 130826?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mediaweek-Magazines- And-Newspaper+%28Mediaweek+News+-+Magazines+and+Newspaper%29

Newsweek's been under the microscope since Tina Brown took over. So far, things haven't looked good: First-quarter ad pages were down 31 percent year-over-year, and the April 12 issue had just six ads.

But it’s not all bad. Brown’s redesign appears to have been a hit on newsstands.

Newsstand sales of the relaunched Newsweek's first issue, which had Hillary Clinton on the cover, were up 19 percent from the magazine's average from last year, according to point-of-sale data from nine major retail chains compiled by Magazine Information Network. The second and third issues beat the 2010 average by 7 and 21 percent, respectively. (The Newsweek Daily Beast Co., to which Newsweek now belongs, points out that first-half ads had already been booked by the time the two entities merged Feb. 1, however, and that the title has begun breaking new advertisers including David Yurman and HP.) Of course, it's still early, and it's always possible that readers will stop picking up the magazine at newsstands once the buzz dies down. And nearly all of Newsweek's 1.5 million circulation comes from subscriptions, which were down 25 percent in the second half of 2010.

But it's also possible that the people who've gone out and bought Newsweek in its latest form will be hooked, and that new subscriptions will follow. As an incentive, it's currently offering a discount of 90 12 percent off the cover price for a two-year subscription. At 45 cents an issue, that offer won’t do much to stop the red ink flooding the magazine, but it may give circulation much-needed boost.

Health mag gets ‘tagged’ with smartphone codes (MinOnline – April 21, 2011) Original Link: http://www.minonline.com/news/Health-Mag-Gets-Tagged-with-Smartphone- Codes_16926.html

The 2D mobile code trend for magazines continues to expand across content types and even categories of publishing. This month Health magazine bows its first issue using visual codes that activate mobile content. The May 2011 issue has 17 Microsoft Tags which work with the free downloadable app. Health is linking these codes to a range of editorial and offers designed to motivate users to engage with the brand on an additional platform. Some of the tags will activate sweepstakes entries while others pull in how-to videos and even slideshows. “We’re seizing the opportunity to engage readers in an exciting way, further establishing the brand as a multi-platform resource for cutting edge health and wellness information, says Dave Watt, vice president, publisher, Health.

The tags can be used to enter contests that award some of the beauty products featured in the 2011 Health Beauty Awards and a $1,000 gift card from Sephora.

This may be the first tagged issue of Health but it won’t be the last. The magazine has already committed to using the 2D codes again in the October 2011 issue and a number in early 2012. Advertisers using the tags in this issue include Sally Hansen, Schick and Rusk. Mobile codes in magazines have had a checkered history, with many experiments coming in with modest or low response rates. One the other hand, highly aggressive programs can also activate enormous interactivity. Last year a sweepstakes program from Allure magazine clocked in almost 450,000 scans from readers because the program rewarded them with daily contest entries.

Magazine publishers scramble to streamline their app production (paidContent.org – April 20, 2011) Original Link: http://paidcontent.org/article/419-magazine-publishers-scramble-to-streamline-their-app- production/

Magazine publishers are not only trying to pack more features and content into their apps—they’re also trying to design for an ever-growing variety of devices and formats. The result is wreaking havoc with traditional print production schedules and, in some cases, budgets. And, then there’s the fear that even after all that blood-sweat, advertisers and readers will see the magazine apps as irrelevant.

One executive at a major publisher told me: “We shouldn’t be doing magazine apps. It’s a different format entirely from a print publication. We should be spending the resources to come up with special extensions of the brand.” The source added: “Consider the fact that iTunes doesn’t even have a dedicated ‘magazine section,’ so we’re effectively competing with Angry Birds and Flipboard at the same time.”

Yet despite the hurdles, major publishers are, of course, building apps, and are scrambling to streamline production and technology to make that process easier and cheaper. To get more insight into ways that big 13 publishers are dealing with the new deadlines and formats, I spoke with executives at Time (NYSE: TWX) Inc.‘s Sports Illustrated, Hearst Magazines’ Popular Mechanics and Condé Nast.

