Subject: December 6, 2006 -- Postal Rate Case/Mobile Budgets/Print-Web Engagement

From: "Circulation Management" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2006 15:25:32 -0500

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Your Circulation News >> Wednesday, December 6, 2006

IN THIS ISSUE

NEWS
Postal Rate Case News
Mobile Marketing Budgets Increase
Survey of Print/Web Consumer Engagement
New Features Debut at Top Papers

BRIEFS
Conde Nast Launches Indian Vogue
PCMag.com Launches Click to Call Service
Sale of 18 Time Inc. Titles Stalls
The Web as Brand Extension
International Audit Intrigue
IAB Announces Cross-Media Ad Campaign
CMP Acquires Software 2007 Conference

MEETINGS & EVENTS

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NEWS

Postal Rate Case News

By Kristina Joukhadar

Another chapter in the current postal rate case took place on Monday of this week when two American Business Media rebuttal witnesses traveled to Washington to be cross-examined before the Postal Rate Commission. Their written testimony and accompanying exhibits were filed by ABM at the end of November...

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Mobile Marketing Budgets Increase

By Chandra Johnson-Greene

Procter & Gamble, Microsoft Corp. and other major marketers have set aside a small portion of their ad budgets for mobile marketing, perhaps a sign that the medium is moving out of the experimental phase.

According to AdAge.com, the banking and financial sectors were responsible for some of the more innovative uses of mobile marketing in the past year...

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Survey Measures Print, Web Consumer Engagement

According to the recently released Monroe Mendelsohn Research’s third annual PReSS Survey, which measures consumer engagement, Smithsonian, The New Yorker, Sunset and Reader’s Digest were among the most engaging print publications while Parenting, National Geographic, Cooking Light and Sports Illustrated had the top publication Web sites...

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New Features Debut at Top Papers

The Wall Street Journal Debuts Redesign

Dow Jones & Co. announced comprehensive redesign of its flagship, The Wall Street Journal, this week. The redesign will debut with the Jan. 2 issue.

WSJ will shrink in width by three inches to an industry standard 12 inches, reducing the space devoted to news by 10 percent. Its length will remain 22.75 inches. The narrower width has been designed to make the WSJ easier to carry and will also feature new typography...

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New York Times Online Reader Debuts

The New York Times launched its new online Times Reader last Thursday, representing a major enhancement to the online reading experience of its electronic edition product offering.

The Reader, now in beta version on NYTimes.com, is based on Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista-downloadable software, which allows text to display in a reader-customizable format...

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NEWS BRIEFS

Conde Nast Launches Indian Vogue

Conde Nast Publications Inc. announced this week that it has plans to launch Vogue in India next year.

According to a statement, Conde Nast will own and operate Indian Vogue as opposed to publishing through a joint venture like Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Men’s Health and Maxim.

However, it is not clear how Conde Nast plans to publish on its own in India, where the government allows foreign companies to own only 26 percent equity in Indian media ventures.

Vogue will be published from Mumbai and the Indian editions will be its 17th worldwide. The Indian media published reports earlier this year that if the launch is successful, Conde Nast plans bring Glamour, Vanity Fair and Traveler to India as well.

PCMag.com Launches Click to Call Service

PCMag.com announced this week that it has launched a new purchasing service for its visitors.

Click to Call enables PCMag.com visitors who are researching a particular product to immediately connect to a product manufacturer’s customer service rep by telephone by clicking on a button that appears on the site.

In a partnership with eStara, a provider of conversion solutions for enhancing online sales, PCMag.com is the first Web publisher to use the technology.

“The recent trend has been to shun telephone communication in favor of quick Web purchasing—often leaving the buyer unsatisfied by the level of service. But consumers purchasing products over $1,000 often want to speak with a real live person before making that kind of financial commitment,” said Jason Young, president, PC Magazine, Consumer/SMB, Ziff Davis Media.

Sale of 18 Time Inc. Titles Stalls

The year-end deadline for Time Inc. to sell 18 of its titles—comprised mostly of the Parenting and Time4 Media Groups—is fast approaching with no definite buyers in sight.

According to AdAge.com, Time Inc. was too slow in supplying information for contenders to make second round bids, which were originally due in November. The next bids aren’t expected before Jan. 2.

Second round contenders are said to include Stockholm’s Bonnier Magazine Group, which has a 49 percent stake in World Publications, Efrem “Skip” Zimbalist III, president/CEO of Active Interest Media; former Time Inc. executive VP Jack Haire, with backing from Boston Ventures; former Gruner & Jahr USA president/CEO J. Russell Denson; and Kent Brownridge, formerly of Wenner Media.

