Earlier this week we made a big deal over The Washington Post‘s decision to enter the ongoing brand journalism sweepstakes by featuring sponsored advertorials on the front page of its website. That was an important step in the evolution of paid content, but today Fortune took the industry-wide shift in a slightly different direction: the magazine plans to write honest-to-goodness editorial pieces on behalf of its partners/advertisers.

What does this mean, exactly?

Fortune calls the project “Trusted Original Content”, and it will involve the magazine’s editorial teams creating Fortune-branded articles and video/other media content for marketers and PR pros to distribute on their own channels. So these pieces will bear the Fortune name and be written by real journalists, but they won’t qualify as native advertising. And brand reps won’t see them until they’re done–according to Adweek, Fortune’s editors will “have the final say”. Capital One will be the first party to participate by soliciting complimentary stories about small business.

Will promoting posts backed by the power of Fortune give a brand greater credibility? Time Inc. thinks so.

Read more

We can’t say we’re too excited about tonight’s vice presidential debate between Paul “Seacrest” Ryan and Joey “Walnuts” Biden, but Time just made things a little more…colorful by releasing the results of a 2011 photo shoot that features Ryan lifting weights, wearing a suit and making funny faces. We particularly love the “girl please” shot on the left.

The magazine picked Ryan as a runner-up in its annual “Person of the Year” issue, but editors held off on releasing the photos until today for some reason. Sounds like a conspiracy theory as heinous as last week’s painfully obvious plan to cook the unemployment numbers, doesn’t it, Jack Welch?

In directly PR-related news (you thought we’d never get there), these pics remind us that Ryan has provided some great publicity for a certain red-hot series of workout videos. P90X creator (and former standup comedian!) Tony Horton says that “Ryan’s been very good for P90X, as much or more so as Michelle Obama”, and claims that Secret Service members told him that they’re “really loving the P90X” on a recent visit to the White House.

This love of weightless workouts may be the last example of true bipartisanship that we see for some time. Enjoy.

According to Ad Age, New York Observer Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Spiers, is leaving to launch her own startup, which will focus on content and commerce in the health and wellness arena. (Ad Age) 

According to AdWeek, CNN has announced that Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide, will step down at the end of 2012. While earnings have increased under Walton’s leadership, ratings have dropped. (AdWeek)

Time Inc.’s Lifestyle Group editor Sid Evans has hired food editor Hunter Lewis away from Condé Nast’s Bon Appétit. Lewis will be executive editor at Southern Living, and will oversee food content in print and online. (AdWeek)

According to Business Insider, Anthony Bourdain, host of the Travel Channel‘s “Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations“, is leaving the Travel Channel for his own show on CNN, which will air on Sundays beginning early in 2013. To read an interview in AdWeek about why he is making the move, click here. (Business Insider)

Read more

The well-documented rise of digital technology has not only changed the ways human beings consume information, but also changed how much they expect to pay for it: nothing.

Print media’s high hope is to transition its wares online, and to reinvent its outreach strategies so that consumers come back to the subscription magazine paradigm. Venerable competitors Time Inc., Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, and News Corp. joined forces in 2009 to form the joint venture Next Issue Media. That venture created a Netflix-inspired app to jump start sales and inspire iPad readers to purchase online subscriptions or single issues of magazines such as Vanity Fair, GQ, and The New Yorker.

Corralling all of these brands into one place could lead to more sales, but these publications need to do more than simply attract eyeballs. The public wants value.

Read more

Time Inc. has named former News Corp. comms exec Teri Everett EVP of corporate communications, effective March 5. Everett stepped down from her role at News Corp. – SVP of corporate affairs and communications — on February 10. She’d joined News Corp. in 2000. At the time her departure from News Corp. was announced, Everett said, “While it may be a tired cliche, I am ready for something new.”

At Time, she will manage all of the corporate communications for the company (from the employee comms to the company’s philanthropic endeavors), reporting to the company’s CEO Laura Lang.

Read more

Social media and PR were foremost on the minds of top marketers yesterday at Advertising Week in New York. As Stephanie George, Time Inc’s CMO said, “PR now has greater value than ever before. Through our own PR efforts we get the best response from our customers, and to do so you need to have high quality brands and content.”

George, along with CMOs from GE, CVS, and FedEx, focused on the impact of social media on their brands and company reputations. After the jump, other takeaways from the panel.

Read more

Casey Anthony at her sentencing hearing. Photo: Joe Burbank/Pool

Developments about the News Corp. phone-hacking scandal seem to roll in by the minute. Besides this morning’s news that they’ve hired Edelman, there’s now word that the F.B.I. is opening an inquiry into possible phone-hackings of 9/11 victims. And News International is said to be planning to run full-page apology ads in a number of U.K. newspapers.

Speaking of ongoing news, with Casey Anthony being released from prison on Sunday, HLN is planning more than 19 hours of Anthony coverage this weekend. (Remember, there are only about 48 hours in a weekend.) Many of those hours will be anchored by Nancy Grace. So if you were even thinking about pitching a story to HLN this weekend, choose another station.

Click through for more of the latest developments in the media world.

Read more

Auto maker Infiniti is partnering with American Express Publishing and Time Inc for the “Road to Inspiration” campaign, a pairing of the Infiniti brand with epicurean events taking place from the end of this month through November.

Among the stops on the campaign’s tour are this week’s Atlanta Food and Wine Festival, Sunset’s San Francisco Chefs 2011 in August, and Southern Living Taste of Charleston in October. The campaign includes a website that is focused on a campaign sweepstakes, “customized experiences” created by Infiniti, and QR codes will feature heavily in the campaign.

According to Ray Daniels, comms specialist at Infiniti product communications, the car company is targeting foodies because their tastes “match up nicely to the luxury consumer.” Ooh la la.

Read more

PRNewser reported earlier on layoffs and other changes at Time Warner’s Time Inc. division today, and mis-communications as to the number of employees laid off at the now shuttered Fortune Small Business.

When asked about their take on how things played out, a Time Inc. spokesperson told PRNewser, “Obviously, when you’re operating in this new kind of immediate and constant news cycle, it is hard to get info quickly enough and to correct wrong or partially wrong info in real time before it spreads virally in a way that it wouldn’t have, even three, four years ago. It presents challenges that you didn’t have as a PR person before.”

Rumors of layoffs at Time Inc. have been swirling for weeks, and last night and today some information was revealed. The company officially filed with the New York State Department of Labor, “to give notice that it has planned 280 layoffs in the state between Nov. 2 and Jan. 31,” reports the Times‘ Stephanie Clifford.

The PR team at Time Inc. needless to say has their hands full, and they have already been called out by Clifford for not providing accurate information. A Time Inc. spokesperon told PRNewser that the company, “is not planning on issuing any type of written document,” but of course has been fielding a variety of press requests.

FishbowlNY first reported today that the company will shutter Fortune Small Business and also reports, “a majority of the layoffs are expected to come from the news division, which includes Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated.” The layoffs come on the heels of parent company Time Warner’s Q3 earnings, which were better than expected, as the cable division (CNN, TBS) somewhat made up for the slump in ad revenue at Time Inc. Nonetheless, Time Warner posted a 38% decline in quarterly profit, leading some to wonder if they will be looking to “scrap” Time Inc. altogether.