Did I miss this? Men’s Health is launching a magazine, Best Life, that appears to be for randy guys who are past their prime randiness.

Martha bolts early from the convention, reports the NY Post (temp. link). Among the reasons is this witty comment:

“I spilled iced tea and water on her,” confessed Randy Jones, head of Worth magazine and her Monday luncheon companion.

Speaking of witty, my investment banking friend Kim MacLeod is no fool. Regarding the dearly departed Martha, she says, “There’s a part of me that thinks what is happening is a witch hunt. I still haven’t sold the stock. I think it’s a good company.”

Bloated, drowned in overhead magazine companies are desperately hurting, according to executives at the MPA’s convention being held at the Biltmore Resort, where rooms start for the listed rate of $350.

Rexblog ranks the top magazine ranking gimmick designed to generate publicity in local papers as this year’s Men’s Health healthiest cities for men ranking.

Here’s something you don’t see often. The launch of a weekly magazine. As “spinoff” from Thedeal.com.

Tick-tock.

My man Samir is quoted in today’s Chicago Tribune on his new expertise: magazine closures. This time, on why SI Women died:

Quote:

“They had a complete lack of focus. Their unique selling feature disappeared hard and fast.” A fuzzy identity made the magazine’s voluptuous-looking cover models problematic, Husni added. “People don’t complain when they see those covers on Shape. But this sent a mixed signal. Once you lose your uniqueness, there’s no hope.”

Bonnie Fuller was named editor of the year by Advertising Age. Real Simple, the best magazine. You can download a PDF of the “A List” of best magazines from Advertising Age’s website.

The annual consumer magazine conference opened yesterday in Arizona. Here’s a link to Ad Age’s preview.

David Carr of the NYT reports there will be no Christmas parties at Time Inc. this year, saving as much as $1 million.

Quote:

“I don’t really care,” (one employee) said. “It was always this drunken, slightly awkward affair that happened on a workday. Besides, when you are closing magazines down, that’s no time to celebrate.”

As I have predicted for a while, there will be a flurry of “trend” stories like this AP story appearing all over the place that lumps Rosie and Martha together (along with the fall in circulation in Oprah Magazine). Sorry, it’s not a trend. Tech magazines failing are part of a trend. Rosie, Martha and Oprah each have unique problems.

Still on the road, but it was worth a slow dial-up post to point to this WSJ article that proves once more an oft-repeated theory on the rexblog: there is no recession in magazine launches. The only thing this article is missing is a quote from a leading expert on magazine launches. If I weren’t spending the day trying to convince a client to launch a new magazine, I would have more to say on this topic. Back tomorrow.

It’s a net-free travel day for me. Talk amongst yourselves.

Oxford, this week’s center of the magazine universe, thanks to Samir Husni.

Can Time Inc. actually shut down SI Women? Is that legal? I mean, I thought that Title IX meant that if SI Women only has 400,000 subscribers then the male-oriented SI was required to cut back its circulation to reach parity. Closing SI Women seems backwards to me, in a Title IX way, I mean.

(Note: For the record, because I know I have some women athletes and at least one noted female sports journalist who see this blog, I would like to note that my wonderful daughter, the JV volleyball player, is a tremendous athlete and magazine reader and I love all women athletes and Title IX…just for the record.)

In a confusing circle of celebrity publisher spokespersons, the latest entry appears to be from IBM.

In my effort to be platform neutral on the rexblog (we love advertisers of all persuasions), I am going to give equal time to another celebrity publisher who endorses laptop computers. You’ll recall that celebrity publisher David Carey of the New Yorker was blogged here for appearing in an Apple ad. Now, and you might get confused so pay attention, I am posting the photo on the left of an IBM ThinkPad spread ad appearing in the current New Yorker that features celebrity publisher Christy Haubegger, founder of Latina Magazine.

It is nice to learn that magazine publishers are gaining such stature as believable pitch persons. I know I’d buy anything a publisher endorsed.