Thoughts on the latest AdweekMedia strategem

Sorry if I seem a little slow on the uptake regarding today's rather hefty layoff, of, by my count, at least 10 people from my favorite former employer, AdweekMedia. Wasn't in the office for much of the day, but here's what I think: even though the magazines will now, at last, share editorial operations, I still find it amazing the company has once again managed to sidestep what should be inevitable: combining the Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek brands into a single publication, kind of like, uh, Ad Age. Partly because it took me so damn long to post today, this isn't a new thought. As PaidContent.org's Rafat Ali said: "If they were really serious about long term viability, at least one of those three [magazines] should have been closed down, if you ask me, and possibly even two."
Instead, the company offers up a peculiar strategy in which there are still three magazines, but one staff. Does this mean reporters now have three bosses? That the magazines will carry the same content in different packaging? It's hard to tell from the official release, which says: "This integrated, yet industry audience-targeted approach to sharing content between brands is supported by the fact that only 1.5 percent of all of the print subscribers of Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek receive all three publications, which alleviates the potential for delivering repetitive content to subscribers." Well, I guess, but last time I checked, producing print cost money--producing customized print publications for three audiences with ever more interlocking interests costs even more, and to what advantage? As it's far easier to slice-and-dice content in customized form in a digital environment, that's where the three brands should continue to exist, if anywhere. Thus, it seems like the place for savings shouldn't necessarily be in cutting staff--too many talented have lost their jobs there--but in cutting down on other big costs, like three print publications, which, by the time they finally arrive, are increasingly an afterthought in a news-on-demand world. That takes courage, but better to make one massive, very difficult decision than dozens of smaller ones. Get on with it, people.

Will there be an Ad-Media-Brand-Week?

You may have noticed that I haven't posted about Adweek lately. Not much to post. But then one of my industry observers pointed me to this story which ran in Folio yesterday, predicting, among other things, that " a considerable consolidation of editorial staffs" might happen at Nielsen Business Media including, according to what Folio says are "two knowledgeable sources" the possible combining of Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek into one news operation. This idea has been bandied about over there for the last few years, but given the way the economy is, I'm wondering if this time it doesn't have the ring of inevitability to it.

More on 'Adweek': no layoffs, not a lotta traffic

So, you probably heard by now that Nielsen Business Media laid off a bunch yesterday—around 50 people, though the company isn't confirming the specifics. I was more or less out of pocket yesterday and not up to my usual spelunking to find out more. Here's what I've heard, none of which Nielsen would confirm—there were no editorial layoffs at Adweek and Mediaweek, at least one at Brandweek and the Web editor's job at Editor & Publisher. (That was reported yesterday by Mediabistro's Fishbowl NY.) In addition, no open positions will be filled with one exception: the Adweek editor's post, which Alison Fahey is expected to vacate soon for a publisher/editorial director's role at Adweek magazine.

Given the news out of my former employer yesterday, it seemed a good time to see how the Adweek.com relaunch—which was unveiled on Feb. 4—has been going, so I checked in with Compete.com and Alexa to see what traffic they were reporting. What I found was troubling. The flat-to-down results are below, with Ad Age used as a comparison (granted that brand's mission is larger than Adweek's is, but the graphs look a little naked alone).

Here's what Compete.com has to stay on traffic over the last year:



And from Alexa over the last three months:












Whatever source you use, you'd expect to see a bump there, wouldn't you? Through a spokesperson, Sabrina Crow, who heads the marketing and media books, said, "For us in terms of the success of the launch, we were up in revenue and up in online subscriptions ... those are the metrics that count for us."

Precious Moments coffins 2007's worst line extension

One story I missed earlier yesterday was Brandweek's list of the worst line extensions of the year. You can read the full list here, but let's just stick, for the purposes of this post, to Precious Moments line of coffins, which won the contest. These were coffins that were based on the treacly, doe-eyed figurines, pictured at right. Unfortunately, if they are still available, they're not available on the Precious Moments Web site. I typed "coffin" into search; I clicked on "Miscellaneous," I clicked on "Occasion" but only saw holidays like Christmas and Birthdays. Alas, no coffins.