Is so: Okay. I’ve landed and finally have been able to read the I Want Media interview with Simon Dumenco of Benetton’s Colors Magazine. So, now I see why Patrick e-mailed me. Because in it, Simon says the following:

We’re not a custom-published magazine. There’s no commerce element to Colors — the only presence Benetton has in the magazine is in the form of a handful of paid advertisements. We’re a culture magazine that happens to be substantially supported by one corporate benefactor, but the magazine also receives major support from non-Benetton advertisers as well as newsstand and subscription revenues.

Saying that Colors is custom-published is like saying that the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report are custom-published because owner Mort Zuckerman happens to be a real-estate mogul, not just a media mogul. Benetton makes clothes, but it also happens to publish a culture magazine.

Is Simon trying to protect his ego, or something? Is custom publishing beneath him?

So, why stop there? Why not claim that Benetton’s advertising is not really advertising? It’s just art that appears to be advertising.

And surely, that was a joke when Simon made the Mort Zuckerman comparison. Really, if that comparison were to hold up, whenever U.S. News & World Report and the New York Daily News published a new issue, Mort Zuckerman’s real estate company would post press releases on its website going into great detail about the editorial content, just like the United Colors of Benetton’s website does for every issue of Colors. Mort Zuckerman, who does not even mention being editor and publisher of U.S. News & World Reports on his bio on the Boston Properties Inc. website is not the correct comparison. Artists who get their art featured in an Absolut ad is the correct comparison.

I can say with the confidence that comes from spending a career in custom publishing, Colors is a custom published magazine. Or, if it makes Simon feel better, I will use the international term for the genre, and say that Colors is a customer magazine. It supports the carefully crafted and extremely successful branding strategy of Benetton. That is the sole reason it was created. Just because that branding strategy has as its foundation an approach that encourages an aesthetic, freedom and experimental tradition that allows Simon to comfortably cash Benetton’s checks does not make it less of a branding strategy that his editorial talent and efforts are supporting. Whether it is sold on the newsstand or carries third party advertising or makes a profit or loses its ass, it waddles and quacks just like dozens (hundreds) of other customer magazines.

As for the “substantially supported by one corporate benefactor” doublespeak, I’m guessing (and I have to here, because it really makes little sense) Simon is suggesting Colors has a business (philanthropic?) model like that of public broadcasting, or something? Give me a break. No, it was created and is paid for by the company that OWNS it, Benetton. Not some non-profit foundation. That some (very little, I estimate) of the expenses are offset by third-party advertising and newsstand sales is not at all unusual in the world of custom publishing.

Perhaps I have no problem pointing out Colors’ true colors because, unlike Simon, I do not see the term “custom published” as a derisive one. Like all magazines, its readers (not its business purpose) will ultimately judge the quality of the magazine. As it should be.

All that argument aside, however, I really don’t care if Simon feels that attaching the “c-p” words to the magazine harms it. I’ll go along and agree with him, because more than caring about what the term “custom publishing” means, I care about the world having another great magazine with the resources and freedom to create what Kurt and Simon and their colleagues have the potential of creating. If the fantasy of calling it “a culture magazine that happens to be substantially supported by one corporate benefactor,” is what it takes to get Kurt and Simon to unleash their considerable talent and vision on this opportunity, so be it. In the end, I’d rather see their work than worry about what they call it.

Travel advisory: Taking advantage of the low airfares in-and-out-of Nashville and in order to grow my gallery of out-the-window photography, the rexblog will be somewhat silent until Monday. I say somewhat as my destination is heavily wi-fied, but is also one of the more beautiful spots in the world this time of year on what is predicted to be a most beautiful weekend. So, as much as I love you guys, don’t expect to hear much from this end. Back later, however.

rexblog baiting: I was just about to post an “I’m outta here” travel message when I received an e-mail from Patrick Phillips, creator and soul of one of this weblog’s other most favorite blogs, I Want Media, telling me about his interview with Simon Dumenco, fomerly of Folio: and now of Colors. I’m heading out the door, so I can’t respond to the provocatively headlined Q&A, “The Web Has Created Little Original Media Value”, other than to say, that may be true, but rumor has it that magazines did not create much media value either in their first decade of existence. Anyway, hasn’t Simon heard there’s a dot.comeback?

Stop this dot.cliché before it gets started: Via one of this weblog’s favorite weblogs, Rafat Ali’s PaidContent.org, I notice a new term today, Dot.Comeback. Please, no one else use it. Stamp it out before it becomes short-hand for something that is dot.completely misguided. If this catches on, next thing you know, people will start believing they need foosball tables in their offices.

