WSJ's New Glossy, Pursuits, to Go Global

WSJ's New Glossy, Pursuits, to Go Global
Along with U.S. Debut Next September, Distribution Added in Europe, Asia
By Nat Ives
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=122258

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The Wall Street Journal has decided to expand the scope of Pursuits, the glossy magazine it plans to introduce next September, by adding distribution in Europe and Asia. In addition to the 800,000 copies planned for Journal subscribers in the United States, Pursuits is expected to be inserted in about 80,000 copies each of the Europe and Asia editions, for a total circulation of 960,000.

The Journal already publishes glossies in Europe and Asia, but they'll be replaced by the Pursuits brand.

"Because of the robust advertiser response, we have made the decision to launch Pursuits as a global publication that will appear in all editions of the Journal worldwide," the company told employees in a memo from L. Gordon Crovitz, the Journal's publisher, and Michael F. Rooney, chief revenue officer at the paper's parent, Dow Jones & Co.

In an interview, Mr. Rooney seemed unsure why Pursuits was originally conceived for just the U.S. "We just started to think about it domestically to begin with," he said. "We discussed it in the hallways, talking about clients here domestically."

Single glossy brand

The Journal already publishes a glossy in Europe called Style Journal and another in Asia called Weekend, but Mr. Rooney said plans call for Pursuits to replace them, establishing a single glossy brand for the Journal around the world.

"So many of our advertisers are global," he said. "For us to use this franchise wherever they sell product is a unique opportunity for us."

News Corp. is set to complete its takeover of Dow Jones, an acquisition that was avidly pursued by its CEO, Rupert Murdoch, earlier this year. Mr. Murdoch said one of his plans to improve the company was to introduce a glossy magazine to the Journal.

A Good Mystery: Why We Read

A Good Mystery: Why We Read
By MOTOKO RICH

PERHAPS the most fantastical story of the year was not "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," but "The Uncommon Reader," a novella by Alan Bennett that imagines the queen of England suddenly becoming a voracious reader late in life.

At a time when books appear to be waging a Sisyphean battle against the forces of MySpace, YouTube and "American Idol," the notion that someone could move so quickly from literary indifference to devouring passion seems, sadly, far-fetched.

The problem was underscored last week when the National Endowment for the Arts delivered the sobering news that Americans - particularly teenagers and young adults - are reading less for fun. At the same time, reading scores among those who read less are declining, and employers are proclaiming workers deficient in basic reading comprehension skills.

So that's the bad news. But is all hope gone, or will people still be drawn to the literary landscape? And what is it, exactly, that turns someone into a book lover who keeps coming back for more?

There is no empirical answer. If there were, more books would sell as well as the "Harry Potter" series or "The Da Vinci Code." The gestation of a true, committed reader is in some ways a magical process, shaped in part by external forces but also by a spark within the imagination. Having parents who read a lot helps, but is no guarantee. Devoted teachers and librarians can also be influential. But despite the proliferation of book groups and literary blogs, reading is ultimately a private act. "Why people read what they read is a great unknown and personal thing," said Sara Nelson, editor in chief of the trade magazine Publishers Weekly.

In some cases, asking someone to explain why they read is to invite an elegant rationalization. Junot Díaz, the author of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," vividly recalls stumbling into a mobile library shortly after his family emigrated from the Dominican Republic to New Jersey when he was 6 years old. He checked out a Richard Scarry picture book, a collection of 19th-century American wilderness paintings and a bowdlerized version of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sign of Four."

So what about those three titles turned him into someone who is crazy for books? "I could create a narrative explaining the creation myth of my reading frenzy," Mr. Díaz said. "But in some ways it's just provisional. I feel like it's a mystery what makes us vulnerable to certain practices and not to others."

Such caveats aside, there are some clues as to what might transform someone into an enduring reader.

"The Uncommon Reader" posits the theory that the right book at the right time can ignite a lifelong habit. (For the fictional queen, it's Nancy Mitford's "Pursuit of Love.") This is a romantic ideal that persists among many a bibliophile.

"It can be like a drug in a positive way," said Daniel Goldin, general manager of the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee. "If you get the book that makes the person fall in love with reading, they want another one."

Most often, that experience occurs in childhood. In "The Child That Books Built," Francis Spufford, a British journalist and critic, writes of how "the furze of black marks between 'The Hobbit' grew lucid, and released a dragon," turning him into "an addict."

But what makes that one book a trigger for continuous reading? For some, it's the discovery that a book's character is like you, or thinks and feels like you. In accepting the National Book Award for young people's literature for "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" earlier this month, Sherman Alexie thanked Ezra Jack Keats, author of "The Snowy Day," a classic picture book. "It was the first time I looked at a book and saw a brown, black, beige character - a character who resembled me physically and resembled me spiritually, in all his gorgeous loneliness and splendid isolation," Mr. Alexie, a Spokane Indian who grew up on a reservation, told the audience.

In an interview, Mr. Alexie said "The Snowy Day" transformed him from someone who read regularly into a true bookhound. "I really think it's the age at which you find that book that you really identify with that determines the rest of your reading life," Mr. Alexie said. "The younger you are when you do that, the more likely you're going to be a serious reader. It really is about finding yourself in a book."

Of course that doesn't account for reading for information, enlightenment or practical advice. And for others, it's not so much identification as the embrace of the Other that draws them into reading. "It's that excitement of trying to discover that unknown world," said Azar Nafisi, the author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran," the best-selling memoir about a book group she led in Iran.

Sometimes the world of reading is opened up by a book that goes down easy. Mr. Bennett said he chose "The Pursuit of Love" for his fictional queen because it happened to be the first adult novel that he read for pleasure. He said that for him, as with the queen's character, the book was a stepping off point into more heavyweight literature. "There are all sorts of entrances that you can get into reading by reading what might at first seem trash," Mr. Bennett said.

And certain books that become phenomena - like those in the Harry Potter series or "The Da Vinci Code" or, to a slightly lesser extent most books recommended for Oprah Winfrey's book club - can, in tempting people to read in the first place, create habitual readers. Perhaps more often, however, those readers just wait for the next "hot" book.

Indeed, even after Ms. Winfrey recommends a title, sales of other books by the same author don't necessarily match those of the book that bears her imprimatur. "What I find with readers today is they don't go off on their own to another book," said Jonathan Galassi, publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. "They wait for the next recommendation."

