Magazines Support Breast Cancer Awareness

As many of you know October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and there are a lot of women's magazines that give extra time and space on spreading awareness. Because breast cancer has a lot to do with leading a healthy life style, many of the health magazines put a greater emphasis on sharing information about breast cancer and how to become a part of the cure. The magazines all have similar techniques for getting their information out there, but they also vary somewhat in their approaches.
SHAPE's October issue features Sheryl Crow-a breast cancer survivor- on the cover. It ran a seven page spread on Crow- on her life, her health, breast cancer, and how she overcame her fight with cancer. SHAPE also has a "Pilates for Pink" promotion in which it posts facts about breast cancer- how to increase you odds against getting breast cancer, what to do if you find a lump, etc. It sells custom made Pilates for Pink products donating to the cure, there is an online charity auction, it has Pilates classes around the country that make donations to the cure, and SHAPE is hosting an event live in New York City on October 7th with proceeds and donations going toward the cure. SHAPE is trying to raise awareness and help the cure through exercise and promoting a healthy lifestyle.
Health magazine boasts "Health in the Pink", which has a lot of informative pieces on breast cancer. Health in the Pink has real women's stories, videos of what to expect during a biopsy, and how to be supportive to a loved one going through a fight with breast cancer. It also has the latest news about breast cancer, including a lot of information about mammograms, and it has a quiz to test your knowledge about breast cancer- eye opening when you realize how much you don't know!
SELF is responsible for founding the pink ribbon as the international symbol of breast cancer awareness. In 1991 SELF created the Breast Cancer Handbook and a year later SELF Editor Alexandra Penney "dreamed up the idea of a ribbon, like the red AIDS one, to increase awareness of breast cancer and funding for treatment and research", wrote SELF Editor-in-Chief Lucy S. Danziger. In the handbook, which now includes other cancers as well as breast cancer, there are pages full of helpful information; and the SELF website has links to other places on the web to find the information you need about breast cancer.
There are a lot of magazines- particularly women's magazines and health magazines- that try to promote breast cancer awareness and help find a cure to this disease that touches everyone's life. While SHAPE, Health, and SELF magazines have plenty of information on breast cancer, additional information on how to become a part of the cure can be found at:
Susan G. Komen for the cure
Avon Walk for Breast Cancer
National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.

Magazines Get a Myspace

Magazines are now promoting their publications on Myspace, a virtual social networking website. The Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) has issued a list of 49 publications that have their own profile on Myspace in order to engage readers to get a copy of the magazine or to visit the official pages of the magazine’s website.

Most magazine Myspace profile pages have an up to date blog, links to quizzes, surveys and links to the online edition of the magazine.

Cosmopolitan magazine has daily advice tips and information on how to enter to win a fashion trip to New York. Bulletins are sent out to virtual friends keeping them up to date on content in the latest issue of Cosmo as well as how to receive the newsletter or how to get a subscription.

Jane magazine’s Myspace profile asks readers for feedback on content in the magazine and ask to write a comment directly on the Myspace page. The Myspace page also gives a list of favorites to anyone that wants a good book recommendation or movie to watch.

Online magazines, especially teen publications have seen a decline in online readership with the Myspace generation. Magazine sites such as TeenPeople.com, which has folded both their print and online publications, could not compete with the online traffic that social networking sites have seen. Instead of becoming a competitor to the online social network, some magazines have decided to get on board and use Myspace for their own gain.

Not a week goes by when Myspace isn’t in the news, announcing a business deal or how a young girl was kidnapped and killed from someone she met on Myspace. Whether it is positive or negative, the attention introduced today’s generation to customize their own profile and add friends to their Myspace page. Today, everyone wants to be a part of the Myspace phenomenon.

Myspace started as a way for amateur bands to get noticed. The virtual social network aimed to defy big business in order to allow the underdogs to be heard. Their approach was one that allowed people to say whatever they wanted without censorship, which allowed the web network to surpass Friendster and Facebook in popularity.

The magazine industry is in constant change with the rapid technology that becomes available. In order to sustain success for the print or online publications, they must take advantage of other ways to encourage people to continue to read their publications.

Magazine Profile: ESPN The Magazine

It hasn’t even reached its teen years yet, but ESPN The Magazine doesn’t let its age deter it from hanging out with the big boys.

