Print production people, don’t read this story: It will give you nightmares. Believe me. Do not read it.

Welcome: Upon learning her great uncle maintained a weblog, this beautiful moments-old baby began to bawl. In the hours since, she’s accepted the whole uncle-as-blogger thing well. She’s beautiful, healthy and doing splendidly, as are her parents and big sister.

“Ellies” award winners: Below is the list. The press release is on the ASME website.

The 2004 National Magazine Award winners are:

Newsweek for General Excellence (over 2,000,000 circulation)

Popular Science for General Excellence (1,000,000 to 2,000,000 circulation)

Gourmet for General Excellence (500,000 to 1,000,000 circulation)

Budget Living for General Excellence (250,000 to 500,000 circulation)

Chicago Magazine for General Excellence (100,000 to 250,000 circulation)

Aperture for General Excellence (under 100,000 circulation)

Men’s Health for Personal Service

Consumer Reports for Leisure Interests

Rolling Stone for Reporting

The New Yorker for Public Interest

The New Yorker for Feature Writing

Esquire for Profile Writing

The New Yorker for Essays

New York for Columns and Commentary

Esquire for Reviews and Criticism

The Oxford American for Single-topic Issue

Esquire for Design

City for Photography

W for Photo Portfolio/Photo Essay

Esquire for Fiction

CNET News.com for General Excellence Online

Later:

I’m especially glad to see two magazines honored as I have praised both of them here on the rexblog. (Actually, I’ve praised several of the winners, but these especially prominently.)

Two weeks ago, on, April 24, I was impressed enough by my son’s copy of Popular Science to say the following, among other things:

I must admit that I had not picked up a copy of the magazine in a few decades (since I was a seventh grader?), but it has quickly become one of my favorites (no fights yet over who gets to read it first, however). I can’t say enough about the magazine itself: in short, it has adapted its content to a Men’s Health-influenced architechture, editorial sensibility and pace. Great writing ranging from two sentence “cool gadet” finds to indepth investigative journalism offer the reader plenty of pleasurable surprises in each issue.

And, on April 29, 2003, I blogged this about the issue that won “Best Single-topic Issue” from one of my favorite all-time magazines that is, sadly, no longer published, The Oxford American:

If you only purchase one magazine this year (heck, or this decade, for that matter), make it the current issue of Oxford American. Thank God Marc Smirnoff found a home, if only for this one particular gem. An incredible CD is included and, for icing on the cake, one of Hammock Publishing’s favorite contributing writers (back when we could afford him), Mike Perry, has a piece on a “vocalese” pioneer (a new word for me, also), King Pleasure. The King Pleasure cut on the CD is worth the entire purchase price. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Big oversight - blogging and magazines: I was so busy “taking Simon Dumenco to task” (as Jeff Jarvis put it) over his custom-publishing denial in the current issue of Folio: Magazine, that I forgot to mention that this issue has several great articles, including this one by Karen Holt about the potential role of weblogs for magazines. And, hey, it even includes a quote from a weblogger who is constantly trying to shy away from such media exposure in traditional print publications:

For several years, Rex Hammock has maintained his “rexblog,” an online discussion about magazines, to steer clients to Hammock Publishing, his association and custom-publishing business. “I’ve had direct economic benefits from doing it,” he says. “I’ve had clients contact me who never would have contacted me if I did-n’t have a blog.” The characteristics that attract readers to blogs are also the hallmarks of the best trade magazines, Hammock says-experts speaking in a distinctive voice, constantly updated information and an obsessive focus on the details of a subject. For example, blogging can be an ideal forum for communicating before, during and after trade shows, he says. “Blogging will have ramifications across what b-to-b publishers do.”

Oh no. I’ve been outted. The motives behind this blog have been discovered. I’m sorry. From here on out, I promise never again to use the rexblog to steer clients to Hammock Publishing. See, I didn’t even link to it when I mentioned it. Remember, this weblog IS NOT intended in any way to be a blatant promotion for Hammock Publishing (except, perhaps, for that blatant Hammock Publishing logo up there near the top).

Also, somewhat related to the topic of custom publishing, about which I promise never again to steer clients who need such services to that company I’m not going to mention, there is a great article that doesn’t quote me on the topic (I’m glad, really, as we all know how I don’t like such publicity) of business-to-business custom publishing by Anthony DeRico.

(Note: While Folio: Magazine hyphenates the words custom publishing when used as an adjective (correctly, I’m sure), I do not hyphenate it unless I forget that I don’t and throw one in by mistake (or correctly, as the case may be). I do, however, always put a colon behind the word Folio:.)

(Thanks for the reminder, Eddie.)

Blogging lessons for PR practitioners: From my e-mail, I know that among the five people who read this weblog are some PR practitioners who are trying to figure out the role of weblogs in the whole news dissemination process.

Well, here is a small anecdote on that topic from the rexblog files.