It may also be that for some, reading is a pursuit that, like ballet or baseball, simply requires practice. "I think for a lot of people, reading is just something you do," said Paula Brehm Heeger, president of the Young Adult Library Services Association. "And you eventually realize that you really like it."

Book sales in general are growing only slightly: According to the Book Industry Study Group, a publishing trade association, the number of books sold last year, 3.1 billion, was up just 0.5 percent from a year earlier.

The question of whether reading, or reading books in particular, is essential is complicated by the fact that part of what draws people to books can now be found elsewhere - and there is only so much time to consume it all.

Readers who want to know they are not alone are finding reflections of themselves in the confessional blogs sprouting across the Internet. And television shows like "The Sopranos" or "Lost" can satisfy the hunger for narrative and richly textured characters in a way that only books could in a previous age.

But books have outlived many death knells, and are likely to keep doing so. "I'm much more optimistic than I think most people are," Mr. Díaz said. Reading suffers, he said, because it has to compete unfairly with movies, television shows and electronic gadgets whose marketing budgets far outstrip those of publishers. "Books don't have billion-dollar publicity behind them," Mr. Díaz said. "Given the fact that books don't have that, they're not doing a bad job."

"To Read or Not to Read"

"To Read or Not to Read"
Poor readers big losers in job market
BY Sonya Neufeld

THE LESS time you spend with your nose in a book, the worse your reading ability gets, "alarming" new research shows.

The US-based National Endowment for the Arts collated statistics from more than 40 studies on the reading habits of Americans in a new study called "To Read or Not to Read", issued last week.

It found that, on average, Americans aged 15 to 24 spent nearly two hours a day watching television and only seven minutes of their free time reading.

According to the NEA, American 15-year-olds ranked 15th in average reading scores for 31 industrialised nations, behind Canada, Ireland, Korea, Finland, Sweden and Poland.

Australian 15-year-olds came fourth.

The percentage of even the best-educated adults, who attended college and had been rated proficient in reading prose, slipped by 20 per cent from 1992 to 2003.

When it comes to looking for a job, that's bad news. A survey in the report revealed that nearly three-quarters of employers who were polled rated "reading comprehension" as "very important" for workers with two-year college degrees and nearly 90 per cent said the same for graduates of four-year degrees.


In his preface to the 99-page report, NEA chairman Dana Gioia described the data as "simple, consistent and alarming".

He said it revealed a "disturbing" pattern. "As Americans, especially young Americans, read less, they read less well," he said.

"Because they read less well, they have lower levels of academic achievement.

"With lower levels of reading and writing ability, people do less well in the job market.
"Poor reading skills correlate heavily with lack of employment, lower wages and fewer opportunities for advancement."

Prisoners had significantly worse reading skills than other adults, and "deficient readers" were less likely to become active in civic and cultural life, most notably in volunteerism and voting.

The research showed that daily reading "overwhelmingly" correlated with better reading skills and higher academic achievement, boosting the likelihood of economic success.
Mr Gioia said the study confirmed the "central importance" of reading for a "prosperous, free society".

"[It] is not an elegy for the bygone days of print culture, but instead is a call to action not only for parents, teachers, librarians, writers and publishers, but also for politicians, business leaders, economists, and social activists."

Why we're killing ourselves to save print magazines

Why we're killing ourselves to save print magazines
By Raymond Roker
http://www.urb.com/features/433/DoomsdayDevices.php

I promised myself that I wouldn't get too sentimental as I write my 150th issue Diatribe. And just as that self-imposed moratorium left me to assemble a list of unemotional, but interesting factoids and historical anecdotes, I got an all-too-familiar piece of electronically delivered news: Print is doomed!

Here's how the future of print was summed up in the article:

"Print as a medium will ultimately fade away, just as parchment became paper, the typewriter gave way to the pc, and the waxed cylinder morphed into the record, then the compact disc, and now the digital download. The first to go will be newspapers, but over time magazines and even books will follow. And not only will they be distributed digitally (read: without paper), and accessed through a variety of devices - some mobile, some not - they will most likely be free. Not this year or next, maybe not even within the span of a decade, but surely in our lifetime. Your trusty copy of The New York Times that stains your hands with ink, your Vanity Fair with Leo DiCaprio on the cover, your dog-eared copy of the bestseller Skinny Bitch will all become museum pieces, bought and sold on eBay as collectibles, or tossed into landfills." -Adam L. Penenberg, Media Magazine, October 2007

But wait, I love magazines! I love print, period. These days, this plaintiff declaration is like saying "I love album art." Nobody, besides our friends at the exquisite-but also doomed-Wax Poetics, can hear your screams. As a fan of record sleeve art, you can cite all the intrinsic lore, the romance, the vital role it plays in user experience, blah, blah, blah. All the while, as you drone on about the classic 12" works of wonder, somebody's downloading another tiny JPEG of 'album art' into their iTunes. And the beat goes on. Virtually.

But, ****; I really love magazines. I mean I know the industry is hurting right now. Hell, URB surely isn't immune to the bruising. Advertising revenues for 99% of the magazines out there have declined (some, dramatically) and newsstand sales have dropped too. This year alone saw FHM, Stuff, Scratch, and a bunch of others you've never heard of, all shut down. Web 2.0 is the new, new media, and people are spending more time with texting than reading text. 20th Century ink on paper just isn't as "sexy" to a lot of people, not the least of which are the advertisers who pay for me to even have a page to spill on. The magazine industry, like record labels, has already seen its best days. And like passengers on a sinking ship, all civil order has broken down and competition for life vests is fierce.

But I can't be bothered with all of this conventional wisdom and unimaginative doom and gloom. And like the cooler edges of the music industry, independent magazine publishers are creatively staving off their demise with innovation, perseverance and gravitas. We are a resilient bunch, if not downright bullheaded. I'm not arguing the facts or even the future, but, today, I'm more excited about print-and this magazine-than I have been in a long while.

Of course, I'm biased. I'm a voracious consumer of all things paper. I fuel up at a newsstand like some commuter junkie at a Starbucks, easily dropping $80 at a time on gorgeous bound journals I never get time to read. But touch them, I do. I lay them on my coffee table or file them into plastic holders. I let them pile up on my nightstand and shove grotesque amounts of them into my carry-on luggage. I treat them like artwork and they take up more room in my house than clothes. I flip the pages, feel the coating of the cover. Gawk at the images, the headline fonts, and detailed illustrations. I go to my happy place and shoot up the lush pulpy pages like I might never get high again.

