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Thread: Print publishing death watch

  1. #121
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    Continued from previous post

    Identifying a niche



    Among those independent publishers entering the print magazine space is Nick Giallourakis, who ended a seven-year tenure with Informa (formerly Penton) last year, teamed up with his mom, Angie, and launched Elephants & Tea, a new quarterly serving adolescents and young adults who have been diagnosed with cancer, as well as their caregivers.

    Inspired by the experience of his younger brother, a two-time cancer survivor, and born out of a recognition that there was no dedicated media brand specifically serving such an audience, the first issue of Elephants & Tea came out in March to an overwhelming response from the community, Giallourakis tells Folio:.

    “This age range has their own specific issues that you don’t see in adult or childhood cancers,” he says. “There’s nothing specifically for this group out there like this.”

    Still in the process of building out its own database, Giallourakis first spread the word about Elephants & Tea by partnering with cancer hospitals around the country, including the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

    “It started with just an email chain to get the word out, and then we attended a couple of conferences and talked to the people there,” says Giallourakis. “The people we’re working with—it could be anyone from the lead oncologist or a program manager or patient navigator—they’ve been our main contacts, but then they’ve passed it along to people at other hospitals, and it’s just kind of snowballed from a distribution standpoint, which has been really cool.”

    Giallourakis says many of these contacts in turn submitted more writers for future issues, while others have been giving out copies of the debut issue to newly diagnosed patients and their families.

    “A lot of the survivors have been telling us that they wish they had this when they were going through treatments,” Giallourakis adds. “It gives people hope—just because they have cancer, it doesn’t mean that their life is over.”

    The magazine’s title is derived from a metaphor—explained in its tagline, “Cancer is the elephant in the room. Tea is the relief that conversation provides.” As such, the content mix is heavy on first-person narratives and adolescent/young adult subjects sharing their own experiences with cancer. Patients overwhelmingly indicated that they don’t want to read articles by someone who hasn’t lived through the experience themselves, Giallourakis says.

    One topic the magazine explores in every issue is sexuality.

    “When we started talking with people, that was a topic they wanted to know more about,” he adds. “I think it’s something people are afraid to just ask their doctor or their social worker about. For a patient or survivor that’s trying to have a normal sex life, that’s extremely important to them.”

    Like adolescent and young adult patients and survivors, another underserved community, Giallourakis says, is their caregivers.

    “The emotional toll that caregivers go through—don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely not the same as what the patient goes through—but it is significant,” he continues. “I think that it’s important for the caregivers to be able to get this content for their own support, but also to really understand what the patient or survivor is going through.”

    To formulate a content strategy, the mother-and-son team behind Elephants & Tea conducted focus groups and one-on-one interviews with patients, survivors and caregivers, but also oncologists, social workers, program managers and nonprofits. They formulated five key areas of focus: “wellness and nutrition,” “emotional support,” “college, career and cash,” “sexuality” and “chemo brain,” any of which could change based on continued feedback (the magazine’s second issue is slated to come out in June).

    Apart from distribution at cancer centers, Giallourakis hired a freelancer to handle social media promotion and organic SEO to drive people to the magazine’s website and get them to register for a free subscription. Weekly email newsletters update readers about new posts on the site, which is updated a few times a week and modeled after The Players’ Tribune, another specialist in first-person narratives.

    Free to access on all channels and monetized through advertising, Giallourakis has ambitions to expand into sponsored or custom content—something his years of experience at Penton and Informa helped inform—and sees potential from nonprofits to major cosmetics companies. In the end, though, the print edition remains the brand’s bedrock.

    “It’s tough to justify print from an ROI standpoint individually in this day and age, however the magazine itself is such a powerful marketing tool,” Giallourakis says. “I just feel that if we’re really going to be a media company for adolescent and young adult survivors, patients and caregivers, we need a print component. It really has validated what we have done, just in terms of authority and trust and to prove that we are for real. I think there’s something to be said for that. It helps separate us from the pack.”

    Meet the Author
    Greg Dool
    @gregdool
    Greg Dool is Folio:'s senior editor.
    We're a niche. But we won't be for much longer if you don't subscribe.
    Gene Ching
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  2. #122
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    EW ewww

    Do they have to change their name to Entertainment Monthly now? Kinda like when Tiger Claw changed TC2000 to...no wait, that never changed.

    JUNE 6, 2019 11:31AM PT
    Entertainment Weekly Will Go Monthly
    By BRIAN STEINBERG
    Senior TV Editor
    @https://twitter.com/bristei


    CREDIT: COURTESY OF MEREDITH

    Entertainment Weekly is going monthly – at least in print.

    Publisher Meredith Corp. said it intends to boost the outlet’s social video, events and digital platforms while scaling back its magazine publication schedule to once a month. The first monthly issue, slated to debut in August, will focus on Comic-Con. The magazine will continue to produce special interest magazines to coincide with big entertainment industry moments, the company said.

    JD Heyman (above, pictured), who has been deputy editor at People, will become the new editor in chief of Entertainment Weekly, while the current editorial chief, Henry Goldblatt, will step down after 17 years with the publication.