The magazine is a biweekly publication that covers all of the nation’s major sports and is published by…you guessed it, the much heralded ESPN sports network itself. Going on a little more than nine years, the magazine published its first issue on March 11, 1998.

The magazine sets itself apart from its competitors, most notably Sporting News (started in 1886) and Sports Illustrated (started in 1954), by having a much wittier, comical writing style that also incorporates celebrities and other quirky, oddball events that go on in the media.

ESPN The Magazine also prides itself on placing a bigger emphasis on photographs and in-depth profiles of players. There are not only more photographs in the publication, but they are also a lot bigger, which is only fitting because the magazine is abnormally larger than most magazines out there. Furthermore, as opposed to doing just regular profiles, most of them feature players or coaches that have faced some form of adversity, such as overcoming a devastating illness, or having to play numerous years in the minor leagues in order to finally earn a spot on their team’s roster.

Not only is the magazine an extension of the network, but it’s also a brilliant way to direct the readers to watch the actual channel, by acting as sort of an actual advertisement in itself.

The magazine has a few small inserts that advise the readers to check out the many shows that ESPN has to offer, ranging from Outside the Lines, a show that provides in-depth profiles on today’s biggest players, and SportsCenter, which recaps all of the days’ highlights.

Moreover, some of the writers of the publication take part in a few of the shows on ESPN as well, where there’s more of directing the reader back to the channel.

Dan Patrick, host of The Dan Patrick Show, where he conducts one-on-one interviews with players, has a section in the magazine named “Outtakes,” which takes the transcripts of his interviews and posts them for the reader. “Two-Way,” Stuart Scott’s column where he answers questions from the readers, hosts both SportsCenter and Monday Night Countdown, a football show profiling up-to-date football news as it counts down to the Monday night football game.

What ESPN is doing with their magazine is not only interesting, but it’s also putting itself in a league of its own. It’s probably one of the few, if not the only network to provide its audience with some form of a magazine. I couldn’t imagine any other network coming out with their own periodical and making it as successful as ESPN’s, which has quickly rose to a status as one of the top sports magazines out there.

I guess for now, its competition better up their game, because ESPN The Magazine is only getting better.

Designers and Editors are Special People Too

The Folio Eddie and Ozzie Awards Gala, held last night, September 23, 2007 awarded the magazine industry’s best editors and designers. The Academy Awards for the magazine world, held at the Marriott Marquis in New York City, gives designers and editors something to dress up for. Maybe someday we will see some of our own in attendance or as honorable guests and paying $250 for a seat at the Folio Show.

The 2007 Magazine Design Winners received and Ozzie Award commemorating their excellence in design. The entries ranged from B-to-B above 100,000 circulation to B-to-B under 100,000 circulation, Consumer above and below, Custom and Non-profit magazines. The categories included:

Best Cover
Best Design New Mgazine
Best Feature Design
Best Media Kit Design
Best Overall Design
Best Redesign
Best Site Design
Best Supplemental Annual or One-Shot
Best Table of Contents
Best use of Digital Imagery
Best Use of Illustration
Best Use of Photography
Best Use of Typography

The Eddie was awarded to winners of the magazine editorial included both full issue and single article finalists. The categories included:

Association/Non-Profit
Best Supplemental Annual or One-Shot
B-to-B (Business to Business)- Banking/Business/Finance
B-to-B- Construction/Design/Manufacturing
B-to-B- Design/Advertising/Marketing
B-to-B- Energy/Utilities/Engineering
B-to-B-News/ Commentary/General Interest
B-to-B- Retail
B-to-B- Science

Consumer:
Business/ Finance,
Entertainment,
Enthusiast, Epicurean,
Health/Fitness,
Religious/Spiritual,
Shelter/Home,
Sports
And more

Custom Publications

Online:
Best Column,
Best Online Community,
Best Website Consumer,
Best Online Too,
Best Website B-to-B,

Finalists, chosen by over100 editors, publishers, creative directors and webmaster, gathered last night to find out if they’ve won. All though the winners were revealed last night and many individual magazines have come out with web posts acknowledging and congratulating themselves for their Folio Award, you can view the Winners at:

http://www.foliomag.com/page.asp?prmID=391

Mom Power

MagazineLaunch.com, a website that provides information for magazine startup entrepreneurs, reports on the launch of a new magazine targeting Today’s Moms: Hybrid Mom.
The New York based print and on-line magazine launched its first issue in April of 2007. The launch party was successfully held in the Puck Building in Manhattan, on May 21, according to Hybrid Mom's website www.hybridmom.com. Among the attendants were various media and publishing executives from CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, US News and World Report, ABC Radio Network and Mediabistro.

