magazine publishing

20 Stories

For Oprah's 20-Year-Old Magazine, a 'Natural Next Step'

No more regular print versions for 'O': It's becoming 'more digitally centric'

(Newser) - After two decades, Oprah Winfrey's namesake publication is undergoing a major shift. O, the Oprah Magazine will cease regular print editions after its December issue, reports the Business of Fashion blog via ETOnline . The brand collaboration between Hearst Magazines and Winfrey's Harpo Inc., which began production in 2000,...

Coronavirus May Have Killed Playboy Magazine

Spring 2020 issue will be last of the year, possibly forever

(Newser) - It may not be the first casualty that comes to mind in regard to the coronavirus outbreak, but the Spring 2020 issue of Playboy magazine about to hit the stands will be the last one of the year—and maybe ever. Playboy Enterprises CEO Ben Kohn made the surprise announcement...

Google to Bite at Apple With Digital Newsstand?

Google trying to drum up support among publishers, say insiders

(Newser) - Google is considering launching a digital newsstand that would cater to users of smartphones and tablets that run Android, setting the stage for a competition with Apple for publishers’ support. Apple’s iTunes already sells a number of popular periodicals; Google has reportedly held talks with Time Inc., Condé Nast,...

Newsweek Sold to Audio Magnate for $1

Sidney Harman assumes magazine's growing losses

(Newser) - Sidney Harman has agreed to buy Newsweek, Advertising Age reports . The 91-year-old stereo-equipment magnate, who is married to Democratic Rep.Jane Harman, will essentially pay nothing for the magazine—the real cost comes in assuming Newsweek's liabilities, which could top $70 million this year. The Washington Post Co. has been...

Apple Will Screw Publishers Like It Screwed Music
Apple Will Screw Publishers Like It Screwed Music
OPINION

Apple Will Screw Publishers Like It Screwed Music

Assuming anyone buys the currently crappy iPad magazine apps

(Newser) - Magazine publishers seem convinced Apple's new “Jesus Tablet” is going to save them, but they are shockingly wrong, and you'll realize why after 10 minutes on the device, writes Jacob Weisberg for Slate . Whereas on the iPhone's cramped screen, an app is genuinely better than visiting a website, the...

For Sale: Ailing Newsweek
 For Sale: Ailing Newsweek 

For Sale: Ailing Newsweek

Washington Post Co. cites mounting losses

(Newser) - The Washington Post Company is looking for someone to take Newsweek off its hands, the company announced in a press release today (to the apparent surprise of Newsweek's Tumblr ). “The losses at Newsweek in 2007-2009 are a matter of record,” said Donald Graham, chairman of the Post...

Why SI Needs a Swimsuit Issue
 Why SI Needs a Swimsuit Issue 

Why SI Needs a Swimsuit Issue

Sexy annual is like the 'Super Bowl for print'

(Newser) - Sports Illustrated recently unveiled the cover for its most important product of the year: The 2010 Swimsuit Issue. Roll your eyes if you must, but this annual bikini-fest is big business, writes Dylan Stableford at The Wrap . The swimsuit issue accounts for a whopping 7% of SI’s annual revenues....

Porn Confluence Moves Mag to Change Name

Spam filters often blocked The Beaver ; it'll be Canada's History

(Newser) - Canada’s second-oldest magazine is changing its name after finding itself at an unfortunate intersection with Internet pornography. Like many print publications, history publication The Beaver is struggling to add readers, and its name often leads spam filters and other safeguards to block its content. It will relaunch in April...

Publishers Forming 'Magazine iTunes'

Online newsstand to combat slumping sales

(Newser) - The latest bid to save magazine publishing may soon have readers browsing the online racks of an iTunes-style newsstand. Major magazine publishers including Time Inc. and Conde Nast hope to exert some control over digital readership with a joint venture enabling readers to buy copies of the New Yorker, Sports ...

Gone With Gourmet: a Taste for Expertise

There is no 'hard-won blood-on-the-floor kind' of editorial experience on the Web

(Newser) - When Gourmet magazine absorbed his Cook’s in 1990, Christopher Kimball discovered the hard way that the publishing business is “a top-down, winner-take-all proposition, an oligarchy of sorts.” But the frazzling encounter also afforded him a meeting with Conde Nast chairman Si Newshouse, who “poured his fortune...