    The moves show Meredith still working to weave the magazines it acquired from Time Inc. for $2.8 billion in January of last year into its operations. The Des Moines, Iowa, company has sold publications Time and Fortune to entrepreneurs and recently struck a deal with Authentic Brands for $110 million to take on the business of developing Sports Illustrated while Meredith continues to publish it for the next two years. The company has kept People, once the crown business jewel of Time Inc., and the publication to which EW was most closely affiliated.

    Under the new plan, EW will produce more digital-only feature reporting and in-depth guides for tentpole events – as well as digital-only covers featuring A-list stars of a major movie franchise. The first is slated for release in the first week of July. The company also plans to produce podcasts and a new schedule of video offerings along with more exclusive screenings, panels, curated events and festival partnerships.

    The last issue of Entertainment Weekly in its current print form will be the July 5 issue, which goes on sale June 25.
    Gene Ching
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  3. #123
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    What me worry?

    I grew up with Mad. I suppose I should credit it for my subversive nature.


    Mad Magazine will vanish from newsstands after 67 years

    By Rob McLean and Michelle Lou, CNN
    Updated 8:08 AM ET, Fri July 5, 2019

    (CNN)Once a cultural touchstone, Mad Magazine is halting the publication of new content and vanishing from newsstands.

    The seminal humor publication will no longer be available on newsstands after its August issue, according to a person familiar with the matter.
    After that, issues will be available only via comic book stores and subscriptions, the source said.
    The source indicated that issues after No. 10 of its current volume will reprint earlier material with new covers. However, the magazine will continue to publish its end-of-year special, books and special collections.

    The revered satirical publication was founded in 1952 as a comic book. In 1955, it switched to a magazine format.
    Former Mad Editor Allie Goertz, who resigned last month, lamented that there will no longer be new content after issue No. 10.
    "MAD is an institution with such a rich history," Goertz tweeted. "It informed just about every comedian and writer I (and probably you) look up to."

    Allie Goertz

    @AllieGoertz
    · Jul 3, 2019
    Replying to @AllieGoertz
    While there will be no new material after issue #10, @MADmagazine is not gone. I find it deeply sad to learn that there will be no new content, but knowing history repeats itself, I have no doubt that the vintage pieces will be highly (if not tragically) relevant.
    Allie Goertz

    @AllieGoertz
    Working at MAD was a childhood dream come true. MAD is an institution with such a rich history. It informed just about every comedian and writer I (and probably you) look up to. I worked with ICONS. Sergio Aragonés visits were common. Al Jaffee still does the fold-in!
    365
    10:30 PM - Jul 3, 2019
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    "Weird Al" Yankovic, who became Mad's first guest editor in 2015, also expressed sorrow on social media.
    "I am profoundly sad to hear that after 67 years, MAD Magazine is ceasing publication," the singer-songwriter said. "I can't begin to describe the impact it had on me as a young kid--it's pretty much the reason I turned out weird. Goodbye to one of the all-time greatest American institutions. #ThanksMAD."


    View image on Twitter

    Al Yankovic

    @alyankovic
    I am profoundly sad to hear that after 67 years, MAD Magazine is ceasing publication. I can’t begin to describe the impact it had on me as a young kid – it’s pretty much the reason I turned out weird. Goodbye to one of the all-time greatest American institutions. #ThanksMAD

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    Mad is part of the DC Comics group, owned by Warner Bros., which is owned by CNN's parent company, AT&T's WarnerMedia.
    DC did not immediately respond to request for comment.
    Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the owner of DC Comics
    Gene Ching
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  4. #124
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    Si

    I used to say that there was no way we could compete with mags like the SI swimsuit issue on the newsstands. Now we're all struggling. Please subscribe or we might be next.

    Sports Illustrated’s demise shows how it’s a mad world for iconic media companies


    Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald accepts the performer of the year award during the Sports Illustrated 2018 Sportsperson of the Year Awards Show on Dec. 11, 2018.(Getty Images)
    By TOM HOF****H
    OCT. 13, 2019 4:28 PM

    Our Sports Media Misery Index loves company as much as it loathes competitive balance:

    Not-so-low threshold
    -- MAD Magazine announced last summer it would stop publishing new content after 67 years. We almost went mad. But at the end of the day, what, us worry?

    Worry more about the madness of recent layoffs and more tarnishing of the Sports Illustrated legacy, as its new ownership has rebranded it as “A Maven Channel” on the same SI.com that claims to be “the most trusted voice in sports.”

    Quoth the Maven, SI will nevermore be the same. They’re giving their audience the business.

    Iconic media companies struggle to stay relevant with new platforms of delivery. SI’s dragged out, systematic disintegration more often sends us drifting to the SI Vault (www.si.com/vault) for a reminder of what the word “classic” means.


    When former SI scribe Rick Reilly recently did an homage piece for Peter King’s “Football Morning in America” — King himself ended a 29-year run at the organization in 2018 for more security at NBC — it was tied together with an “adieu haiku” that went:

    It’s the end of the SI world as we know it, and I don’t feel fine

    464649_SP_1013_rams_49ers6_WJS.jpg
    RAMS
    Rams searching for answers after falling to 49ers in third consecutive loss
    Oct. 13, 2019
    -- Joe Buck may not publicly complain about it, but what does it show about Fox’s priorities when it gives an NFL regular-season Thursday night game preferential treatment over the MLB playoffs? Lead play-by-play man Buck will yield to Joe Davis for the American League Championship Series Game 5 in New York between Houston and the Yankees because he’s needed for a Week 7 Kansas City-Denver NFL game. The ALCS will be bumped from Fox’s national broadcast network to FS1 so the NFL game has a suitable home (while it’s simulcast on the NFL Network).

