For those of you who ever wondered about the inner-workings of the sports page, Tom Jolly, sports editor at The NY Times, answered reader questions about the newspaper's coverage.

As the music industry grapples with consumers weaned on iPods and MP3s, music magazines are dealing with a similar shift of their own, writes Dylan Stableford:

When The Fader recently announced that it would distribute its summer issue via iTunes - making it the first magazine ever to do so - it wasn't terribly surprising. Magazine executives have been talking for years about digital distribution - how their brands will be what survives long after the last of the "magazine" readers die off, rendering magazines a novelty popular with kids who remember seeing them on eBay.

And that's saying nothing of the underwhelming sale of Spin and subsequent struggle to integrate a new editor; music magazines' continued loss of advertising revenue; and the closing of niche, yet well-regarded titles like Circus and Grooves.

What was surprising, though, was that it was 85,000-circulation The Fader - not Rolling Stone, not Vibe, not Billboard, not any of the countless national magazines with their ubiquitous "music" issues - that hooked up with iTunes first.

More here.

Part old-line newspaper, part curated online content, 'The Green,' should've been music to investors' ears. Why didn't anyone bite? Greg Lindsay investigates:

Two stories appeared on the Web just before the 4th of July holiday that pretty much plotted the media business' general narrative arc, circa 2006: Jack Shafer's account of the "Incredible Shrinking Newspaper," and the news in The Wall Street Journal that PaidContents Rafat Ali had become the latest solo journalist to take money (subscription required) from the venture capitalists begging to bankroll him.

The lesson to be gleaned from all this: Old media is not only disaggregating, it's atomizing into individuals-whether that be civic-minded amateurs; techies with a nifty algorithim, or entrepreneurial journos. It's apparent in the blow-by-blow accounts of Tribune Co.'s battling board members and Om Malik's decision to effectively leave Business 2.0 to run GigaOm full-time.

Joyce Rutter Kaye, editor-in-chief of Print, the bimonthly magazine about graphic design and visual culture, takes a look at the new look of Complex:

The self-billed "original buyer's guide for men" founded in 2002 by Marc Ecko, Complex introduced a redesign in its April/May issue to coincide with its fourth anniversary. It was propitious timing for the bimonthly to strut a new look, given the late-March demise of Cargo, its main competitor. While Cargo failed to define its demographics clearly enough-Gay or straight? Upscale or mid-market?-Complex had always spoken consistently to young, style-conscious hetero men with a penchant for sneakers, babes, rap, gadgets, and video games.

But, rather than flaunt its longevity via cheesed-up graphics, Complex's revamp gives the magazine a nice shower and shave, with a pared-down font and color palette, a more considered editorial hierarchy, and cleaner layouts overall. (Think Entourage's Turtle in Spago-lunch mode.) Overseen by art director Sean Bumgarner (formerly of Entertainment Weekly), the new design dramatically improves navigation throughout Complex, vital for a magazine that presents itself as a two-fer.

More critique here.

B2B publishing outfits are being sold left and right-is Secret Sales Guy's next?

In publishing, keeping this whole enterprise afloat ain't too easy. At the very low end of six figures, I occupy a fairly annoying demographic position: people who are statistically "rich" but, by East Coast standards, live a fairly cash-strapped and frustrating existence. Despite the fact that the monthly commission check has been fairly chunky of late, most of it is well spent before it hits my bank account, and there's a long list of people lined up to take a piece of it. Luckily, SSG has been lucky in real estate (like everyone else), so he knows that upon death, there may be something for the family to fall back on. For now, it's root, hog or die.

So, dear reader. don't underestimate the casual way SSB approaches sales. He may appear nonchalant, but that next big program he sells you just may mean the difference between pasta and beer versus a nice ribeye and a decent bottle of Cabernet. Agencies and clients: Won't you please support SSG?

Read on here.

A few I am wondering about:

Should I just quit submitting humor pieces?

When are they going to stop doing the photo contest?

Why can't Anthony Lane have reviews in every issue?

How come every time a letter to the editor is run, it's about an article I didn't read?

What was up with Nora Ephron's writing style in that piece on her old apartment building from a few weeks ago? Did I love it or hate it?

Why is a Poke Boat better than a canoe?

