As a high-quality magazine it will target people with personal assets of more than £1 million on top of the value of their property and will cover asset allocation, new and exotic investment products, real estate, emerging markets and investment alternatives including art and wine.

Advertising director EMEA and global display Dominic Good said FT Wealth is "designed for a unique audience, making it the ideal advertising proposition for our wealth management banking clients. FT Wealth will be read by the top 1% of the population in terms of wealth, an audience which no other publication can claim to reach."

FT Wealth will also include issues such philanthropy, succession and family planning, education, matrimonial, security and social issues.

Wouldn't it be more green to go digital-only?

We've always had a digital version of the Green Guide. So for the magazine, we partnered with Texterity to create an online edition, which gives all the text and ads in the print version, but in some ways is better because everything is hyperlinked. It's a very dynamic, paper-free version of the magazine. And it will be available February 28, a week before the print issue! See www.thegreenguide-magazine.com for details.

As for print, there's a debate about the paper that should go into magazines. Ours is Forest Stewardship Council-certified, which means the wood pulp comes from well-managed forests and is tracked at every step on the way from harvesting through processing until it reaches the printer. Ten percent of our paper content comes from post-consumer-waste recycled content-there is paper with higher recycled content, but we value FSC's commitment to forest conservation. The ink, which contains no heavy metals, was created by Quad graphics and derives from renewable sources including soy, corn and linseed.

Why did National Geographic launch such a different magazine?

National Geographic's mission is to inspire people to care about the planet. It's the mission of the Green Guide to provide people with the tools to do this. We are a research-based service invested in our reporting and we set high standards for ourselves that are consistent with National Geographic's approach. They, like us, take the tough science and make it available for lay people. We're a natural addition to the National Geographic team; you see the Green Guide is just a part of an NG-wide initiative to provide more green content in books, on television or in magazines, all working together to inspire and engage people in positive ways to protect the planet.

Features in the preview edition of The New West include "From Rubble to Riches," an in-depth look at how Western communities are turning old industrial sites into vibrant neighborhoods, and "The LEED Shade of Green," which examines the mounting controversy over sustainable building standards. Regular departments of the publication include Project Watch, which spotlights notable new developments; Design Showcase, which features innovative design solutions; and Metrics, a fascinating compendium of development-related data.

"Ever since we launched NewWest.Net back in 2005, our community has been asking us for a print magazine," said Jonathan Weber, founder and CEO of New West Publishing. "The New West, with its tight focus on the big story of growth and development in the region, is a logical complement to both NewWest.Net and our growing conference series."

New West produces the annual Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies conference, which takes places in the fall in Missoula. The company recently announced its second major conference, Designing the New West, which is scheduled for April 25 in Bozeman, MT.

NewWest.Net, a local and regional online publication, covers the culture, economy, politics and lifestyle of the Rocky Mountain West. With a wide range of writers from around the region and an active community of commenters and contributors, NewWest.Net was the winner of the 2006 Online News Association award for general excellence. “Wild Bill” Schneider, NewWest.Net‘s outdoors columnist, was honored with the 2007 Online Journalism Award for best commentary.

The quarterly magazine-printed on a blend of recycled paper-is Connecticut's first definitive consumer guide dedicated to eco-friendly living. "Connecticut has the potential to be a leader in guiding the world toward solutions for a better planet," says editorial director Heather Burns-DeMelo. "There is a buzz in the air. From universities to government to corporations to small businesses and nonprofit organizations, there isn't a sector that's not bubbling up with innovative green initiatives. AllGreen Magazine aims to be a galvanizing force and to bring eco-friendly living into the mainstream."

The inaugural (Winter) edition of the magazine is currently being distributed to homes and businesses throughout Connecticut. Subsequent editions will appear in the spring, summer and fall, with a total circulation of approximately 100,000 copies per issue, and an estimated readership of 250,000 per issue. The Web site, currently in its beta version, will officially launch in the coming weeks.

