BoSacks Speaks Out: On Monday, October 28 at the MediaNext Conference (Oct 28 -30) at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City, Samir Husni and I will conduct an extended-length workshop titled, The Future of the Magazine Media: A Conversation with Conclusions About Print, Digital, Mobile. This conversation has an all-star panel to review and discuss the state of the current media world, with a focus on where we are headed as an industry.

Our Panelists include:

Michael Clinton - President, Marketing & Publishing Director at Hearst

Frank Anton - CEO at Hanley Wood

Beth Brenner - Chief Revenue Officer at Domino Media Group

Brian Pontolilo, Editor, Fine Homebuilding and GreenBuildingAdvisor.com

Samir and I will ask this panel the tough questions. We seek to know what they have done right and also what they have done wrong in this complex media environment.

Since we aren't going to ambush these executives and we wanted well thought out answers, we have given our questions in advance. You, too, can ask questions, but I thought it might be interesting for you to know what questions we have asked in advance for them to prepare for:

1) I think we all agree that the magazine industry is in a state of transformation. Some magazines are more advanced in that transformation than others. I'd be very curious to hear where you are in the adoption towards the future of the magazine business and where you think your readers are in the curve of digital reading?

2) What percentage of revenue are you getting from your web platforms compared to print?

3) How do you intend to continually deliver the ever increasingly higher expectations of your readers?

4) What specific initiative are you are involved in to help promote the future of print in a digital age?

5) Can you discuss the cost and the extra efforts that your company must now go through to be competitive in the new world order of publishing?

6) Why are companies we hadn't heard of five years ago winning the revenue dollars at mobile in regards our turf of media consumption? 

7) Are we as an industry putting enough attention into training our journalists in new ways of reporting and storytelling? What steps does your company take to train your staff for the future? 

8) What are some of the opportunities you hope to seize over the next several years?

9) When you look at magazines today and compare our footprint to the public's time spent in other media, what worries you the most about moving forward as an institution and a brand?

10) If you could start your operation over again from the start, what would you change or what mistakes would you prefer to avoid?

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

Albert Einstein

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

Voltaire 

Are Magazines Downplaying the Figures of Plus-Size Stars?

Critics say Elle 'covered up' actress on current issue 

By Emma Bazilian

http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/are-magazines-downplaying-figures-plus-sized-stars-153209#intro

Elle magazine has come under fire for allegedly downplaying the plus-size figure of actress Melissa McCarthy on its latest cover. Critics are saying Elle purposely tried to hide the Bridesmaids star by putting her in an oversize coat that covered most of her body. (Or, in the words of Slate writer June Thomas, a coat "so huge that [McCarthy] could hide her Mike and Molly co-star Billy Gardel underneath.") Meanwhile, Elle's other November cover stars (the magazine is running separate covers featuring six different actresses for its "Women in Hollywood" issue) got to show considerably more skin.

Elle responded in a statement that read: "On all of our shoots, our stylists work with the stars to choose pieces they feel good in, and this is no different: Melissa loved this look, and is gorgeous on our cover." In an interview with Omg! Insider, the actress herself called the cover "kind of amazing."

This is hardly the first time this sort of thing has happened. As anyone who follows fashion magazines will tell you, plenty of other titles have gotten flak for obscuring, even shrinking full-figure cover girls.