Connect the dots? I wonder if this story about Google’s challenge to retain newly minted millionaires has anything to do with this farewell to Google message from Ev? Duh.

(via Joi Ito)

rexblog bumper music: If I Had a Million Dollars (The Boswell Sisters)

Sub-par blogging: The annonymous vaporzine scout couldn’t believe I didn’t post a link to the mediapost.com’s story about the vaporzine Golf Connoisseur.

I apologize. I ignored the story as I thought I’d blogged it earlier. I confess: there’s typically a new golf magazine announcement in my in-box every week and I keep getting confused.

Again, I’m sorry, Primarily, because today’s story is one of the funniest articles I’ve read in a long time.

Quote:

The magazine will only be mailed out to those with the highest incomes, and lower-income readers will actually be discouraged from subscribing by enforcing a prohibitive price on those with lighter wallets. “Instead of, ‘Would you like to receive this magazine?’ It’s almost like, ‘Can you qualify to receive the magazine?,” says Capell, who is the editor of the respected Capell’s Circulation Report. “I’m not sure it has been [done before].”…”We are trying to produce the highest demographics in America,” says Capell.

What is it with people? A few weeks ago, I blogged (in secret white type) about American Express’ magazine for Black Card holders who spend over $250,000 on their Amex each year (can you get a higher demographics than that?) . Is the nouveau niche that big?

Side note: Last week I heard a new (to me, at least) marketing buzzword: “mass affluent marketing.” It’s a term to describe a marketing approach that targets those who want to be “affluent” but may not necessarily have the necessary net worth. Perhaps nouveau niche magazines are filled with mass affluent advertising. I admit: I have no idea.

Friend of rexblog /.’d: Okay, so recently I said Tara Calishain’s ResearchBuzz was my “second-favorite” weblog with the word “buzz” in it, which led to her e-mailing me feigning disappointment at my slight.

I’m happy to see she just got slash-dotted (or, as we say, /.’d) with a positive review of her latest book Web Search Garage. Very big (even if bandwidth challenging) buzz factor.

Congratuations. Tara. As one of your fans (and another friend of rexblog) said on my earlier post: “Tara rocks.”

Another newsweakly: A new “international news round-up” has been launched in the U.S. by the UK newspaper, The Guardian, according to the website, mediaweek.co.uk. The newsstand edition, to be called Guardian Weekly, is described as a digest of stories from the UK newspaper, Washington Post and Le Monde. Unlike the UK version of Guardian Weekly, the new U.S. version will have a cover and be packaged as a traditional news weekly title, according to the article.

Update: In visiting the Guardian Weekly website, I finally figured out what that “Global Test” thing is all about.

Grid-lock forecast: Electoral-vote.com sees Bush’s lead widening (what? no “smirk” backlash?) while the Democrats pull ahead in the race to control the Senate.(via instapundit.com)

Update: Larry Sabato’s shows a slightly narrower electoral vote. I’m curious about both maps showing Tennessee as pink, rather than red. I thought a recent Mason-Dixon poll showed a double-digit Bush lead. And, if Gore couldn’t carry Tennessee, is it possible for Kerry to?

rexblog bumper music: Traffic Jam (James Taylor)

You vote what you drive: In another item from wacky world of election
season marketing files, according
to a survey from Kelly Blue Book
if you drive a Mercury, Ford, GMC or Chevy, you’ll likely be voting for
Bush. If you drive a Hyundai, Toyota or a Subaru, you’ll likely vote
for Kerry. The poll found Nader did not carry the vote among any brand,
however he did garner the most support from drivers of the now defunct
GM brand Oldsmobile. (However, I can pretty-much predict he won’t be
getting many votes from this
group of drivers..)

rexblog bumper music: Automobile (John Prine)

Fuego: Interesting piece in Multichannel News about why ESPN succeeded in extending its brand into print while so many other cable companies failed (Biography, Lifetime, IFC Rant).

Quote:

Walsh attributes the success of ESPN The Magazine to four factors: the ESPN brand, its business model, the editorial direction and cross-promotion from ESPN’s cable networks. Viewers don’t need to watch SportsCenter for very long before hearing an anchor mention that an athlete featured in a highlight is also spotlighted in the current or upcoming issue of ESPN. Reporters from the magazine appear frequently on ESPN, and ESPN anchors Stuart Scott and Dan Patrick are regular contributors to the magazine. “If Dante Hall is on the cover of ESPN The Magazine and [his team] the Kansas City Chiefs are playing in the Sunday night [ESPN football] game, and we’re going to talk about Dante Hall, yes, it’s appropriate to point that out,” Walsh said. “But if some other players were on the cover, and they’re not playing in the game, we probably don’t.” While Sports Illustrated focuses much of its weekly issues on covering the previous week’s news, ESPN The Magazine contains more features, columns and some Maxim-style Q&As.

Sidenote: This reminds me of an earlier discussion of “branded media” vs. “custom media” along a continuum of “what is custom publishing.”

rexblog bumper music: Whoomp! There it is (Tag Team)

(via iwantmedia.com)