AllGreen Group LLC's publisher is Michael J. Guinan, managing partner, who is also the principal of Hartford-based Marketing Resource Consultants (MRC), co-publisher of Hartford Magazine and publisher of CT Business Magazine, Home Living CT and The Greater Hartford Charitable Events Guide. AllGreen's senior editor is Carol A. Latter, who also serves as editor of CT Business Magazine and oversees several of MRC's other publications. AllGreen's creative director is David E. Frith, who heads up creative for MRC.

The new eco-friendly magazine is produced and published under the direction of MRC, and will be mailed quarterly with Hartford Magazine and CT Business Magazine. It will also be distributed to government officials, legislators, town chambers, hotels and eco-friendly businesses statewide, and will be available at prominent consumer events, including Sun WineFest, the Original Connecticut Home & Remodeling Show and two AllGreen-sponsored expos, scheduled for 2008 in Hartford and Fairfield County.

EverGreen will make its debut on May 20, 2008 at CleanMed 2008, the premier environmental conference for leaders in healthcare. The first issue will lead with the cover story "Greening Healthcare" and contain standing features on green building, waste reduction, healthy chemical policies, sustainable foods and food processes, clean air, energy and water efficiency, and more. The "Green Light" section of each issue will profile the environmental initiatives of a health system, hospital or healthcare facility, and "Green Support" will feature a guest environmental columnist. The magazine's "Revive" section will focus on healthcare recycling efforts, and the "Focus on Chemicals" section will look at the impact of chemical use in the healthcare industry. "Policy Watch" will provide updates on regulatory guidelines surrounding environmental issues on a local, state and national level. Plus, each issue of EverGreen will also have content on the cost savings that can be derived from implementing an environmentally preferred purchasing (EPP) initiative. A section on new products and services, along with industry news rounds out the editorial coverage.

"Consorta has long been recognized for its leadership in helping healthcare facilities reduce their collective impact on the environment and improve the health of the communities they serve," said John W. Strong, president and CEO of Consorta. "EverGreen is one more step in our journey to have healthcare professionals collaborate around topics, products, initiatives and best demonstrated practices that will benefit the environment and the health and safety of our patients and staff. By highlighting new products, featuring thought leaders in the environmental movement and sharing best practices I believe that interested healthcare providers and suppliers can - and will make a difference."

There were 389 new magazines launched in 2007. There were also 636 magazines launched in 2007.

Exactly how many depends on who's doing the counting.

"We only count magazines that we have physical copies of," says University of Mississippi professor Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni, who tracks launches monthly on his Web site. "That is, no announcement or wishful thinking that we are launching."

Through November, there were 636 magazine launches by Husni's count, including 221 published four times or more and 363 special issues that may or may not come out with a second.

House & Garden had to contend with more than a dozen large national and regional magazines that cover much of the same terrain, like House Beautiful, Better Homes & Gardens, Traditional Home, Country Home and Home.

"The category as a whole is so crowded," said Kelly Foster, senior partner and print director at MindShare North America, a media planning and buying agency that is part of the WPP Group, adding that the magazines "get in each other's way."

That was particularly true for House & Garden, she said, as Conde Nast took the magazine into the luxury end of the market — but then ran into Conde Nast's own upscale publication, Architectural Digest. Conde Nast has two other entrants in the home design and furnishing field, Domino and Vogue Living, both started last year.

Enter Movies Rock, a custom publishing supplement that will be mailed to about 16 million subscribers of 14 Conde Nast magazines -- such as Vanity Fair, Vogue and GQ -- beginning Nov. 1. Concocted by Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter as a counterpart to an earlier Conde Nast advertorial effort, Fashion Rocks (which, as its title suggests, encompasses haute couture and rock stardom), Movies Rock functions as eye candy for the coffee table and a kind of behind-the-music and behind-the-scenes compendium for iPod listeners and cineastes alike.

Edited by Mitch Glazer, a successful freelance writer turned movie scribe ("Scrooged," "The Recruit"), the glossy annual is intended as a reflection of what's hot in popular culture.

"This year going into next, you've got 'La Vie en Rose,' 'Sweeney Todd,' 'El Cantante,' 'I'm Not There,' 'August Rush,' 'Once' -- it's definitely of the moment," Glazer said, naming a number of high-profile music-driven films. "So Graydon's idea was to do a 13th issue of Vanity Fair devoted to the place where movies and music meet."

