For The People

There's a great article on Time's digital magazine plans on Advertising Age.

In particular, it looks at the attempts by Time Inc, to switch readers of its flagship People Magazine onto a digital format. They are producing a unique issue called "Best Summer Ever".

Interestingly, there is overt blue chip advertiser support - Unilever, which has nine ad pages in "Best Summer Ever" and is its exclusive sponsor, got involved for the experience. "Is it a risk?" asked Irene Grieco, the Unilever senior U.S. lead print manager. "It might be. But we've always challenged our partners to come to us with new and innovative and unique opportunities."

Digital Magazines go Hollywood!

The Hollywood Reporter this week introduced The Hollywood Reporter, Digital Edition, an electronic replica of its daily publication.

In addition to English the e-magazine is available in 12 languages, including French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. “The global entertainment economy is a $54 billion market with a significant portion of that coming from outside the U.S. and with a need for news, data and analysis,” said Eric Mika, senior VP-publishing director at The Hollywood Reporter, in a news release.

Interestingly, the Reporter has used digital subscriptions to raise the base price of its print offering, thus gaining subscribers and margin at the same time.

NatMags floats Jellyfish

NatMags have now uploaded the first issue of Jellyfish Magazine, a digital ezine aimed at teen girls. Naturally enough, its is heavily "celeb" orientated (if Danielle Lloyd can legitimately be termed a celebrity that is) with a healthy dose of music - including download samples - fashion, TV, gossip and of course boys.

Like Monkey, its is based on the Ceros system, with lots of video, audio content and web links. Among the things I liked were the "click to rotate" feature on the shopping pages, and the fact that it links directly to a number of social media sites like Bebo and MySpace. Additionally, the magazine has marketed itself by producing behind the scenes videos for YouTube.

Only problem is the advertising - on which this publication will stand or fall. Only Garnier have supported the launch issue, and for the magazine to gain any traction, they will need more support from big name brands.