New York, NY (February 15, 2006)—The consumer magazine industry will unveil a new advertising campaign on February 27, showcasing the mediums ability to engage consumers and improve advertisers results, it was announced today by Nina Link, President and CEO, Magazine Publishers of America (MPA).  This campaign is the next phase of the industrys three-year, multi-million-dollar marketing initiative that launched last year to promote the value of magazines to advertisers.

The new campaign was developed by Mullen and includes both print and online components that target advertisers and media decision-makers. The print creative features the jagged portions of a full-page ad torn from a magazine.  Copy on the following page points out that readers are so engaged with magazine ads, it leads them to tear the page out and act on it.  The tagline, Magazines: Ideas that live beyond the page, reinforces the concept. 

The online component includes both the dedicated mini-site www.magazine.org/beyondthepage and online banner ads, which will also debut on February 27.  The site will be an interactive representation of the magazine ads, with resources for advertisers on Engagement, Accountability, Case Studies and Research.  And to speak to advertisers as consumers, there is a section called Editorial, which includes links to magazine articles, magazine blogs, magazine videos and podcasts and more.

We wanted to showcase magazine reader engagement in a fresh way, and what better way to do that than to portray something that we all do tear out magazine ads that help us make purchase decisions, or rip out ones that are so cool, they just had to be shared with someone else, said Ms. Link.  In other words, reader engagement leads to action.

There's a lot of buzz these days around viral advertising and word of mouth, said Edward Boches, Chief Creative Officer at Mullen.  The fact is, magazines are the original viral medium.  Their content and ideas spread to every aspect of culture and inspire action.  We wanted to remind people that readers involvement with magazines influences their behavior as consumers.

Ads for Infiniti and Altoids will be the first ones to be ripped out.  Throughout the course of the year, other participating advertisers ads will be featured. Confirmed advertisers include American Express, Cover Girl, JCPenney, Lexus, Microsoft and XM Satellite Radio.

The participation of these advertisers is testimony to their own understanding of magazines key strengths.  The campaign reinforces that consumers engage with advertising in magazines in a unique way.  We believe that consumers opt in to magazine advertising, while they are opting out of other places. Thats a compelling story for the medium, remarked Michael Clinton, EVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Group Publishing Director, Hearst Magazines, who is Co-Chair of the Magazine Marketing Coalition, the group directing the industrys marketing initiative.

The Magazine Marketing Coalition is comprised of MPA-member publishers and allied industries that work closely with magazines.  Ed Kelly, President & CEO, American Express Publishing Corp, co-chairs the group.

The ads will first run in trade publications, including Advertising Age, Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek. They will also run in e-newsletters and websites for those trade publications, plus www.nytimes.com, www.wallstreetjournal.com and Mediapost.  Beginning in March the campaigns torn ad pages will run in thousands of complimentary copies of MPA-member weekly magazines distributed to the advertising community.  The ads will also run in comp copies of member monthlies beginning in May. More than 30 magazines are participating, including: Better Homes and Gardens; Blender; BusinessWeek; Car and Driver; Conde Nast Traveler; Cosmopolitan; Country Living; Elle; Elle Girl;  Everyday with Rachael Ray; Family Circle; The Family Handyman; Food & Wine; Fortune; Golf Digest; Golf for Women; Good Housekeeping; Home; In Style; Ladies Home Journal; Maxim; Mens Health; The New Yorker; Newsweek; O at Home; O, The Oprah Magazine; Parents; Real Simple; Seventeen; Sound & Vision; Stuff; Travel + Leisure; Vanity Fair; Wired; Womans Day; and Womens Health.

Magazine Publishers of America is the industry association for consumer magazines.  Established in 1919, MPA represents more than 240 domestic publishing companies with approximately 1,400 titles, more than 80 international companies and more than 100 associate members.  Staffed by magazine industry specialists, MPA is headquartered in New York City, with an office of government affairs in Washington, DC.  For more information, visit www.magazine.org