Bill Murray, extravagantly kitted out in a rhinestone-studded jumpsuit and shiny pompadour, poses as Elvis on the cover. Inside, familiar Vanity Fair photographers -- Mark Seliger, Jean Baptiste Mondino and Bruce Weber -- have snapped a who's who of musicians and actors who somehow straddle the movie-music divide: Kanye West, Nelly, Billy Bob Thornton, Eve, Freddie Highmore, Chris Brown and Zooey Deschanel among them.

After years of development, Time Inc. plans to introduce an online service next year that will offer pay-as-you-go, mix-and-match, highly flexible magazine subscriptions from a variety of publishers. Consumers using the service, to be called Maghound, will be able to pay one monthly fee for three subscriptions, with the ability to swap one title out for a new one or cancel entirely at any point.

The current plan calls for offering three magazines for $4.95 a month, five magazines for $7.95 a month or seven magazines for $9.95 a month -- with about 20% of the available magazines priced at a premium.

"You pay by credit card and get charged every month until you tell us to stop," Mr. Wolfe said. "If you want to switch at any point, you can switch off Newsweek for Time or something like that. You go online and make these changes. It's a solution that really addresses more of what consumers want, which is control and flexibility."

Trump magazine is a men's luxury glossy that captures the "essence" of the Donald Trump experience, and reflects the entrepreneurial passion and drive that have made the Trump name equally synonymous with opulence and business savvy. Trump is a dynamic publication, one without rival in its competitive set-targeted to a discerning readership of upwardly mobile, intelligent men who appreciate the best out of life.

Trump celebrates life's risks and rewards in the same manner as the magazine's namesake-the challenges of a real estate deal, the thrill of launching a new business venture, a round of golf on an award-winning course, a jaunt to a five-star resort-this is Trump's world! A quarterly magazine which chronicles the people and places that shape its readers' lives from the perspective of a 21st Century business and pop-culture icon, Donald Trump.

To date, the veteran business movement has centered on mandatory federal government procurement goals started in 1999. "The name Vetrepreneur better reflects NaVOBA's mission: taking the veteran business movement beyond the Washington, D.C. beltway," said Joe Grossi, NaVOBA's corporate membership director. "NaVOBA is pushing the movement to corporate America where we convince big businesses to add veterans into their supplier diversity programs that already include minority and women-owned firms."

The name change follows exhaustive market research that indicated the veteran business movement needed a unifying message. NaVOBA found that vetrepreneurs associate strongly with being a veteran and strongly with being a business owner. But until now, they have not put those two things together.

"Previously, there was no advantage to being a 'veteran business owner.' Now great opportunity exists," said Ted Stazak, NaVOBA's veteran-owned business (VOB) membership director. "A word as desirable and unique as 'vetrepreneur' sends a strong branding and unification message to the nation's 3 million business owners who are military veterans. It says, let's build on the foundation laid by government laws and take this veteran business movement to the next level."

Beginning next year, The Wall Street Journal will begin publishing a monthly glossy titled Pursuits, which covers the lifestyles of the rich and famous. According to The New York Times, which first reported the news, WSJ columnist and blogger Robert Frank is the most likely candidate to become editor.

The magazine will be distributed in September 2008 as an insert in the paper's Saturday edition that is delivered to subscribers. Their magazine will also have a branded presence on the WSJ Web site. News Corporation is said to have approved the concept.

Also on Monday, the New York Post announced plans to launch a new weekly Page Six Magazine inserted in the paper's Sunday edition, beginning next weekend. As the title indicates, the magazine will include an expanded version of the newspaper's popular "Page Six" gossip column. The magazine, with a staff of about 20, will be edited by Margi Conklin. Conklin was formerly editor of Harper's Bazaar and New Woman. The new magazine may also feature writing by two other well-known Post gossip columnists: Cindy Adams and Liz Smith.

Now available on news-stands in both Britain and continental Europe at 7.50 euros, the 124-page magazine published at 175,000 copies aims to write about areas from travel to food, philanthropy to health, to fashion, design and the arts.

