With print revenues in steep decline, Time Inc. should be commended for trying anything to buoy the industry. Its latest stab at keeping Fortune subscriptions up is Maghound, the Netflix-esque service that lets users subscribe to a fixed number of magazine each month, but swap out those subscriptions for other titles at their convenience. The service has its critics, who say the model for this sort of thing — media on demand, like iTunes, TiVo, and even Netflix — are banking on digital products, not print, which is how they're succeeding. But publishers are likely to still sign on, since it's one more chance to generate subscriptions, or, at the very least, paid circulation, since each copy they move through Maghound will count as a single-copy sale, or the equivalent of of a newsstand sale. (Even though the prices will be deeply discounted.) So we should all be singing the praises, then, of Time Inc. for so selflessly coming to the rescue? Ehhh, not equite.

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Aug 15, 2008 · Link · Respond
A Human Trafficking Record

The first public photos of Knox and Vivienne Jolie-Pitt have already been taken! And, despite our suggestion to nobody in particular that Brad and Angelina split their newborn twins into two separate photo shoots to really maximize profit potential, the babies were photographed together.

But the babies will be split up in one sense: People magazine has secured North American rights to the photos, while British tabloid Hello!, which sports numerous international editions, will have other worldwide rights.

Sound familiar? That's because People and Hello! teamed up in 2006 to publish Brangelina's other baby, Shiloh.

In the end, the price is pegged somewhere between $11 and $15 million, though that could be off by as much as a multiple of two. And while the price is certainly one for the record books (for now), keep in mind that the price includes two babies; so really, we're talking bargain.

Not that it's any consolation to OK! publisher Richard Desmond.

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Aug 1, 2008 · Link · 9 Responses

Fourteen of the 17 staffers at Fortune Small Business (essentially a tool of American Express) are being let go. The remaining three will be shuffled to some obscure division of Time Inc., where they'll be asked to churn out advertiser-friendly copy. Read: Whatever AmEx wants. Update: Maybe those 14 staffers have hope after all? And maybe AmEx doesn't control what appears in the magazine? Scandal!

Jul 30, 2008 · Link · Respond

Time Inc.'s Ann Moore and exiting Martha Stewart Living chief Susan Lyne are having lunch next week. It's either to meet about Lyne taking over Moore's job, or the most excellent prank on media's chattering classes.

Jun 12, 2008 · Link · Respond
Ho Hum

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"Most big magazine publishers saw total ad pages decline in the first four months of 2008 compared to the same period last year [...] While some losses can be attributed to the closing of various titles since last year, the broad nature of the declines, cutting across a number of categories, looks ominous for the magazine industry."

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May 13, 2008 · Link · Respond

OBLIGATORY TITLES Former Time Inc. chief and current Carlyle Group hand Norm Pearlstine is heading to Bloomberg LP, where he will assume the role of chief content officer. [Dealbook] Which begs the question: WTF is with these "chief content officers"? Netflix has one; so does PBS; so did the Cartoon Network. Is management not already stuffed with CEOs, COOs, CTOs, CFOs, and CPOs (that one is "chief privacy officer") that we need to reassign the responsibilities normally spread among top execs to a new high-earning title grabber?

May 12, 2008 · Link · Respond
Or, for that matter, its present

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"In the next five years in Graydon Carter’s world, you’ll walk onto a plane, or a subway, or a soon-to-be-invented mode of transport, and you’ll tuck a little electronic book under your arm. Inside that little book, which will be very expensive at first but soon will cost $150, there’ll be a series of mylar “pages,” and there will be small buttons off to the side, and once you hit one of them, whoooosh, words and photos from Vanity Fair will suddenly appear. 'You’ll subscribe to five magazines and six newspapers,' Mr. Carter said. 'That is what I see as the future. … That I know is coming.' 'Ultimately, there will be some sort of device!' said Peter Meirs, the vice president of production technology at Time Inc." [NYO]

Um, you mean like the $399 Kindle, which already exists? Which is very expensive now but will eventually cost less? That there are small buttons you can push where the words and photos from magazines appear? Where you can already purchase, download, and read Time Inc. titles like Time and Fortune?

Five years is SO far away!

