I have this “Pending Blogposts” folder on my desktop. When I see something I’d want to share my thoughts on, I just dump it in the thing. Man, I’ve sure got a lot of catching up to do. Because of work and my FHM sports blog, I’ve mildly neglected JustAnotherGame. Hopefully, my post frequency can go back to about 2-3 posts per week. Hopefully.
Anyway, one thing I loved doing when I was still working in Summit was to comment on magazine covers. You’d be surprised at the number of tweaks/innovations/changes (or whatever you want to call them) magazines do in order to “stand out”.
So here goes. I’ll be following no specific formula. You’ll be seeing much more of posts like this in the future.
The reason why I took special attention to this cover is quite simple — the concept of the shoot itself.
Guy 1: Oh, let’s get Cameron to pose […]
From ALvs
Five months after my first post about GamesMaster, and I’m finally done with my story. Everyone who was able to read (love it or hate it) a copy of GamesMaster should be thankful to the following people for making it possible.
Lisa Gokongwei and Aurora Mangubat, for deciding to bring in a videogame magazine
Denis del Callar and Neil Palabrica, for giving me the chance to make my own decisions.
Ed Geronia, Jaykee Evangelista, and the rest of the GM staff. Next to the FHM people, I think we had the most fun at the office
The Summit Advertising Team. Special mention to Cha Clarino and Ginger Taduran (O wag na masama loob) for literally hitting our monthly quotas by themselves.
The Production, Circulation, Trade, Web, and Events teams, for making GamesMaster’s presence felt in the three years that it was on the newsstands.
Of course, my fellow Associate Publishers, for […]
From ALvs
Taking care of customer loyalty is an integral part of any magazine’s overall strategy. You have to make sure that you evolve just enough, so your readers are able to experience something new after a year or so. How do you reel in all those first time purchasers?
You put half of Priscilla Merielles’ face — er, you get their attention with the cover.
All editors and publishers will tell you that the cover is their greatest sales pitch of all.
Some general rules when it comes to making a magazine stand out at the newsstands:
Put the most important piece of information on the upper left side of the cover. You know how magazines are stacked over one another because of the limited space — well this is done to address that concern.
Don’t effin’ cover your masthead, no matter how good your cover image is. This is pretty basic stuff when it comes […]
From ALvs
I was finally able to browse a copy of Playboy Philippines last night, as one of my former officemates had a copy. Here’s my personal take.
*Please note that I only skimmed through the issue and did not read any of the articles.
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From ALvs
I was finally able to browse a copy of Playboy Philippines last night, as one of my former officemates had one. Here’s my personal take.
*Please note that I only skimmed through the issue and did not read any of the articles.
(more…)
From ALvs
I haven’t gotten the chance to see a copy up close, but it was finally revealed last night that Ms. Earth 2004 winner Priscilla Mereilles is indeed Playboy Philippines’ first ever cover girl woman. From a PR standpoint, they’re off to a promising start though, as they’ve gotten the attention of some feminist groups, as well as the Church.
Will update this post as soon as I get a copy of the magazine. I don’t want to give any impressions until I acquire an actual copy. I will try my best to give an objective review. Okay, okay, the cover sucks (Just couldn’t help it!).
From ALvs
Even though it’s easy to identify the country’s main dailies because of the distinct color schemes of each masthead, incorporating layout changes can prove to be a bit**. Everyone still has to stick to a generally grayscale theme. Even with this “dullness”, the fact still remains — that advertising in newspapers in the Philippines is still the fastest way of reaching the broadest audience, at the least amount of time.
I was sitting inside a coffee shop last week when I saw the latest issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The first page of the newspaper is the image you see on the left. It got me to think, design wise, there’s a reason why they’re #1.
They’re the country’s leading daily simply because they chose to evolve. I found this site that documents all the changes that have happened to the Inquirer’s front page since 1985.
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From ALvs
As April draws near, details are finally starting to clear up regarding Playboy Philippines’ launch.
Playboy Magazine Philippine Edition is scheduled to be launched April 2 at Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City.
Dolor boasts of his contributors. “I have five or six Palanca Awardees as contributors,” he says, without divulging his prize-winning contributors or the articles in the first issue next month.
In the Philippines, “being daring doesn’t dictate the success of men’s magazines in the Philippines,” notes adverting and marketing specialist Ed Estrada of Image Dimensions.
If there’s one thing I learned about marketing magazines, it’s that determining your target market counts for around 10% of your success. Reaching them counts for the other 90%. Convincing your advertisers that such a market exists? Well, you’ll need the help of time at the newsstands, third party surveys, and audit results for that.
Judging by the initial statements of the people behind Playboy Philippines, I can […]
From ALvs
Cover Price: P170-P200
Initial Circulation: 40,000 copies
Target Market: 18-30, Majority will still be C Market Readers
Why P170-200 bucks? Because they’re trying to position themselves as a magazine for the A market (sure, sure). For the curious ones, FHM is at P125 and Maxim is at P140, while Manifesto and Rogue are at P170 (if I’m not mistaken)
Initial circulation would then be at 40k (a million if they get Anne Curtis), for the simple reason that no magazine in the Philippines can make it to 80,000 in a whim.
The business model? Here is my take.
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From ALvs
One of the reasons I started this blog is to preserve everything I learned from 4 years of working at Summit Media. In a previous post, I gave everyone an idea of how my patience was able to land me the job. I think now I can give everyone an idea of how I lasted that long. Like I said, I’m no expert, but I sincerely believe you can learn from what I learned. With all due respect to my former bosses, I learned from the very best
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From ALvs