There were two reasons for the launch, editor Edward Carr told AFP, one commercial, the other editorial.

The editorial reason was that "The Economist takes on a whole set of big forces that shape the world, but there's a whole area of the reader's life we can't address in that format."

On the commercial front, the British weekly founded in 1843 believed the new magazine "could offer a more suitable environment for advertisers," he said.

This month, short articles are packed with tips for organizing closets, garages, home offices, study spaces, hobby rooms and more.

Some examples: Set up a homework supply center in the kitchen for little kids, so they can reach the crayons and study within sight of parents making dinner.

Organize appliance manuals in one clear box, but first throw away any directions to items you no longer own and any manuals that are also online.

One favorite feature, though, is a photo spread on smart shoe-storage solutions, which might make it possible to cram a few new pairs into an overstuffed closet.

The magazine's founders, Eric Cheng and Elijah Woolery - both avid divers and underwater photographers - hope to foster environmental stewardship by highlighting conservation concerns in Wetpixel Quarterly's theme-based issues.

"By drawing attention to the links between the beauty of the underwater world and the action required to sustain these environments," says Woolery, "we're hoping to increase interest in preserving threatened areas around the globe-and to help protect those areas that are still pristine."

Through interviews, articles, open contests, and, most importantly, the lenses of its contributors, Wetpixel Quarterly brings to the page a new sense of the fragility and splendor of underwater life.

Fairchild Publications, which has since been absorbed by Conde Nast, launched Jane with Pratt at the helm in 1997 with a 400,000 rate base. Pratt stepped down in July 2005, and Holley gave the women's title a more positive, girly attitude with a redesign that came out the following year. Holley was supposed to leave on a mission today to Uganda with actress Natalie Portman for the magazine's next cover,

Reached by cell phone today, Pratt said she was saddened by the news. "Some people think I would be gloating. When you put so much into building something, when you put that much into something, you really want it to be around."

The magazine struggled to find its place amid the established, mass women's fashion/beauty monthlies. Ad pages stood at 282 this year through July, per the Mediaweek Monitor, an increase of 20.8 percent, but were less than half of what they were two years ago. Total paid and verified circ stood at 713,581 in the second half of 2006, up 1.9 percent, per the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

A new magazine hit newsstands across the United States and Canada last month. Muslim Girl is a glossy new lifestyle magazine that reflects the diversity among Muslim teens, inspires them and gives them a face and a voice.

The target audience for the new publication is Muslim women in North America aged 14 to 18.

"We know from our research that that market is about 400,000 to 500,000 teen girls," Muslim Girl Magazine editor Ausma Khan says.

Muslim American teens share common ground with their non-Muslim peers. "We know that they tend to go to public school, they watch television, they read teen magazines, they are very Internet savvy, they play video games, they shop and talk on the phone a lot," Khan says. "Those are things that they have in common with their American peers. What's different about them is that they are very proud of their identity as Muslims, and that informs their daily life. So, for example, they do things like Qura'an Study or they may go to Islamic school. They have aspects of their lives wherein they celebrate their Islamic values."

I have been a freelance contributor to Tips & Tricks Magazine for the last 1.5 years, and I just found out today that August will be the last issue. From now on, there will only be monthly codebooks, which sounds incredibly intriguing (who wants to read people's opinions anyway?). The bigwigs at LFP were planning on firing the entire staff this week while they were away from the office at E3 promoting the magazine. But if they knew anything at all about the industry, they would have realized that E3 is still two weeks away.

The plan was to fire all employees in the middle of the week, but when I received a letter with my latest paycheck this past weekend (I was told that I shouldn’t have received it until later this week) that said "Tips & Tricks magazine is ceasing its publication of monthly issues...Thank you for your contribution to Tips & Tricks Magazine." I knew that something was up.

