Cook Partners

USA: Christian Magazine Publishers in Midst of "Perfect Publishing Storm"

Christianity Today International (CTI) announced it is shutting down four more of its magazines:

To be shut down over the coming months are Today’s Christian Woman magazine, the Campus Life College Guide, the Christian history bulletin insert Glimpses, and the Church Office Today bimonthly newsletter....

 

These latest cutbacks follow similar moves made in January, when a total of three periodicals—Ignite Your Faith (formerly Campus Life), Marriage Partnership, and Today’s Christian magazines either ceased publication or, in the case of TC, was sold.

 

“We find ourselves—as does our industry—in the midst of a perfect publishing storm,” says [Harold] Smith, [CTI President and Publisher].

Other well-known Christian magazines that recently stopped printing are NavPress' Discipleship Journal and Pray!, and  Strang Communications' New Man and SpiritLed Women.

Last week also marked the final issue of David C. Cook's Cook Partners magazine. This blog, also, will end May 29. 

Design Grab Bag

What should a publishing house's logo look like? Check out thoughts on the matter in Design Week's "Branding Concepts in Publishing." 

Fonts matter. Designers know this, and some have mounted a worldwide campaign to ban the use of Comic Sans, a font described by the Ban Comic Sans movement's manifesto as "showing up for a black-tie event in a clown costume," according to this Wall Street Journal article.

Want to see how a magazine cover photo shoot? Check out "Brain Dance," a video on the making of the March 2009 cover on for the New York Times Magazine.

Might A Mook Work For You?

C Scout Japan Global Trends Research explains:

... a “mook” [is] the curious Japanese word for a cross-between a book and magazine. More casual than a book, but not as disposable as a magazine, mooks usually enjoy an initial display on the magazine shelves at the bookstore before retiring to the appropriate book section.

While the format is most popular in Japan, publishers in other countries are experimenting with it as well, with subjects such as death (Australia), fiction for young adults (China), or public speaking instruction (USA). The Bible itself has received magazine-like treatment from publishers in Sweden and in the USA.

So, might a mook work for you?

Now, a Customized News Magazine

Salon reports Time is embarking on a five-issue, 10-week test:

Time Inc. is experimenting with a customized magazine that combines reader-selected sections from eight publications as it tries to mimic in printed form the personalized news feeds that have become popular on the Internet.

[Dubbed "mine,"] the magazine is free, but the print edition is limited to the first 31,000 respondents, while an online version is available for another 200,000.

Sign-ups are available immediately at http://www.timeinc.com/mine, with the first issue to be shipped in the mail in early April, and then once every two weeks. Online subscribers will get digital editions that look just like the printed version, but in a special format that allows virtual page turns with clicks.

An article in USA Today adds,

The "mine" experiment represents the latest effort by traditional media organizations to appeal to readers increasingly accustomed to picking and choosing what they read on the Internet. Online advertising, through growing, hasn't generated enough revenue to offset declines in print; personalized print products could help fill some of the gap.

USA: Warren's Purpose Driven Connection

Advertising Age reports on Rick Warren's new magazine, launched in partnership with Reader's Digest:

"We're not just launching a magazine; we're launching a multimedia, multiplatform community," [says Reader's Digest Association (RDA) president and CEO Mary Berner]. "That is absolutely at the core of what our strategy is globally and in the U.S."

For an annual fee of $29.99, members receive the magazine, four spiritual DVDs, four workbooks and access to a social-networking website that aims to be a Christian Facebook.

... The magazine will start out with a base rate of 500,000 [members], but RDA expects to build the rate base to 1 million by the magazine's third issue this fall.

... In scope and size, Purpose Driven has few competitors. Rev. Billy Graham's Christianity Today has a circulation of just 140,000, according to its website. Guideposts is a spiritual monthly magazine with a 2.3 million rate base in the first six months of 2008, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations -- but it is not a strictly Christian title.

South Africa: Joy! and Juig!

BizCommunity.com, an African site focusing on marketing and media news, reports that the "Christian family magazine Joy! will soon have a new Afrikaans sister, christened Juig!. The new bi-monthly title, conceived due to popular demand, will launch in April 2009." The article continues:

"We are aware that times are hard, [what] with the economic meltdown and all, [and] superior content is needed in tough times. This time also presents a need for a publication focused on the Christian family,” says Pieter Joubert ... of Independent Christian Media.

According to Joubert, the growing interest in Christianity and related activities that is developing among South Africans, and the large percentage of Afrikaans-speaking people of all race groups who are Christians (80% are Christians, he says), highlights the potential for a new publication aimed at the Christian family.

Listened to a Good Magazine Lately?

Magazines are increasingly offer podcasts to accompany their print and web offerings. MinOnline highlights five magazine podcasts as examples in this blog entry. A few Christian magazines offering podcasts include:

• Relevant magazine podcasts include editorials and features from the current issue.
• CCM Magazine features interviews with Christian music artists.
• Christianity Today Inc. has news, editorials, and contributions from Books and Culture and Christianity Today. 
• Christian Bookworm Reviews offers podcasts of its interviews of Christian fiction writers such as David C. Cook's novelist Claudia Mair Burney, author of the recent release Zora and Nicky.

Via Google, New Life Online for Old Magazines

Cnet News reports on Google's new initiative, described on its blog as an effort "to help bring more magazine archives and current magazines online, partnering with publishers to begin digitizing millions of articles from titles as diverse as New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Ebony."

Ireland: Word Magazine Closes

The Irish Times reports that Word magazine, published for the last 30 years by the Divine Word Missionaries, printed its last issue this week.

The last print-run of the Word missionary magazine took place this week in Drogheda, Co Louth, and closes a chapter in Ireland's religious and social history. Its decline appears to reflect the drop-off in practising Catholics.

..."One reason for this is that people who no longer go to Mass on Sundays are unlikely to buy Catholic magazines on Mondays," said Br Paul Hurley, who edited it for 40 years.

Jamaica: Christian Magazine to Close

Caribbean Challenge is going out of business, reports the Jamaica Gleaner. The magazine, published by Christian Literature Crusade in Jamaica for over 50 years, once had a circulation of 30,000 in the region. Eaton Facey, who served as its editor for the past eight years, told the Gleaner that

We are conscious that the magazine has really made an impact over the years. It is an institution. We actually waited as long as we could - even to the point of probably being forced to have to close it. It is a painful decision. Sentiments also got involved. But when you look at the overall focus of the ministry, a decision had to be taken to maintain the ministry (of CLC) and to sort of sharpen our focus. The focus of CLC is to serve the Church and the population outside of Christ through literature.