May 25, 2015 Media Industry Newsletter Vol. 68 No. 21 New York, N.Y. www.minonline.com Steve Smith's Eye on Innovation: Apple’S WEARABLE IS A PUBLISHER PROVING GROUND, NOT YET A PLATFORM. Truth told, after a week of wearing and tending to it conscientiously, the Apple Watch is an underwhelming experience. As a piece of hardware it sits comfortably within Apple’s infamous “Reality Distortion Field,” but it’s much less a work of coveted jewelry than the company wants us to believe. It’s bulbous, and anything but sleek. It's a black block glass that protrudes from the wrist and resembles the original iPhone. Anyone thinking this is less geeky than previous smart watches should stop drinking the Kool Aid immediately. In all respects, the device has first-generation written all over it. As a content delivery mechanism, the experience is unimpressive so far. (continued on page 4) "EW'S" MATTIACE-TO-DUQUE PUBLISHER CHANGE LOOKS SEAMLESS. Outwardly, this went smoothly, with Melissa Mattiace calling her two years at the En- tertainment Weekly helm "an honor." She was thanked by People publisher Karen Kovacs– her boss since the March addition of EW group publisher–for her "passion and dedica- tion" in producing "record-breaking digital growth across all platforms." Still, the May 19 news was not a surprise, because Mattiace was rumored to be on the hot seat for the past year, and conditions intensified with the Kovacs promotion coming in tandem with Rich Battista's hire as People and EW president. By promoting People and EW West Coast sales director Ellie Duque and keeping her based in Los Angeles, Battista and Kovacs have an on-site executive who could be an asset in building the all-important entertainment category as the movies and TV fall previews near and, to a lesser extent, technology and automotive. It also increases the responsibility of EW associate publisher Lana LoRusso, who added VP to her title and becomes the top New York business executive. Thus far, it has been a quiet 25th-anniversary year for EW under new editor Henry Goldblatt, who succeeded now-Time Inc. senior VP of editorial innovation, Matt Bean, in February. (continued on page 5) NOAH GALLOWAY'S WHIRLWIND DANCING WITH THE STARS AND "MEN'S HEALTH" WEEK. Pretty good for a physically challenged Iraq War veteran who one year ago, in the words of Men's Health editor-in-chief Bill Phillips, "was entering a contest." The content was Men's Health's first Ultimate Men's Health Guy competition, and Gal- loway won through readers' votes and judges' selection. His win put him on the November 2014 cover. (continued on page 2) • WILL LUCKY BE A CONDÉ NAST BELLWETHER? "GLUTTONOUS" CRAIN'S... Page 2 • APP REVIEW: THE GUARDIAN'S FREE APP IS JOLLY GOOD.... ........ Page 3 • NEWSPAPER NATIONAL NETWORK'S AGENCY POPULARITY; WEBMD'S 10TH.. Page 5 • MAGAZINES' ORIGINAL DIGITAL VIDEO IS GROWING... .............. Page 6 • IGNORE MYTHS; TVG & LETTERMAN; HOUSE BEAUTIFUL'S KITCHEN. Pages 7,8 www.minonline.com © 2015 Access Intelligence, LLC. Federal copyright law prohibits unauthorized reproduction by any means and imposes fines of up to $100,000 for violations. PAGE 2 MIN 5/25/2015 NOAH GALLOWAY'S "MEN'S HEALTH" CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON (continued from page 1) The attention that followed (including an appearances on Ellen) earned Galloway an invitation to compete on Dancing with the Stars. Being the first physically challenged male competitor in the series' 20 seasons made him and professional partner Sharna Burgess long- shots, so his third-place finish in the finals on May 19 was a tri- umph. Reports cited Galloway's injured right wrist made it difficult for him to lift Burgess with his arm. It's also said his "rabid" fan base, includes many veterans and MH readers. Post DWTS, Galloway, his fiancée Jamie Boyd and Burgess took the red eye from Los Ange- les to New York for a May 20 that began with Good Morning America and ended with MH's 11th Grooming Awards at Ph-D at the Dream Downtown. It couldn't have been scripted better for MH with 300-plus guests at the event, and a new perk for Galloway is becoming the spokesperson for Ken- neth Cole's Mankind fragrance. "Noah will always be part of the MH family," says Phillips. "He will be judging the 2015 Ultimate Men's Health Guy competition, and that we knew him before the world knew him is pretty neat." Galloway and Boyd are pictured (right) with MH publisher Ronan Gardiner and his fiancée, Saatchi & Saatchi planning director Christine Hasbun. THE "LUCKY" EXPERIMENT TAKES A NEW TURN. It was not a major surprise last week when Lucky Group CEO Josh Berman announced that the 15-year-old women's fashion and shopping brand was becoming less print with the frequen- cy reduction to quarterly from 10 times per year. Digital, specifically