Note: I doubt most of you share this level of affection, and that's OK. The fact that you're even 600 words into this rant let's me know that you at least get a little tingle at the local Barnes & Noble newsstand. So what's keeping print so inventive and refreshed these days?

Definitely, part of the surge is that there's blood in the water. And that's a good thing. Weak publications are thankfully retiring and making room for genetically stronger breeds . . . hell, mutts! Opportunistic and dispassionate publishers are steering clear of print entirely. Culturally deaf and dumb-downed titles are imploding. And after several years of denial, many in the industry are finally embracing the Web as an ally to their editorial missions.

There's nothing better than a technological mugging to get your head straight. The first dotcom onslaught was a de facto war against print. But the rise of Web 2.0 has actually given magazine publishers new creative license, allowing us to actually be less disposable than before-even in the era of Facebook and Twitter. Everybody from stalwart monthlies to esoteric quarterlies are getting tricked out with new paper stocks, die cut covers, limited edition versions and metallic inks-none of which look good on an LCD monitor. Not to mention the most meaningful evolution: dramatic new takes on content and editorial packaging (You have to have noticed it with us).

Mass is dead, but so is niche. Localism is the new global. All-you-can-eat megazines are calcifying. But discerning curatorial adventures and brave points of view have become print's inoculation-at least temporarily-against the algorithmic efficiency and "long tail" (Google it) of the digital world.

Is this all just the last ditch throes of a Jurassic medium about to go the way of hip-house? Personally, I think it's more than simply sheer preservation, but who cares. At this moment, magazines are alive, fighting and kicking, and the reader is the beneficiary. From Journal (a soft spoken chance find picked up at a bodega in the East Village) to Good (a sharp, fast-rising noble effort by a trust fund kid), to Colors (doing for Skate culture what Wax Poetics does for music), to Metropolis (big, bold, beautiful manmade objects), and numerous others titles I devour, I've been inspired on each recent trip to the newsstand and mailbox. And if I'm drinking ink-colored Kool-Aid at the table of the industry's Final Supper, pass me another glass.

Which brings me to us. In your hands-and OK, maybe soon, on your iPhone-you hold URB's 150th issue. I could fill an entire edition with the triumphs, tears and ambition that got us this far, but I'll save that for my blog or an e-book I'll feel compelled to write someday. In the meantime, we're here. Still. And for all those who say print is doomed, that's just music to my ears.

Digital Future: Ideas Wanted

Digital Future: Ideas Wanted
by Diane Mermigas
http://blogs.mediapost.com/on_media/?p=46

It sounds dramatic to declare "The End of Advertising As We Know It," but the title of a new report from IBM Global Business Services is hardly an overstatement. It's more like a documented warning of what should be heeded (and isn't) without the specific guides and models for change that are so desperately needed.

The report provides a laser-like focus on radical change in advertising and all aspects of media already underway that has prompted more discussion than action. Based on the findings of a global survey of 2,400 customers and 80 advertising executives, in connection with Bonn University's Center for Evaluation and Methods, the report identifies four advertising scenarios that will likely prevail within five years.

With Google's ad auction-based ad sales and placement already a model, the report predicts advertising inventory will increasingly be bought and sold through more efficient open exchanges. More marketing will be matched specifically with consumers who are more receptive to and in need of the pitched products and services to maximize ROI. Precise measurement of consumer response to specific ads and companies will determine effective pricing as users monitor and respond to the full spectrum of technologies. Those three scenarios are givens.

The report's fourth scenario is debatable: the one-to-many model continues to dominate, but the industry evolves in response to widespread use of DVRs and the popularity of user-generated and peer-distributed content.

More likely, time-shifted recycling of content will be built into all media devices and players that will make the DVR obsolete. The one-to-many model will likely dissipate faster than anyone expects for purely statistical reasons. Advertisers will not be able to justify throwing the majority of their dollars into mass-market impression-based media when they can quantify and qualify consumer connections they can continue to mine.

As is often the case with sweeping survey-based summaries, the latest IBM report is sprinkled with too many gee-whiz statements about media realities. Things like: as users migrate to new screens for content and information, advertisers will have to shift as well. Survey respondents overwhelmingly confirm they expect radical changes in advertising over the next five years. However, the report's lack of feedback on particulars-such as the design, direction, pricing, placement, measurement of and consumer interaction with advertising-underscores a de facto thesis. Media executives, advertisers, agencies, measurement firms and even consumers are not prepared to capitalize on the transformation underway.

At the same time, the report and survey results smack of a reluctance to let go of the traditional ways of doing things. For instance, two-thirds of the executives surveyed expect 20% of advertiser spending to shift from impression-based to impact-based formats in three years. Economic imperatives could make for a faster, bigger shift that will sap the revenue base of incumbent, traditional content distributors and aggregators, the report states.

In other instances, the survey reflects that respondents expect short-term dramatic change, but are not prepared for dealing with it. More than half of the ad executives interviewed said they expect new open ad platforms over the next five years to take 30% of the revenues currently flowing to broadcasters. That will likely bring an end to the broadcast networks' advertising upfront sales. Considering broadcasters' dependence on advertising revenues, which also are threatened by declining television ratings and media fragmentation, that is an alarming development.

Also within five years, a majority of advertising executives expect 15% of television viewing time and 25% of PC time to be devoted to user-generated content-dictating an entirely new approach to direct, interactive marketing and commerce. Details about the survey responses in an accompanying discussion document are interesting, and confirm what media players know or suspect. TV is increasingly becoming a secondary background medium, compared to Internet activities and playing online games.

The more important questions the report raises are about the future role of ad agencies and consumer response to new forms of marketing that interrupts or accompanies their online information and communications.

In some cases, the report's questions are misguided. It asks: "Do advertising industry players have the customer analytics needed to better understand and reach target customers?" Instead, the more pointed question is what specific analytics and metrics should be provided to help advertisers connect with and measure their interaction with targeted consumers. Where should they be sourced? Accurate, appropriate measurement is the most urgent issue confronting advertisers, media companies and even consumers seeking to redefine the value of marketing.