The Web as Brand Extension

In the spirit of making the Conde Nast Web sites easier to manage as an extension of the magazines’ brands, authority of the Web sites has been transferred from the company’s CondeNet interactive division to John Bellando, COO of Conde Nast, effectively bringing it under control of the print side of the company.

The switch, which was reported in Crain’s New York Business last week, supports the findings of the Circulation Management December Salary Survey, that a full 64 percent of high level print circulation executives also carry responsibilities for their companies’ Web initiatives.

International Audit Intrigue

Bo Sacks picked up an intriguing story last week from Indian news Web site hindu.com. The story detailed notices issued to the Audit Bureau of Circulations and the National Readership Studies Council by the city court of Jaipur, India, asking both organizations to report to the District and Sessions Magistrate city court on December 16th.

The court directives are based on a petition filed by Jahir Ahmed of the N.M.Advertising Agency in India, disputing the credibility of the findings of a readership survey of the newspapers in Rajasthan. Jahir claims that his business suffered when he entered into an agreement with the local daily publication Rajasthan Patrika based on figures from a 2005 NRS Report...

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IAB Announces Cross-Media Ad Campaign

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced last week the launch of a new integrated interactive branding campaign. The campaign, which features the tagline “Media More Engaging,” is focused on how interactive advertising is the only medium that intersects between the three pillars of audience, experience and effectiveness.

The first wave of the integrated campaign will appear in online and print publications including Adweek and Advertising Age and will extend into other properties including IAB member sites into 2007.

Brand New World developed the campaign after an extensive research study was conducted among senior level marketers and advertising agency executives on how to position the industry’s interactivity...

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CMP Acquires Software 2007 Conference

CMP Technology, which produces events such as Interop, VoiceCon, the annual Web 2.0 Summit, Web 2.0 Expo, the Enterprise 2.0 Conference and Mobile Business Expo, announced this week its acquisition of the Software 2007 conference.

The Software conference series launched in 2004 and is frequently attended by executives representing the software ecosystem that includes software and services vendors, investors, industry experts and CIOs.

M.R. Rangaswami will continue his role as executive conference director of the event as well as work with CMP Technology's MediaLive division to broaden the reach and influence of CMP Technology events. The Software 2007 conference will take place at the Santa Clara Convention Center, May 8-9, 2007.

MEETINGS & EVENTS

Webinars
Dec. 6, B-to-B's 5 Keys to Survey Success, 2 p.m. EST, http://e.ccialerts.com/a/hBFdG3lAHkwreAx7MFGATNjg8LY/btob4

Dec. 7, Harte-Hanks Webinar on the 2007 USPS Rate Case, 2 p.m. EST, http://harte-hanks.com/Webinar

Dec. 14, Direct's Enticing Gifts for the Holidays: 25 New Direct Marketing Ideas That Will Make Your New Year Sizzle, 2 p.m., EST, Register here

December
Dec. 6, National Trade Circulation Foundation Holiday Cocktail Party,
The Penn Club, New York, NY http://www.ntcfi.org

Dec. 8, Hudson Valley DMA Holiday Party, Fairview Country Club, Greenwich, CT. http://www.directmedia.com

Dec. 11-13,  National Center for Database Marketing (NCDM) 2006 Conference & Exhibition, Caribe Royal Resort, Orlando, FL.  http://www.ncdmevents.com

Dec. 13, DMA "Roast and Toast" Holiday Luncheon, Yale Club of New York, New York, NY. http://www.the-dma.org/councilevents/insertdecluncheon

January
Jan. 17, FMA Morning Seminar: Fulfillment Solutions for Savvy/Complex Marketing Strategies; Luncheon Panel: Automatic Renewals; The Princeton Club, New York, NY http://www.fmanational.org

Jan. 17, AMA Training Series: Conjoint Analysis and Discreet Choice Modeling: Introduction,  Comparison and Evolution, Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, Tampa, FL http://archives.subscribermail.com/msg/AMAUDF9CF435.htm

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Contact us
Red 7 Media, Inc.
10 Norden Place
Norwalk, CT 06855
Tel. (203) 854-6730
Fax: (203) 854-6735

Editors:
Kristina Joukhadar, Managing Editor
Chandra Johnson-Greene, Associate Editor

Advertising Inquiries:
Tony Silber, Publisher
Gina Gavish, Advertising Director
John Ellertson, Regional Sales Manager
Karen Putrimas, Sr. Sales Manager, Directory Group

Exhibit & Sponsorship Inquiries:
Kelly Koenig, Dir. Exhibit & Sponsorship

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