Wizards, as the licensor of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, made the decision not to renew our license at the end of the current term. They generously gave us a ten-month notice that the magazines would be ending, even though they were only obligated to give us notice in a much shorter time frame. Once they let us know their decision, we both cooperated on a transition plan to take care of our customers. Wizards agreed to extend our original license so that we could complete the Savage Tide Adventure Path. They allowed us to time the announcement so that we could discuss it with distributors and retailers at the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas in April. They have also graciously agreed to allow us to continue to sell our Dragon and Dungeon products until they are gone, rather than forcing us to blow them out or destroy them at the end of the license. In short, they have really bent over backwards to allow Paizo to give our customers the best service possible in this time of transition, and for that, I am very thankful.

Many people have asked why Paizo doesn't just create new print magazines that would be just like Dragon and Dungeon, but without the official D&D content. Well, if there were a viable way for us to transition to a new magazine format, we might have. However, you can't just create a new magazine and have it automatically appear in all of the places that carried Dragon and Dungeon. Hobby store managers and gamers might understand the value of a new magazine, but what about bookstore managers, military suppliers, major magazine distributors, or advertisers? You've basically got to start over from scratch with them, and in many cases that means you have to buy your way in. When we started Paizo five years ago, Dragon and Dungeon magazines had a combined 40 years of inertia behind them, but in today's marketplace, starting a new magazine on that scale would take more than a million dollars. I'm sure that some enterprising company will come out with a magazine to try to fill that niche, but I sincerely doubt that they will be able to afford to put in the same high-quality content that Dragon and Dungeon had each month and sell it for the low price that we were able to offer thanks to the size and dedication of the Dragon and Dungeon audience.

Instead, we decided to take the type of content that you have been telling us that you have been enjoying so much in the magazines, and we migrated it to Pathfinder. Pathfinder isn't a magazine; it's a monthly 96-page, full-color book. It will feature the same artists and authors that you love so much from Dragon and Dungeon magazines, but there is no advertising (except for a few house ads in the back). The $19.99 MSRP might initially seem high compared to the two magazines, but you're really getting a similar amount of content. Dragon and Dungeon average around 55 pages of content per issue for $7.99. That's 110 pages of content for $15.98 each month. Pathfinder will give you 96 pages for $19.99, but you're buying a book that's printed on higher-quality paper and that will survive extensive use at the gaming table much better than a magazine. In short, we think that we will continue to be giving you one of the best values in gaming.

Business is also about brains, and Conde Nast's were certainly questioned when the company announced in September 2005 that it was putting out a business magazine - its biggest single investment in a start-up - at a time when many others were foundering.

Readers were still reeling from the bursting of the Internet bubble and corporate scandals, and investors were looking at constantly updated Web sites - not biweekly glossies - for an edge. And some sizable advertisers, like the Detroit automakers, were mired in slumps of their own.

Some of the big magazines remain troubled: ad pages for the first three months of this year were down for BusinessWeek (3 percent), Forbes (9 percent) and Fortune (13 percent), compared with the same period a year ago, according to Publishers Information Bureau. Circulation at the big three has been flat or falling for the last few years, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

But Portfolio would not be the first business magazine introduced during trying times. Henry Luce founded Fortune just months after the Wall Street crash of 1929, for example.

The sad part those analysts have forgotten the history of the magazine industry plus they did not even see the magazine or any of its content. Just as a quick reminder about launching a magazine in the worst of times, Fortune was launched by Henry Luce in the midst of the Great Depression with a dollar cover price (think one dollar in 1930).

Another storied print magazine is coming to an end in print, and the focus is shifting to online and events: InfoWorld, the weekly magazine owned by IDG, is closing down, and the announcement will come Monday morning, paidContent.org has confirmed. It was first reported in MediaSurvey premium newsletter here. InfoWorld has been a pioneer online and has been the earliest to embrace new techniques and forms of journalism and advertising, including blogging, podcasts, RSS (and ads in it), screencasting and others, so this move probably makes sense.

The worst thing: the staff internally didn't know about this until this story came out, and got picked up by SF Chronicle and Valleywag among others. From what my sources told me, there won't be too many layoffs as most of the team had been working on multiplatform already: print, online and events. And don't discount the events side, as that was a major source of revenue for the brand.

The New Yorker, to nobody's great surprise, led all contenders with nine nominations, including general excellence and reporting. It was followed closely by Bruce Wasserstein's New York magazine, with seven, and Hearst's Esquire, also with seven.

