Kim Tan has been named Real Simple’s vice president, marketing. Tan was most recently with GQ, where she served as executive director of creative services. She has also worked for Allure, Shape, Men’s Fitness and Elle Decor.

“Kim’s extensive experience and her enthusiasm make her the perfect person to lead our marketing team forward,” said Charlie Kammerer, Real Simple’s publisher, in a statement. “Kim will be a tremendous asset to the entire Real Simple team and I am thrilled to welcome her to the brand.”

Tan’s appointment is effective immediately. She reports to Kammerer.

Some of the names of those who were let go by Time Inc. during amid its massive layoffs are starting to circulate. A quick rundown, via Adweek:

• Sally Preston, publisher of Real Simple, is out. Preston had only been with Real Simple since 2011. Charlie Kammerer will succeed her.
• Ellen Kunes, editor-in-chief of Health is out. Kunes had been with the brand since 2007. Clare McHugh, editor of All You, is taking over her responsibilities.
• Erick Yates, ad director for Entertainment Weekly, is out.

Sarah Copeland has been named food director for Real Simple. Copeland is a veteran of the food journalism industry, having contributed to magazines such as Saveur, Food & Wine, and Everyday with Rachael Ray for the past 10 years. She is also a published author and the creator of Edible Living, a food blog.

“Sarah has a diverse food background and an invaluable understanding of how to deliver recipes and know-how across all platforms, from TV to cookbooks to blogs,” said Real Simple managing editor, Kristin van Ogtrop, in a statement. “We admire her simple yet sophisticated approach to food and think she will bring fresh ideas and life-improving solutions to the Real Simple consumer.”

Copeland begins at Real Simple December 3.

O: The Oprah Magazine and More may target a similar demo, but no other pub can compare directly with Real Simple‘s content. With over 2 million readers, articles cater to women from their 20s to their 60s. “We cast a pretty wide net in terms of the areas that we cover, so each one of our beats could theoretically compete with a different magazine,” said deputy editor Noelle Howey, “and we also try to pitch as much of our content as possible to as broad a range of readers as possible.”

Therefore, your best bet is to make sure your pitch has an element of universality, while keeping in mind the pub’s editorial direction. “‘Real Simple’ is the defining characteristic of the magazine,” explained Howey. “We are a service magazine presenting solutions, and the idea is to take complicated concepts and simplify them for the reader.”

For more info, read How To Pitch: Real Simple. [subscription required]

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

1. Playboy Battles Vanity Fair Over Nudes of Marilyn Monroe, May 11
2. Real Simple First Print Mag to 10,000 Pinterest Followers, May 11
3. 2012 Gerald Loeb Award Finalists Announced, May 14
4. The Business of Parenting, May 15
5. Long Island’s Fair Media Council Says WCBS/WLNY Deal Is ‘Wonderful Thing,‘ May 14

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.

For glossies on Pinterest, there’s Real Simple, and then there’s all the rest. According to Ad Age, Real Simple is the first print magazine to reach 100,000 followers on the site. Pinterest drives twice as much traffic to Real Simple than Facebook and Twitter combined, so staffers should be pleased with themselves for reaching that milestone.

RealSimple.com’s General Manager, Shannon King, told Ad Age that the magazine has success on Pinterest because its content is “bite-sized, visual and digestible.” For example, one of Real Simple’s most “repinned” items is a ketchup bottle used to pour pancakes.

Hey, we didn’t say Real Simple’s Pinterest was intellectually stimulating; just popular.

Real Simple commissioned a national survey about women and time. Because, just in case you didn’t know, most of us feel like we don’t have enough of it. Ever.

The study “Women & Time: Setting a New Agenda,” designed by Families and Work Institute surveyed about 3,200 American women between the ages of 25-54 in October and November of 2011.

It revealed that much of the time pressure that women feel is actually self-imposed.

The top culprits: poor delegating and not letting go of control.

To help contextualize the study, Real Simple held a breakfast this week at the Time & Life Building in New York City that featured a panel of super accomplished, super busy women (pictured above from L to R):

TIME senior editor Ruth Davis Konigsberg
ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman
Yale Law professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Amy Chua
founder & CCO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics Bobbi Brown

The panel was moderated by Real Simple managing editor Kristin van Ogtrop (pictured far right). “There is a startling connection between scheduling free time and happiness – and an equally startling connection between the ability to delegate and happiness,” said van Ogtrop. “We hope these findings will spark a national dialogue to help women everywhere reclaim their free time and use it in a way that will ultimately make their lives better.”

For Brown, finding more time required an attitude adjustment where she enjoyed the little things. She recommended that everyone rent the movie Click (yes the one with Adam Sandler) to help put the whole time thing into perspective.

Chua said that declaring that she was bad at a lot of things has been very liberating. She outsources the things that she isn’t good at as well as those things she doesn’t enjoy, like grocery shopping.

Read more

Advertiser Perceptions, the media research company, has just released its Highest Rated Media Companies awards, and leading the pack among print publications is People magazine. The title took the honor of “Strongest Brand.”

The awards are a result of a survey of thousands of advertising agencies and marketing professionals. The brands are evaluated for Brand Strength, Sales Knowledge, Customer Service, Advertiser Satisfaction and Overall Media Company.

Other publications that received accolades include Real Simple for Sales Knowledge, Food & Wine for Customer Service and Sports Illustrated for Advertiser Satisfaction.

ABC won for being the best overall media company.

Real Simple has found its Publisher after a search that spanned four months. It’s Sally Preston, who left her position as group publisher of Martha Stewart Living Optimedia (MSLO) in November.  Preston was with MSLO since 2005, and did so well there that last year The Delaney Report named her the “Publishing Executive of The Year.”

Evelyn Webster, Executive Vice President of Time Inc.’s Lifestyle Group, said Preston’s experience made her a perfect fit.

“A media industry veteran and a dynamic leader, Sally is the ideal executive to continue to buildon the success of the Real Simple brand across all platforms,” explained Webster. “Working closely with Managing Editor Kristin van Ogtrop, Sally will capitalize on Real Simple’s achievements and will help lead the brand to even greater growth in the years ahead.”

Giant companies like Kraft and Unilever – which pretty much make everything – are scaling back buying ads in magazines because of the rising price of commodities. These companies, which buy space for things ranging from toothpaste to corn, usually spend a lot, but they’ve slashed their budgets for the first quarter of 2011, reports Adweek.

Time Inc.’s Real Simple and Cooking Light are among the titles that are feeling the cuts the most.

On the bright side, publishers are being told by those companies that the rising cost trend won’t last long, so ad buys will return to normal eventually.

People looking to find out who the newest celebrity endorsing Lipton is are just going to have to wait.