    After that, during next week’s World Series, Buck’s day off between Games 2 and 3 includes an Oct. 24 side trip to Minnesota for the NFL’s Thursday night Week 8 telecast.

    If Dick Stockton is still employed, isn’t this an ideal time to send him to “Thursday Night Football” instead?

    Medium well
    * It finally dawned on us that, for as much Fox Sports continues producing the most entertaining current form of an NFL studio show from its L.A. studios, it has created Kathy Bates-on-James Caan cringe-worthy misery for viewers asked to figure out the network’s college football and MLB counterparts.

    Note the ways ESPN’s crews on similar studio shows generate genuine camaraderie and a positive, likable energy. Fox’s reclamation projects of sports deviants — Urban Meyer, Reggie Bush, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz (and before that, Pete Rose) — leans more toward a mashup of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” with “Despicable Me.”

    Any of them could say something with a measure of compelling insight. But there’s this tinge of disingenuous intentions held together with nontransparent duct tape. It’s not impossible to root for their comeback attempt. It’s just made more difficult by the platform’s telegenic manipulative nature.

    * Among the ways to mark the greatest self-centered moments in Staples Center’s 20 years of existence — its anniversary is this week — we muster up the maestro of misery, Larry David, and the 2001 Season 2, Episode 8 of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

    Sitting courtside at a Lakers game, David stretches his legs out. Then Shaquille O’Neal comes off the bench, heads to the scorer’s table, trips, falls and is hospitalized. As Goliath goes down, David is left as the scourge of L.A.

    Now pair that with a life-kind-of-imitates-art moment during a 2017 Lakers-Clippers game. The Clippers’ Jamal Crawford hits a jumper over Brandon Ingram, turns to run down court near the Clippers bench and slams into the rear end of a fan who has his back turned looking for his seat.

    You try to make that stuff up.

    High tolerance
    * Eddie Olczyk, NBC’s hybrid NHL and horse racing analyst, has seen enough misery, although his Stage 3 colon cancer appears to be beat. The onetime Kings star has a new goal: to let readers know about his journey in a new book “Beating The Odds In Hockey and In Life” (Triumph Books, 320 pages, $28). Included is a chapter: “Thank God I Got Sick,” which includes this: “During the entire time I was battling cancer, I never once asked, ‘Why me?’ If anything, I was happy it was me rather than any of the people I truly care about. I would not want anyone I know to go through this.”

    * TBS’ push for Jeff “Frenchy” Francoeur as its hot new MLB postseason analyst has been sidetracked by promos for “The Misery Index” game show during the National League playoffs. Remember a few years ago when the same network relentlessly pushed a new Frank Caliendo show into audience defiance? All things considered, neither Francoeur nor “TMI” should be expected to last as long on the TBS airwaves as the recent Dodgers reality show.


    Gene Ching
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  5. #125
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    Lowrider ceases print publication



    Lowrider’s last cruise in print
    Founded by San Jose State students, the magazine has covered car culture and the Chicano community for 42 years.
    By Montse Reyes | Jan. 5, 2020 | San Francisco Chronicle
    Photo by Beto Mendoza

    Los Angeles has Whittier Boulevard. Immortalized in songs and films, the road is legendary for Chicanos, especially those who obliged the weekend tradition of piling into glistening, candy-painted Chevys and Cadillacs to cruise.

    It might not be featured in Snoop Dogg music videos, but Bay Area residents know the other heartbeat of the lowrider community: Mission Street.

    “Every Friday and Saturday night, it was like a parade,” recalls Roberto Hernandez, founder of the San Francisco Lowrider Council, of nights spent on the neighborhood’s biggest thoroughfare in the 1970s and ’80s. “We had cars coming from Sacramento, Tracy, Stockton and San Jose. It was bumper to bumper from 16th Street all the way up to Cortland Avenue.”

    As the godfather of ground-hugging cars in San Francisco, Hernandez has been protecting the rights of those who cruise since the early ’80s. And now, he’s among those mourning the loss of Lowrider magazine, which recently announced it will be shuttering its monthly print edition.

    The publication has been a pillar in car and Chicano culture since a trio of San Jose State University students — Sonny Madrid, Larry Gonzalez and David Nunez — debuted the publication in 1977. (Nunez passed away in 2011, and Madrid in 2015.) The three came up with a few thousand dollars to fund the first issue, which they put together huddled over tables at a restaurant near the university. Their first issue, essentially a zine with black and white photos of cars and write-ups documenting the scenes in San Jose, Fresno and Gilroy, sold for $1.

    On Dec. 6, 2019, the magazine’s parent company, TEN Publishing, announced it would cease to print Lowrider (alongside 18 more of its 22 titles) by the end of 2019, citing a rise in digital readership. The magazine will continue to publish content online.

    “I almost died,” Hernandez says of his reaction to the news that the physical magazine would be shuttering after 42 years. “I couldn’t believe it.


    Covers of Lowrider magazing. | Lowrider

    “The magazine played an important role because it gave a validated identity for the youngster who was 14, who was a cholo and was coming out to check out the lowriders,” adds Hernandez. “Or tu mamá or tu papá, or tu tía or tu abuelita.”