Happy(?) magazine day: MediaPost’s Larry Dobrow attended New York Magazine Day yesterday and this is what he heard: in short, magazines need to sell themselves better to advertisers and that magazines need to be more accountable for themselves.

Oh, great: Not that it’s a surprise to anyone who half-way watches paper pricing trends, but SC printing papers, used primarily for catalogs, magazines, and inserts, is going to be getting more expensive, according to a press release from The Reel Time Report.

Cover outrage? Get over it: Via Doc Searls, I’ve learned that some bloggers are complaining (and here) about U.S. News & World Report’s current (May 3) cover issue. They are complaining that the cover is presenting John Kerry as a “red, leftist” and George Bush as a “right-wing, military man,” while everyone knows that in reality, blah, blah, Kerry was the hero and Bush was the partyboy, etc., etc. As magazine covers are (is?) a topic this weblog refers to once in a while, I thought it might be interesting to take a (an?) historic look at this side-by-side candidate cover illustration cliche. Unfortunately, U.S. News is not a magazine I follow and they don’t have a good cover archive from the past couple of decades, so I will limit my quick history lesson to Time as their archive sets the gold standard for easy access.

But before I do that, I’d like to display just how much of a cliché the current U.S. News cover is by reminding people that it is merely a clone of the February 23 Newsweek cover.

As for those who would like to see Bush portrayed less positively on a magazine cover than U.S. News presents him, hey, that’s perhaps the easiest assignment in the world.

Now, a flashback to Time’s Bush-Gore covers from the last presidential campaign. Ironic, isn’t it? Bush is always on the left, Gore on the right. A conspiracy?

Another good thing about Nashville: I find counter-intuitive so much about economics. Perhaps, that’s why I enjoy the work of writers like Virginia Postrel who make me rethink the obvious and realize how wrong the obvious can be. Today, the WSJ features such a piece in a Marketplace section page 1 article (by the way, kudos to the wsj.com’s option of allowing users to access articles by where they appear in the paper) called, “How a city can win by losing its airport hub status.”

Of course, the majority of the five regular readers of the rexblog already know this particular counter-intuitive economics lesson as we benefit from it directly. However, others (who are WSJ.com subscribers) may find it surprising to learn that the best thing to ever happen to Nashville air travelers was the day 12 years ago when American Airlines announced it was shutting its hub here.

Highlights from the article:

…in the current airline economy, losing a hub can actually leave a city better off. As the dominant airline shrinks, others can more readily boost service and increase competition. The airport can also more easily lure new entrants, particularly fast-growing low-cost carriers that can push down prices overall. And many companies now look to locate near airports with lower fares or less congestion for their traveling employees.

When American started phasing out its hub in Nashville 12 years ago, locals feared a dearth of service. But low-fare Southwest Airlines picked up much of the slack domestically, now accounting for 42% of scheduled service compared with American’s 15%, according to airport statistics. What’s more, since 1993, average fares at the airport have dropped 22%, and corporate relocations to the area have climbed in recent years as companies focus more on the bottom line, said the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

In February, low-fare Frontier Airlines signed on to fly to Nashville saying the airport was more appealing because it doesn’t have a mammoth dominant carrier. Frontier also said Southwest paved the way in Nashville to drawing passengers who live farther away from the airport, from such cities as Chattanooga, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky.

Window seat photo gallery: While tracking down some information about magazines that are allowing (encouraging?) reporters to blog (any suggestions, e-mail me), I ran across Wired Magazine Blogs and the Leander Kahney (from wired news.com) weblog, “The Cult of Mac.” And on that, I found a post about a screen saver that turns your Mac’s monitor into an airplane window (sounds strange, but it’s pretty cool). Well, that reminded me about some amazing airplane window seat photography Doc Searl’s recently posted and how seeing that had inspired me to shoot the picture below out my window seat recently. And that made me remember that I had not posted it. I was on an American flight around 5:30 p.m. and it was shortly after taking off from Reagan National Airport. It was shot with my always handy Cannon PowerShot S330. Click on photo for larger view.:

Music City Bloggercon update: Bill Hobbs has a great idea about where to hold a Bloggercon III in Nashville. If you don’t know what this about, read my earlier post about Robert Cox’s suggestion.

Vaporzine* update: Sure, you can read about the re-launch of magazines like Colors in the NY Times (see item below), but to get news about other really cool magazines being developed, you have to come here to the rexblog. (* vaporzine definition)

Custom publishing update: Benetton’s Colors: The NY Times continues its coverage of the dawn of the Kurt Andersen-era at Benetton’s magazine, Colors. The magazine’s official launch date was yesterday. Should be great for Andersen fans like me.

