What's Hot What's New

The good, the bad and the ugly. You'll find them all here. Each week you'll get my take on the intriguing, and sometimes peculiar, titles to recently hit the newsstand.

Miller-McCune $4.99 www.miller-mccune.com Heavy on information and light on fluff, Miller-McCune magazine, distributed bi-monthly, harnesses current academic research with real-time reporting to address social, political and economic concerns. Many magazines have had similar goals, but few if any have provided as much information as Miller-McCune. Content wise, this publication is closer to a research journal, than a magazine. And that is what gives this publication its niche-a magazine styled research journal that presents substantive material in a way that is less academic and more entertainment. Accompanying the magazine is the Miller-McCune website which shares the same goal but provides consumers with articles and information not found in the magazine giving the website its own identity. There is always room in the marketplace for magazines with strong content; Miller-McCune has that, but having a strong product does not always lead to success. For the Record I serve on the editorial advisory committee of Miller-McCune.

Somerset Digital Studio $14.99 www.stampington.com From Stampington comes Somerset Digital Studio, a special publication that takes scrapbooking into the digital format. Stampington had a big success last year with Artful Blogging and they are following that same blueprint with Digital Studio. To say the two are similar would be an understatement. Like Artful Blogging, Digital Studio uses submissions from consumers to fill its pages, which supports its niche as an interactive digital magazine. Scrapbooking has become a phenomenon, but it will be interesting to see if the marketplace has become over saturated with magazines looking to capitalize on this current trend. If not, Digital Studio could establish its own identity and gain success in an increasingly crowded category.

Tennis View $4.99 www.tennisviewmag.com In recent years we have seen women’s fitness magazines, women’s golf magazines, and now we have a women’s tennis magazine. Tennis View is a quarterly publication featuring the female tennis lifestyle. In today’s marketplace specialization is becoming the norm, not the exception. Tennis View is following the trend by creating content on apparel, tennis strokes and travel, all aimed at the female tennis player lifestyle. Yes, that is a niche, but Tennis View does not offer any fresh ideas or content that can’t be found in existing magazines targeted towards women. In order for magazines like this to prosper on newsstands they have to offer content that makes them unique, instead of recycling the same content from established publications. But time will tell whether Tennis View has what it takes to be a smash at the newsstands.