Simply referring to the fact that set-top boxes, portable devices and other head end-based hardware-as well as software technology and companies such as Nielsen Media and TiVo-are enabling improved targeting, tracking and response capabilities across all media formats just doesn't cut it anymore. A short list of companies dabbling in change would be more meaningful if the report examined their news business models and modified old ways.

The report identifies the need for content owners and broadcasters, distributors, ad agencies and advertisers to innovate creative, interactive connections with consumers; new business models and redesign company infrastructures. These are necessary tasks we have been mindful of for years, and we're still lacking concrete ideas on how they can be accomplished. Now that everyone has bought into digital interactivity, we need templates for change.

And that's where the best intended research and surveys fall short. Media players and advertisers are desperate for concrete ideas, business models, creative formats. They need a road map on how to alter their existing infrastructures, operations and processes to accommodate the new digital ways. They need particulars to help them construct personalized solutions. Too many pricey consultants are still dealing in generalities, not specifics.

The IBM report offers a fine summary and point of discussion of what we know. But it's also a stark reminder of what we don't know-and what we need to do in order to become participants in digital change rather than mere observers.

Headache for publishers as men ditch mags for Web

Headache for publishers as men ditch mags for Web
By Gavin Haycock

BARCELONA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Leading European publishers are coming to terms with what teenage boys and men have known for years -- the Web beats magazines in grabbing their eyeballs.

Magazine publishers such as London-based media group Emap , Germany's Axel Springer and France's Lagardere have seen a split growing in their magazine assets -- those for women are surging while men's magazines droop.

"They are a casualty of the Internet. That is for sure," Dominique D'Hinnin, Chief Financial Officer of French media group Lagardere told investors at a Morgan Stanley technology, media and telecoms conference on Thursday.

"It is men's magazines that I am talking about, magazines with women with not too many clothes," he said.

Steffan Naumann, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Axel Springer said segments such as those catering for women are growing, "but in Germany, certainly not the men's market category".

On Tuesday, London-based Emap said first-half underlying revenue in its consumer magazines division fell 6 percent.

However, this masked a strong performance by its women's weekly titles such as Grazia, Heat and Closer which grew 6 percent. Emap blamed a 14 percent slump in its portfolio of monthly magazines on weakness in men's titles.

D'Hinnin said publishers like Lagardere were dealing with the trend by shifting their investment plans and looking at Internet options.

Lagardere has pulled back from new launches outside of emerging markets while investing in places like China and Russia where magazine growth rates can be 30 percent, he said.

It means that although men's magazines can and do still make money, publishers also have to decide if they should sell assets or reposition themselves in digital media by building Web sites that primarily focus on content such as fishing, golf and cars.

D'Hinnin said Lagardere was currently considering such options within declining segments of the male-focused magazine market -- such as those with scantily clad women.

"We think it was killed by YouTube where you can find thi

The 20 Best Magazine Publishing Companies to Work For

The 20 Best Magazine Publishing Companies to Work For
http://www.pubexec.com/

1. McMurry Inc.
2. Wells Publishing Inc.
3. Rodale Inc.
4. Corry Publishing Inc.
5. Meredith Corp.
6. Consumers Union
7. BowTie Inc.
8. Bauer Publishing U.S.
9. Reed Business Information
10. International Data Group (IDG)
11. Scholastic Inc.
12. The Taunton Press
13. Ascend Media
14. Meister Media Worldwide
15. Time Inc./Time Warner
16. F+W Publications Inc.
17. Bonnier Corp.
18. Crain Communications Inc.
19. Advanstar Communications Inc.
20. SourceMedia Inc.

A Closer Look at the Top Companies
http://www.pubexec.com/story/story.bsp?sid=82005&var=story
Most of us have worked for a company that, as one respondent to Publishing Executive's "Best Magazine Publishing Companies to Work For" study put it, "is a god-awful place to work." If you haven't, you can count yourself among the lucky few. Sometimes the cause is simple: Some companies just don't know how to treat employees. But especially today, when "do more with less" is the edict of virtually all publishing departments, burnout and feelings of under-appreciation are rampant. In companies that don't make their employees' happiness a priority, these feelings can spread like a plague. The companies that ranked in the top 20 of Publishing Executive's "Best Magazine Publishing Companies to Work For," however, have rated highly among their employees for overall job satisfaction and can help unhappy job-seekers see where the grass might be greener. The company profiles can also help other companies' management see what employees consider a positive work environment and help them make improvements at their own companies.

Each company that was nominated by its employees was rated based on a number of different factors, such as pride in company performance and reputation; fairness and openness of company management; workload; and respect for employees' personal lives, among others. The profiles below show how each company ranked for certain factors. For example, some companies ranked highest in "respect for employee personal life," but may have ranked lower for "satisfying benefits package."

So, depending on what your priorities are, you might find a company more appealing if it has a lower "benefits" ranking, but a higher ranking for personal-professional-life balance. Or, maybe you want a company with a great benefits package and lots of growth opportunity. The profiles below can help you evaluate each company's performance rating in each area, as well as to see some specific reasons why employees' felt their companies were great companies to work for.

1 McMurry Inc.
Phoenix; Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
www.McMurry.com
A full-service marketing communications company that serves clients such as Amtrak, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., Blue Cross of Idaho, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, MADD and GlaxoSmithKline, among others. Its custom media titles, with 60 million copies produced annually for more than 235 corporate customers, reach across the country and nearly every continent.

➜Overall Rating Score: 95.2

Company size: Medium

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 9.7 (out of 10)
Overall Job Satisfaction: 9.5
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 9.9
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 9.7

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 9.6
Fair, Open Management Style: 9.4
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 9.6
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 9.8

Personal Benefits (Overall): 9.2
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 9.1
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 9.3
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.0

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• great teamwork, camaraderie
• strong value-driven system that employees believe in
• management trusts and shares openly with employees
• excellent benefits, hard work is rewarded

2 Wells Publishing Inc.
San Diego (corporate office); Kyle, Texas (national editorial office)
www.WellsPublishing.com
Wells Publishing Inc. is the parent company of Insurance Journal and "Claims Guides" for the insurance industry. Founded in 1923, Insurance Journal (along with InsuranceJournal.com) is the nation's leading source for news and information on property and casualty insurance, according to the company. It has five regional publications offering news coverage nationwide. ClaimsJournal.com is an online property and casualty claims news and data resource center built by the creators of InsuranceJournal.com.

