Drake Wins Six SPJ Mark of Excellence Awards

Congratulations, Drake magazine students. More awards!

Drake University students are gaining widespread recognition for outstanding journalism with six Region 7 Mark of Excellence awards from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

The society accepted entries in 39 categories from across 12 regions for work in the 2009 calendar year.

"To have six finalists is a testament to the quality of the work our students are doing," said Lori Blachford, the Peggy Fisher and Larry Stelter Chair in Magazine Journalism and faculty adviser for Drake Magazine. "I'm especially proud that Drake students are excelling in both print and online formats. That kind of versatility is essential in the ever-changing media environment." MORE

Grants for New Media Women Entrepreneurs

J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism and the McCormick Foundation are seeking to fund four women-led projects that will rock the world of journalism.

We will fund individuals who have original ideas to create new Web sites, mobile news services or other entrepreneurial initiatives that offer interactive opportunities to engage, inspire and improve news and information in a geographic community or a community of interest. MORE

Two Travel Magazines, One Cover Image

Look closely at the cover of the April 2010 Conde Nast Traveler. In the background is the cliff of Italy’s Amalfi coast. Then look at the April 2010 issue of National Geographic Traveler. Same subject—the Amalfi coast— but in close-up this time. A fabulous destination and a great photo-op, but worthy of both major travel magazines in the same month? With the world to choose from, both magazines choose the same cover location?

2000-2010 in Magazine Covers from the MPA

Covering the decade in magazine covers—2000-2010—from the Magazine Publishers of America.

Online Writing Workshop at Drake March 27

Writers and the Web:

Creating Content That Connects

March 27, 2010 • Meredith Hall • Drake University

Presenter: Chris Snider, assistant managing editor/digital, The Des Moines Register

How do you create content that search engines—and readers—like? This morning workshop tells you what you need to know about search

engine optimization (SEO) and what that means to your ability to write lively content that connects with and builds your audience.

We’ll study:

• The best way to package your online message.

• How people actually use the Internet—and how you can take advantage of that.

• What is SEO?

• Why is it important?

• How do you test your site’s SEO ranking?

• How do you improve it?

• How do you drive more links to your site?

• How to make your stories appear in Google News.

8:30 a.m.: Registration

9 to noon: Presentation

Registration $50 ($40 if you register in advance — contact shari.tenney@drake.edu or 271-3194)

Payment at the door—checks or cash. Free for Drake students.

Sponsored by:

Drake University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication

E.T. Meredith Center for Magazine Studies

For more information: Contact Patricia Prijatel, E.T. Meredith Distinguished Professor Emeritus, patricia.prijatel@drake.edu

Video Business, Other RBI Titles Closing

From MIN online:

Reed Business Information has announced the closure of Video Business, a 29-year-old title covering the home video entertainment business..... According to a statement from the company:

"Effective today, RBI-US is closing MBT (Manufacturing Business Technology), Industrial Distribution and Video Business. Also, effective April 8, 2010, DM2 will no longer manage, market or rent 3rd party (non-RBI) lists. DM2 will continue to support internal list management through the resolution of the divestiture process."

2002 Drake Grad Becomes Executive Editor of Advertising Age

Congratulations, Abbey!

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Advertising Age today named Abbey Klaassen as its new executive editor, in charge of all editorial operations for the brand. She replaces Jonah Bloom, who is leaving Ad Age to become CEO and editor-in-chief of B2B blog network Breaking Media.

Abbey Klaassen

Ms. Klaassen, currently digital editor for Ad Age, joined the publication five years ago, and has developed a number of successful new products for Ad Age, including the annual Digital Issue and companion Ad Age Digital Conference, the DigitalNext blog and her twice-weekly newsletter. Her experience at Ad Age before that includes coverage of TV, radio and out-of-home advertising.

Before joining Ad Age, she was assistant editor in Minneapolis at Mpls-St. Paul Magazine, and wrote for the Twin Cities Business Monthly. Read the entire story here.

Social Media for Freelancers

How many of you have blogs? How many are on Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? I suspect most of you are on most of the social media sites.

But why?

What’s your goal for your Facebook account? Your blog? What do you hope to get out of it? Is it truly only social, or do you see the professional potential?

Social media used strategically can be a boon to the freelancer.

We’re not always so good at strategic thinking, though. When we decide to go on a trip, we check with Mapquest to see the best route to assure we get to our destination efficiently and successfully. Do we use that same strategy in life? Not so much.

We might know that, if we’re going to Minneapolis, there’s a good road to get there, but we’re not entirely sure when or how to get on that road and how long to plan for the trip.

Social media can be your freelancing Mapquest, helping link you with editors, sources, research materials, and tools for organization and promotion that can get you from a wannabe to a published writer.