    “It’s a whole lifestyle, a whole community,” says Beto Mendoza, who freelanced for Lowrider for years before joining full-time in 2011. He is one of two current full-time staffers, both of whom will continue covering the souped-up cars through the magazine’s website and social media accounts. “Everyone that’s a real lowrider, we all know each other, we’re all friends. There’s a real good connection between all of us.”

    Mendoza fell in love with lowriders at age 6, when he saw a car jumping on hydraulics in the 1987 Cheech Marin comedy “Born in East L.A.” Soon after, Mendoza got his hands on a copy of Lowrider magazine. He was hooked.

    The tradition of riding low and slow has deep roots for Latinos in the United States, stretching back to the 1940s, when Mexican American youth in oversize zoot suits — known as pachucos — would throw in bags of cement or sand to lower their Chevrolets. The lowriders were roving political statements, a declaration of both pride in Mexican heritage in the face of discrimination, and defiance of the fast-and-slick hot rods popular among young, white Americans.

    Technology evolved, with sandbags soon giving way to hydraulic pumps that could raise or lower the customized cars with the flip of a switch at the owner’s behest, creating the modern lowrider style most have come to recognize today.

    “Lowriding is an art form,” says Hernandez. “You will never see a lowrider that’s the same as another. The upholstery is different. The color, the paint job is different. Every lowrider puts his touch on his lowrider. It comes from your heart, your soul, your spirit, your mind.”


    A 1986 Buick Regal in Corcoran (Kings County). | Beto Mendoza

    Law enforcement hasn’t always agreed. A 1958 law in California outlawed cars that had any part lower than the bottom of the wheel’s rim. From then on, lowriders became associated with gangs and violence, arguably spurred by racist stereotypes of the young, often working-class brown and black men who drove the cars.

    “The police didn’t understand it,” Hernandez says, recalling the resistance lowriders faced in the ’70s and ’80s. “They saw it as threatening.”

    Drivers out to cruise knew to expect harassment. Police would issue tickets for reckless driving or shut down Mission Street altogether to stop lowriders. Hernandez says he was cited 113 times, and recalls some of his peers being arrested for cruising.

    If they headed across the bridge to the East Bay, it was the same: “If we went to a town like Walnut Creek, we ended up getting chased out by the (locals) or by police,” says David Gonzales, a Richmond-born lowrider and cartoonist who ran the comic strip The Adventures of Hollywood in the magazine from 1978 to 1983.

    The police involvement always seemed to have an element of racial profiling, according to Hernandez.

    “While we were doing that on Mission Street, across the city, in the Sunset, on the Great Highway, the hot rodders — which were all the white boys — were racing for pink slips,” he says, meaning the winner takes the loser’s car. “And the police and the city never messed with them.”


    Covers of Lowrider magazine, including the inaugural 1977 issue of Lowrider magazine (center). | Lowrider

    Lowrider magazine provided an antidote. Spurred by the energy around the Chicano civil rights movement, Madrid, Gonzalez and Nunez set out to feature lowrider culture with appreciation and affection, while also covering social and political issues important to the Chicano community.

    Alongside customized cars, Lowrider’s pages featured sections like La Raza Report, short stories, poetry and comics made by Chicanos. At one point, they even started a now-defunct music label, Thump Records, and had a scholarship program for young Chicanos.

    “It did a lot of reporting on social issues that were affecting Latinos,” Hernandez says. “But more importantly, it also became a conversation piece. You could talk with your family, your friends, your homies so it became a way to not only communicate but to inform, educate and begin a conversation.”

    The early success of the magazine spoke to the need for such an outlet, as it grew from a homespun DIY-style project to a publication with considerable reach.

    “I’ll never forget when Sonny (Madrid) called me and said ‘I got the first issue,’” Hernandez recalls. Hernandez leaned on the connections he had built in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area through his organizing with the United Farm Workers to help get the magazine stocked in record stores, panaderias and other local businesses.
    continued next post
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  6. #126
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    Continued from previous post

    Cartoonist David Gonzales remembers the founders selling early copies of Lowrider out of a 1954 Chevy Bel Air wherever readers might be.


    A 1959 Chevrolet Impala photographed in Las Vegas. | Beto Mendoza

    “Larry (Gonzalez) would call me and say ‘Hey, we’re going to be in Oakland,’ or ‘This weekend we’re going to Richmond, is there anything going on?’” Gonzales recalls. “Sure enough, they’d show up and people would be out there with their magazines.”

    The cartoonist went on to create Homies, a popular series of collectible figurines based on the characters in the comic strip. Like the founders of Lowrider, he aimed to reflect life for Chicanos as he saw it.

    “A lot of our social life was cruising,” he says. “Starting Friday, you’re like, ‘Bam, where we heading tonight and the next day?’ with the crew. So it was just the fun of building the car, the fellowship, the camaraderie.”

    That fellowship had no age limit. In covering the community as an editor for Lowrider, Beto Mendoza says he’s seen the level of detail, money and focus poured into customizing classic cars become a site of connection across generations of families.


    Lowrider magazine.

    “At the shows, if you look around, everybody’s got their car up with their wife and kids. It’s a family thing going around these cars. It’s an excuse to build memories.”