➜Overall Rating Score: 93.3

Company size: Small

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 9.7
Overall Job Satisfaction: 9.6
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 9.9
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 9.6

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 9.3
Fair, Open Management Style: 9.3
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 9.2
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 9.4

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.8
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 7.7
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 9.7
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.2

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• employees are given autonomy to be creative
• flexible environment
• family environment where people are recognized

3 Rodale Inc.
Emmaus, Pa. (headquarters); New York
www.Rodale.com
Rodale publishes content in health, fitness and wellness, reaching more than 70 million people around the world through its media properties, trade books, online subscription properties and integrated marketing solutions. Rodale publishes some of the best-known health and wellness lifestyle magazines, including Men's Health, Prevention, Women's Health, Runner's World, Best Life, Bicycling, Running Times, Organic Gardening and Mountain Bike. It also publishes books on health, fitness, cooking, gardening, spirituality, nature, the environment and more.

➜Overall Rating Score: 93.2

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 9.8
Overall Job Satisfaction: 9.5
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 10.0
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 9.8

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 9.1
Fair, Open Management Style: 8.6
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 9.8
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 8.8

Personal Benefits (Overall): 9.4
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 8.7
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 9.7
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.8

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• great mission, pride in company products
• free gym, flexible work schedule
• good benefits
• family environment where people help each other grow personally and professionally

4 Corry Publishing Inc.
Erie, Pa.
www.CorryPub.com
Launched in May 1980 with three employees, Corry Publishing today has 70+ employees and publishes three national trade magazines for the IT industry: Business Solutions, Integrated Solutions and Integrated Solutions for Retailers. In 2006, the company's gross annual revenue exceeded $12 million.

➜Overall Rating Score: 89.3

Company size: Medium

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 9.5
Overall Job Satisfaction: 9.2
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 9.5
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 9.8

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 9.0
Fair, Open Management Style: 8.4
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 9.6
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 8.9

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.9
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 7.6
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 8.3
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.3

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• talented, hardworking staff
• teamwork environment
• pride in quality of company's products

5 Meredith Corp.
Des Moines, Iowa (headquarters); New York; Chicago; Los Angeles; San Francisco
www.Meredith.com
A media and marketing company with businesses centering on magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, integrated marketing and interactive media. Meredith publishes magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, and approximately 200 special-interest publications. It has approximately 400 books in print and established marketing relationships with some of America's leading companies, including The Home Depot, DIRECTV and Wal-Mart.

➜Overall Rating Score: 88.9

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 9.5
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.7
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 10.0
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 9.8

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 8.2
Fair, Open Management Style: 8.3
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 7.6
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 8.9

Personal Benefits (Overall): 9.1
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 8.3
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 9.7
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.1

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• employees are valued
• opportunities for advancement
• supportive environment

6 Consumers Union
Yonkers, N.Y.
www.ConsumersUnion.org
An expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just and safe marketplace for all consumers. Consumers Union publishes Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org in addition to two newsletters, with combined subscriptions of more than 7 million. It also publishes a number of trade books and consumer guides. The organization generates more than $160 million in revenue.

➜Overall Rating Score: 88.3

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 9.3
Overall Job Satisfaction: 9.3
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 9.3
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 9.1

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 8.3
Fair, Open Management Style: 8.3
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 8.0
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 8.7

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.9
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 8.3
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 9.0
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.3

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• pride in the company's success, mission and integrity
• 13 paid holidays
• employees can buy test products at significant discounts
• free employee fitness center

7 BowTie Inc.
New York; Chicago; Los Angeles; Irvine, Calif.; Honolulu; Lexington, Ky.
www.BowTieInc.com
BowTie Inc. is the largest publisher of pet magazines such as Cat Fancy and Dog Fancy, as well as the AnimalNetwork.com Web site. Its BowTie Press division publishes Kennel Club Books and animal care books, among many others.

➜Overall Rating Score: 87.7

Company size: Medium/large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.9
Overall Job Satisfaction: 9.3
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 8.8
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 8.7

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 8.7
Fair, Open Management Style: 8.1
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 9.8
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 8.1

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.5
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 8.4
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 9.3
Satisfying Benefits Package: 8.4

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• company strives for employees' professional growth, shares knowledge
• opportunity for advancement
• job security

8 Bauer Publishing U.S.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J. (editorial); New York (advertising sales main office)
www.BauerPublishing.com
Headquartered in Hamburg, The Bauer Publishing Group is the largest publisher in Germany with 35 magazines; the company has grown into a worldwide media empire comprising 120 magazines in 13 countries, as well as TV and radio stations. Bauer U.S. consists of magazines in three distinct markets: women's, teen and entertainment, including Woman's World, InTouch Weekly, Life & Style Weekly and First for Women.

➜Overall Rating Score: 86.3

Company size: Medium/large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.7
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.5
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 8.5
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 9.1

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 8.4
Fair, Open Management Style: 8.2
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 9.3
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 7.6

Personal Benefits (Overall): 9.1
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 9.0
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 9.7
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.3

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• pride in company's growth/success
• lack of office politics

9 Reed Business Information
New York (headquarters)
www.ReedBusiness.com
The largest business-to-business publisher in the United States, serving the media, manufacturing, electronics, construction and retail industries with more than 80 b-to-b publications, 55 webzines and Web portals, custom publishing, directories, how-to books, research and direct-marketing lists. Reed Business Information (formerly Cahners Business Information) is a business unit of Reed Business, the b-to-b division of Reed Elsevier.

➜Overall Rating Score: 83.5

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 9.0
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.8
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 9.4
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 8.7

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 8.0
Fair, Open Management Style: 7.5
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 8.3
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 8.3

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.5
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 7.0
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 8.4
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.7

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• great benefits package
• encouraging environment
• forward-thinking management
• employees feel their contributions are valued

10 International Data Group (IDG)
Boston (headquarters)
www.IDG.com
A technology, media and event company with a global network of Web sites, publications, events and research services. Founded in 1964, IDG has become a multibillion-dollar company with more than 13,000 employees worldwide. Today, IDG is the largest technology media, event management and research company in the world, reaching more than 140 million technology buyers in 85 countries. In the United States, it publishes Computerworld, CSO Magazine, GamePro, Network World and PC World, among others.

