Mary Berner

Nice article in October Folio: on Mary Berner, new CEO of Reader's Digest. Among the sacred cows she has slain is a ban on back cover advertising on Reader's Digest itself (I wouldn't know, tending to read about the latest celebrity suicide/20 pounds gained/bad haircut/breakup/hookup/20 pounds lost/new baby news in People when standing at the checkout line).

Reader's Digest with no back cover ad??? What WERE they thinking. Mary Berner had the reader's surveyed - predictably, they could care less. That's gotta be $2 million/year easy.

And come to think of it, what about all those midwestern Reiman publications with NO ads in them! Would the readers mind if a few ads for cranberry sauce or Jolly Green Giant peas were tossed in there. By golly, no!!

What do you think?? $50-75 million in two years?

What sacred cows do YOU have in your company? My favorite I hear these days is "we don't use print!" (Hah, you wondered how long it would take me to get onto THIS subject!).

as John Cleese says to the pet store owner in The Dead Parrot Sketch

"WHAT KIND OF TALK IS THAT?!!"

Why don't you use print?

Did it suddenly stop working?

Did someone tell you awareness and brand preference and demand don't matter anymore???

More (lot's more) on this later

But meanwhile, on Reader's Digest:

Way to go Mary Berner!

The US Open and Media

Ok Ok so I know what you're asking: what does the last post have to do with anything beyond the fact that Ted is an avid tennis player/fan? Here's the point:

Brands get all the breaks.

Federer, by far the world's biggest and most imposing tennis-playing "Brand," is said to win some matches in the locker room - meaning, the opponent concludes before even walking out on the court that they have no chance. Or when faced with the prospect of beating Federer, one chokes. Federer gets the break.

For years, McGraw-Hill got the break. Then Cahners. Then it was Ziff-Davis, IDG and CMP. People defer to brands and icons. Faced with the terrifying choice between an icon like Dr. Dobbs and the merely 7-year old SD Times, some buyers just buy the more well-known entity.

Which means we have to be better - much better - than well-known companies like CMP, Z-D and IDG. Got a long way to go, but each year we get a few more breaks (like how about those Puerto Rico Industrial Relations Board ads.....).

IMS figures just came out. August SD Times ad pages were up 16 over last year. Dobb's was flat.

this was a bit more ramble-y than it started out to be.

US Open Final Notes

"Choke-ovich"

Yes I made that up probably with about 500 other people independently.

Poor Novak was cruising with the confidence of a 20 year-old who knew no fear. But then when he was up 40-0 with three set points the Fed Factor crept in. Filled with the enormity of the situation and steady play by Federer (note to Tennis Week: please limit your description of him as "the Swiss stylist" to once per article) and he wilted.

And that's why we watch. While they play the game at a higher level.....they're just like us