Ted Turner on Old Media, Plus Economic Troubles

CNN founder Ted Turner spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle's Phil Bronstein at a Commonwealth Club program today. They covered a wide range of topics; the clip above has him talking about why newspapers "are gone."He also talks about the current financial crisis.

The Redesigned Starlog Logo

So, let's return to talking about magazines on this blog. Let's start with an oldie but goodie: Starlog magazine, a 30-something monthly that chronicles science fiction and fantasy films, television, and books, has redesigned its iconic logo for its newest issue, December 2008.

You see the old logo from the October 2008 issue at top left. The new logo is at bottom left. It's a radical change, and I'll admit I'm a conservative when it comes to magazine design, but the new logo has the advantage of being bold, stretching across the entire cover (rather than crammed in the middle), and by being set off in a separate box, should be better able to stand out against various-colored backgrounds.

This change follows the purchase of Starlog and its sister magazine, Fangoria, by The Brooklyn Company (headed by Tom DeFeo), after the bankruptcy of previous owner The Creative Group (which, to make things even more complicated, bought the two brands several years ago from founder Norman Jacobs).

More on this soon, after I've seen an actual copy of the magazine and can critique the entire issue.

President-Elect Obama

Finally.