    As Lowrider magazine grew, its readership expanded to include a multicultural audience, and the content slowly shifted away from explicit political messaging. In 1979, it ran its first issue with a pinup model donning the cover. That aesthetic choice and sales strategy continued until 2015, when editors decided to do away with the models, in part to reflect changing attitudes toward women in the lowrider community.

    In the decades in between, the magazine also expanded its reach and business model, moving its headquarters to Los Angeles and capturing (and nurturing) lowrider communities as far away as Japan, Brazil, Australia, Mexico and Canada. At its peak, the magazine had a circulation of 210,000.

    The last issue hit newsstands in late December. But while the print publication has come to an end, the Bay Area community it helped document and advocate for certainly isn’t going anywhere.

    With the San Francisco Lowrider Council, Hernandez has worked to better advocate for the preservation of lowrider culture and dispel harmful stereotypes in the face of restrictions from the city and law enforcement. And he thinks the tide has shifted. Hernandez and his fellow lowriders are a staple at community events throughout the city. They organize cruises down Mission Street, and — as was perhaps unimaginable in the ’70s — local politicians sometimes join them. In May 2019, Mayor London Breed rode shotgun alongside Hernandez in his crisp white Chevrolet Impala during the San Francisco Lowrider Council’s Cinco de Mayo car show.

    Hernandez credits part of that shift to the sense of pride Lowrider gave Chicanos.

    “I was proud that I was part of it,” he says. “Not only ‘Here’s a car that I flipped out into an art piece,’ but ‘Here’s a showcase of what our art is.’”

    In recent years, Hernandez has even been using the magazine’s ‘roll models’ section in sensitivity trainings he conducts with the San Francisco Police Department. The recurring feature highlights lowriders of all stripes — lawyers, engineers, fathers and daughters — to combat decades-old stereotypes about lowriding being tied to violence or gang activity.

    “I’ve been able to go deep with these stories they’ve written about individuals who are lowriders,” he says. “That’s the sad part to me. There are so many more stories that need to be told.”

    Montse Reyes is a Bay Area freelance writer. Email: culture@sfchronicle.com
    It we don't have your continued support, we will go out of print too. Please subscribe. And get your friends and fellow students to subscribe. The writing is on the wall for every print magazine, especially niche mags like us. I cannot stress this enough.
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  7. #127
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    Slightly OT

    It's not dying, but the sale is indicative of trends in print publishing.

    Simon & Schuster Is Up for Sale
    The publisher of Stephen King, Judy Blume and Hillary Clinton doesn’t fit with the plans of its parent, ViacomCBS, which has placed a big bet on digital video.


    Carolyn Reidy, the Simon & Schuster president and chief executive, with Stephen King, among the house’s star authors, in 2018.Credit...Evan Agostini/Invision

    By Edmund Lee and Alexandra Alter
    March 4, 2020, 3:07 p.m. ET

    Simon & Schuster, the publishing powerhouse behind best-selling authors like Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin and Judy Blume, is up for sale.

    Its owner, ViacomCBS, announced Wednesday that, after a “strategic review,” the book publisher was no longer essential to its business and that it would seek a buyer.

    “We will look to complete a transaction that maximizes its value once the market stabilizes,” Robert M. Bakish, the chief executive, wrote in a memo to employees, most of whom learned of the sale only on Wednesday.

    ViacomCBS, the newly combined business controlled by Shari Redstone, is betting its future on streaming and sports content. Owning a major book publisher does not fit into those plans.

    Founded as a publisher of crossword puzzle books in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster, Simon & Schuster expanded into a major house with 50 imprints, including Charles Scribner’s Sons, the publisher of 20th-century heavyweights like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe. The company now has 1,350 employees and publishes roughly 2,000 books a year. Notable Simon & Schuster authors include Annie Proulx, Bob Woodward, Walter Isaacson and Hillary Clinton.

    In a note to employees on Wednesday, the Simon & Schuster president and chief executive, Carolyn Reidy, sought to reassure the staff that the company was not in jeopardy. “Whatever the outcome, this process does not change what we know to be true of Simon & Schuster: we are a great publishing house and one of the world’s best known publishing brands, with an incredible legacy and bright future,” she wrote.

    The company is going up for sale at an uncertain moment for publishers, who have struggled with lethargic sales and anxiety over the future of Barnes & Noble, the once-dominant chain that was bought last year by the hedge fund Elliott Advisors.

    “It hasn’t been a strong growth industry in a long time, and what little growth there has been recently seems to be arrested,” said Thad McIlroy, a publishing industry analyst.

    Simon & Schuster also has several perennial best-sellers on its list, including Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22,” Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind” and Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

    Still, with the rise of Amazon and e-books, the business has suffered. In 1989, one of its best years, the publisher generated $1.3 billion in sales. Last year, sales were $814 million. The company’s profits have also declined, hitting $143 million in 2019, a 6.5 percent drop from the previous year. Legacy media businesses can sell anywhere from five times to 10 times annual profits.

    ViacomCBS is looking for $750 million in cost cuts after the December merger of Viacom and CBS. Viacom, the longtime owner of Paramount Pictures and cable networks like MTV and Comedy Central, absorbed the CBS broadcast network and Simon & Schuster as part of the deal.

    The newly supersized company has taken a hit in the markets after a weak earnings performance for the three months that ended in December, and the combined business is now worth less than either business before the merger.