Apr 2, 2008 · Link · 1 Response

thisoldhouse.jpg If Time Inc. chief Ann Moore wanted to keep secret her plans to continue trimming the publisher's portoflio, perhaps she should have removed the "Trim Portfolio" slide from her PowerPoint presentation. With new CEO Jeff Bewkes leading a company-wide consolidation effort, the publishing unit is expected to see some fallout, with shelter titles in the most jeopardy. Sorry, both This Old House subscribers, but you might have to rely on the TV show alone.

Apr 1, 2008 · Link · Respond
Corporate Casualties

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There are some positives to shutting down a magazine under your own corporate umbrella. For Time Inc. title Fortune, the demise of Business 2.0 was dollar-sign-filled music to Fortune/Money Group chief Vivek Shah. Thanks to the abrupt absence of competition from its corporate cousin, Fortune is cashing in; ad revenue from technology advertisers is up 35 percent.

Feb 28, 2008 · Link · Respond

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The Lori Majewski white water rafting ride through the entertainment press continues!

After jumping around from Teen People to People (just kidding!) and then to Entertainment Weekly as executive editor, the wanderlust is bouncing again. Though EW editor Rich Tetzeli doesn't say so in his email to the masthead (below), we hear Lori is leaving in December and is headed to will involve herself more deeply in Do Something, the teen-focused organization that's all about changing the world and, um, doing stuff. "She misses working with teens," says one Time Inc. insider. Perhaps she's the next Atoosa Rubenstein? For one, we hear she's got a book deal lined up. But that'll have to wait until she gets back from her mega-travels.

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Nov 28, 2007 · Link · 3 Responses

ewmag.jpg Advertising Age publisher (and AdAge columnist) Scott Donaton is leaving his post as the head of the Crain trade to become … publisher of Entertainment Weekly! Time Inc. Entertainment Group, under newly inducted head Paul Caine, has been searching for a replacement for EW's founder and publisher David Morris, who gave notice that he was leaving Time Inc. after 21 years. Let the Time regime change memos continue!

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Nov 19, 2007 · Link · Respond
Get out your boss tree and start drawing new branches

AOL might be slashing jobs, but Time Inc. is just shoveling the staff around. A memo from Ann Moore follows, which deals with fun terms like "M&A" and "Production and Fulfillment Operations." Oh, and a little guy named John Squires.

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Nov 1, 2007 · Link · 1 Response
And even more rumors for ’09 Mayoral Race

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There’s nothing to announce yet, but Time Warner Inc. may have a new CEO as early as next week.

Richard Parsons, the current chief executive, may hand off the title to Jeffrey Bewkes, president of the company. Bewkes was responsible for changing AOL’s business focus to advertisers, instead of users. That strategy appealed to about six moms in the Midwest.

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Oct 29, 2007 · Link · Respond
ESPN really gives Reilly the Big bucks

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Rick Reilly, allegedly the highest paid writer in history of Time Inc., is set to make even more at ESPN. Once the proud signer of a five-year, $5 million contract, he’s now doubling that at ESPN with a $10 million over five years deal.

Reilly will stay on at Sports Illustrated until December 1. Time Inc. is enforcing its revenge non-competition rule, so Reilly won’t start at ESPN until June 1.

On the deal, Reilly said, "It's tough leaving SI after 23 years, but I just had this itch I had to scratch," referring to working on TV.

Now he can scratch that metaphorical itch with a figurative diamond encrusted backscratcher.

Oct 24, 2007 · Link · Respond

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Bill Shapiro, who lost his managing editor job at Life when it folded for the sixth or seven-hundredth time, is back on Time Inc.'s payroll. The former chief of Time's, custom publishing unit, Shapiro is the new development editor for all of Time Inc., according to a memo sent out by editor-in-chief John Huey, who describes Bill as the "primary liaison between editorial and our colleagues in corporate sales and marketing." That is, he's your go-to guy when your client needs an editorial plug in the front of the book!

Most fun in Huey's reintroduction of Bill, however, is the endnote about Bill's new book, Other People's Love Letters, which comes out at the end of the month. The book features what appear to be stolen love notes found in attics, basements, and discared cell phones. Staffers will have a chance to celebrate the tome at a party featuring "some Cheetos, Dr. Pepper and an opportunity to buy a copy."

Emphasis, of course, ours.

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Oct 19, 2007 · Link · 3 Responses
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