➜Overall Rating Score: 83.3

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.5
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.3
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 8.2
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 8.9

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 8.3
Fair, Open Management Style: 7.6
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 8.4
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 8.9

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.6
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 8.0
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 8.3
Satisfying Benefits Package: 8.9

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• supportive, team environment
• good benefits package

11 Scholastic Inc.
New York (headquarters)
www.Scholastic.com
The world's largest publisher and distributor of products for use in school and at home, including children's books, more than 25 magazines for pre-K through high school-aged children, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming, film, videos and toys.

➜Overall Rating Score: 82.8

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.4
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.2
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 8.7
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 8.2

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 8.4
Fair, Open Management Style: 7.8
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 10.0
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 7.3

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.4
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 7.6
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 9.7
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.3

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• learning and advancement opportunities
• staff committed to and proud of mission of helping children read and learn
• flexible to employees' needs and schedules

12 The Taunton Press
Newtown, Conn. (headquarters)
www.Taunton.com
A privately held, family-run publishing company that provides information and inspiration on the house and home, including home building and design, gardening, woodworking, fiber arts and cooking. Publishes books (such as "The Face of Home" and "Organizing Idea Book"), magazines (such as Fine Woodworking, Fine Cooking and Fine Gardening), DVDs and Web sites.

➜Overall Rating Score: 82.6

Company size: Medium/large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.8
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.4
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 9.5
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 8.6

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 7.9
Fair, Open Management Style: 7.3
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 8.8
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 7.7

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.0
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 7.8
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 8.7
Satisfying Benefits Package: 7.6

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• pride in company products
• job experiences, growth opportunities
• team environment

13 Ascend Media
Overland Park, Kan. (headquarters)
www.AscendMedia.com
A business-to-business media company that produces magazines, journals, conferences, educational resources, event media, medical marketing and more. Its publications include Cardiology Review, Physician's Money Digest, Internal Medicine World Report and Contemporary Oral Hygiene, among others.

➜Overall Rating Score: 80.8

Company size: Medium/large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.2
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.2
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 8.3
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 8.2

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 8.0
Fair, Open Management Style: 7.6
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 8.7
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 7.7

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.3
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 7.9
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 8.3
Satisfying Benefits Package: 8.7

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• Pride and belief in the company's vision for the future
• Management cares about employees
• Management supports its employees in professional growth
• Management is very open and communicates company goals

14 Meister Media Worldwide
Willoughby, Ohio
www.MeisterMedia.com
A communication and information center for worldwide specialized agriculture that provides how-to information through multimedia services, including magazines, Web tools, special events/seminars, awards programs and sponsorships, CDs and DVDs, books/manuals, custom publishing, e-newsletters and more.

➜Overall Rating Score: 80.0

Company size: Medium/large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.2
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.2
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 8.3
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 8.0

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 8.1
Fair, Open Management Style: 8.2
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 8.4
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 7.7

Personal Benefits (Overall): 7.4
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 7.0
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 8.7
Satisfying Benefits Package: 7.1

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• nice building and work environment
• flexible work hours
• clear focus on goals and strategies for achieving them
• respect for employees

15 Time Inc./Time Warner
New York
www.TimeWarner.com
One of the largest content companies in the world, and the largest magazine publisher in the United States, Time Inc. has a portfolio of approximately 130 titles, including Time, People, Sports Illustrated, This Old House, Fortune, Money, Entertainment Weekly and Real Simple, among others. Its brands and franchises extend to online, television, cable video on demand, satellite radio, mobile devices, events and branded products.

➜Overall Rating Score: 79.0

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.2
Overall Job Satisfaction: 7.7
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 8.5
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 8.3

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 7.5
Fair, Open Management Style: 6.3
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 8.8
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 7.5

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.5
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 8.1
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 8.7
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.1

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• talented staff, challenging environment where hard work is rewarded fairly
• attractive benefits package
• supports professional development and provides growth opportunities
• pride in company brand and products

16 F+W Publications Inc.
Cincinnati (corporate office)
www.FWPublications.com
Founded in the early 1900s, F+W is a publisher of special-interest magazines and books in a variety of consumer enthusiast categories. It also operates related book clubs, conferences, trade shows, Web sites and education programs. Its magazines include Antique Journal, Sports Collectors Digest, Old Cars Weekly, Writer's Digest, Popular Woodworking and Horticulture Magazine, among others. It is the parent company of Krause Publications, David & Charles Ltd. and Adams Media.

➜Overall Rating Score: 79.0*

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.2
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.1
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 7.7
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 8.7

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 8.2
Fair, Open Management Style: 7.2
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 9.2
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 8.1

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.0
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 6.9
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 7.2
Satisfying Benefits Package: 8.5

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• friendly, talented staff in a team environment
• flexible work schedules
• company's customer-focused entrepreneurial spirit
*F&W's score was a few hundredths of a point behind Time Inc., so when rounded to the nearest tenth, both companies' rankings are 79.0.

17 Bonnier Corp.
Winter Park, Fla.
www.BonnierCorp.com
One of the largest consumer-publishing groups in America, with 40+ special-interest magazines, such as Outdoor Life, Parenting, Popular Science and Field & Stream, and related multimedia projects and events. The company was formed in March when Sweden's Bonnier Group purchased 18 magazines from Time Inc. and combined those assets with its U.S. magazine partner, World Publications, creating a new company. Bonnier Corp.'s parent company, the Bonnier Group, is a 200-year-old media company based in Stockholm.

➜Overall Rating Score: 76.6

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.3
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.7
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 8.0
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 8.1

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 7.2
Fair, Open Management Style: 6.8
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 7.9
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 6.9

Personal Benefits (Overall): 7.6
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 6.7
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 7.6
Satisfying Benefits Package: 8.1

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• entrepreneurial spirit
• casual, happy, optimistic environment
• pride in company products

18 Crain Communications Inc.
Detroit (headquarters)
www.Crain.com
Founded in 1916, Crain is a privately held company with 30+ titles in b-to-b and consumer markets, including AdvertisingAge, AutoWeek, Business Insurance, Financial Week, InvestmentNews and Laundry News, among others. Beginning in 1943, Crain implemented an employee profit-sharing plan, and was among the first companies to establish life and medical insurance plans for workers, and installed a comprehensive pension plan in the late 1950s.