e-commerce, will dominate beginning with the September launch, and–per the minonline commentary by senior editor Caysey Welton–the formula of "the print magazine [as a] seasonal catalog for fash- ionistas with a mission to engage consumers through content and then drive them to make purchases online...could work." As CEO, Berman is attempting to fix something that is broken and bring Lucky more in line with his BeachMint e-commerce company that bought a majority stake in the brand from Condé Nast nine months ago. This is also a new approach for CN, which has traditionally closed unsuccessful businesses while retaining the rights in the event of a revival. That was done in October 2013 with Domino in partnership with three Internet entrepre- neurs. Rebuilding a business from scratch carries much less fanfare than changing one that results in the departures of Lucky president Gillian Gorman Round, editor-in-chief Eva Chen and 20 other staffers, according to Adweek. Time will tell if a successful Lucky is the role model for other CN titles should simi- lar circumstances arise. TWO "GLUTTONOUS" HEADLINES FROM CRAIN'S TITLES. On May 21, Crain's New York Business' Website had them hungry: Shake Shack's trademark filing has customers salivating over chicken sandwiches And on the same day, Crain's Chicago Business' site interpreted McDonald's CEO Steve East- erbrook "bumping pay for some workers" with this classic "greed is good": McDonald's CEO 'proud' of pay hike as protests continue Editor-in-Chief: Steven Cohn ([email protected]) 203/899-8437 Digital Media Editor: Steve Smith ([email protected]) 302/691-5331 Senior Editor: Caysey Welton ([email protected]) 203/899-8431 VP: Tony Silber ([email protected]); VP Publisher: Amy Jefferies ([email protected]); Director of Market Development: Laurie M. Hofmann ([email protected]); Analytics Coordinator: Stacy Hill ([email protected]); Marketing Associate: Allie DeNicuolo ([email protected]); Editorial Intern: Jameson Doris ([email protected]) Production Manager: Sophie Chan-Wood ([email protected]); Graphic Designer: Yelena Shamis ([email protected]); Event Content Manager: Kelsey Lundstrom ([email protected]); Senior Account Executive: Tania Babiuk ([email protected]); Boxscores ([email protected]) Access Intelligence, LLC President & Chief Executive Officer: Don Pazour; SVP, Media Group: Diane Schwartz; Chief Operating Officer: Heather Farley; Subscriptions/Client Services: 888-707-5814; List Sales: Statlistics, 203-778-8700; Advertising: 203-899-8498; Reprints: Wright’s Media, 877-652-5295 ([email protected]); Editorial Offices: 10 Norden Place, Norwalk, CT 06855; 40 Wall Street, 50th floor, New York, NY 10005; Faxes: 203-854-6735, 212-621-4879; www.minonline.com Access Intelligence LLC, 4 Choke Cherry Road, 2nd Floor, Rockville, MD 20850; Ph: 301-354-2000 Published 2015 © by Access Intelligence LLC. Distributed via email and online. For email and postal address changes, allow 2 weeks notice. Send to: Client Services or call 888-707-5814. For advertising info contact 301/ 354-1629. Contents may not be reproduced in any form without written permission. Subscription Rate: $1099 MIN 5/25/2015 PAGE 3 Steve Smith's App Review: IT'S THE EXPERIENCE, STUPID: WHY "THE GUARDIAN" EXCELS. I have more than a dozen different news apps on my iPhone, from NYTNow, to aggregators like News Republic and Circa, to inspired longer form apps like Medium and Timeline. For my dai- ly world news, however, I tap into The Guardian’s news app most frequently. The app use is habitual and motivated by a number of factors, only some of which involve the quality and relevance of the content. The user interface and the overall pleasure of an app experience is an intangible but very real part of app retention and depth of use. You might say that all apps are games on some level. With use comes a bit of joy; not just information. The Guardian’s free app is unrivaled in the elegance of its design. Dispensing the default one-column feed of image- heavy scrolls that dominate other apps—this one reimagines design. Stories are contained in a blend of vertical and horizontal boxes. Thumbnails are used sparingly throughout the scrolling experience; keeping the eye, rather than the thumb, moving. You are not just trying to catch the relevant story as it whizzes by, but actually reading. The homepage scroll is long but as customizable as any news app I've seen. Tapping a Home+ button brings up an ar- ray of possible sections that you can add, remove and rear- range. In fact, the degree of control is quite remarkable —down to offering a condensed mode, managing what content your iOS widget contains and allowing a lighter version when off WiFi. As with most operations in the app, all these are intuitively designed with oversized operational buttons and clear paths.