Magazines

Vanity Fair’s annual “Hollywood Issue” was a big success this year, pushing it to the top of March fashion magazines, in terms of ad pages gained compared to last year. Vanity Fair posted 261 ad pages this year, up 44 from March 2011, when the issue featured 217.

Edward Menicheschi, Vanity Fair’s Publisher, told min the plump issue was thanks to “significant [growth] in all luxury sectors of the business… especially retail, fashion, beauty and automotive.”

Marie Claire was the runner-up for March ad page growth, with 42 more pages. For the rest of the top five, head over to min.

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Kate Bolick set the blogosphere on fire with her popular Atlantic article, “All The Single Ladies.” But it wasn’t just the behemoth nine-page, 12,000-plus-word piece that made headlines. The cover was also a rarity, an occurrence that only took place a handful of times in the magazine’s 154-year history.

“It wasn’t in the original plan at all. I hadn’t finished writing the piece yet when my editor called to say, ‘Now, they’re thinking about putting you on the cover.’ That blew my mind,” she shared in mediabistro.com’s  Hey, How’d You Do That?.

“My understanding on the reason they wanted to illustrate the piece with me is because it was in my voice,  [and the photos] further personalized the material” she said. “I love The Atlantic, but I had been feeling critical of how it has handled so-called ‘female topics.’ Would they have done this if the article had been written by a man? If a woman is writing about being unmarried, the first thing the reader thinks is, ‘How much of this has to do with what she looks like?’ I did have that critique of [my being on the cover], even though it was of myself.”

Read the full interview to find out how Bolick scored a book and TV deal for the article.

Kate Walsh, the star of “Grey’s Anatomy” spin-off “Private Practice,” will appear naked on the cover of next week’s Shape. A pitiful publicity ploy from a plummeting publication? First of all, apologies for the alliteration. Secondly, no, this was not Shape’s idea; it was Walsh’s. The 40-year-old actress approached the magazine with the idea months ago, and they loved it.

Walsh merely thought we all needed to know how great she looks. When WWD asked why she proposed the nude shoot, Walsh replied, “I’m enjoying my 40s and wanted to share that.”

Fantastic. Let’s all hope that Betty White isn’t enjoying her 90s.

Here’s a look at what FishbowlNY stories made the most buzz this week.

1. New York Times Photographer Wins World Press Photo of the Year, February 10
2. New York Post Defends Greg Kelly (left) Coverage, February 13
3. XXL Staffers Suspended Over Offensive Video, February 16
4. People Rated Strongest Magazine Brand Among Advertisers, February 14
5. The New York Observer Refers to Greg Kelly as ‘Rape Stud,‘ February 10
6. Orgs to Newsweek: Stop F-ing Up, February 13

Keep up-to-date with the latest FishbowlNY news. Click here to sign-up for the FishbowlNY daily newsletter, bringing you our articles each afternoon directly to your inbox.

In advance of Women’s History month in March, Adweek’s February 27 issue will focus on the spending, technological, and media habits of American women and how brands are breaking through to reach them. It’s the first in the publication’s new Demographic Series of special reports.

The issue features a handful of first-time contributors including Nancy Dubuc, president/GM of History and Lifetime Networks, Real Simple publisher Sally Preston, and Lisa Belkin, Huffington Post senior columnist. They will serve as guest columnists who will riff on the dynamic of the women’s demographic as seen through their professional experiences.

All You‘s new tagline, “Enjoy life for less,” sums up the mission of its editorial content: to focus on practical, realistic and affordable ideas for the average working mother strapped for time. So, to nab a byline at this glossy, bring new strategies fit for a cost-cutting diva — but make sure it fits the standards of every All You story.

“We put every article — whether a craft, recipe or exercise tip — to a strict test: Is it real? Is it practical and doable? Is the information actionable and valuable?” said executive editor Susan Spencer.

To find out which sections Spencer calls ”fertile areas for assignments,” check out How To Pitch: All You. [sub req'd]

Not sure how anyone thought this was okay.

Some XXL staffers posted a video of rapper Too $hort advising young boys to sexually assault young girls. Naturally this stirred a firestorm that played out on Facebook and Twitter. A petition was started calling for the firing of the magazine’s editor-in-chief Vanessa Satten.

Satten has since apologized and released a statement airing her disappointment and saying that she didn’t know of the video’s contents before it was posted.

“I do not see all content before it goes live. When I saw this video, I was truly offended and thought it crossed the line. I had it taken down immediately. I am disappointed that an employee decided to post it and I am putting internal procedures in place to make sure content like this does not go on the site. The video goes against my value system and represents poor judgment on behalf of the individual who posted it.”

Read more

If you ever wanted to read an issue of Foreign Affairs from 1922, now you can. The publication, which is celebrating its 90th birthday, did so by creating a full online archive of past issues.

The portal contains 8,000 articles from nearly 400 issues. There are also more than 300 images and maps. To help with navigation, and well, where to begin, the editors have organized articles into nine collections. In all, digitization was a project that took nearly a year to complete.

“These collections take our web visitors on a magical history tour,” says editor Gideon Rose. “In addition to the greatest hits like Samuel Huntington’s ‘The Clash of Civilizations’ or George Kennan’s ‘Sources of Soviet Conduct,’ the archives hold innumerable other treasures, and our new reading lists offer wonderful tasting menus for readers to sample.”

For a limited time, the articles in the archive’s curated nine collections are available for free.

It’s been a crazy year for Janice Min. Since the powerhouse editor jetted off to the West Coast to take over The Hollywood Reporter, the 81-year-old publication has pulled in more than 55 billion media impressions and received more Web traffic than its three biggest competitors combined.

At first glance, it seems Min is settling in nicely with her big move to Los Angeles. But the publishing vet says there are some big differences of the media scene in both coasts that made the transition rough.

“It’s weird,” the editorial director told us. “New York is so media-centric. People find people in the media fascinating.” But L.A., said Min, isn’t down for fawning over big-name editors when there are Hollywood heavyweights stealing the limelight. “There’s no media hangout in L.A.”

Read more in So What Do You Do, Janice Min, Editorial Director of The Hollywood Reporter?

Marc Ambinder is joining GQ as a Contributing Editor. Ambinder tweeted that he would be writing for the magazine and its politics blog, Death Race 2012.

Death Race 2012 launched on January 3, and covers the upcoming presidential election.