Pre-China Update

As many of you know, The O'Brien Family News ia about to go "LIVE" again as we prepare to embark on a trip to China. This time around we're all going, Tom, Tracy, Mitch and Tess, so keep an eye on this space for further updates. I'll try to blog in the evenings. Looking forward to seeing tis similar view next Tuesday!

The state of magazine advertising.

A client recently asked me for my opinion of the state of the advertising industry, specifically as it relates to magazine advertising. Before you read my post, let me begin by stating that I love magazines! Runners World, Golf Digest, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire the occasional impulse People purchase, BA, GMT etc. But at the same time, I can't remember the last time I looked at Time, SI, or even Business Week. To me newsmagazines are irrelevant. I get my news from CNN, ESPN, and local newspaper web sites, I don't read it in print. I have not re-subscribed to any magazine in years. Perhaps later I will try to figure out the "paid content" model on the web, but I don't think I'm smart enough.

Q: According a yesterdays article in btobonline.com, B-to-b advertising pages declined 31.6% in May compared with the year-earlier period.

· In broad strokes, how has your business been affected in the past 24-48 months?

· Are you seeing fewer advertisers? Or are the same numbers of advertisers spending less?

A: I believe my background is well suited to answer this question. I’ll limit my observations primarily to the last 10 years. I began advertising in 1993 and landed at IDG in 1996. By the time I left IDG in 2000 two major shifts occurred in theB2B advertising world.

First, IDG, Ziff and CMP lost their bread and butter (IT advertisers) to the business category, Fortune, Forbes, Business Week and the “new economy” titles that have all gone the way of the dodo. SAP, Oracle, Microsoft soon realized that IT was no longer a back office skunk works and to that end, IT people were marginalized and the CEO and CFO became squarely involved in the decision making process.

Second, the first dot com boom and bust. Every B2B publisher made a scramble to develop a web presence, but upstarts like Internet.com, Vertical Net, Tech Republic, All Business, Office.com, Business.com and a host of others offered access to the B2B community on the web, where, presumably business people spent time and money. Traditional publishers lost business and revenue to these “Hot” and “Cool” new companies. SO the same ad budgets (more or less) were sliced even thinner and across more properties. I made a fruitless jump to the web for a small business portal—Office.com. Unfortunately I learned that most of these start ups were “smoke and mirror” outfits, Office.com included.

I then had the fortune to work at the Fortune Group of Time Inc from 2000 through 2005 during a relatively stable advertising period (9/11 and the fallout notwithstanding). During this time a few other things happened that affected the business titles significantly. Specifically, the web grew up and web advertising began to have standards and metrics. The flight of IT to the business press slowed and to some extent returned to the IT mags, but companies like IBM and Sap and others found out that IT folks, specifically, lived online. User generated content began to significantly affect the decision making process. Tech Target, C-Net, and of course Google began to deliver quality content and strong advertising results.

From 2005 through 2008 I worked at Conde Nast as a Senior Account Manager at Golf Digest and then as a Corporate Sales Director in the Conde Nast Media Group. 05, 06, 07 Convinced much of the established B2B advertisers to swim further upstream. For example, Accenture, IBM, CDW, Bearing Point (RIP), Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab etc. signed significant sponsorship deals with the PGA Tour and as a result, I and Golf Digest were beneficiaries. Conde was so bold as to launch Portfolio at this time, but sadly the timing couldn’t have been worse. Wired remained a beacon in the new economy. Unfortunately the “luxury” sell was not sustainable especially with the coming recession so the adjacent to business leisure titles (Golf, etc) quickly gave back all advertising gains from 2005-2008. They will never see the business category return with the same vigor. Get used to it.

So does this answer your question, no, but it is all cyclical and repetitive. I truly believe that the magazine (consumer and B2B) industry is doomed. Niche titles with small advertiser bases are dying left and right. News titles are suffering immensely as printed news has become irrelevant. The Web 2.0 experience has changed everything. We all get our news from somewhere.com.

