Shocking! Is this a blow to the journalistic integrity of celebrity magazines, or what? In a scoop that is destined to rock the magazine world, Photo District News is reporting that People Magazine art directors photoshopped last week’s cover to, are you ready?, add a blue sky. Omigod. The photo before and after. (via mediabistro.com)

Missing the point: The Authors Guild is crying foul about Amazon’s new book search feature claiming it may violate authors’ contracts. However, as Eugene Volokh points out, even if true, “Amazon would still have a decent fair use claim even if they can’t claim a contractural right.” I suggest the guild put the issue up for a vote by its membership before having such a mis-guided knee-jerk reaction as the one they appear to be having. Or, publishers should distribute a contract rider offer to their authors allowing them to include their books in one of the most powerful bookselling tools ever to be created. (via paidcontent.org)

Magazine buzzword of the day: I can say fairly confidently that in the two-year history of this weblog, this is the first time I’ve used the word “wantedness.” While I’ve blogged the concept of the desire to measure how much a magazine is wanted, this article in Advertising Age is the first time I’ve seen the term.

Quote:

“Wantedness,” a loosely defined measure of a reader’s connection to magazines, is a concept many publishers cannot discuss without eye-rolling if not outright frothing. Dan Brewster, president-CEO of Gruner & Jahr USA Publishing, called it “the most ill-defined notion I’ve heard in a long time.” Publishers don’t necessarily believe there is a correlation between the price a reader pays for a magazine and their relationship with it. They also complain that other media such as TV are not held to the same standards of proving connections with audiences.

For more on this thing called wantedness, here’s a story on the topic from the July issue of CM magazine by a writer with a great name, Chip Block.

Custom publishing update: U.S. Ambassador to Helsinki Bonnie McElveen-Hunter is leaving her post at the end of the year to return to Greensboro, N.C., (last item) and the custom publishing company she founded there, Pace Communications.

Brand extension: Mr. Magazine, Samir Husni, was quoted during the weekend in a story about politics. Go figure. I mean, “Way to go!”