poor underpaid CEOs
http://www.nysun.com/article/45118 New York Sun - December 13, 2006
Money Magazines Get Smart Publishing
BY MYRNA BLYTH
“Business is a glorious subject,” the editor of the new business
magazine the American, James K. Glassman, said. Launched recently by
the American Enterprise Institute, the magazine is called the
American, Mr. Glassman explained, so no one would think it is merely
“a house organ” for AEI, the Washington-based conservative think
tank. “Besides, we were really surprised to find out when we were
searching for a name that in America there was no magazine called the
American.”
Mr. Glassman’s opinion that business is a great magazine subject is
certainly shared by Randall Lane, editor in chief of Dealmaker,
another newly hatched publication that is for and about the
“acquiring minds” of investment bankers, private equity executives,
and venture capitalists. Mr. Glassman said his audience is also a
special, elite group: “The American is a magazine for leaders, those
C-level executives — the CEOs, CFOs, and COOs — who are interested in
the intersection of business and ideas.”
Both editors acknowledge they are producing specialized, upmarket
publications and both say that is exactly the niche in which they
want their magazines to be. “At a time when magazines in general are
being somewhat ‘dumbed down’ you may have to seek a limited audience
to produce the magazine you want,” Mr. Glassman said. “I wanted to
edit a magazine that was different. Business magazines that are out
there have gone tiny. Today, these magazines provide nuts-and-bolts
stories on how to climb the corporate ladder. I have written such
stories myself. But that’s not what I wanted to do as an editor.”
Mr. Glassman has had considerable experience in both the editorial
and business side of publishing. He was editor of the Capitol Hill
newspaper Roll Call, a business columnist for the Washington Post,
publisher of the New Republic, president of the Atlantic Monthly, and
executive vice president of U.S. News & World Report. He also spent
years as a fellow at AEI.
Now at the American, his broad interests will be well represented. “I
wanted excellent business reporting in the magazine, of course, but I
also wanted to examine public policy, foreign policy, economics, and
the influence business has on our culture,” he said.
To focus on that limited but special audience, the American has
printed just over 50,000 copies. Half of the circulation is paid,
half controlled, with some copies available at airports and at
newsstands.
At Dealmaker, Mr. Lane is aiming at a larger circulation of 100,000.
He is also editor in chief of Trader Magazine, which has a
circulation of 100,000 in America and 50,000 abroad. It features a
mix of news, gossip, advice, and information, such as where to buy
the “best toys and gear to help you lead the good life.” It has
proven popular with Wall Street stock and bond traders, as well as
the advertisers who want to reach this affluent audience.
Dealmaker has much the same format, but it is targeted at a different
audience with a different financial mind set. “Traders are impulsive.
Dealmakers, the guys who buy and sell, not stocks and bonds but whole
companies, are more analytical. They are always looking for long-term
value,” Mr. Lane said. “They are just incredibly smart guys.”
The first issue of Dealmaker includes a feature on “The 30 Top
Rainmakers,” an interview with Wall Street icon Sandy Weil, and a
description of “The Deal From Hell.” It also doesn’t stint on giving
tips for achieving the good life. There is a one-pager highlighting a
$10,000 Valextra Avietta briefcase and a fashion spread that includes
a $6,730 Brioni suit. In its way, it is Fortune for the most fortunate.
The American, by contrast, is short on service journalism and long on
provocative ideas. The lead story in its premiere issue asks, “Why do
we underpay our best CEOs?” It’s a rarely asked question these days,
while another separates the facts and myths about global warming in a
way that would not please Al Gore. A third, written by Dr. Sally
Satel, an AEI Fellow and a kidney transplant recipient, argues for a
market in organ donations. There is also a look at Mitt Romney’s
background as a businessman and venture capitalist and an examination
of how Congressman Charles Rangel, the new chairman of the House Ways
and Means Committee, thinks about business.
Both the American and Dealmaker are glossy, highly designed
magazines. “I knew the magazine had to entice people, had to look
good,” Mr. Glassman said. “Our art director Alex Isley was the art
director of Spy. It doesn’t look like Spy but it has a great look.”
Mr. Lane said his biggest challenge was photographing some of his
dealmakers. “These guys are rock stars in the profession. But they
don’t exactly look like celebrities. With good photography and design
we do make them look like rock stars.”
But these two magazines will soon have even more competition. This
spring, Condé Nast is introducing Portfolio, edited by Joanne
Lippman, formerly an editor at the Wall Street Journal. Although the
magazine’s prototype is being kept under wraps, the magazine’s
promotion makes the fulsome claim: “It will change the way you look
at business.”The company, which publishes consumer magazines like
Vogue and Vanity Fair, is investing heavily in Portfolio, which will
launch with a 350,000 rate base. Portfolio, like the American, is
also sometimes described as “a magazine of business and ideas,” while
others believe it will be closer to Dealmaker’s mix of news,
personality profiles, as well as a salute to all the luxury things
that big money can buy. “I’d never underestimate Condé Nast, but
that’s a big circulation number,” the publisher of Trader and
Dealmaker, Wilkie Bushby, said. “Personally, I am contented with
being in a very small, very defined, very elite niche.”