Sure content is king and brand name reporters and journalists are important, but they are fleeing to the web and building their own web news outlets further fragmenting the advertising pool. Someone must make the gutsy move to make users pay for content a la the WSJ.com, but as the NYT has experienced and will experience, we have become accustomed to receiving our content and information for free. All B2B content providers need to develop a hybrid revenue model similar to the traditional advertising/subscription model that used to work.

In my opinion the only printed publications that will survive for a long time are those that people look forward to and linger over like Vanity Fairs, Harpers, The Atlantics and some fashion magazines. Should they survive they will never have “September” issues again. Revenue will be much more sobering. Publications full of news, reviews, speeds and feeds are doomed.

Presently, advertisers can get whatever they want and they can almost name their price. Great ideas always find funding, but the days of a splashy model or celebrity endorsing a PC are gone. B2B advertisers are demanding results—sales, leads, and at the very least response. If you cannot prove response then your days on a media plan are numbered. Web advertising continues to grow, albeit slowly this year too, because the best ads on the most focused sites deliver results so any Publisher, print, digital or other needs to insure the 3 c’s—content, community and collaboration are iron clad.

I recently read a study from Gartner that identified the habits of business executives. Of those surveyed, 85% read and sent email before they did any other work. To me that was very telling because I’m sure that 15 years ago that # 1 statement was to read the Journal or their business pages. The study went on to say that they go online for everything…business, pleasure and community. Most are active with social media. Magazine readership was very low on their daily activity list.

Magazines continue to raise rates with the rate of inflation because that’s as old as magazine advertising itself, the same way publishers continue to charge for bleed!!! How does that still happen?

The next disruptor in my mind is the Kindle. B2B publishers ought to be all over Amazon pleading to have their content included on the Kindle.

First Annual Taylors Lane Jingle Bell Jog

This past Saturday Mitch hosted a 1 mile (actually almost 1.2 mi) race for his friends. The race started on Taylors Lane by the side of our house and ran down Barrymore Lane  to the end of Taylors Lane and back.  It was really cold outside, about 20 degrees, but the sun was shining and the day was perfect.  The winner was "Fast Eddie" Cohen, followed by Timmy Lelley, Shelby Hackenburg, Declan Flood, and Jacob Herrera.  

In total almost 40 kids ran and every runner received a Jingle Bell and a race bib number.

After the race we gathered on our front lawn for awards, hot cocoa, donuts and coffee.  The race also celebrated a good cause as people brought old coats and food for the Mamaroneck Food Pantry.

Special thanks go to Rich Alter and Anthony Dunn for helping with the set up and coordination.

China Reunion 2008

Today Tracy, Mitch, Tess and I met up with the other adoptive families we met while in China in 2006.  Since we were coming from NY, MA and RI we all met at the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, CT.  The girls, Mitch, Ben (another big brother who's 11) enjoyed the aquarium, especially  the beluga whales followed by an early dinner at Mystic Pizza (the movie is 20 years old now).  Her are a few pictures of the girls and their families.  What's beautiful to see is the progress all of these wonderful girls have made and how happy they and their families are.  We are all blessed by their presence and our lives are fuller and richer with each of them.  

Although we don't live close by the other families, I think we will at least meet up once a year to catch up on each girls progress and remember the amazing experience we all enjoyed together in December 2006.

Here are the people in the photos:

Girls: Katherine and Tess

Girls 2: Mia, Ally, Katherine and Tess

Family photo: Melissa, Steve, Jeff, Mia, Ally, Maureen, Katherine, Ben, Marcie, Dan, Tom, Mitch, Tracy and Tess.

Winter in Vermont

Here's something to ponder (courtesy of Bon Appetit)..."How come you never see turkey on the menus of any high-end restaurants?"

This year the O'Brien's enjoyed Thanksgiving in Vermont at the Rose's.  Thanksgiving dinner was excellent (isn't it always?), but Friday's Jim Rose Italian feast was even better!  The Italian relatives know how to make meatballs, sausage and gravy!  Yesterday's left over lunch wasn't turkey, but rather meatball sandwiches.

