29

Okay, I'll depart from my new-found devotion to writing about magazines to note that the Chicago White Sox's magic number (the combination of wins by the Sox and losses by its main opponent) is 29.

Even better, if you were looking for a reason to vote for Barack Obama, then here's this: According to the Chicago Sun-Times (and other outlets), in an ESPN interview to air later this week, Obama was asked about Chicago's baseball teams.

ESPN: "If the Cubs and the White Sox both make it to the World Series?"

Obama: "I would be going."

ESPN: "Who would you root for?"

Obama: "Oh, that's easy. White Sox. I'm not one of these fair-weather fans. You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there. People aren't watching the game. It's not serious. White Sox – that's baseball. Southside."

That's great. He's a real Sox fan -- you can tell, because he not only praised the Sox but he slammed Cub fans (and accurately, too). Now THAT's the kind of insight we need in the White House!

Magazine News: Christie Hefner Blogs

This blog of mine is clearly coming to focus pretty heavily on the periodicals industry, so I'm not going to fight it. Magazines are, after all, where I practice my profession and have been my interest for decades.

So, I'll take this post as an opportunity to point you to another blog. Christie Hefner, chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises, is writing a regular blog for the Portfolio business magazine web site. She writes about newspapers, magazine competition, and some non-publishing matters, such as Barack Obama. It's a blog worth keeping an eye on; she's a smart publishing exec.

White Sox, Part II

Here's the post-game self-congrats by the White Sox.
It was nice to see former Sox Frank Thomas (not to be confused with Chicagoan Thomas Frank) (seriously, though I do) playing, even if it was for the bad guys.

Chicago White Sox 2:1 Oakland Athletics

I took advantage on Saturday of an opportunity to catch a rare appearance of the Chicago White Sox here in the Bay Area. After losing to the Oakland A's the previous night, the Sox rebounded on Saturday afternoon to a 2-1 victory. The game was not exciting, but it was a great baseball Saturday: Good seats, good weather, a good friend, good game result.
I took the photos in this posting from the 24th row behind home plate.

Cover Break

And sometimes I just take time out on this blog to appreciate magazine covers that catch my eye. Here's the upcoming issue of Starlog magazine. It's proof that "white space works."

Oh, No, I Agree with David Granger!

In an article on the web site of the magazine industry publication Folio:, Esquire Editor David Granger said: "When I talk to groups I sometimes speak about the days I had when I'd get the new issue of Esquire and go through it and think to myself, ‘F--k, it's still a magazine,'" Granger said in a recent interview with FOLIO:. "What I mean is that the medium is so compelling that I and we should all be able to do more with it. The magazine experience is one of the last remaining opportunities to enter a hermetically-sealed world, an edited experience of our culture created by someone else. And, more importantly, it's an experience that encourages you to stay in it rather than constantly bounce in and out of it."

The first part of that reference is why I can't bear to read Esquire these days. It's clear that its editors are just tired of the magazine format. But as a magazine editor (and reader) who still loves the magazine format, I was impressed with the second part of his comments, in which he said, "The magazine experience is one of the last remaining opportunities to enter a hermetically-sealed world, an edited experience of our culture created by someone else."

Exactly. A good magazine isn't a bulletin board or YouTube. It's a presentation of a worldview (sometimes limited to a narrow subject, such as foreign films or knitting, but sometimes literally surveying the world) done by people who want to present it in a certain way, want it to be experienced in a certain way, and who have reasons for it to be done so. The person putting his or her imprint on that "hermetically-sealed world" might be Hugh Hefner, Kerry O'Quinn and Norman Jacobs, Gloria Steinem, or it might be a group of radical cartoonists in New York or a church society in Minnesota. Whatever. It's their world that they want to present in a way that lets them engage readers in a discussion of what they think is important.

It's why I think magazines are challenged today (because the "everyone's a creator" ethos of the internet undercuts it), and why I think magazines are a valuable tool (because, to steal more of Granger's words, "it's an experience that encourages you to stay in it rather than constantly bounce in and out of it").

I noted it in an earlier posting, but I'll reiterate it: Magazines have a bright future, if they can survive the serious and hazardous technological and market changes of today.

Bush vs. the Democrats

I like this cartoon. (For more by Lyle Lahey, see his web site or his blog.)
At the same time, I understand the odd pressures Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are under to not appear obstructionist during a time of war. Would I like to see more vim and vigor from that party? Sure. But I think their eyes are all on the November 2008 prize. And then we'll see what the Dems can do.

Scott McClellan on How the Bush White House Works

Scott McClellan Digs at Rove, Cheney

Nonhysteria

Here's a non-hysterical, reasoned (and rather lengthy) editorial on gay marriage from the Los Angeles Times. It makes an important point ignored by the people overreacting to the legalization of gay marriage: It is a profoundly conservative act to allow same-sex marriage, not a left-wing radical act that undercuts marriage. Good job, LA Times.