Quotes:

“It has been very focused on misery and pain,” said Mr. Andersen, promising that future issues would be a blend of old Life magazine and National Geographic….

“The idea of overseeing a quarterly, just selfishly, was very appealing to me,” Mr. Andersen said. “It gives me exactly as much magazine involvement as I want to have, given the other stuff I’m doing.” The staff includes Simon Dumenco, who is executive editor, and Emily Oberman and Bonnie Siegler, both of the graphic design firm Number 17, who have given new punch to (the magazine’s) original look….

Mr. Andersen doesn’t see any loss of prestige in being associated with a magazine subsidized by a maker of trendy clothes. “I suppose a certain kind of traditional, highly serious journalist would say, `Kurt, are you out of your mind?,’ ” Mr. Andersen said, shrugging. “But if I had listened to them, I would have never started Spy, either.”

(rexblog flashbacks: 11.03.03, 11.11.03)

Will TiVo help magazines? CNET reports, “a majority of national advertisers plan to cut spending on TV commercials by 20 percent in the next five years, when they believe that ad-skipping devices like TiVo will take hold in households, according to a new survey conducted by Forrester Research in concert with the Association of National Advertisers.

Quote:

…advertisers plan to shift their money to other media. Nearly half of advertisers said they will transfer dollars to other traditional media, including magazines and radio, in which ads aren’t as easily skipped.

While I applaud the findings of this research, I feel it is bunk. Check back here in five years and I’ll be blogging that spending on TV commercials has not been cut by 20 percent but that advertisers have found a way to display logos on the foreheads of actors, news anchors and MTV reality show participants. Or, more likely, someone will come up with creative ways other than traditional 30 or 60-second increments in which to sell and create advertising.

And while I believe advertisers would be better served by advertising in magazines, my reason for recommending magazines would not be that is a medium in which ads aren’t easily skipped. I mean, how hard is it to navigate a magazine by using the table of contents? Or if so inclined, I could play TiVo on a magazine and rip out pages with ease.

Rather, magazines are a medium in which the reader expects advertising to be a part of the experience and in many (most?) instances, values and anticipates the advertising at the same level as the editorial content. Flip through any business-to-business magazine and you’ll see what I mean, or, better yet, go to the newsstand and pick up a copy of Vogue Magazine and work your way through from either the front or back of the book. Why do readers purchase it? For the ads? For the edit? Wait…where is the edit?

RSS feeds as art? I followed a link to the rexblog via Technorati from a place(?) on the web I believe is called /r - echos/ (below the name are the following words: reblog / rebloging / feedonfeeds / permanent reconstruction / personnal news agregator / news scanner). The page, which I must describe as art rather than, well, anything else, appears to be the work of Jerome Rigaud (I’ll be happy to correctly identify the artist if I’m doing my typical name botching). I don’t know quite how to describe what he (they? she?) is doing other than to say the page uses a hack of the server-side RSS aggregator Feed on Feeds to gather content that is re-published in a creatively chaotic fashion.

For example, the site displays my post about A9 from last Thursday like this:

This isn’t for everyone, but I find the effort fascinating. Dig a little deeper and he also explores from an artistic point-of-view the workings of his website, for example, something he calls, “my logs study“. I’m fascinated with where he’s heading, perhaps because I have absolutely no idea where that may be or why he wants to go there. But, that’s usually where the interesting stuff is found.

Making money with weblogs follow-up: Since I’ve been receiving e-mail related to the topic of making money from weblogs ever since I wrote an article on the topic and blogged the Bloggercon II session moderated by Jeff Jarvis on the “business of blogging,” I couldn’t let this weblog’s serendipitous good fortune I discovered yesterday escape without trying to make a buck off it. From its referrer log, I noticed that the rexblog was receiving traffic from google searches of the word, “hammock”. (Ironically, it’s my last name, but I have never owned one.) I tried the search myself and discovered the rexblog shows up on the front page results…even higher than the URL associated with my day job, hammock.com. So, to be of service to those who are surfing the web in search of a great hammock, I’ve set up an affiliate relationship with the fine folks at
Hammocks.com and have added some promotional text in the upper left-hand corner conveniently located for those who have stumbled here looking for a rope swing and not for its scintillating news and commentary. I will keep you posted of my success in this new venture as a hammock entrepreneur.

On a related topic, I’m still working on my next rexblog money-making get rich quick scheme that I hope may somehow take advantage of where this weblog shows up when you search Google for “how to make money from weblogs”.