I thought I'd post some video of Nick and Mitch sliding down a ridge up off of Smuggler's Notch. Winter has certainly come to Northern Vermont.  There was easily a foot of new snow in the Notch, so Mitch, Nick, the dogs and I went for a hike through the notch.  We had planned to summit up at Sterling Pond but we had more fun playing in the snow and hiding behind the caves made by icicle formations and sliding down the ridges.  I thought about skiing one day, but the trails and sloped looked scratchy. 

The Turkey Trot

Today Mitch, Tess, Tracy and I got up to run the annual Mamaroneck Turkey Trot.  Today, however the race temperature was unusually frosty...probably in the high 20's at the start.

Mitch ran the kids one-mile run and did great and finished with an 8:30.  I ran the 5-miler (as a bandit) in a near PR at 34:40. Amazingly, it was exactly 4 minutes faster than the Rye Derby!! That's a big difference for a short race!  It was the first race that I've run since Reach the Beach and today reminded my why I love running races. This is a great course through Orienta and back along BPR and the crowd is decent, but quickly thins out so runners can run their races.

I think I'll run another race in December up in Ward Pound Ridge which is  usually a wet and damp race that DB and Stanton ran last year in a blizzard.

Also running today were the Alter boys and Timmy Kelley (who came in 6th at 6:30) and in the big run Dave Burgess and Matt Lewis.

BTW--this picture is not from the race, but I had to post something.

The bitter Irony

Follow this link to see how "poorly" I was doing this year....

#1 in overall page growth...kinda sucks huh?

www.minonline.com/features/9108.html

LAID OFF, Permanent Vacation, early retirement, victim of the recession.

So the bastards, aka "The Man" got to me on Friday.  I was humming along as the Publisher of The History Channel Magazine delivering 67% growth over last year and 22% growth over my 2008 budget only to fall victim to the CEO's spreadsheet scalpel.  

I was told that my job elimination had nothing to do with performance or conduct, and that I was simply a salary that the company could no longer afford.  Private equity assholes and McKinsey goons that manage via data analysis.  Too bad life isn't that black and white. They'll flame out in the end. Whatever the case, I'm pissed and now unemployed.   

Friday was surreal and the weekend was the weekend, but today I'm realizing that the job search is going to really suck.  Time Inc is laying off 600-1000, Conde has cut 5% of salary budgets, T&E and has a hiring freeze and the others are no better.  

I will take this time to enjoy Mitch and Tess' company and help them with everything they need during the week.  Mitch and I have been locking horns lately so this will be good for us (or maybe not?) and Tess needs all the attention she can get.  

More importantly, I don't have any bullshit to worry about for the present time.  Maybe some stress will go away and I'll get back to running more regularly and will be a more likeable person again.  Maybe I'll look and feel more like the person in the picture above.

Wish me luck and if you have any job leads, anywhere in the country...you know where to find me.

Thanks.

Reach The Beach 2008

So I haven't posted in a long time, all summer really. So I thought I would write about my annual adventure in New Hampshire, a 210 Mile 12-Person Running Relay race from Cannon Mountain to Hampton Beach, NH.

The race typically begins with coordination, recruitment and logistics, but I'll spare the details only to say that on Thursday afternoon my cousin Greg Mitchell and I went to LaGuardia to pick up two very large passenger vans that would carry the 12 smelly runners for the next two days. The rest of Thursday afternoon people met and we left for New Hampshire in good spirits and full of optimism.

Our race officially began at 3:00 pm on Friday the 12th, however before the being allowed to race we had to sign in, attend a safety and rules orientation and then get our paperwork released and OK'd. The party like atmosphere at the start is great as teams load up on RTB logo gear, pose for team photos and posture with other runners while listening to cool grooves and cheering on the heats in front of you. This year, however, the party atmosphere was a bit less as the weather was cold and damp--perfect running weather!