On a company-wide basis, Conde Nast pulverized the competition. The New Yorker's nine led the company total of 32 nominations spread over 12 magazines and one Web site. Its Vanity Fair snagged four nominations, although that magazine was passed over in the all-important general excellence category. Hearst was nominated 10 times overall.

Condé Nast boasted general excellence nominations for Conde Nast Traveler, Gourmet, GQ, Wired, Glamour and epicurious.com, as well as a first-ever for the fledgling parenthood title Cookie.

A total of 1,773 entries were submitted from 334 print and online publications.

"This is a concept that we've discussed for several years and we're delighted to have the two leading experts in this area/space, Russ and Hannah, to enable us to bring it to fruition," says Simonoff. "Their insights into the field, combined with their knowledge and skills, ensure that together we can create a magazine that is at once different and compelling."

According to David Smith, Group Publisher at CFPN, Private Wealth will target professionals catering to the financial, legal and lifestyle demands of the ultra-affluent. Private Wealth will be published bi-monthly and will distinguish itself with high-quality, sophisticated editorial drawn from the extensive academic and practical experience of its contributors. The publication is intended for the advisor or provider whose established business is centered on the exceptionally affluent.

Private Wealth is intended to serve the very "top slice" of several different advisory segments, including private bankers, brokers, asset managers/investment managers, RIAs, insurance producers, trust officers, accountants, family office executives, wealth managers and luxury providers. The initial circulation will be 30,000.

The company, which also publishes Car and Driver, Elle and other magazines, said in a statement late Monday that the April edition of Premiere, which is on newsstands until April 16, will be the last for the U.S. edition. The international editions will continue.

Hachette said that Premiere's Web site would continue and will be revamped later in the year. The company had also shut the print edition of Elle Girl but kept its Web site going, a move that Time Warner Inc.'s Time Inc. unit did with Teen People last year.

Premiere was a monthly magazine but faced competition from weekly rivals such as Time Inc.'s Entertainment Weekly and others. Last year Premiere's paid ad pages declined 25 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

1. O, The Oprah Magazine, 2,382,917 (+15.6 %)
2. Real Simple, 1,959,990 (+12.3 %)
3. US, 1,751,709 (+37.5 %)
4. More, 1,188,932 (+25.0 %)
5. Teen Vogue, 1,005,437 (+31.1 %)
6. Glamour, 2,301,687 (+14.3 %)
7. Allure, 1,131,262 (+15.2 %)
8. Wired, 656,453 (+29.0 %)
9. Martha Stewart Living, 2,000,036 (+56.5 %)
10. Economist, 639,206 (+12.3 %)

Cracked the company, I should point out, is still alive and well. We're currently all working exclusively on book projects and our website at Cracked.com right now, which pays for submissions so there will still be freelance opportunities for you in the future. But unfortunately, distribution issues and the publishing industry as a whole made publishing a bi-monthly comedy magazine unviable. Will we revisit it in the future? Ya never know. But for now, no more Cracked magazine.

The Nick Jr. magazine tied to MTV's Nick Jr. programming will stop publication after the April issue, said the publication's New York-based parent company.

It is possible that the magazine, geared for parents and their under-12 children, could be reborn in another form once the dust settles from the recent MTV layoffs, Variety said Friday.

In a memo to staffers, editor-in-chief Freddi Greenberg said "plans are in the works for Nickelodeon to publish a magazine just for kids, and several of my staff members who you've met over the years will be working on that project."

"When you look at Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, you're looking at the future of the pro photographer's workflow, and a year or so from now if you're not using Lightroom, you're going to be left behind," said Scott Kelby, editor and publisher of Darkroom, NAPP president and the #1 top selling computer book author worldwide. "The integration between Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop CS2/CS3 creates the seamless, consistent, and efficient workflow that today's professionals need, and we launched Darkroom magazine to help these pros make the most of using these two amazing tools together," he added.

At last, we'll finally get to see whether Dennis Publishing president Steve Colvin's long-running campaign to slap the Maxim brand on everything from hair dye and steakhouses to the Vegas desert itself will translate into big bucks.