Let’s look at how to use social media strategically:

PLANNING

A blog can be an excellent planning tool for a writer. I have three blogs:

This one, PEP Talks (the PEP refers to my initials, which is how I signed notes to students), for Drake students and alums.

Magazine Masters, which is a company Sammye Johnson (my co-author on The Magazine from Cover to Cover and I started for our magazine consulting business.

And Positives About Negative, a breast cancer blog I created to help women understand and deal with hormone-receptor negative breast cancer, a form I had not even heard of when I was diagnosed with it almost four years ago.

I use these blogs as my “notes” for two books I have in the works—one on breast cancer and the third edition of The Magazine from Cover to Cover. When I come across news, I put it on my blog, so it is there for easy reference. This is especially true with the cancer blog, a I not only have the information, but the data I need for a citation.

I use the blogs as journals to throw out thoughts and get reactions to them. And even if nobody responds, I still have found a way to express myself that will come in handy eventually in some way—maybe I will pick an entire graf from the blog for a book, maybe I will never look at it again, but the act of having written it helps me get me head around a concept. My Life in Cemeteries,for example, was something I enjoyed writing, and I like having it on my blog, but it will never go anywhere other than this.

However, articles on breast recurrence statistics are some of my most searched topics. I realized this, in looking at Sitemeter, which tells me what topics people searched. When I put the label TRIPLE NEGATIVE RECURRENCE on posts, it upped my page views significantly.

So, in writing my breast cancer book, I use this information to assure that I cover the topics women are most concerned about. And I get letters almost daily in which women ask me specific questions, giving me additional information on what they need to know.

RESEARCH

If you’re researching a difficult topic, ask your FB friends for help. I have seen people asking for sources, for names of editors at specific publications, and doing simple surveys.

Experts now say that Facebook might replace Google as a research tool. Why? Because we can ask targeted questions of specific people and know we can trust the answers. When I was planning to cover this topic, I asked my Facebook friends what I should cover.

Some answers from my friends:

We all like to work with people we know, like, and trust. However, we don't always remember to use the people we know, like, and trust when we get the chance. Social media is a way to keep yourself on the minds of your friends and family so they'll think of you when they need your services.

The only drawbacks I see in social media sites generally are privacy and needing to invest time to manage your online profile -- particularly if you have a common name where you could be confused with professionals in other industries.

I am on LinkedIn, Plaxo and Facebook. Each of them allows me to stay connected with colleagues/friends and makes me visible to others I may not know yet. I have been contacted a handful of times by people in my career field that I have never met who wanted to know more about me, or tell me about themselves, because of the public profiles I've posted.So far, two of them have told me about potential openings within their company and asked me to apply. Although neither position was right for me, I would not have know about the openings without the social networking sites I was a member of.

PUBLISHING

Of course, a blog gives you the chance to get published quickly, but that doesn’t mean much unless you publish something worthwhile. In fact, it can be problematic because once something is online, who knows where it might go.

Publish something of quality, and who knows what might happen. Stories of blogs becoming movies and books abound—Julie and Julia being the most recent.

My cancer blog was one reason I got a book contract. It showed the editors that I was qualified to write such a technical book, and the fact that I was already online on the topic meant they had a built-in audience and means of promotion.

Likewise, I was recently asked to be on the board of directors of another cancer organization and I am negotiating to blog regularly on still another cancer site. When they called to talk to me about blogging, they called me an expert in the field. I got there by writing about the topic, largely on my blog.

PROMOTION

Promoting your work on Facebook and Twitter, and cross-promoting it on your blog drives readers to your site, it reminds readers that you’re out there writing things worth reading, and it helps build your reputation as a professional. That's why this post has so many links to my other sites.

But strategy is essential here. Your Facebook friends should include people who can help your professionally. It’s great that Mom is impressed, but professionally, she's really not that much help.

CONNECTION

Connecting with people with similar interests around the world allows a writer to develop a global perspection and to build friendships with like-minded folks you would otherwise not have met. I have regular readers from Indonesia, Sweden, Japan, England, Australia California, Massachusets and most of the 50 states. When I check who is reading me, the global mix is startling and greatly rewarding. Even more rewarding are the letters I receive from these readers. One was titled, "I my darkest hour, I found your blog." Wow. Some examples:

I am devouring your blog and am so happy to have found you!

I found your site a couple of months ago and I feel so "privileged." You are an inspiration.

I found your Positives about Negative blog this morning and have spent the last hour or so completely engrossed. THANK YOU so much for your amazing, educational, helpful, reassuring, thorough blog. i have sent the link to all my TN friends.

Those comments alone are worth the effort.

Scientific American Names first Woman EIC

After 164 years of publishing, one of America's oldest magazines--it was started as a newspaper in 1845—has finally put a woman at the helm. (Sigh. Such a milestone for the 21st Century!) From the news release:

Longtime science journalist Mariette DiChristina has been named the first female editor-in-chief of Scientific American in the magazine's 164-year history.