Every year the race is a little bit different. This year returning RTB'er Greg Stanton would be the one to lead us off and run legs 1, 13, and 25. The Sound Shore Sand Seekers, as we call ourselves, started in the second to last heat (only 13 teams raced after we started) based on our collective 1/2 marathon times. As soon as the gun sounded for our heat Stanton was off and the race began.

At that point Van 1 (Stanton, Charlie Scott, Mark Thompson, Joe Moore, Pierre Antoine Boulat, and Eric Turkewitz) quickly jumped in their van and raced off to meet Stanton for the hand-off at transition #2.

Van 2 which included me, Greg Mitchell, Patrick Kaufer, Mark Loehr, Gregg Rubin and Chris Belisle had 4 hours to kill so we drove toward the Van transition area #1 to find a pasta dinner and grab a power nap before running. Around 6:45 on Friday afternoon van 2 finally had to throw on the running gear and make tracks across NH! We ran from Bartlett, NH (across from Attitash Ski area) down through North Conway and to a handoff in Meredith (near Winnepasaukee).

After each leg, no matter what leg, the refrain was "I ran great but I couldn't believe all the fricken hills!" Or..."Thank god it was dark because I didn't want to see how steep that hill was!" Or in Charles' case, "Who cares about the hills, I didn't get hypothermia so it was fine."

As one van runs, the other rests, so we slept in some very interesting places...like a gravel parking lot at Attitash, a cafeteria at NHTC and on the grass behind Exeter High School. For the sore and tired this was like a 4 Seasons! (I for one am a talent and know that I am a very strong sleeper so I was snoring shortly after hopping in my sleeping bag).

The race to the uninitiated sounds crazy, but to those of us who have run this, the RTB is an addiction. You'd think that after 26 hours we'd hate one another, but the opposite happens...the RTB is an amazing bonding experience and each year I make new friends and strengthen existing relationships. Before the weekend, Mark Loehr and Charles Scott were strangers, now, next year, Mark has invited our wives to join us at "Foxchase" before and after the race!

Each person made this an excellent race and I'm thankful to have run it with some old timers (Patick, PAB, Joe, Gregg, Stanton) but I am equally glad to have have such great rookies (Nails, Charles--the Pro, Chris--the anchorman, Funnyman Greg, Turkey and Zydeco Mark).

So 26 hours, 12 minutes and 21 seconds later the SS Sandbaggers crossed the finish line exhausted and elated. We celebrated by jumping in the Atlantic Ocean to enjoy our first "shower" in several hours and from there we shuffled to the hotel for a real shower followed by some long overdue beer and a dinner at the "Old Salt". I had the surf and turf.

Sunday we all got up, showered and made a bee-line back to New York because by now our absence from our families makes us feel very guilty!

It looks like next year we might need a second team...which will be interesting, but I know that we have a sub 24 hour RTB from among this crew and I am eager to get closer to Hello Kitty and I am looking forward to seeing Patrick in a tail and bunny ears!

Here's the website for anyone that is interested. www.rtbrelay.com

And a link to Turkey's photos:
http://gallery.me.com/dturkey#100517&view=carouseljs&sel=0

Until then...Marine Corps Marathon and more importantly...9-28-2008: PAIN TO PAINE!!

See you on the streets....

Celtic Pride

Here we are half way through game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals.  As great as the Red Sox and the Patriots have been recently, the Celtics have been horrible...until this season.  Today I went to the NBA store in NYC to get Mitch a Celtics jersey.  Mitch has not been a bandwagon fan, he's been watching and following the Celtics all season.  Unlike after the Super Bowl all the stupid NY fans have been very quiet.  Here's to happy endings!

May 2008

It seems like we've had a lot going on lately...The Rye Derby...Mitch's First Communion and our Trip (minus Tess) to Walt Disney World.  Rather than a lengthy and wordy post, I will let our pictures do the talking.  Enjoy!

Walt disney world

Walt disney world
Originally uploaded by obrienonfaxon

Mom and Mitch