➜Overall Rating Score: 76.3

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.3
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.0
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 9.0
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 7.8

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 7.4
Fair, Open Management Style: 6.8
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 8.4
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 6.9

Personal Benefits (Overall): 7.6
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 6.7
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 7.7
Satisfying Benefits Package: 8.2

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• generous profit-sharing program and other benefits
• pride in company's reputation
• family-run environment where employees are "placed first"

19 Advanstar Communications Inc.
New York
www.Advanstar.com
A worldwide media company providing integrated marketing solutions for the fashion, life sciences and powersports industries. Advanstar serves business professionals and consumers with its portfolio of 91 events, 67 publications and directories, 150 electronic publications and Web sites, as well as educational and direct marketing products and services. The company has approximately 1,000 employees and currently operates from multiple offices in North America and Europe.

➜Overall Rating Score: 76.1

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 8.6
Overall Job Satisfaction: 8.3
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 8.6
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 8.8

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 6.4
Fair, Open Management Style: 5.9
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 6.7
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 6.7

Personal Benefits (Overall): 8.6
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 7.6
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 7.3
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.5

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• great benefits package
• company supports professional development
• company's focus on growth provides opportunities for advancement

20 SourceMedia Inc.
New York (corporate office)
www.SourceMedia.com
An Investcorp company, SourceMedia provides market information to the financial services and related industries through its publications, industry-standard data applications, seminars and conferences. Its flagship publications include American Banker, National Mortgage News, The Bond Buyer and Accounting Today. It also provides consulting services, software and data through its two divisions, National Regulatory Services and Accuity.

➜Overall Rating Score: 74.8

Company size: Large

Satisfying, High-Performance Company (Overall): 7.8
Overall Job Satisfaction: 7.7
Company Reputation, Performance & Pride: 8.3
Supportive Employees & Team Spirit: 7.3

Fair & Open Work Environment (Overall): 7.7
Fair, Open Management Style: 6.4
Equal Opportunity to Succeed: 9.6
Personal Initiative, Shared Goals: 7.2

Personal Benefits (Overall): 7.8
Realistic Workload/Supportive Company: 6.5
Respect for Employee Personal Life: 7.3
Satisfying Benefits Package: 9.4

Among Reasons It Was Nominated:
• senior management is open and accessible to employees
• pride in company and its brands
• diversity is respected

Bewkes: Media Business Models May Change

Bewkes: Media Business Models May Change
By Georg Szalai
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i7ca2ef6b7899d1d4b11c67d2a75f2aca

NEW YORK -- Time Warner must focus on being "the most profitable, not the biggest" entertainment company, and his team must concentrate on boosting the stock "now," CEO designate Jeffrey Bewkes said here Wednesday in his first public appearance since being tapped for the promotion.

That seemed in line with expectations that he will cut corporate costs and sell off slow-growing properties.

In an appearance at the Media and Money conference, organized by Dow Jones and Hollywood Reporter parent The Nielsen Company, Bewkes wouldn't show his cards on rumored possible asset sales and spin-offs of TW Cable, AOL and Time Inc., but signaled there could indeed be reasons for such moves down the line.

He declined to comment on the possible timing of such moves, saying TW wants to "sneak up" on its competitors more than in the past with strategic moves.

Asked about the current writers strike, Bewkes said it won't have "any material adverse financial impact on us this year." He added he expects to have the labor issue resolved before it can start hurting TW's finances next year.

"We all have respect for them," he said about the writers before calling for a "fair and seasonable solution."


Bewkes also signaled that entertainment business models may change amid technological and international growth.

For example, he said that instead of charging movie-goers $8 or more, companies could charge less in return for a bigger audience. "What if you got only $1 per ticket, but 6 billion (people) see (the film)" for no major extra cost, he said.

Bewkes once famously said that talk of corporate synergies is "bullshit."

On Wednesday, he said there is some synergy, but it's not always so much about money but also talent and other relationships. "Writers and producers come to us first" because TW owns industry-leading TV networks and film operations, he argued.

Bewkes went on to argue that the primary reason to own certain businesses is not synergy, but to run them well and position them as industry leaders.

In his clearest signal to date that he will likely sell or spin off some units, Bewkes also acknowledged that some benefits of having various operations under one conglomerate umbrella "doesn't mean you have to have it the way you have it now.

Asked if he ever considered turning down the CEO position as such jobs seem short-lived and less fun these days, Bewkes replied: "I think it actually is (fun.)" Asked about activist shareholders and other people mingling with his affairs, Bewkes replied those are "just people with more advice."
-------------------------------------------------------

U.S. no place for private media
By Mimi Turner
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3ic62850cbeffe3295f387129a1bd7c6af

NEW YORK -- Private-equity expansion in traditional media will be focused on high-growth and high-risk developing markets rather than the U.S., senior executives said Wednesday.

"Media is what we do, and in the last two years we have not invested in newspapers or radio or cable in the U.S.," said Julie Richardson, managing director of Providence Equity Partners, which was a partner in the acquisition of MGM.

Speaking at the Dow Jones/Nielsen Media and Money conference, Richardson said emerging markets offered higher potential returns.

"One of the things we've found that worked really well is traditional media deals in emerging markets. We are seeing real opportunities in high-risk economies, but ones which also promise high growth," she said, noting Providence's recent investment in Turkish pay TV platform Digiturk.

That investment was going "gangbusters," she said. Providence also has made substantial cable investments in emerging markets in Europe.

Media and Entertainment Holdings chairman and CEO Herbert Granath said the changing economic demographics in territories like Eastern Europe made them promising investment targets.

"The economics of these countries that are either part of the European Union or are going to be part of the EU are on the up," he said, noting that ad spending and per-capita income were attracting global investment.

Granath is vice chairman of Central European media venture CME, which owns commercial-free TV stations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and the Ukraine.

Carlyle Group managing director James Attwood said that investment models could translate from country to country.

"It's not just about looking at developing markets; it's taking an understanding of the evolution of business models from one market to another."

Attwood said that in the aftermath of the credit crunch -- which has left several hundred billion dollars of unsyndicated loans on the balance sheets of major investment banks -- private equity deals would be on a more modest scale.

"We will probably see markets come back in the first or second quarter of 2008, but we will see smaller deals priced at lower values," he said.

Attwood added that even when deals came back onto the market, the valuations would more likely be what they had been in 2003-05 than in 2006-07.

"The last two years have really been unique," he said. "Credit costs have been low, and with the banks saying don't worry about covenants, a lot of risk was mispriced and there was a lot of risk-taking that was untraditional in our market.