A while back, a small business with which I am proudly affiliated, decided to stop sending out press releases (except personnel items and an ocassional big block-buster announcement about, say, changing coffee machine vendors), but still wanted to have a place to record its accomplishments (primarily for the reading pleasure of relatives, potential clients and competitors.) So we set up a page on our corporate website for news items and the ocassional column by staffers on topics related to our business.

Once in a while, I will link from this weblog to one of those press releases when I mention an accomplishment of someone who works at Hammock Publishing. For example, two days ago, I mentioned the re-launch of a magazine new to our company, Ride PWC Magazine, on the rexblog and in that post, linked to the Hammock.com news item.

Yesterday afternoon, when I started receiving phone calls and e-mails about that new magazine from people I know have never visited this blog (nor any blog, for that matter), I became curious about how they knew.

It didn’t take me long to realize the source of their knowledge was a legitimate, reputable, traditional media source who has among its talented pool of reporters one of the rexblog’s five readers. And he thought news that a local company had relaunched a national magazine was worthy of a mention in his publication’s website. And since that news site is heavily indexed by major news search engines, the article sorta spread way beyond the viewership of the rexblog’s obscure place on the web.

As for the role of weblogs in PR, I’m still not sure what, if any, lessons there are in this anecdote for practioners of that craft, except perhaps these:

1. Stop sending out press releases.

2. Recruit a blogger from senior management who will blog constantly with a personal voice and conviction, but rarely say anything about your company.

3. Wait three years and one day an item from that blog may get picked up by a “real” news source.

Of course, I’m joking: It’s more like four years.

Spice it up: While I long-ago stopped the rexblog jokes about Samir Husni’s lively (and omnipresent) quotes in news articles about magazines (any magazine), I must say this Crane’s Chicago article about Playboy’s blandness would have been much more lively if the reporter had interviewed the professor.

For example, last December, he told a reporter this:

“Playboy is stuck in the ’70s….The last you heard about it was the Jimmy Carter interview. All of a sudden, the magazine froze in time.” While magazines such as Maxim, FHM and Men’s Health address the contemporary man, he said, Playboy now contends with the perception that “this was my grandparents’ magazine.”

Last September, Samir told the WP’s Peter Carlson essentially what today’s Crane’s Chicago article is about:

“I don’t think the magazine will attract younger readers until Hefner retires…My students tell me, ‘That’s my grandfather’s magazine.’ It’s not easy to tell somebody, ‘It’s been a great 50 years, now step aside.’ But it’s time for him to exit.”

And then, there’s my favorite, all-time Samir Husni quote, one to a reporter for the Orlando Sentinnel last September:

“Can you imagine a 20-year-old opening the magazine and, on page 10 every month, there’s a picture of a 77-year-old man, popping Viagra, surrounded by young blond women?”

Racism, or mere ignorance? MediaPost’s Larry Dobrow interviews some “industry pundits” about the purchase from bankruptcy of the Savoy brand by Jungle Media. In doing so, Dobrow uncovers one of the magazine industry’s unspoken, yet widely acknowledged, fears: That rent in New York City has gotten so expensive that certain people calling themselves “print specialists” and “magazine consultants” are now living under rocks.

Quote:

Told about JMG’s acquisition of the title, one magazine consultant paused for a second, then asked: “Is that the magazine up in Boston?” Added a print specialist at a NYC firm: “I truly haven’t heard of that magazine at all.”

The magazine up in Boston? Huh? Is the reference to the NYC-based Saveur? Dobrow should follow-up this story with an exploration of whether or not the implied racism (or stunning lack of awareness of a major media brand favored by affluent African Americans) is as institutionalized in the New York media-buying community as these two quotes imply.

Cinco de Mayo rexblog special - this post translated from English into Google-Spanish:

¿Racismo, o ignorancia mera? Larry Dobrow de MediaPost se entrevista con a algunos “pandit de la industria” sobre la compra de la bancarrota de la marca de fábrica de la col rizada de Jungle Media. En hacer así pues, Dobrow destapa uno de la industria del compartimiento unspoken, con todo reconocido extensamente, los miedos: Ese alquiler en New York City ha conseguido tan costoso que cierta gente que se llama los “especialistas de la impresión” y los “consultores del compartimiento” ahora esté viviendo debajo de rocas.

Cotización:

Hablado de la adquisición de JMG del título, un consultor del compartimiento se detuvo brevemente para un segundo, entonces pedido: “es que el compartimiento para arriba en Boston?” Agregó a especialista de la impresión en una firma de NYC: “no he oído hablar verdad de ese compartimiento en todos.”

¿El compartimiento para arriba en Boston? ¿Huh? ¿Está la referencia al Saveur NYC-basado? Dobrow si carta recordativa esta historia con una exploración de si o no el racismo implicado (o carencia del atontamiento del conocimiento del los medios importantes califican entre por african americans) está según lo institucionalizado en la nueva comunidad medio-que compra de York mientras que estas dos cotizaciones implican.

If this translation makes no sense, don’t complain to me. I’m merely ignorant.