    The potential sale of Simon & Schuster is part of a great unwinding taking place across the media industry as conglomerates cleave off or close down ancillary businesses. The spate of acquisitions in recent years — AT&T bought Time Warner and the Walt Disney Company absorbed the majority of 21st Century Fox — has largely been a defensive measure against Big Tech and a bet on digital video as the future of entertainment.

    Books won’t play a significant role in the coming skirmish, in Mr. Bakish’s view. Simon & Schuster is “not a core asset of the company, it is not video-based, it doesn’t have significant connectivity to our broader business,” he said at an investor conference Wednesday morning.

    He went on to praise Simon & Schuster, even as he hung a For Sale sign on its door. “There’s no question that it’s a marquee asset,” Mr. Bakish said. “I’ve had multiple, unsolicited inbound calls.”



    Edmund Lee covers the media industry as it grapples with changes from Silicon Valley. Before joining The Times he was the managing editor at Vox Media’s Recode. @edmundlee

    Alexandra Alter writes about publishing and the literary world. Before joining The Times in 2014, she covered books and culture for The Wall Street Journal. Prior to that, she reported on religion, and the occasional hurricane, for The Miami Herald. @xanalter

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  8. #128
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    B&N distributes the bulk of our magazines

    Our Spring 2020 issue was already on newsstands when this happened but all the stores closed so it will have a major impact upon our sales.

    Barnes and Noble will stop selling new magazines
    April 26, 2020 By Michael Kozlowski 43 Comments



    Barnes and Noble has shuttered over 500 of their 600 bookstores in the United States and the bookseller has announced they are no longer going to be ordering new magazines and will cease carrying them altogether.

    “It will probably be a bigger deal for smaller publishers who count on the money they get upfront from B&N,” said one industry veteran, who noted that big newsstand titles, like Hearst’s Cosmopolitan and Meredith’s People, are far more reliant on other retailers.

    The lack of new magazines at Barnes and Noble will likely drive people to Target or Walmart to purchase them. Overall, magazine sales through Walmart and Target have jumped over 3% this year, while supermarket sales are up 12%. Walmart accounts for 17% of all magazine sales in the United States in 2019.

    Update: Alex Ortolani, Director, Corporate Communications at Barnes and Noble told Good e-Reader
    “We have temporarily paused magazine orders due to store closures related to COVID-19. When we reopen stores we will once again sell magazines.”

    Although the statement is appreciated, people who want to buy new magazines at the 100 remaining stores that are open, will not be able to. New magazines will likely not be appearing anytime soon, nor will the B&N reopen their closed stores in the immediate future.


    Michael Kozlowski
    Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times.
    THREADS:
    Spring 2020
    Print publishing death watch
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  9. #129
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    Regarding the end of Kung Fu Tai Chi print publication

    Quote Originally Posted by Kevin73 View Post
    Will there still be the online content?
    Yes, for now. As long as MartialArtSmart can stay in business, KungFuMagazine.com and this forum will stay online. I'll still be active here part time. It's all still being sorted however. Putting the print mag to rest has a lot of factors. But both KFM and this forum are tremendous archives (over a thousand articles on KFM and I can't even begin to tabulate what's stored on this forum) so I'm going to do my best to fight for it. However, I gotta pay my own bills too.

    There is a chance that the SUMMER 2020 issue might still be produced. We were almost done with it when the Shelter-in-Place order was given. I'm looking into doing some sort of fundraiser like a GoFundMe to complete it.

    Publishing has been a struggle and this fate is inevitable for every niche mag. Remember, I've been charting the decline of print mags in our Print-publishing-death-watch since 2009.

    Thank you all for your continued support.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  10. #130
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    Kung Fu Tai Chi 1992-2020

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  11. #131
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    Den of Geek IN PRINT!

    Here's a twist. Den of Geek just went to print with a quarterly and you can get the issues free.

    I've been freelancing with Den of Geek a lot lately. It's been fun.

    Subscribe Today!
    Get the best of Den of Geek delivered to your inbox daily or sign-up to receive our quarterly magazine!




    SUBSCRIBE TO DEN OF GEEK MAGAZINE FOR FREE!
    The Den of Geek quarterly magazine will be packed with exclusive features, interviews, previews, and deep dives into geek culture. We’ll focus on the hottest movies and TV shows, explore the latest in games, books, and comics while also bringing you retrospectives on your favorite classics. Our new magazine will celebrate the buzziest releases on the entertainment calendar with beautiful layouts, exclusive imagery, and in-depth long reads in 68-page full color pages. It will be published four times a year and the first issue will be launched in February. We’re pretty sure you’re going to love it…

    How do you get your hands on a copy? For readers based in the United States, it’s as simple as filling in the below form telling us the address you’d like the magazine shipped to. That’s all there is to it! We’ll send you a copy every quarter in 2021. Exact shipping dates are to be determined. For our international readers, we’ll have more information on how you can snag a copy in the coming weeks.

    Subscribe below!

    Newsletter
    Our newsletter delivers the hottest pop culture news to you every weekday. Stay ahead of the curve on Movies, TV, Games, Comics and way more! Plus, you’ll always be prepared for weekend binge-watching with our weekly streaming guides every Friday.