Condé Nast Axing Gourmet, 3 Other Titles

Magazine publisher could lose $200 million this year, industry sources say

(Newser) - Condé Nast will shut down iconic foodie magazine Gourmet as well as newer title Cookie and Brides offshoots Modern Bride and Elegant Bride, CEO Charles Townsend announced today. Hundreds of jobs will be lost in the company’s biggest single day of closings, the New York Post reports. The publishing...

Condé Nast Shutters Portfolio
 Condé Nast Shutters Portfolio 

Condé Nast Shutters Portfolio

(Newser) - Condé Nast’s once-ballyhooed Portfolio magazine will cease publishing immediately, staffers were told this morning. “The five main categories of advertising a publication like ours depends on are really in trouble,” Condé Nast’s group president told the New York Times. The magazine launched in April 2007, and...

Hearst to Roll Out E-Reader for Newspapers, Magazines

Publishing giant aims to save periodicals with new device

(Newser) - Hearst Corporation aims to do for periodicals what the Kindle's doing for books with a new electronic reader, CNN reports. The company—which publishes an array of magazines and newspapers, including Cosmopolitan, Esquire and the San Francisco Chronicle—hopes the device will help cushion revenues in light of sinking ad...

Christie Hefner to Leave Playboy

Founder's daughter moving to non-profit ventures

(Newser) - Christie Hefner is stepping down as CEO of Playboy after 20 years at the helm of her father Hugh’s operation, she tells the Chicago Tribune. The company’s stock is down, and it has shuttered key divisions, but Hefner, 56, said her resignation was a personal choice. She intends...

Downturn Hammers Magazine Industry, Too

Condé Nast, Time, McGraw-Hill cut jobs as ad dollars slow

(Newser) - The economic downturn is taking its toll on magazines, forcing layoffs and budget cuts as publications face fewer advertising dollars, Women’s Wear Daily reports; the trouble is compounded as production costs soar while readers turn to the Internet. Magazine ad revenue fell 5% in the first three quarters of...

Rolling Stone Shrinks to Smaller Format

After 40 years, magazine shifts to a more standard size

(Newser) - Who better to welcome an iconic shift at Rolling Stone than self-proclaimed agent of change Barack Obama? The presidential candidate beams on the smaller, standard-sized cover of the Oct. 30 issue, which features a glossier, thicker look after 41 years of the large format. Last month's final big issue featured...

New Service Is Like Netflix for Magazines

Maghound will give subscribers more choice, flexibility

(Newser) - Subscribing to a magazine was once a 1-year commitment, but Time Inc.’s Maghound is changing that, reports Folio. The Netflix-like service launching this fall offers “flexibility, choice, control and personalization,” says Maghound's president. The service allows customers to swap subscriptions at any time, liberating readers from...

Legendary New York Editor Dead at 82

New Journalism pioneer Felker defined city magazine format

(Newser) - Clay Felker, founder and editor of New York magazine, died today at 82. Felker was the pioneer of a distinctive format that has become the model for weekly magazines: long, novelistic features alongside short, spicy service pieces. "Clay was obsessed with power, and he invented a magazine in the...

Cockfight Mag Forced Off Amazon.com
Cockfight Mag Forced Off Amazon.com

Cockfight Mag Forced Off Amazon.com

Humane Society sued, said publication boosted illegal sport

(Newser) - In a victory for the Humane Society, the publisher of The Gamecock has agreed to stop selling its publication on Amazon.com. The anti-animal cruelty group had sued Amazon to remove the magazine—which it says promote cockfighting—from its site, charging the online retailer with violating federal law, the...

McSweeney's Is Taking Over the World
McSweeney's
Is Taking Over the World
OPINION

McSweeney's Is Taking Over the World

Soon we'll all wear cool glasses and pray daily to Michael Chabon

(Newser) - McSweeney's, the hipper-than-thou literary quarterly founded by Dave Eggers in 1998, has become possibly the most influential American literary journal, critic and novelist Stephen Amidon writes in the London Times. Once the champ of spotting new talent, Granta magazine is now taking a backseat to Eggers' baby, and looking stale...

20 Stories