Magazines

Under-the-radar locales make for great stories in any travel mag, but, add a Hollywood hook, and editors at this Airtran mag can’t help but hop on board.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the iconic movie Deliverance , a freelancer pitched and published a story to GO showcasing Georgia’s Tallulah Gorge, where the movie was filmed. The location (about an hour and a half outside of Atlanta) is a popular tourist destination not just because of its place in American pop culture, but also due to the richness of the region and wealth of activities for nature lovers, from whitewater rafting to hiking.

“We’re always looking for new writers with great stories,” said Jaime Lowe, GO‘s executive editor. “A great idea always wins. If there’s an excellent travel narrative, we’ll assign it.” Get more details in How To Pitch: GO.

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, you can register for as little as $55 a year and get access to these articles, discounts on seminars and workshops, and more.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

And in other Sports Illustrated news, Magic Johnson and Matt Kemp are on this week’s cover.

The actual article (by Lee Jenkins) is about the 78-hour sports whirlwind the city of Los Angeles experienced last weekend.

A very good (but lengthy) read that won’t result in any lawsuits.

Former UCLA basketball player Reeves Nelson is filing a $10 million defamation lawsuit against Sports Illustrated for a scathing article by writer George Dohrmann, according to TMZ.com.

In the article, Dohrmann portrayed Nelson as an absolute terror during his time in Westwood, with incidents ranging from urinating on his teammates clothes to stepping on the chest of Tyler Trapani — John Wooden‘s great-grandson.

The lawsuit, that’s scheduled to be filed Wednesday in L.A. County Superior Court by attorney Keith Fink, will include declarations from 18 current and ex-players who deny the allegations about Nelson.

Thanks to some financial assistance from The Knight Foundation and the technical transom of MagCloud, Voice of San Diego is heading in a very non-traditional digital media direction. The respected regional news source is adding a monthly print magazine.

Free to paying members as a perk and available for purchase to non-members, Voice of San Diego Monthly comes on the heels of the LA Times’ decision to shutter their Sunday magazine. Perhaps the paper can take a page from VoSD and consider re-upping the insert as a similar paywall subscriber benefit. From today’s Knight Foundation blog post by VoSD editor Scott Lewis:

When I discovered MagCloud, I got an idea and couldn’t shake it. Rather than let our stories sit on some virtual shelf, why not offer the chance for people to catch up? We floated the idea to Knight Foundation, which loved it and decided to help with the experiment by funding it.

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Although Mike Fleming’s deadline.com duties keep him very busy, he still finds the time to continue one longstanding freelance tradition. The Playboy interview.

Beginning with Robert Downey Jr. in the 1990s, Fleming has contributed around two dozen centerpiece Q&As to the publication, chatting with everyone from Denzel Washington to Harrison Ford to Quentin Tarantino. For the June issue, the A-lister across the tape recorder is Tom Cruise. Towards the end of the conversation, Fleming asks Cruise what he learned from that whole Matt Lauer-Oprah Winfrey train wreck:

“When I go back and look at it, I find myself thinking, I don’t feel that way. I get how it came across, but I don’t feel that way, and I never have. Telling people how to live their lives? I saw how that came across and how pieces were edited.”

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There is a God.

Patricia Krentcil, better known as the “tanning mom,” was caught on camera saying she would be interested in posing for Playboy if they ever called — which immediately sent chills down my spine.

Hugh Hefner‘s people caught wind of this story and immediately squashed the idea of the 44-year-old New Jersey woman taking her clothes off for the men’s publication.

According to TMZ:

One source says, “It wouldn’t even be considered” — Hef wouldn’t let TM pose in the magazine or ANY Playboy outlet. Simply put — Tanning Mom just isn’t Playboy material.

Playboy later went on the record and said, “It would definitely never happen.”

Whew.

Tom Quaife has been at the helm of monthly trade publication Dairy Herd Management for two decades now. From his faraway perch in Lenexa, Kansas, he writes that he was relieved – and somewhat surprised – that the LA Times and other major publications did not run with news of a very questionable new study that suggests ammonia emissions from California cows cause more LA smog than cars.

Anticipating an onslaught of media attention, Quaife posted a rebuttal at the beginning of the week. But with only the Washington Post running a brief Reuters wire item and a few other bits of scattered coverage, he takes stock:

Maybe there is hope after all that the media will be discerning and not run stories that seem just too preposterous…

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Media mission accomplished.

As TIME managing editor Rick Stengel explained earlier today to Forbes blogger Jeff Bercovici, “the whole point of a magazine cover is to get your attention.” Even if, as is the case with the May 21 issue, the person depicted on the cover is not actually featured in the accompanying article.

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If you’re a foodie with a fully stamped passport, Afar editors want to hear your stories, but only if your far-reaching adventures break away from the tourist traps and allow you to enjoy indigenous, authentically prepared meals.

And it will take more than a simple recipe to cinch the deal. Editors want queries centered around a local authentic dish, putting it in a historical context and exploring how it connects to the people and community that birthed it.

“So it’s not food as food, but food as culture,” editor-in-chief Julia Cosgrove emphasized.

Get contact info for editors and more guidelines in How To Pitch: Afar.

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, you can register for as little as $55 a year and get access to these articles, discounts on seminars and workshops, and more.

The magazine’s dine editor Lesley Bargar Suter scored a win in the ‘Food Coverage in a General Interest Publication’ category. Her prize-winning features were “Chinese Food in L.A.,” “Breakfast in LA,” and the “Food Lovers Guide.”

Said Suter of the award:

It’s an incredible honor to be recognized by the James Beard Foundation. There’s never been a more exciting time to be covering food in Los Angeles, and the nomination is as much an acknowledgment of the city’s vibrant culinary scene as it is a nod to the work of our magazine’s talented team of writers, editors, and designers.

This was the first James Beard award for Suter, but not Los Angeles magazine. Restaurant critic Patrick Kuh took home Beard awards in 2001 and 2011.