NIC Tackling Retailer Outreach, SBT, Seasonality, Merchandising

By Steven Etter, President/CEO, Harrisburg News Company

The Newsstand Industry Council (NIC) had an ambitious agenda for its third meeting, held on August 13th. The scope of the discussions and progress made say much about the determination of the participating publishers, wholesalers and national distributors to use this new forum to effect real, timely change. Here’s a summary, including comments from various NIC participants.

FEATURE

The Primacy of Delivering and Promoting Magazine Value: Q&A With Hearst's John Loughlin

The executive VP of one of the nation's largest consumer publishers talks frankly about what can be done to minimize the current economic impact and expand consumer engagement with the category going forward, how both retailer and publisher practices contribute to category challenges, SBT issues, cover pricing and more.

INDUSTRY UPDATES
 

Meijer and MPA Partner on Category-Wide Magazine Promotion

The supercenter retailer and Magazine Publishers of America have just completed a chain-wide promotion offering customers who bought two or more magazines on a single shopping trip $2 off of their next Meijer purchase. MPA hopes to create an expanded category promotion plan for next year.

Demand for Vogue Italia's Ground-Breaking "Black Issue" Still Going Strong

Even after Condé Nast printed 40,000 more copies, readers are clamoring for copies of the July issue of this normally small newsstand-circulation title, which broke new ground by featuring black models and editorial subjects throughout.

Publisher Briefs  

Women's Health's October features first celebrity cover...Obama book zips to #5 on trade paperback bestsellers list; Palin bio gets 250K paperback run...Redesigns for Consumer Reports and Vegetarian Times...Hoffman Media Specials to launch in Spring '09.

People

William Schenk has been named publisher of Rolling Stone. He was previously publisher of Wenner Media's Men's Journal...Aparna Pande, previously GM of Meredith Corp.'s parenthood group, has joined Disney Publishing as VP and GM of U.S. consumer magazines...Meredith has named Dana Points editor-in-chief of Parents...Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has named Vanessa Holden VP, editor-in-chief of Martha Stewart Weddings...Kristin Webb has joined Kable Distribution Services' New York-based account team. She was formerly import/export international group manager for Source Interlink...Curtis Circulation Co. has promoted T. Christian Wells to account executive, and named Meghan Fischer associate account executive.