"That said, media is still a wonderful arena for private equity to invest in," Attwood added.

Going Postal: Arguing for Media Diversity, Debate & Democracy

Going Postal: Arguing for Media Diversity, Debate & Democracy
BY John Nichols
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=247107

Those of us at The Nation have been banging on for some months about the issue of postage rates. In particular, we've been expressing deep concern about the radical restructuring of those rates in a manner that favors magazines with large circulations and transfers costs to small- and mid-circulation publications.

On the rack of journals of opinion, The Nation is indeed a large publication. Along with its ideological opposite, the conservative National Review, The Nation's circulation makes it one of the major jousters in the current clash of ideas. But against consumer magazines that are less engaged with the political and policy fights of the day than with the pursuit of mass circulation and the advertising dollars that follow it, The Nation definitely falls into that "mid-circulation" range of publications that is taking a huge hit as big media companies flex their muscles in the regulatory sphere.

This fight is about more than one magazine, and more than one ideology. Representatives of journals of opinion from across the ideological spectrum are united in their loud objection to the stacking of the distribution deck against publications that explore the issues from libertarian, old-right, new-right, centrist, liberal and progressive perspectives.

The message delivered at today hearing of the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's subcommittee that deals with the postage service was a fundamental one: The sort of publications that the founders imagined as the essential documenters and arbiters of our democratic discourse are being threatened by federal policy making that favors size over content, that favors bigness over quality.

Scott McConnell of The American Conservative magazine explained in testimony submitted to the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and District of Columbia Subcommittee of the House Committee "the postage increases we are facing under the new provisions are little less than catastrophic.

Christopher L. Walton, editor of UU World, the terrific quarterly magazine of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations explained that, "It is disturbing to learn that the new rates abandon the long-standing American tradition of supporting a diverse marketplace of ideas with a fair and uniform postage rate for periodicals. Historically, the periodicals rate allowed small journals of opinion to reach a national audience. But the new rates reward high-circulation periodicals with discounts that smaller-circulation periodicals simply cannot qualify for. Instead, we face a steep and unfair increase in mailing costs.

In These Times editor Joel Bleifuss, with his usual laser focus on the core issues involved, informed the committee that, "In August 2007, In These Times, an independent magazine based in Chicago, was hit hard by a 23 percent postal rate increase. This complex new rate structure, designed by and for the benefit of the largest publishing companies, has severely impacted our small magazine's ability to do business. We face an immediate threat to our financial health. These reckless postal rate increases are aimed at the heart of our nation's independent press. I urge you to ask the spokespeople of the media conglomerates whether they would support these increases if their mailing costs had risen 23 percent. This is a democracy issue. The founding fathers, in their infinite wisdom, created a system that made it cheaper for smaller publications, irrespective of viewpoint, to launch and survive. In 1792 the United States Congress converted the free press clause in the First Amendment from an abstract principle into a living reality for Americans by providing newspapers with low postal rates. These low rates were crucial for the growth and spread of the abolitionist movement, the progressive movement and, later, the civil rights movement. More broadly, they have been central to the development of participatory democracy in general. Today, low postal rates remain crucial to the survival of independent American publications like In These Times."

Not all testimony was submitted in written form. Some of it was delivered personally. Among those appearing before the committee was Nation Publisher Emeritus Victor Navasky, who now serves as director of the Delacorte Center for Magazines and Delacorte Professor of Magazine Journalism at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and director of the Columbia Journalism Review.

Navasky told the committee that he hoped to speak "not only on behalf of CJR and The Nation, and on behalf of small-circulation political journals, but also on behalf of the highly influential readers of these periodicals -- journals in general, editorial writers, legislators and their staffs, non-profit executives, corporate public affairs officers, the academic community, students and teachers, among others. In other words, all of those engaged in, and informed by, the public discourse these magazines exemplify."

Navasky explained to the committee in prepared remarks that, "I have never understood why of all the services government provides--defense, education, environmental protection, health, housing, highways and the rest--only the mails are required to break even or make a profit. The founders, who saw the mails as the circulatory system of our democracy, made no such presumption. George Washington himself was in favor of the free delivery of newspapers (which, by the way, in those days were often weekly and usually partisan, and as such the equivalent of today's journals of political opinion). These journals, whose core franchise is public discourse about public affairs, are, like water, national defense, public highways and public education, a public good and as such it would seem to me ought to be paid for out of public funds (i.e. general tax revenues)."

The author of A Matter of Opinion admitted "this view is generally regarded as quaint and unrealistic--utopian, as it were--and so the rest of what I have to say does not depend on it, but I thought in the interests of full disclosure, and the hope that it might set some of you to thinking, that I ought to share it."

With that, Navasky outlined a number of practical steps the committee, Congress and the United States Postal Service could make to right the imbalance created by a wrongheaded rate restructuring. Among other things, he proposed reviving a very good proposal by former Arizona Congressman Mo Udall- a liberal Democrat who was supported in the initiative by conservative Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater --to allow the first 250,000 copies of all publications to be mailed at reduced rates. Or, Navasky suggested, why not embrace legislation proposed in 2002 by Bernie Sanders, then the congressman from Vermont and now the senator, that proposed a moratorium on postal increases for magazines with a low percentage of advertising content, low circulation or non-profit status?

Ultimately, however, Navasky proposed a practical and necessary fix for an immediate crisis: Noting that the postal service has the flexibility, working in tandem with Congress, to roll back and/or redistribute rates in the short term, he proposed that Congress ask the USPS to extend non-profit rates to small-circulation political magazines.

That's not a final fix. But is an appropriate move in a moment of crisis by a postal rate increase that will, if it is not addressed, hinder the free flow of ideas and opinions in America.

"It is no accident that the president of The Nation and the publisher of National Review, two periodicals on the opposite sides of the political spectrum, recently teamed up to write an Op Ed essay sounding the alarm," concluded Navasky. "Such small political journals -- which, by the way, carry the most discourse -- bear the heaviest rate increases. The unpopular ideas and opinions that these journals propagate and circulate today often turn out to be tomorrow's wisdom. They act as intellectual and political gadflies, they prod their larger and staider colleagues, they question conformity and complacency. By helping them recover from the grievous wound inflicted upon by the recent rate increase, this Committee will have deepened and strengthened our democracy."

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