The New York Post reported in late September that Dennis had quietly retained media investment firm Allen & Co. to broker a sale, and that possible buyers included Girls Gone Wild meatstick Joe Francis and former Wenner exec Kent Brownridge, among others. At the time, sources told Radar Dennis had been involved in hush-hush negotiations with one eager buyer—the rumored asking price was $250 million—but that the deal fell through. Today, Dennis is making its search for a buyer public.

"Dennis Publishing, Inc. today announced that it has retained media investment firm Allen & Company as its exclusive financial advisor to explore various strategic alternatives available to the Company including a possible sale of the Company," reads a draft of the press release obtained by Radar and scheduled to go wide imminently.

Giant, launched in 2004 as an entertainment magazine for 20-something men, was re-launched under new editor Smokey Fontaine last year as a lifestyle and music magazine targeting urban readers. Recent covers have included Beyonce, Janet Jackson and Sean Combs. Fontaine will now be chief executive of Giant and gets an undisclosed financial stake in the magazine.

"For a limited amount of capital, we have now established a presence in the print media world and should be able to leverage our other media assets in various ways to increase the likelihood of success in what is unquestionably a challenging, but important business," says Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins.

Lagardère is shedding 700-1,000 jobs from its media division as part of an attempt to adapt its magazine, radio and television operations to the challenges and opportunities of the internet age.

The French group's media arm is dominated by its 259 magazines, which include Elle, Marie Claire, Paris Match and Car and Driver. It also includes the Europe 1 radio station and TV production companies.

On Thursday, it said that 7-10 per cent of the media division's 9,900 jobs would be cut and more than 20 underperforming magazines cease publication. It will allow some magazines to be produced under licence in countries where sales are too low to justify a direct presence. Advertising sales departments will be merged too.

Time Inc., the publishing division of Time Warner, is planning to cut more than 150 people, about half of them in editorial jobs across the company’s best-known titles, like People, Sports Illustrated, Time and Fortune. The cuts follow about 600 last year, many of them from the company’s business side, and a decision to trim its roster by selling 18 of its roughly 150 titles.

Time Inc.'s top executive, Ann S. Moore, has not yet publicly outlined or discussed the cuts, and she declined to be interviewed for this article. But other executives said that, while Time Inc. remains profitable, with margins of about 18 percent, it is witnessing a downturn in print advertising revenue and increasingly fierce competition from the Internet.

To prepare for the future, they said, the company is cutting costs now and continuing to shift resources to its branded Web sites.

Newsstand operators in Grand Central Terminal are breathing a little easier following British-based Emap 's announcement Wednesday that it would stop publishing the American edition of FHM, the laddie magazine with the sometimes too provocative covers.

In the last year, as FHM attempted to pump up its newsstand sales, it was frequently forced to put blinders on its covers in Grand Central in the wake of complaints that photos of its models were too revealing. And the attention-grabbing covers didn't help.

"With conditions in the U.S. worsening, we have decided to suspend publication to focus resources elsewhere on faster growth platforms," said Paul Keenan, chief executive of Emap Consumer Media, in a statement. The March issue of FHM will be its last.

That didn't happen, but turns out it is tying up with a UK fashion/style magazine Marmalade to create a print issue made completely out of MySpace submissions: it will feature cover-to-cover MySpace content submitted by users, reports Guardian. I guess they need print, mainly because Marmalade doesn’t have anything on its site to begin with. Users submit their work on MySpace's Marmalade page, and the magazine's editorial staff will also be trawling MySpace to find talent. The magazine is also going to hunt for journalists, photographers, stylists and illustrators to produce three reportage pieces, profiles and a featured interview for its March issue.

MySpace is to make its first move into print publishing through a deal to turn an edition of UK style magazine Marmalade over to user generated content.

Marmalade's March issue will feature cover-to-cover MySpace content submitted by users.

MySpace users can make themselves and their work known via Marmalade's profile on the website myspace.com/marmalademag, and the magazine's editorial staff will also be trawling MySpace to find talent.

The deadline for content for Marmalade's March issue is January 26.

