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Time Inc. to honor the Big Easy

Beth Gaston Moon — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:33:00 EST

Filed under: Magazines, Time Warner (TWX), Media World

Nearly two years ago - August 29, 2005, to be precise - Hurricane Katrina made landfall in southeast Louisiana. The subsequent breach of the New Orleans levees left about 80% of the Crescent City flooded and caused tragic loss of life.

100 weeks later, New Orleans and the surrounding areas are slowly but surely rebuilding. The site of Zapp's potato chips in specialty grocery stores across the country is certainly a good sign for me personally. Tourism remains a critical element to the venerable city's recovery so please remember to spend money if you happen to be in the region ... and buy locally.

Time Inc. - the magazine publishing arm of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) - is paying tribute to New Orleans this month, with 10 of its magazines featuring articles about New Orleans. A Time cover story argues that the same bureaucratic mistakes are being made to shield the city against future storms. Essence follows up with 3 New Orleans families interviewed in 2005. Fortune looks at the economic state of the city and the impact of two years' worth of relief funds. Even Entertainment Weekly features a look at the Big Easy, featuring personal photos from R.E.M. lead singer MIchael Stipe, whose band recently released the song "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1."

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Time Inc. to honor the Big Easy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Time magazine's facelift

Jon Ogg — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:10:00 EST

Filed under: Newspapers, Magazines, Internet, Blogs, Time Warner (TWX), Tribune Co. (TRB)

Time magazine is debuting on shelves across the nation with its new look and its new streamlined layout. The magazine will not only have larger headlines and more photos, but more bullet points and visual aides too with the goal of showing a different aspect of stories than its traditional longer articles. Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX), the magazine's parent, has already cut jobs in the Time unit and is planning more cuts in an effort to improve the magazine operations. Time magazine is one of the magazines Time Warner is keeping, even after its recent magazine sales.

Time is also going to have more cross promotional activities in print to online and vice versa, or so the previews have indicated. The overall comparisons can't be made yet because, well, the future hasn't happened. Old Media has definitely been making attempts to be hipper and more aggressive compared to years past.

Web 2.0 is something that Old Media companies have had to embrace whether they liked it or not. If you don't agree, go ask Tribune Co. (NYSE:TRB) and other newspaper and broadcast companies about their focus over the last 18 months. All of them will say it has been on capitalizing off the internet while trying to maintain traditional media operations with each company having a different focus such as user-generated content (blogs or video), online ad sales, print exclusives, online exclusives and the like.

This is not the first change in media by a long shot, but it does mark a strategic change that you can bet every other media company is watching closely.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Time magazine's facelift originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Time Warner's magazines, no big year here

Douglas McIntyre — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:02:00 EST

Filed under: Products and Services, Magazines, Time Warner (TWX), Marketing and Advertising

The Publishers Information Bureau of The Magazine Publishers of America tracks magazine revenue and advertising pages each month. The study covers all major magazines and weekly newspaper inserts.

PIB, as it is called in the industry, takes gross pages and multiplies them by published rates for advertising pages by magazine. So, discounting is not reflected in the numbers. Assuming that the market makes all major magazine discount at about the same rate, the numbers are good from a directional standpoint.

In the period from January to July 2006 compared to the same period in 2005, the larger magazines at Time, Inc. did not do terribly well, and indication that revenue and operating profits at the group may not be strong for the second half of the year. With the costs of postage, ink, and transportation rising, mostly due to higher oil prices, margins will be squeezed unless revenue is rising smartly.

In the seven month period, Sports Illustrated ad revenue was up .9% to $346 million. Ad pages for SI were flat.

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