Want To Start Your Own Magazine? Here's How

The famous Mr. Magazine, Samir Husni, who teaches at the University of Mississippi and whose Guide To New Magazines is still selling out on shelves, has three pieces of advice for publishers of new magazines. In an interview with Mediabistro, he said the most important factors are 1) finding a willing audience to come back and read that magazine every month addictively, 2) having a very clear and concise brand, and 3) choosing an easily identifiable magazine name.

Read his valuable quotes after the jump and then let Ed know if you agree!

Have You Ever Been Fired For Freelancing?

A veteran reporter of the Oregonian got canned last week for moonlighting.

Lisa Grace Lednicer, who had been at the Oregonian for 12 years, was let go because she co-wrote an article for Glamour about Diane Downs' mystery daughter. (Downs is the notorious Oregon mother who was charged with shooting her children in 1983.)

Now, Ed is no stranger to freelancing on the side. Almost all of Ed's friends have done it.

The New A-List Cover Girl?

Jacob Bernstein of The Daily Beast noticed that magazine covers are trending away from your traditional mega celebrity.

Glamour's recent cover is not Angelina Jolie or Julia Roberts. It's three relatively unknown models, one of whom is plus size. Vanity Fair has two World Cup athletes.

College Grads Can Start Celebrating Early

Ed has already proposed that rumors of media's death are slowly but surely dying themselves. Ad pages have been increasing, new websites have been launching, and news of layoffs has been few and far between.

minOnline has some good news to corroborate Ed's theory.

Are Women's Magazines Getting Too Sexy Online?

Traditionally conservative magazines like Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal and ParentsCosmo have let their hair down online to the point where their web content is more than Delish. Advice on spicing up your sex life has found itself on those magazines’ sites.

On the one hand, this seems like savvy web strategy: everyone from Miley Cyrus to CEOs knows that sex sells. And the success of magazines like Cosmo attests to the fact that women want to find that information from a reliable source. So writing about sex problems and how to solve them will lead to more unique visitors and page views of the site, along with increasing brand awareness. Great, right?

But advertisers would disagree.

Will Newsweek Survive?

2010 seemed to be a bright year for media: magazine foldings have come to a halt, layoffs have decreased, and ad sales are on the upswing. But one niche seems to still be suffering: the national newsweekly.

Last Wednesday, the Washington Post Company announced that they are selling 77-year-old Newsweek magazine. "Despite heroic efforts on the part of Newsweek’s management and staff, we expect it to still lose money in 2010, " explained Washington Post Co. Chairman Donald E. Graham.  On the one hand, Ed isn't too surprised: daily papers and other news organizations have been hit hard by the internet's cheap and fast ability to cover breaking news. On the other, Ed's sad to see such an esteemed and established publication go the way of other popular magazines he grew up reading.

New York Times media columnist David Carr has a number of theories for why Newsweek is being sold. Ed gives you the scoop after the jump!

Would You Pay $9,000 for an Internship?

That's what one person paid to intern at HuffPo for free this summer. Yahoo! News' Michael Calderone reports on all the other high-profile bids for a recently closed auction to support the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

minOnline's Best of the Web

While the media industry celebrated its prized reporting, content, and design at the ASME Awards last week, minOnline came out with its own awards for "Best of the Web." Hearst was snubbed in the Digital ASME Awards back in March, and despite inducting Hearst Digital's Chuck Cordray into their Digital Hall of Fame, Time Inc and Conde again seem to overpower their rival.