September 7, 2021 Bob Sullivan The picture on the left didn’t match what was delivered, on the right. Facebook profits from advertisements it knows, or should know, are fraudulent, a federal lawsuit filed in  California alleges. The social media giant makes it easy for criminals to target consumers who are not only likely to click on certain kinds of ads, but also likely to follow through with purchases, the case claims.  The firm is “actively soliciting, encouraging, and assisting scammers,” the suit claims. Alleged frauds include ads for products that never ship, or are substantially different from what is advertised. Fraud rates for some

The Pandemic Roundtable Talks with Barnes and Nobles Krifka Steffey Few retailers are more important to specialty magazine publishers than Barnes and Noble. The Publishing Pandemic Roundtable (Joe Berger, Bo Sacks, Samir Husni, Gemma Peckham, Sherin Pierce, and me) met with Krifka Steffey, the Director of Merchandise for Newsstand and Media, to talk about the chain’s recovery in 2021, and the fresh, innovative product she’d like to see. Since we last spoke, Barnes and Noble has closed two of their New York offices, the one on 6th Avenue and the 5th Avenue office where magazine publishers have been accustomed to go for

By Jim Milliot | Jul 09, 2021 photo credit: Logos-Bookstore-Yorkville In the first half of 2020, unit sales of print books surprised many in the industry by posting a 2.9% increase over the same period in 2019 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan, overcoming a slump in sales in early spring following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Print sales finished 2020 up 8.2% over 2019, and that strong performance continued into 2021, with units jumping 18.5% in the first six months over the comparable period in 2020. With the exception of the juvenile nonfiction category, all the major publishing categories had

Wed., May 26, 2021 By Jon Gingerich Few sectors witnessed the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic like the print media industry. The coronavirus crisis put journalism’s future in peril, hitting the newspaper sector—already on shaky ground due to years of plummeting ad revenues—with yet another economic downturn, as companies in every sector affected by the disaster scaled back their advertising budgets, setting off another round of closures and layoffs in the print publishing world. Other news media publishers successfully staved off this economic fallout by pivoting to digital platforms, as the pandemic simultaneously drove an unprecedented sea-change in Americans’ media consumption habits, with

The squalor of online marketing never seems to end. This week a conspiracy of over 200,000 fake reviewers for third party products sold on Amazon was reported by PC magazine. According to the report researchers found "over 13 million records and 7GB of data, including direct messages between Amazon vendors and customers who provided fake review scores." Here's how the scheme works. Crooked vendors publish a list of products they want a five star review for. Customers sign up to provide the review. They buy the product using PayPal, send in a five star review and then provide proof to the vendor that the

New York Post March 4, 2021 Booksellers say they were completely caught off guard when Dr. Seuss’s publisher yanked six books for racially offensive imagery this week in a move that’s only served to send sales skyrocketing. James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble, only learned of the move by Dr. Seuss Enterprises when a journalist called him at the bookseller’s London offices. “At first, I had no idea what he was talking about,” Daunt told Media Ink. Nonetheless, he and other booksellers, including Jeff Bezos’s online behemoth Amazon, have benefited tremendously as fans (and a smattering of profiteers) have used the prohibition as an excuse to rush

Mr. Magazine February 4, 2021 In any industry or profession, without new birth, products, ideas, or people, there is no growth. If you’re not growing, if you’re not introducing new blood to the mix of what you have, you’re dying incrementally. And the lifecycle and growth of magazines aren’t any different than any other lifecycle. Yes, magazines come and magazines go, but just because one magazine folds it doesn’t mean the entire print medium is dying. And while in the last 20 years the number of consumer magazines in this country aimed at the general public has remained steady, averaging at around 7,000

Subscription Insider December 23, 2020 Meredith Corporation is returning to the subscription model and expanding the Rachael Ray In Season magazine to home delivery, starting with the winter/spring 2021 issue. An annual subscription, which will automatically renew, will cost subscribers $20 for four issues, compared to the newsstand price of $9.99 per issue. Subscriptions are available now for presale at RachaelRayMag.com/Presale, the company said in their December 16 announcement. The next issue will be available at newsstands nationwide on February 12, 2021. Home delivery subscribers will receive their first issue in February. Return to subscription model The change in the magazine’s subscription model is based on the success of

FIPP December 8, 2020 After a ruinous, Covid-blighted year, event organisers are looking to bounce back strongly in 2021 having taken on board some valuable lessons. The effectiveness of social distancing in battling Covid-19 has made 2020 a disastrous year for hosting live events. In March, a strong revenue stream for publishers dried up almost overnight, forcing organisers to create online experiences that satisfied delegates and sponsors. While the arrival of vaccines has brought the return of live events one step closer, it’s clear things will never go back to the way they were and that a fresh, hybrid approach will be needed