Publetter

	Publetter	March 23, 1998 VOL. 151 NO. 11
To Our Readers By Don Morrison /Editor, Time Asia all us compulsive, but we at Time have a fondness for making lists-from last year's "The 25 Most Influential People in the New Hong Kong" to our project that begins next month profiling the 100 Most Influential People of the Century. Now, we're pleased to report, Time has turned up atop a prestigious list of someone else's crafting. Adweek, a top U.S. advertising trade journal, has declared Time No. 1 on its list of the 10 hottest magazines of 1997. We last graced the list back in 1983, in the No. 7 spot. Naturally, we were pleased to receive this honor. But, being journalists, we also were curious about how Adweek measures heat. We learned from Eric Garland, Adweek's editorial director, that the main criteria are hard performance numbers: advertising page and revenue gains in the magazine's competitive category, as well as circulation increases. The ad gains, as measured by the Publishers Information Bureau, were collected over the last three years, with the greatest weight given to 1997. Last year, a robust economy buoyed much of the publishing industry in the U.S. and, at least until currencies started gyrating, in Asia as well. But Time's vital signs were among the best anywhere. Newsstand sales were up 36%. Ad pages were up 16%. Reported ad revenue was up 21%, or an extra $94 million-almost three times the gain for the other U.S.-based weekly newsmagazines combined. As Adweek wrote, "Time is the category leader, hands-down." That same conclusion came through in another part of Adweek's hot-list methodology: interviews with media buyers and consultants. Page Thompson, U.S. media director of ddb Needham Worldwide and president of Optimum Media, observed of Time: "Here's a magazine that just celebrated its 75th anniversary, and for it to hit this list means something really dramatic is happening. It's livelier, more energetic and more insightful." Michael Lotito, executive director of account services for Ammirati Puris Lintas, specifically praised Time's coverage of technology. That's a special interest of managing editor Walter Isaacson, whose previous job was Editor of New Media for Time Inc., and it's reflected in special projects like the Time Digital technology supplement that goes to many Time readers, as well as in our regular coverage (hope you didn't miss our much-discussed Jan. 12 cover story on how China is embracing the Internet). Other industry insiders have praised our wall-to-wall coverage of the Asian financial crisis, which continues with this week's cover story on the evident decision by Indonesian President Suharto to resist foreign demands for reform. And lest you think we're all business, check out this week's story on whether Titanic heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio was unfairly denied an Oscar nomination. As Adweek editor Garland puts it, "The editorial work always comes first, and then translates into the marketplace." That's a credo we at Time share, as demonstrated by another distinction we were delighted to attain last week. Three of Time's Washington journalists-bureau chief Michael Duffy and correspondents Viveca Novak and Michael Weisskopf-won the prestigious Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, for their dogged coverage of U.S. election campaign finance abuses. Time shared the prize, awarded by Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, with the Seattle Times, which published a series on toxic wastes in fertilizers. Duffy, Novak and Weisskopf labored almost full-time last year at the nexus of big money and politics, poring over cartons of Federal Election Commission and court documents and wheedling information from reluctant sources a sentence at a time. Their persistence paid off in a series of pathbreaking stories on campaign finance, many of which were picked up and credited by major newspapers and TV news shows. Time's team was the first, for example, to report that the Republican Party and its then-chairman, Haley Barbour, partly financed the 1994 takeover of Congress with a curious loan swap from Hong Kong tycoon Ambrous Tung Young. Time was first to report how Chinese entrepreneur Johnny Chung bought admission to a 1995 radio address in the White House by President Clinton. The magazine was first to report the existence of more than 100 hours of White House videotapes of President Clinton at private Democratic "coffees" and other fundraising events. These discoveries sparked official inquiries. Marvin Kalb, director of the Shorenstein Center, said that "Time gave consistent coverage to this story; it was not a one-shot deal. Time presented the information in a very accessible manner, making a complicated story understandable to readers." We especially value that last bit of praise, which speaks to the honor we seek every week: the interest and engagement of you, our readers.
time-webmaster@pathfinder.com

By Don Morrison /Editor, Time Asia

all us compulsive, but we at Time have a fondness for making lists-from last year's "The 25 Most Influential People in the New Hong Kong" to our project that begins next month profiling the 100 Most Influential People of the Century. Now, we're pleased to report, Time has turned up atop a prestigious list of someone else's crafting. Adweek, a top U.S. advertising trade journal, has declared Time No. 1 on its list of the 10 hottest magazines of 1997. We last graced the list back in 1983, in the No. 7 spot.