They are doing so many things right. The fact that the community decides what photos end up in each issue has resulted in a ton of activity on the website. Photographers are uploading their best work to showcase their stuff - if a photo gets picked for the magazine it’s just icing on the cake for them. Finally, every issue of the magazine is available, free, as a PDF download. Get the most recent issue here, for example. The economics work well, too. They have good print advertisers already, including Flickr. Another sponsor, Lensbaby, is giving away a free camera lens to every winner in a category for an upcoming issue. The magazine isn’t cheap at $5.99 (a year subscription of six issues costs $25, five bucks off the cover price), but the high price and advertising success means the run of 30,000 or so print magazines is profitable for them.

For 60 years, pre-readers have enjoyed Highlights magazine alongside their older siblings or with the help of parents. Now preschoolers have their own monthly magazine that is like Highlights, but every page is developmentally appropriate.

"We believe that children are the world's most important people," said Kent S. Johnson, CEO of Highlights for Children, Inc. "Creating a publication that celebrates early childhood while encouraging children to develop a love of reading and become lifelong learners fits perfectly with the mission of our company – to help children become their best selves. We are delighted to offer a magazine that is wholly dedicated to the very young child."

Highlights High Five, published monthly, offers a mix of read-aloud fiction stories, including stories that introduce the Spanish language; poems; simple nonfiction; puzzles; easy crafts and cooking activities; finger plays; and action rhymes. Also included are new versions of features familiar to Highlights readers, designed especially for preschoolers: "The Adventures of Spot," featuring the dog from "The Timbertoes," and "My First Hidden Pictures." Beckoning young children with brightly colored illustrations and photographs, the playful, user-friendly magazine is meant to be enjoyed by the child with an adult or older sibling. Many features can be enjoyed independently by pre-readers after they have been introduced to them.

Reader’s Digest Association Inc., publisher of one of the most widely read U.S. magazines, on Thursday said it had agreed to a $1.6 billion takeover offer from an investor group, sending its share price up sharply.

Buyout firm Ripplewood Holdings leads the investor group, which will pay $17 per share, a premium of nearly 10 percent to Reader’s Digest’s closing price on Wednesday.

With the deal, Ripplewood adds to its investments in media, where buyout firms see potential to profit from the business upheaval caused by a migration of audiences to the Internet and other outlets.

Born of the Kung-Fu craze of the early 1970s and first published in December 1973, Inside Kung-Fu provides a compelling and informative look into the history, philosophy and technique that have made the Chinese martial arts styles popular for centuries.

In addition to the online magazine, www.insidekung-fu.com will also feature a new online e-commerce store, containing over 350 books, videos and DVDs serving the entire martial arts community from Kung-Fu to Grappling. The online store will launch from the navigation bar on the Inside Kung-Fu website, as well as other Action Pursuit Group websites in the future.

"Inside Kung-Fu has long been one of the foremost authorities on martial arts, and we are excited to finally bring this information to the Web," said Craig Nickerson, CEO of APG. "At the same time, www.insidekung-fu.com addresses the needs of Chinese-style martial arts fans everywhere for online access to the latest products. We are particularly excited about the launch of the online store, as we have received thousands of calls from customers around the world about our product availability and we can now fulfill their orders using this tool."

"Suddenly space travel -- led by remarkable private industry efforts -- is becoming a hot topic again," says Mark Mayfield, editor-in-chief of Launch and president of MM Publishing Inc., the company producing the new magazine. "The response to our first issue was overwhelming and it's clear that we are filling a void for readers and advertisers."

A lifelong space enthusiast who covered five Space Shuttle flights as a reporter in the 1980s, Mayfield also served as editor-in-chief of three home design-related magazines: House Beautiful, Traditional Home and Southern Accents magazines.

"I remember the Space Age as a kid, when our heroes were astronauts who risked their lives for exploration," says Mayfield. "It's different today, but there are actually so many more opportunities for private citizens to participate in space programs. Back in the 1960s, it was just NASA. Today, there are hundreds of private companies getting involved in space exploration. And there are thousands of people, many of them kids, who are flying model rockets as their way of learning and participating."

According to Mayfield, "With NASA's budgets slashed, bi