July 6, 2006	www.magazine.org	Volume 6, Issue13

Publishers Make Final Push for Postal Reform | Digital Drivers | Four More Category Fact Sheets Bolster Magazines Ad Sales Arsenal | The Four Questions with Dan Sullivan, SVP-Group Publisher, Nickelodeon Magazine Group | September's Diversity Town Hall to Target "Vanilla Ceiling" | Theme, Initial Speakers, Early Registration Rates Set for October's AMC | Coalition Seeks Magazines' Participation in Fall Marketing Phase of "Torn Page" Campaign | Featured Magazine Jobs | Upcoming MPA Events

Publishers Make Final Push for Postal Reform

MPA's Government Affairs Council pushes for Postal Reform. (l-r) John Griffin, National Geographic Magazine; Edward Lewis, Essence Communications, Inc.; Cathie Black, Hearst Magazines; Senator Susan Collins; Senator Tom Carper; and Nina Link, MPA	As the legislative process for Postal Reform approaches the home stretch, MPA’s Government Affairs Council (GAC) met with several Congressional leaders and White House staff on June 21 in Washington, DC, to advocate for passage of the Senate version of Postal Reform, as well as to address the issues involving the Consumer Price Index and Civil Service Retirement System. Present were Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Tom Carper (D-DE), who are the Senate’s chief sponsors for Postal Reform; Representatives John McHugh (R-NY), Henry Waxman
(D-CA) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who lead Postal Reform effortsin the House. The MPA delegation also met with House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Joel Kaplan.
For a full report on the meetings, visit the Government Action section of the website.

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Digital Drivers
This is another in a series of exclusive interviews with executives responsible for leveraging their brands on digital platforms.

William Flatley VP-Chief Advertising Officer Forbes.com Bill Flatley has been VP-Chief Advertising Officer for Forbes.com since 2001, responsible for all ad sales and marketing activities worldwide. He first joined Forbes in 1989 as West Coast Manager. After relocating to New York as Advertising Director, he became VP of Advertising in 1996. He was instrumental in leading the sales teams in creating several ventures, including Forbes.com, which has its own staff and whose content is mostly original and distinct from the magazine's. Before joining Forbes, Bill worked in the Los Angeles and Chicago offices of Newsweek.

Q. What area of your website, www.forbes.com, generates the heaviest traffic?

A. It's very cyclical. It really depends on what's going on in the world of business on a given day. The stock market might be in the news. Or, around tax time, personal finance is in the news.

Q. How is the mobile marketplace shaping up for Forbes.com?

A. This week we're debuting the next-generation Forbes.com on mobile devices, with full website functionality, containing all the website's departments and channels, and full search capability.

Q. Beyond that, what do you see as the next big digital enterprise for your magazine?

A. We continue to build out video, as we've been doing for nearly four years, for everything from the Forbes "Celebrity 100" list to the World Cup. We produce more original business news video than any other publisher, as far as we know. We'd like to do more long-form video. For instance, with the Warren Buffett philanthropy story, you might see us do a 30-to-45-minute interview with him besides the short-form coverage we did, nearly nine minutes. The Buffett video, "Sweet Charity," is generating a lot of traffic for us now.

Q. How about audio? How prevalent is that on your site?

A. We have a regular series of audio podcasts. In addition, for some time now, we've offered a full audio version of the magazine. Certain applications will be superior—video plus audio will usually leapfrog the audio-only experience, except when you use audio-only to listen to something in your car or on the train.

Q. Are there other things you'd like to be doing at Forbes.com that you're not yet doing?

A. We're excited about developing more vertical content areas, areas of real specialization, for example, involving Wall Street, health care or any number of major industries where the velocity of change means that people need to keep track. We're also excited about the debut on July 7 of a new channel on the subject of leadership—covering management and strategic issues, corporate governance issues, and corporate citizenship and philanthropy, which is timely coming on the heels of the Warren Buffett/Bill Gates announcement.

Q. Hollywood Reporter recently reported that in the 2006-2007 TV and cable networks' upfront ad-sales marketplace, advertisers are looking into websites and other new platforms. Are advertisers in their magazine budgets likewise placing an increased emphasis on new media?

A. Absolutely. There's hardly an industry analyst who's not suggesting that the Internet is growing at a 25-percent-plus rate this year, or about $15 billion to $17 billion in revenues. That suggests all kinds of clients and their agencies are incorporating the web and other new-media platforms into their budgets.

Q. In a question that could become as common as "What's in your wallet?" what's on your iPod?

A. How would Bill Gates answer that? (laughs) A lot of contemporary and country music are on my iPod.

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Four More Category Fact Sheets Bolster Magazines Ad Sales Arsenal

To bolster ad sales in key categories, MPA has produced ad inserts and handouts whose fact-based research zeroes in on specific segments—namely, retail, pharmaceutical, the web and product launches. These follow the initial insert that targeted the automotive category in May.

Copy in "Retail Facts" points out that magazines increase customers' retail purchase intent more than any other medium, based on MRI fall 2005 research. Moreover, magazines drive brand favorability and purchase intent more than TV and the Internet, according to Dynamic Logic's 2006 CrossMedia Studies.