(via Gawker)

Julie Lasky writes:

Maxim, the laddie monthly imported nine years ago from Britain and revised on these shores, unveiled a fresh look for the May 2006 issue, its 101st. The timing couldn't have been worse. Within weeks, editor-in-chief Ed Needham was gone and rumors were flying that owner Dennis Publishing U.S.-a magazine group that also includes Stuff and Blender-was on the block.

Needham's replacement, Jimmy Jellinek (formerly Stuff 's editor), is now in an awkward spot. It's possible he'll be denied the top dog's privilege of putting his own visual stamp on Maxim anytime soon. Plus, he may be vulnerable to the whims of new overlords. (Dennis, which just announced plans to open a Maxim hotel and casino in Las Vegas, refuses to confirm or deny scuttlebutt about a pending sale.)

The good news? Maxim's redesign-the work of creative director David Hilton -is clearer, brighter, and tidier than in the past. And if you think adjectives like those don't mesh with guys and their raucous fantasies and messy sock drawers, think again. This lad mag may wallow in beer and babes, but its layout is still about boxes and borders.

Read on here.

What actually goes on in media sales? For this recurring feature, mediabistro's gotten ahold of an insider, someone who does it all-from kissing the right asses, to laughing at clients' stupidest jokes-ready to spill the beans on his pursuit of that all-consuming commission and quarterly bonus. The sick thing? He'll tell you himself: He loves it...

Nice Sale I just hung up the phone with Big Imaging Company and negotiated a deal that still has me grinning well into the fourth Excel tab of our company's absurd boilerplate insertion order. Jim has some ambitious plans for 3Q, and as #1 Industry Mag, we have a lot to sell. As part of a multinational publishing company, we are obligated to "straddle media" and "deliver the gateway." What that means is that nobody's buying print advertising anymore, so you have to work three times as hard selling banner ads, custom publications, Webcasts, and face-to-face marketing opportunities just to make the same amount of money you'd otherwise be raking in with print.

Jim, my contact, has just agreed to spend a dollar amount equivalent to 20 percent of our annual display advertising budget to push a special marketing initiative. And even though our rates are just a premium-positioning charge compared to the national consumer press, I shudder with glee as I tab in an extra zero on the order's net sales field. Naturally, my first instinct is to compose a self-congratulatory "send all" email outlining my monster sale.

I decide against it. The sale I just made will serve to double the work of the heinously underpaid custom media department which, unlike me, will never see a nickel of the sale I just closed. Instead, I write a 1,200-word "we-mail" outlining all the work they need to do for the program, and close my door to call Jan.

More dirt here.

Former ElleGirl staffer Melissa Walker tells you how to break into the rarified realm of fashion journalism (and why writing for Paper could land you a Vogue byline):

Build a portfolio In addition to the free assisting gigs, wannabe stylists will need fashion work of their own to show editors. Culp majored in fashion design at Otis College of Art and Design in L.A. The work she did in school, plus an unpaid/not-for-credit summer internship at the Marc Jacobs design house bolstered her résumé and portfolio. When she sent her stuff to "every fashion director in New York," Jane called her in.

Even if you're not in school, gathering student models and photographers from art schools like FIT (New York's Fashion Institute of Technology) and Parsons (Craigslist, anyone?) can lead to some amazing-and virtually free-photo shoots, says Schwartz. And, everyone involved ends up with something to show a hiring editor.

More here.

In the second installment of Designing Editors, a monthly feature in which design experts critique media design. This month, Bryn Mooth, editor in chief of HOW magazine, tackles the make over of Family Circle:

One of the biggest design challenges a consumer magazine -- especially one of the women's service pubs -- faces is visually separating ads from editorial pages, especially in the columns and departments, where most of the ad pages live. Photos of exquisitely styled food or smiling, well-scrubbed moms and kids -- is it an ad, or is it editorial? The lines often blur. (Seriously, the ad for Ashton-Drake Galleries' hyper-realistic newborn-baby doll is WAY disturbing.) One way that FC has tackled this problem is by introducing a sort of wayfinding system to help the reader navigate through the front-of-book sections. Color-coded and tagged with labels like "Home" or "Family," the system relies on a trio of half-circles in the upper outside corner of each edit page. It's an effective design solution, and one that FC's PR rep Marissa Ollins says was in response to reader request. That said, personal experience (HOW's design prior to our redesign in 2005 called for a color-coded, sectioned approach to our columns and departments) tells me that this navigation structure can begin to feel stylistically tired and editorially constraining. But by then, it'll be time for another redesign.

More here.