    We’re entertainment experts, and with our newsletter you’ll be one too! Subscribe below!
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  12. #132
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    Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, EatingWell, Health, Parents and People en Espańol

    Feb 9, 2022 8:50am PT
    Entertainment Weekly, InStyle Cease Print Publications

    By Jordan Moreau

    Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly
    Dotdash Meredith is ending the monthly print publications for Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, EatingWell, Health, Parents and People en Espańol, Dotdash Meredith CEO Neil Vogel said in a Wednesday memo to staff, obtained by Variety.

    The publications will go digital-only effective today, and the transition is expected to terminate roughly 200 positions on the print side, Vogel said. The April editions of the print magazines will be the brands’ last, and the 200 eliminated jobs represent less than 5% of Dotdash Meredith’s total staff, according to Wall Street Journal, which broke the news.

    “This is an important step in the evolution of Dotdash Meredith, and I want to be clear with everyone about what we are doing and what is ahead,” Vogel’s memo says. “We have said from the beginning, buying Meredith was about buying brands, not magazines or websites. It is not news to anyone that there has been a pronounced shift in readership and advertising from print to digital, and as a result, for a few important brands, print is no longer serving the brand’s core purpose. As such, we are going to move to a digital-only future for these brands, which will help us to unlock their full potential.”

    Dotdash, the digital publishing division of Barry Diller’s holding company IAC, acquired Meredith for $2.7 billion last year. Vogel, then CEO of Dotdash, took the reigns of the combined Dotdash Meredith company. Dotdash, formerly known as About.com, was acquired by IAC from The New York Times in 2012 for $300 million in cash. The media company houses 14 brands across health, finance, lifestyle, food and beauty, including Verywell, Investopedia, The Balance, The Spruce, Simply Recipes, Serious Eats, Byrdie, Liquor.com, Treehugger and Brides. After acquiring Meredith, it also brought in People and Better Homes & Gardens.

    Read Vogel’s full memo below:

    Team,

    Effective today, we will no longer be printing monthly magazines for EatingWell, Entertainment Weekly, Health, InStyle, Parents, and People en Espańol. This is an important step in the evolution of Dotdash Meredith, and I want to be clear with everyone about what we are doing and what is ahead.

    We have said from the beginning, buying Meredith was about buying brands, not magazines or websites. It is not news to anyone that there has been a pronounced shift in readership and advertising from print to digital, and as a result, for a few important brands, print is no longer serving the brand’s core purpose. As such, we are going to move to a digital-only future for these brands, which will help us to unlock their full potential. These brands are among our most successful, important, and fastest growing digital properties – the online audience for Parents, InStyle, and EatingWell are each up over 40% year-over-year – and all of these brands have a bright future.

    The decision to evolve these brands to digital-only means that some jobs – roughly 200 roles primarily supporting our print operations – will be eliminated. Transitions like this are very difficult, impacting colleagues and friends, some of whom have been with the company for decades. I can’t thank these employees enough for getting these brands to the strong place they are at today. Brand leaders have already notified those impacted, and we are taking great care to help ensure a smooth transition for these employees.

    Today’s step is not a cost savings exercise and it is not about capturing synergies or any other acquisition jargon, it is about embracing the inevitable digital future for the affected brands. We are very serious about investing for growth – in 2022 alone we will be investing over $80 million in content across our brands. We currently have over 100 open positions in editorial, engineering, product, design, and ecommerce, some of which we hope to fill with people impacted today.

    Naysayers will interpret this as another nail in print’s coffin. They couldn’t be more wrong – print remains core to Dotdash Meredith. From PEOPLE to BHG to Southern Living to WOOD, and all our other beloved print publications, we continue to provide incredible value to readers in print, and we will proudly print over 350 million magazines in 2022. Beginning today, we will be investing in our print-forward brands and products: everything from enhancing paper quality and trim sizes, to ensuring world-class editorial and beautiful photography. We are infusing fresh energy across these print-forward brands in all formats to make sure they can meet both the moment and the needs of their readers in new and innovative ways.

    These are difficult decisions but we believe they are the correct decisions. We remain as enthusiastic as ever for the future of our brands and our company.

    NV
    Wow. I didn't think EW would fold so soon. Another nail in the coffin for print mags.

    While I was publisher of KFTC, I was privy to industry reports and assiduously followed the newsstand trends in some flailing hope that I could stave off the inevitable. We should’ve gone down in 2009 when the great purge happened and hundreds of print newsstand mags folded (and this here thread began) so I’ll take some credit for keeping us alive for another decade past our expiration date.

    Celeb mags like EW were consistently doing well. Why? They transcended newsstands to the checkout racks. Those were the strongest genre of periodicals. It’s very telling to see EW go down.

    I imagine the pandemic played a part. KFTC went down because the newsstands shuttered. Publishing periodicals are deadline driven and the supply chain disruption moved all publishers that were printing abroad (books mostly - mags need domestic printers to make deadline) to shift here and overload the system. All YMAA’s 2021 titles - books & DVDs - were delayed due to this. Mag deadlines couldn’t take it - those delay distribution - it’d like dominos when that happens and a publisher can lose a ton of money very quickly.

    Sad to see EW go down too but somewhat relieved I’m not alone as a former print mag publisher.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  13. #133

    Niche question for Gene

    Question for you Gene:

    I'm curious, do you believe there's any opportunity for a print-on-demand niche magazine similar in content to Kung Fu magazine? One that bypasses the bulk print distribution model that magazines traditionally used and instead is printed on-demand and distributed directly to subscribers.