DiChristina, who joined the magazine in 2001 as executive editor, has been serving as acting editor-in-chief since her predecessor, John Rennie, left in June. Although she admits to feeling a sense of responsibility as the venerable mag's first female leader, DiChristina seemed humbled by our sense of awe in her accomplishments.

"I have two young daughters; one of them wants to be a scientist, and the other one wants to be the editor of Scientific American," she told FishbowlNY. "I think anybody who is a position of leadership should feel a sense of responsibility. And I don't know if mine is any greater or less because I'm a first for the magazine. I know I'm very honored and grateful."

Read more here.

Another Flair Magazine Redo Published

Ivy Baer Sherman saw Flair magazine for the first time in 2003 at an exhibit at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery. Six years later, she has started Vintage magazine, a reprisal of the iconic 1950s magazine. Vintage is published twice a year and has the artsy fold-outs and special inserts that made Flair such a fun read.

According to Folio magazine, the magazine’s revenue source is still unclear.

One huge difference between Vintage and its 1950’s inspiration? Vintage is on Facebook and Twitter. Had she had the chance, you can be sure Fleur Cowles—who died earlier this year—would have been a huge online presence.

Flair was published by Des Moines-based Cowles Publishing and lasted exactly a year, 1950. Fleur wa

s married to Gardner (Mike) Cowles, who bankrolled the project, reputedly losing $2.5 million on it. Let’s wish Ms. Sherman better luck.

Flaunt magazine, another Flair look-alike, has embossed, die-cut covers ad lots of production tricks; it has lasted more than 100 issues. The E.T. Center for Magazine Studies at Drake University has a full run of Flair, plus Fleur Cowles’ book, The Best of Flair and a good selection of Flaunt magazines. Or check my book, The Magazine from Cover to Cover, for a history of Flair.

Metropolitan Home to Close

Metropolitan Home magazine, which started life as Better Homes and Gardens Apartment Ideas magazine, is the latest casualty of the recession. It will cease publication with its December issue, according to a Hachette Filipacchi announcement this morning. Met Home has been published under that title for 26 years. Ad pages for the third quarter were down 35.7 percent from the same period of 2008. The company plans to focus its energies on ELLE Decor.

On another blog, I share an article I published in 1995 about the magazine's history. Read it here.

Drake magazine wins another Pacemaker

From a Drake University news release.

The Associated Collegiate Press has awarded Drake University's student-produced Drake Magazine the ACP Pacemaker Award for Magazine Excellence.

In addition, Drake graduate Brittainey Sieren placed third in the magazine spread design category, and current student Danny Akright received honorable mention in the feature photography category.

Winners were announced at the 88th ACP and Annual College Media Association's National Convention in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, Oct. 31.

"The Pacemaker Award is the most prestigious award in student publishing," said Lori Blachford, the Peggy Fisher and Larry Stelter chair of magazine journalism at Drake. "We are competing against schools all across the nation, so to receive recognition as outstanding magazine of the year from that organization is a real honor."

"This is a national award that puts the Drake student magazine at the top of the pack for student publications," said Kathleen Richardson, director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. "Almost all of the other finalists were from bigger schools."

The staff of San Francisco's Wired magazine judged the publications in the magazine excellence category on:

• Art, photography, and graphics
  
• Content
  
• Layout and design
  
• Overall concept or theme
  
• Quality of writing and editing

"The students who work on Drake Magazine gain real-life experience in magazine production," Blachford said. "They start each semester with a collection of blank pages and make all the decisions required to arrive at the end of the semester with a magazine that represents their best work."

Tara Richards, a senior magazine major from Indianola, Iowa, served as the publication's 2008-09 editor in chief.

"I loved working for Drake Magazine," Richards said. "The whole staff was extremely dedicated to the project and we gave our all to make sure the publication was the best it could be."

When asked about her future career, Richards said, "I would love to work as an editor for a magazine or Web site. The experiences I've had at Drake have been invaluable in preparing me for the real world of journalism."

Congratulations to Last Year's Drake Magazine Staff!

Alums on camera: Joe Wiesenfelder

It's always a kick when I turn on the TV and see an alum being interviewed as an expert. Tonight, it was Joe Wiesenfelder (89) of cars.com. Joe was interviewed on the CBS Evening News—this is the third time I have seen him there. This time, the story was about Ford's emergence as a serious competitor in the current car market.

Joe said:

"They [Ford] have to convince the consumers that they make good reliable cars and that is, in some ways, harder than making good, reliable cars," said Joe Wiesenfelder with Cars.com. "It takes a long time."

See the entire story here.

Twenty Tweetable Truths About Magazines

Here's a lively pitch for the industry.  It's an emphasis on the positives about magazines:

Readers love them

Teens love them

Advertisers love them

They do good work

Go magazines!