In "Pharmaceutical Facts," research proves that magazines drive doctor visits more efficiently than other media. In the Marketing Solutions/XMOS Cross Media 2005 study, for instance, magazines generated twice the number of doctor visits than TV—at a third of the cost. In addition, the Roper Reports 2006 study found that consumers regard magazines as the best source for information on improving their health.

Meant to improve the odds for successful product launches, "New Product Facts" tells prospective clients and their ad agencies that magazines effectively target consumer innovators, those people most open to new products and ideas, according to an MRI fall 2005 study.

Magazines also excel at driving web traffic and increasing purchase intent, according to "Web Facts." Magazine readers are far more likely than TV viewers to use the Internet, especially for shopping or finding out more information about products. According to the 2005 Roper Public Affairs study, when it comes to people looking to visit a manufacturer's web site, magazines are more effective than TV or radio in driving people to the web.

To see all five of these sales tools, visit www.magazine.org/adfacts. To receive hard copies of these fact sheets, e-mail your name, address and the desired quantity to promotion@magazine.org.

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The Four Questions with Dan Sullivan, SVP-Group Publisher, Nickelodeon Magazine Group
An MPA-IMAG Exclusive

As New York-based SVP-Group Publisher of Nickelodeon Magazine Group, Dan Sullivan directs all magazine publishing operations for the unit, including Nickelodeon magazine and Nick Jr. Family, both bimonthlies. The former, which launched in June 1993 with a 150,000 rate base, has grown to a rate base of 1,075,000, while Nick Jr., begun in October 1999 with a 300,000 rate base, has since risen to 1,150,000. Nickelodeon's primary audience are kids aged 6-14, and Nick Jr.'s are mothers

with kids up to 11 years old. Sullivan also led MTV Networks' entry into the online arena with the "Nickelodeon" and "Nick at Nite" sites on AOL and the Internet. Earlier in his career, he was General Manager of Us Weekly and VP of Manufacturing and Distribution for Rolling Stone.

Q. The Nickelodeon brand's on everything from toys and theme parks to hotels and your spin-off Nick Jr. What's next?

A. Digital content continues to get bigger. The philosophy behind Nickelodeon is that we want to be everything for kids, to be in all aspects of their lives. In magazines, we do personalized digital magazines, as well as a couple of special issues for sale at newsstand and through kids' club memberships that feature "SpongeBob SquarePants," "The Fairly Odd Parents," and "Blue's Clues."

Q. Nickelodeon and MTV were among the cable networks that originated back in the day—circa 1977—on Time Warner's Qube cable system in Columbus, Ohio. Did you think that experiment would have resulted in Nick's becoming the multi-platform empire it is today?

A. What's always driven Nickelodeon fundamentally is that we try to be incredibly creative and keep our finger on the pulse of what our audience cares about. We do research almost every day, whether it's focus groups or school visits by our editors. That's helped us stay current with what kids care about. And we're always coming up with new ideas—3-D covers, lenticular covers and different paper stocks like comic book paper for our "Comic Book" section.

Q. Comic books occasionally have published match-ups like "Superman versus Spider-Man," a DC Comics/Marvel Comics project back in the '70s. And in recent years there was talk at Warner Bros. about a Superman vs. Batman flick. Might you in the comic section of Nickelodeon magazine do, say, SpongeBob versus Renny & Stimpy or Jimmy Neutron vs. Jonny Quest?

A. We already do a very successful matchup in our "Power Hour" comic feature, with genius Jimmy Neutron paired with Timmy Turner from "The Fairly Odd Parents" [a smart 10-year-old with fairy godparents]. We did the second one last February and the next one is coming soon. (Click here to view a video version.)

Q. Have you published an expose yet on the secret ingredients in the "green slime" so prominent at your theme parks and at the Kids' Choice Awards?

A. It wasn't an expose, but we actually did publish that in one of our earlier issues, probably five years ago. It was a pull-out card containing the recipe for slime cake and that was one of our most popular features.

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September's Diversity Town Hall to Target "Vanilla Ceiling"

The next MPA Diversity Town Hall—due September 14—will focus on "Breaking Through the Vanilla Ceiling."

After the event's on-site registration/check-in, starting at 2:30 p.m., panelists will tackle such topics as the current state of diversity in the media and the consequences of staying the same. They will also discuss the benefits of change and offer pointers on diversifying magazine staffs.

One panelist, Joseph Gibbons, Diversity Consultant at FutureWorks Institute, will discuss best practices, tools and takeaways. Jacklyn Monk, Deputy Managing Editor at Real Simple, will serve as moderator for the panel. A Q&A segment will follow.

MPA will host a networking cocktail reception as of 5 p.m. The event will take place at Harmonie Club, at 4 East 60th Street in Manhattan. Admission is $30 per person for MPA/ASME members and $45 apiece for non-members.

For further information, contact Shaunice Hawkins, Director of Diversity Development at MPA, at (212) 872-3775 or via email at shawkins@magazine.org.

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Theme, Initial Speakers, Early Registration Rates Set for October's AMC

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Coalition Seeks Magazines' Participation in Fall Marketing Phase of "Torn Page " Campaign

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