Hybrid Mom magazine is produced by Moms-for-Profit, a marketing and consulting company, in partnership with Gymboree Play and Music. Stacey Smith and Linda Shapiro, Co-founders of Moms-for-Profit, started the magazine to fill a hole in the relatively narrow selection of magazines marketed to mothers, according to the Hybrid Mom website.
“Today’s mothers have evolved but the available print publications targeted for us have not,” Smith says as stated in Hybrid Mom's Media Kit. “We want to change that. We see everyday how moms juggle the many facets of their lives.”
The Media Kit also reveals that Smith believes that Gymboree Play and Music is an ideal partner because they too “serve a community of caring moms that have real lives, real issues and need real answers.”
According to Hybrid Mom's website, the excitement about the partnership is reciprocal. Jill Johnston, vice president of Gymboree, is quoted as saying: “So much of what we do at Gymboree is to support parents today and that’s why we are thrilled to share this new magazine with our customers.”
The magazine is currently distributed at more than 300 Gymboree Play and Music locations across the United States.

On the website, advertisers are told that they simply can’t afford to overlook these demographics:
“The Mom Market”
• 82 million moms in the US
• Control 85 percent of household spending
• 82 percent refer to themselves as CFO
• Single mothers fastest growing segment of U.S. population
• 40 percent of mothers involved in eldercare
• Represent $1.7 trillion in annual U.S. spending
• Spend $100K on their off-spring by age 18.
Source: Blue SuitMedia

The advertisers are also encouraged to “Meet the needs and create solutions for her hectic life by promoting convenience as well as money-saving opportunities for her family. Provide these things and you have a customer for life: ninety percent of mothers remain loyal to brands that meet their expectations.” Companies such as Pampers, Momtique, Spa Finder and Stuck on You are already hooked and use their website for advertising.

Because hybrid motherhood is “all about what we want to be, with no regrets about what we’re not,” I, a mother of a two-year-old and a journalism student, will certainly find myself reading Hybrid Mom magazine again.

Rebelious Editorial

High Times magazine has enjoyed a long history of probing counter-culture editorials encompassing all aspects of life from music to law. A die hard and loyal readership has kept the magazine publishing monthly since 1974.

Started by the Underground Press Syndicate reporter, Tom Forcade, the publication was a celebration of all the things 60s youth brought to America: rebellious politics, doing drugs and expanding one’s mind. Forcade was the spark to the fire and by consistently being ahead of the curb pushed high times to 4 million readers before committing suicide in 1978.

Steven Hager took over as editor-in-chief in 1988, changing the magazine by removing all editorials about hard drugs and using the magazine to advocate readers to grow their own pot. High Times continue to gravitate towards that message today.

Often similarities between High Times and Playboy are made and the comparisons are well deserved. All issues have a fold-out photo of a weed plant, much like the famous pin-ups found in Hefner’s magazine. Another likewise detail are the ironic articles. Playboy has a long tradition of engaging articles on politics and society often more blunt and truth-telling than those found in TIME and Newsweek. High Times as well has amassed a long list of intellectual articles hidden by gregarious shots of eye-dazzling marijuana.

In Ed Dwyer's 1974 article “I was JFK’s Dealer”, Dwyer interviews a man who remained to be unnamed who revealed stories of the president’s encounters with pot.

“He was taking his boat out with family and friends, and I was asked if I could provide him with the memos I had drawn up in accordance with our conversation two weeks earlier. I knew exactly what was meant by the call, because the President hadn’t asked me to draw up any memos. By ten I had prepared a manila folder full of blank paper. Inside was an ounce of fresh Panamanian from a shipment I’d received the day before. At ten on the dot I answered the door to find a familiar press officer who took my “notes”,” said the man in Dwyer’s article. The source went on to discuss his drug connection with JFK, his brother Bobby and Ted Kennedy.

