• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, October 26, 2007

Conde Nast Joins ABC Rapid Report

Another of the magazine giants has committed to the Audit Bureau of Circulations' Rapid Report service, with Conde Nast's announcement Thursday that all its titles would be submitted to the quick feedback system. The news follows close on the heels of Time Inc.'s decision to commit all its titles to Rapid Report, announced in September. The 24 Conde titles signing up for Rapid Report include Details, Glamour, GQ, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Wired.

ABC's Rapid Report wants to deliver circulation figures to publishers and media buyers within two weeks of a specific title's publication date. The relatively new service, introduced in 2006, aims to give magazine measurement speed and transparency to rival the Internet--a key demand of media planners wowed by the Internet's quick data turnaround. The circulation data is available to subscribers via the Internet.

Although the service is free to ABC member-publishers, some of the biggest magazine groups seemed to drag their feet. After an early jump by Meredith Corporation in July of 2006, new subscribers trickled in until Hachette Filipacchi committed its titles in July. Among the big publishers, Hearst is now the last major holdout, with only Good Housekeeping and Town & Country signed up for the service.

ABC's Rapid Report isn't the only initiative to deliver magazine data faster. Mediamark Research Inc. (recently renamed Mediamark Research & Intelligence, LLC) bowed a new Issue-Specific Readership and Accumulation study in April. The data, collected as a supplement to MRI's "Survey of the American Consumer" through online questionnaires, documents the accumulation of audiences for specific issues of magazines over time. It's delivered to subscribers weekly online in the form of interactive spreadsheets.

Paul Caine Heads New Time Inc. Entertainment Group

Time Inc. has formed a new Entertainment Group, including People, People.com, People en Español, StyleWatch, Entertainment Weekly and EW.com. The new group will be led by president Paul Caine, who previously headed the publisher's People group. The move effectively gives Caine control of Entertainment Weekly and its Web site, as EW founder and publisher David Morris leaves the company after 21 years. Caine will likely select a new publisher for EW in the next few weeks. Entertainment Weekly has suffered in recent years, with total ad pages falling 7.6% in 2006 compared to 2005, then 9.1% in the first nine months of 2007, per the Publishers Information Bureau.

Mansueto Bows IncBizNet

Shortly after Time Inc. folded competitor Business 2.0, Mansueto Ventures is rolling out a new online product for Inc. magazine--IncBizNet.com, a sort of social network and user-generated company database for privately held companies. IncBizNet.com will function as a directory with data updated by the companies themselves, with a press release newswire, blogging functions, local community groups and a marketplace for products and services.

To kick off the new site, the network will be pre-populated with all the companies featured in Inc.'s recent list of the 5,000 fastest-growing privately held companies. However, the magazine is inviting all senior managers from all privately held, U.S.-based companies to participate. This includes PR directors, CMOs, and CEOs. Overall, the site hopes for 1 million company-members.

Other business publications have begun hosting online databases and directories, sometimes with user-generated content. The Inc. initiative follows the announcement in May by McGraw Hill's BusinessWeek that it is partnering with Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, to launch a Company Insight Center hosted on the magazine's Web site. The new online content area will triple the size of the BusinessWeek site. Information and analysis will cover companies, industries, markets and leaders. Separately, Reuters is preparing for the fall launch of Reuters Space, an online network for fund managers, traders and analysts.

Vibe Group Publisher Quits

Len Burnett, vice president and group publisher for Vibe, is quitting the position after three years to work at Uptown, a lifestyle title for affluent African-Americans he co-founded in 2004. Burnett is just the latest executive to jump ship at the troubled magazine, following an editor in chief and two presidents. The company was bought by the Wicks Group of Companies, a private-equity firm, in July 2006.

Grosvenor Buys American Heritage

Edwin S. Grosvenor has purchased a controlling share in American Heritage, Web site, and book division from the Forbes family, according to the New York Post, which reported the story this week. In addition to $500,000 cash, Grosvenor assumes $10 million in subscription liabilities at the venerable but only intermittently profitable magazine. The Forbes family retains a 25% stake in the company. The magazine will resume publication in December.

Rick Reilly Leaves SI for ESPN The Magazine

Rick Reilly, a 22-year Sports Illustrated veteran writer, is jumping ship for rival publication ESPN The Magazine. At the competing title, Reilly will pen a back-page column. Reilly will also write exclusive content for ESPN.com, and will be featured as an essayist on ESPN's "SportsCenter" TV show. Reilly has been voted national sportswriter of the year 11times and became a household name for sports fan with his regular SI column, "The Life of Reilly." He is also a memoirist and novelist.

Krsulich Named Ad Director for NatGeo Kids

Vincent Krsulich has been named director of advertising for National Geographic Kids. Krsulich has worked for National Geographic Magazine Group since August 2003, when he joined as an account manager. In August 2005, he was promoted to Eastern advertising manager for National Geographic Adventure.