Naturally, we were pleased to receive this honor. But, being journalists, we also were curious about how Adweek measures heat. We learned from Eric Garland, Adweek's editorial director, that the main criteria are hard performance numbers: advertising page and revenue gains in the magazine's competitive category, as well as circulation increases. The ad gains, as measured by the Publishers Information Bureau, were collected over the last three years, with the greatest weight given to 1997.

Last year, a robust economy buoyed much of the publishing industry in the U.S. and, at least until currencies started gyrating, in Asia as well. But Time's vital signs were among the best anywhere. Newsstand sales were up 36%. Ad pages were up 16%. Reported ad revenue was up 21%, or an extra $94 million-almost three times the gain for the other U.S.-based weekly newsmagazines combined. As Adweek wrote, "Time is the category leader, hands-down."

That same conclusion came through in another part of Adweek's hot-list methodology: interviews with media buyers and consultants. Page Thompson, U.S. media director of ddb Needham Worldwide and president of Optimum Media, observed of Time: "Here's a magazine that just celebrated its 75th anniversary, and for it to hit this list means something really dramatic is happening. It's livelier, more energetic and more insightful."

Michael Lotito, executive director of account services for Ammirati Puris Lintas, specifically praised Time's coverage of technology. That's a special interest of managing editor Walter Isaacson, whose previous job was Editor of New Media for Time Inc., and it's reflected in special projects like the Time Digital technology supplement that goes to many Time readers, as well as in our regular coverage (hope you didn't miss our much-discussed Jan. 12 cover story on how China is embracing the Internet). Other industry insiders have praised our wall-to-wall coverage of the Asian financial crisis, which continues with this week's cover story on the evident decision by Indonesian President Suharto to resist foreign demands for reform. And lest you think we're all business, check out this week's story on whether Titanic heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio was unfairly denied an Oscar nomination. As Adweek editor Garland puts it, "The editorial work always comes first, and then translates into the marketplace."

That's a credo we at Time share, as demonstrated by another distinction we were delighted to attain last week. Three of Time's Washington journalists-bureau chief Michael Duffy and correspondents Viveca Novak and Michael Weisskopf-won the prestigious Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, for their dogged coverage of U.S. election campaign finance abuses. Time shared the prize, awarded by Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, with the Seattle Times, which published a series on toxic wastes in fertilizers.

Duffy, Novak and Weisskopf labored almost full-time last year at the nexus of big money and politics, poring over cartons of Federal Election Commission and court documents and wheedling information from reluctant sources a sentence at a time. Their persistence paid off in a series of pathbreaking stories on campaign finance, many of which were picked up and credited by major newspapers and TV news shows.

Time's team was the first, for example, to report that the Republican Party and its then-chairman, Haley Barbour, partly financed the 1994 takeover of Congress with a curious loan swap from Hong Kong tycoon Ambrous Tung Young. Time was first to report how Chinese entrepreneur Johnny Chung bought admission to a 1995 radio address in the White House by President Clinton. The magazine was first to report the existence of more than 100 hours of White House videotapes of President Clinton at private Democratic "coffees" and other fundraising events. These discoveries sparked official inquiries.

Marvin Kalb, director of the Shorenstein Center, said that "Time gave consistent coverage to this story; it was not a one-shot deal. Time presented the information in a very accessible manner, making a complicated story understandable to readers." We especially value that last bit of praise, which speaks to the honor we seek every week: the interest and engagement of you, our readers.