High Times magazine was also one of the first publications to expose Lyndon LaRouche as a brainwasher and it’s campaign to wage a “war on drugs” as a bogus effort to gain legitimacy. Chip Berlet’s investigative piece “War on Drugs: The Strange Story of Lyndon LaRouche, Sinister Mastermind of the Anti-Drug Coalition”, was widely regarded as an intriguing look into politics’ most peculiar politician when it came out in 1981.

“According to former NCLC [LaRouche’s organization the National Caucus of Labor Committees] members, many LaRouche followers were subjected to sessions where LaRouche or his handpicked aides would strip down a person’s psychological defenses to the point where they would be sobbing hysterically and begging to stay in the Labor Committee,” writes Berlet about the political organization cult-like practices.

With a clear sense of humor and the magazine’s ability to not take itself too seriously, the legendary publication has made a name for itself with their alternative political reporting from writers like Norman Mailer, Andy Warhol and Hunter S. Thompson.

“High Times: That’s amazing. You were covering this media-saturated presidential caimpaign during the day, then snorting coke at night with all those hotshot politicos?”

Thompson: They weren’t very hotshot then,” writes Ron Rosenbaum from his revealing 1977 interview with Hunter S. Thompson centering around his experiences covering former President Jimmy Carter’s 1972 and 1976 presidential campaigns.

Predominantly perceived as anomaly in mainstream America, High Times have been aloud freedom to publish articles most large ad-fueled magazines wouldn’t dare print.

To find out more about the hot-button cannabis-loving magazine visit http://www.hightimes.com

40 Years of Excellence

2007 marks the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love, a landmark in America culture. 1967 was the year that the counterculture entered into America’s consciousness. It was also the year that a landmark in the American counterculture was born, Rolling Stone magazine. To celebrate, Rolling Stone is releasing three special commemorative issues. The first, released in May, featured 20 interviews with musicians, politicians, authors, and other celebrities of the baby boom generation about how they viewed and experienced that eventful time. The second special issue contained articles on the Summer of Love as it was happening in various cities in America and as well as England. The third will be released later this year and will deal with the challenges of the future.

The magazine was originally started by Jann S. Wenner and Ralph J. Gleason and based in San Francisco. It was as much a part of the city’s burgeoning counterculture scene as the Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane. The magazine chronicled the youth culture and the music it listened to. Rolling Stone was also made a name for itself with the way it covered politics. The magazine featured the works of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson and was a strong advocate for the anti-Vietnam War movement, scathingly covering the war in ways other news outlets and magazines did not. The magazine also launched the careers of writers like Cameron Crowe and MTV’s Kurt Loder.

Rolling Stone has gone through many changes throughout its long history. Probably the biggest is its relocation to New York. Also, the look of the magazine has changed quite a bit over the years. Rolling Stone’s first issue resembled a small DIY newsletter someone would hand you on the street more. The cover was sparse with only a simple picture of John Lennon, the name of the magazine and some small articles. As the years went on, the covers and the page layouts became more sophisticated, featuring pictures from the likes of Annie Liebowitz and Anton Corbijn. Unfortunately, Rolling Stone also began to run more fluff pieces, to the chagrin of more than a few, with articles on more mainstream artists as well as fashion.

However, some things haven’t changed, such as its unabashed politics, smart, incisive writing, and unique coverage of popular culture. This tradition is reflected by the magazine’s coverage of the Iraq War and the presidency of George W. Bush. When the build-up for the war first started, Rolling Stone was one of the few mainstream magazines whose editorial content took a strong, critical stance against it. The magazine has also been highly critical of President Bush, even going so far as to declare him our worst president ever one of its covers. It also continues to pay close attention to the youth culture, for better (Nirvana, the White Stripes) or worse (Zac Efron?!!), while also staying in touch with its past (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul McCartney).

Rolling Stone is proof of that old cliché that even as some things change, some still stay the same. Despite many of the superficial changes that have occurred, Rolling Stone has stayed true to its roots by covering politics, music, and popular culture in its own unique way. Here’s to another 40 years of excellence!