• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, July 11, 2013

Fitness, Men's Journal Team For Ad Sales

Magazine publishers package their own titles together for ad sales all the time, but it’s much less common to see titles owned by two different publishers collaborating.

That's what's happening with a new ad sales partnership between Fitness, owned by Meredith Corp., and Men's Journal, owned by Wenner Media. The partnership covers the titles’ print and digital assets.
 
The ad sales alliance, announced earlier this week, will allow Fitness and Men's Journal to offer a bigger circulation footprint to advertisers that cuts across gender lines, making them more competitive with big health and fitness publishers like Rodale. The two magazines together have an average circulation of 2.24 million, according to the Alliance for Audited Media (Fitness, 1.53 million, Men's Journal, 714,000), putting them in the same league as titles like Men's Health, with 1.9 million; Women’s Health, with 1.58 million; and Shape, with 1.63 million.

The first advertisers to tap the Fitness-Men's Journal tie-up include outdoor recreational apparel and equipment brand Marmot, which is placing ads in both titles for its “Lead Now” initiative, promoting a one-year global climbing expedition by Paige Claassen. The program, which will run through June 30, 2014, includes a series of Webisodes, editorial coverage of Paige's journey, and online and social media promotion.
 
Another advertiser, The Beef Checkoff, is running a four-page ad unit focused on summer grilling in both magazines, along with two other Meredith titles.
 
Maxim Attracts Bids of $20 Million
 
Young men’s lifestyle magazine Maxim, famed for its risqué covers and testosterone-infused editorial approach, is attracting bids in the neighborhood of $20 million, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the negotiations. That’s quite a steep discount from the $250 million fetched by Maxim (along with now-defunct sibling titles Stuff and Blender) when Quadrangle Group bought them from Dennis Publishing back in August 2007.

Cerberus Capital Management, which took control of publisher Alpha Media Group in July 2009 after Quadrangle defaulted on its debt, is eager to offload the title, which Bloomberg says will lose between $3 million and $5 million this year. Over the last decade, Maxim’s ad pages have fallen from 1,224 in 2002 to 392 in 2012, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, for a 68% decline over that period. In the first half of this year ad pages declined 18.5% to 156.
 
Reader’s Digest Cuts Rate Base
 
Reader’s Digest Association is cutting the guaranteed circulation of its flagship magazine from 5.5 million to three million. The move comes as RDA undergoes its second bankruptcy reorganization with the approval of various creditors, including the sale of various properties, such as Everyday With Rachael Ray and Allrecipes.com, to focus on the core Reader’s Digest brand. The company expects to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by the end of the month.

Marie Claire Group To Rep Glam Media in France
 
Marie Claire Group’s digital sales division, GMC Connect, has struck a deal making it the exclusive ad sales representative for Glam Media’s community of over 100 female-focused sites and blogs in France. The deal gives GMC Connect advertising clients access to millions of unique visitors at sites including Balibulle, U Got A Wish, Hill, Rosa Peals, Deedee Paris and Luxsure. As part of this partnership, Glam’s owned-and-operated local site will now be known as TinkerStyle.
 
Tucker To Sporting News as Football Columnist, Video Analyst
 
Sporting News Media has hired former NFL player Ross Tucker as its lead pro football columnist and video analyst. Tucker will provide expert commentary, insights, and analysis across multiple platforms, including a weekly interactive featured column, which allows fans to take part in the discussion through Google+ Hangouts.

Tucker will also create a series of Web videos to provide color commentary around his weekly column. Tucker spent seven years in the NFL playing for five teams, including the Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots and Cleveland Browns. Tucker is also the morning host for Sirius XM NFL Radio and an analyst for “Pro Football Talk” on the NBC Sports Network.
 
Smith To VP, Hearst Magazines Digital Media
 
Mike Smith has joined Hearst Magazines Digital Media as vice president for revenue platforms and operations. Smith previously served as Forbes Media chief digital officer, after joining Forbes as chief technology officer over 10 years ago.
 
Boyars Named Exec Dir, Hearst Men’s Group Marketing
 
Lisa Boyars has been named to the position of executive director, group marketing for Hearst Men’s Group. Boyars will lead marketing teams for Car and Driver, Popular Mechanics and Road & Track. She previously worked at Condé Nast Media Group in a variety of roles, rising from integrated marketing director to senior director of client and marketing solutions. Her appointment at Hearst is effective July 15.
 
Matusik Tapped As Exec Dir Digital, Synnott to Exec Ed, InStyle.com
 
Angela Matusik has been named executive director, digital, for InStyle.com, where she will oversee InStyle.com content, social media and digital development. Matusik had been consulting on a project basis as acting editor of InStyle.com since February 2013. She was previously employed by Time Inc., holding various roles at InStyle from 1994-2005 and working as development editor at People.com from 2006-2009. Also this week, Amy Synnott was promoted to executive editor at InStyle. Since January 2009 she served as beauty director, as well as editor of InStyle Hair and Makeover. She will remain editor of InStyle’s special issues.