    (basically like Den of Geek is now doing)
    Last edited by MightyB; 03-15-2022 at 06:11 AM.

  14. #134
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    Not for the martial arts niche. I wish...

    Good question!

    The Den of Geek model is quite different. They started by publishing mags that were distributed for free at San Diego Comic Con and New York Comic Con. If you've ever been to one of those, you know how massive the haul of tchotchkes is, so to stand out, they did a very professional publication.

    When the pandemic hit, DoG pivoted to a distribution model at comic stores where you can get the issues for free. We had a similar model through Kung Fu schools, but you still had to buy the issue.

    Initially, DoG offered the print mag for free during the pandemic shift, but now it's a paid subscription.

    DoG has the magnitude that they do sponsored special issues that sidecar with their regular issues. I worked on two of these for Netflix: Vikings-Valhalla & Jupiter-s-Legacy. Those special issues were basically paid ads, and there's no one in the martial arts industry that even has a fraction of the bank to afford something like that.

    DoG just did a special issue for SXSW so they are expanding their scope.

    There's simply no comparison between the scale of a pop culture publisher like DoG and a niche publisher like KFM.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  15. #135
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    People

    People’s print magazine faces possible closure amid newsroom chaos: sources
    By Alexandra Steigrad
    May 16, 2022 5:27pm Updated


    Staffers are bracing for changes at People Magazine's print edition.
    Alamy Stock Photo

    People may scrap its weekly print edition as its new owner looks to slash costs — even as writers privately gripe that the magazine’s new editor looks to be an awkward fit for the celebrity-gossip icon, The Post has learned

    Staffers at People — a 48-year-old fixture in grocery checkout lines, beauty salons and doctor’s offices known for its “Sexiest Man Alive” cover — are bracing for the magazine to go online-only after Dotdash Meredith, a unit of billionaire Barry Diller’s IAC, shuttered a slew of print publications, sources close to the situation said.

    Those include Entertainment Weekly and the fashion glossy InStyle, which once oozed profit and was thick with advertising pages. People, meanwhile, faces getting the ax despite claiming the largest audience of any US magazine for nearly a decade until 2018, when it surrendered the title to AARP.

    “I think it’s a goner,” one well-placed source said of People’s weekly edition. The source added that execs are instead mulling monthly or quarterly editions, as well as special-themed issues which carry a much higher cover price.

    “The new editor doesn’t know what she’s doing. Staff in the editorial meetings are texting each other and rolling their eyes when she talks.”
    Post source

    Employees griped that new editor Liz Vaccariello doesn’t have the entertainment chops to run People.
    Monica Schipper

    The Post has also learned that DotDash Meredith execs quietly cut People’s circulation from 3.4 million to 2.5 million, as well as the number of pages per magazine by about eight. One insider explained that the subs that were cut are free or low cost subscriptions that do not justify the price of mailing the issues out.

    Dotdash Meredith spokesperson said: “Outside of People magazine’s rate base change of 3.4 to 2.5 million — which was shared with advertisers in April of this year — and a temporary change to total pages due to the international paper shortage, the claims and numbers provided by an unnamed source for this story are completely false.

    “People magazine will continue to publish weekly, as it has for nearly 50 years, and benefit from the significant investments we continue to make in People’s brand and products,” the spokesperson added.


    Sources say People’s newsstand sales have been uneven since Vaccariello took over in February.
    Getty Images for Gryph & IvyRose

    While talks of changes in frequency are in flux and a decision has not been made, insiders fret that People’s editorial offices are in disarray under the magazine’s new editor in chief Liz Vaccariello, who replaced Dan Wakeford amid a February reorganization. Vaccariello, who held top jobs at Real Simple, Parents, Reader’s Digest and Every Day with Rachael Ray, is filling the magazine with “soft stories,” a source said.

    “The new editor doesn’t know what she’s doing. Staff in the editorial meetings are texting each other and rolling their eyes when she talks,” the source added.

    “Liz is a very talented editor but she’s not an entertainment editor,” said another insider, who explained that Vaccariello doesn’t have entertainment “contacts” or a sense of what sells celebrity news magazines.

    “She didn’t know who Channing Tatum was!” said the source.

    Insiders cited a recent incident in which People staffers pushed to get Jada Pinkett-Smith for a recent cover of the magazine after her husband Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock onstage at the Academy Awards over Rock’s joke about her alopecia.

    The incident rocked the entertainment industry and grabbed headlines worldwide, but Vaccariello shot it down and instead opted to stick with the current cover star, Bindi Irwin, the daughter of the late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin.

    That issue is currently on newsstands, and while it is too early to see how it will sell, The Post has learned that People’s newsstand numbers have taken a nosedive since Wakeford was let go in February.

    Sources told The Post that under Wakeford, People had been selling more than 200,000 copies at the newsstand a week. Since then, newsstand sales have been uneven, with a May 2 Prince Harry cover dipping to about 160,000 copies sold, and a March 14 Lizzo cover cratering to between 125,000- 150,000 copies sold, which is said to be one of the worst selling issues in People’s half-century history.

    But a source with knowledge countered that Vaccariello has also some of this year’s best-selling issues, pointing to April 11’s Will Smith Cover and the April 18 Bruce Willis cover, both of which sold over 220,000 copies each.
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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