Sports Illustrated: On top of developing apps for each of Sports Illustrated’s weekly editions, the Sports Illustrated Group has done about 20 additional apps this year and two books with “enhanced” for iPad editions. Yet the SI Group hasn’t added much in the way of personnel to handle the additional workload— just two new art department staffers, one for tablets and one for print. Executives say rather than adding more people, the key is getting the production routine down.

The major change was scheduling. For a lot of magazines, the work on the iPad version happens when the print version is completed. “For years at SI, we worked a four-day schedule, long days on weekends,” said Bob Kannell, director of operations for the sports and news group at Time Inc. “We’ve had to move the schedule around and so now we have fewer staffers in on, say, a Thursday.”

It has also tried to economize by not producing apps for every different device and screen standard. It is betting on two standards in particular—the iPad, which has a screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, and the Galaxy, which is 16:9 aspect ratio—and believes that apps produced for those two formats can be scaled to work with other devices. “Designing for 16:9 and 4:3 will save art departments in the long run. If we have to custom tailor each device it would kill us because there are literally more devices than days of the week,” says Chris Hercik, creative director for SI Group.

Popular Mechanics: After its second iPad issue hit the iTunes store in January, Popular Mechanics, a magazine dedicated to figuring out how stuff works, did an analysis of its workflow. Jim Meigs, the magazine’s editor, discovered much to his chagrin that it took an average of five weeks to make a monthly app. He has since whittled that down to under four weeks, matching it with the magazine’s close.

Unlike Sports Illustrated, which uses WoodWing to help create its apps, or Condé Nast, which relies on Adobe’s software, Popular Mechanics does it all in-house. One of the reasons for that is PM articles require as much crafting of blueprints as they do text and images, so Meigs has expanded the number of people in the art department and brought on a “Digital Asset Editor”—a non-print techie who makes sure all the pictures, diagrams and sound files are properly formatted. Also, the same team produces a piece in both its print and digital iterations.

Meigs says it is time to get more adventurous with PM’s apps. The May issue, for example, will contain an article/video game that will illustrate the physics behind landing a spacecraft properly. PM iPad users will be able to design a spacecraft within the app, choose the kind of fuel, and decide whether to use parachutes and retrorockets. They will then attempt to steer the craft to a soft landing—if they fail, they crash. Meigs concedes that the time and cost of creating the videogame feature is disproportionate to what the business model can support over the long term. “We’re not going to do something like this every month, but these are the early days and you have to break ground,” he says, adding: “If we have 10 great items like the videogame feature, we can package and sell it separately as a long-tail item.”

Condé Nast: Along with Time Inc., Condé Nast was preparing for the iPad months in advance. It had been working with Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) on a Flash-based system. But just before Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) debuted the device last year, Apple said that it wouldn’t support Flash. After a quick return to the drawing board, Condé Nast launched Wired in May. The app sold 24,000 downloads of the $4.99 app within 24

14 hours. Condé Nast, of course, has developed apps for its other titles too. In all, it has had 700,000 digital editions downloaded and approximately 7 million across 22 apps.

Rick Levine, Condé Nast’s SVP for Editorial Operations, and Scott Dadich, VP of digital magazine development, have been working on a set of best practices for the company to follow in producing apps. For the most part, editors and their staffs have to take the time to understand how to work on the Adobe platform and get used to imagining different iterations for a particular piece. “The process is what we expected – a bit bumpy at first, but as the editorial and design teams have more digital editions under their belt the process is getting easier,” says Condé Nast editorial director Tom Wallace. Each magazine has its own culture and workflow so there isn’t any one single answer for streamlining the process, he adds. The company is working on better sharing options and enhanced e-commerce tools within the apps.

Some users of Condé Nast’s apps have complained about painfully long downloading times. Wallace says that to make that process more tolerable, the apps will have progressive downloading so that readers will be able to begin reading an issue while the content is being transferred, with priority given to items on the cover.

15