It’s like a publisher’s idea of an orgy.

Four of the biggest names in magazine publishing in the United States are joining forces to launch an online newsstand in what they’ve described as “iTunes for magazines.”

Time Inc., which has 21 titles like Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and People; Condé Nast, which holds 18 titles with popular ones like Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, Wired, and The New Yorker; Hearst which holds 15 titles including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, O (The Oprah Magazine), and Marie Claire; and Meredith which has 13 titles of its own, will be “equity partners” in the project that’s expected to launch in the next few months with other publishing companies expected to join the print orgy.

According to The New York Observer, “The company will prepare magazines that can work across multiple digital platforms, whether the iPhone, the BlackBerry or countless other digital devices.” The yet-to-be-named company will not, however, develop an e-book, but something similar to the music program iTunes, creating a store where you can buy new magazines.

Before you start hoarding your copies of Vanity Fair, Esquire, and other titles with Megan Fox or Robert Pattinson on the cover, rest assured that this venture doesn’t mark the end of the print version as they assure that they will still produce the print version, although–I have a feeling–in lesser quantities.

It isn’t a secret that the publishing industry in the United States is suffering from its own Great Depression with major newspaper and magazine titles closing down, as well as massive employee lay-offs. Gourmet, a popular food magazine published by Condé Nast for the past 50 years closed down early this year and was relegated to the web. Meanwhile, Time Inc. laid off 600 of its employees last year. More smaller and less popular titles have closed down due to a “steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation, and the migration of readers to free news online.”

With this attempt to rescue a stumbling industry, it is their (and perhaps mine, as well) earnest hope that this merge will bring in the print medium to a whole new, well, medium. I still like paper, though.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour talks to ABS-CBN’s Maria Ressa

With machinations almost Shakespearean in nature, the generations-long feud between two political clans in Buluan, Maguindanao—a rural area located in the southern part of the Philippines—has risen to heights in what observers can only describe as a “gruesome massacre” “unequalled in recent history.”

On Monday, a group of at least 36 people, mostly composed of women identified with Buluan vice mayor Dato “Toto” Mangudadatu and 12 journalists, were abducted and later killed by close to a hundred gunmen allegedly led by members of rival Ampatuan political clan. As of Wednesday, the number of bodies found rose to 52.

More than the fact that helpless and unarmed journalists were killed, is the fact that all people in the group were helpless and unarmed.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has placed Maguindanao under a state of emergency, ordering the Philippine National Police to go after the perpetrators.

Four days after the filing for candidacy was opened and at six months before the elections, this is the first election-related crime to hit headlines. Shakespeare had it better. Clearly, we’re in a tragedy.

PHOTO CREDITS
Associated Press (Aaron Favila, Noel Celis)
www.worldphotos.com
www.wn.com

December issues come out this week. I’m giddy about seeing ours. In the foreign magazine section, Hearst Corp, big-time media company and magazine publisher, announced a few weeks ago that Esquire would launch a new “augmented reality” issue for release in December. And just the other week, they finally unveiled they’re newest invention that, while it promises some moments of pure fascination and awe, still begs the question, “What now?”

On the cover of Esquire’s December issue is the new Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey Jr. in a three-piece suit, proudly showing the package between his legs. It is this device, along with a program you need to download off the Esquire website and a web cam, that enables the actor to literally jump off the cover. Awesome sh*t.

Once the AR program is installed, users will have to point the “marker” located at the bottom of the magazine towards the web cam to activate the feature. For the cover, Robert Downey Jr. does a song and dance, among other things. Inside, a fashion photo shoot changes the model’s clothes and the weather, depending on how you hold and rotate the magazine. Their monthly “Funny Joke from a Beautiful Woman” section has actress Gillian Jacobs tell another joke, and there’s an ad from Lexus, which reportedly shouldered the cost of the AR issue coming in at six figures according to Wall Street Journal.

Esquire’s Augmented Reality Issue: A Tour

While AR seems to be a huge leap in the print medium, attempting to tie in the web element of Esquire, Augmented Reality feels like another passing fancy. It’s a chore to download and install the AR program. And after viewing the few pages AR is featured in, you’re left with, well, a magazine. And no one buys one for AR and AR alone.

The tactile experience of holding a magazine is still a whole different experience. Augment it as you may want, in the end, it’s content that matters the most. And that’s what made and still makes Esquire one of the best men’s magazines in the world. And that’s why people still buy magazines. Great idea, but what now?

Still, if there’s one thing I’ll always like about Esquire, it’s their original content and the punk-ass attitude with which they present them. Only they can put “WTF?!” on their cover and get away with it.

I’m not a Macphile. The only place I use a Mac is at work. I remember picking up the Apple one-click mouse on my first day at work, staring at it for five minutes trying to decipher how to make a right-click. But I can see why millions of people around the world are obsessed with everything that passes through Steve Jobs’ hands. It’s white gold, and so damn sexy. Not his hands. The partly-eaten image of an apple has become as iconic as his black turtleneck sweater and denim jeans. If I had all the money in the world, I’d live in a Mac house.

The following article was forwarded to me by my editor. I always get this ambivalent feeling whenever I encounter great writing: I get pissed that I write so crappy, and excited at having discovered something I can admire and imitate.

Fortune Magazine named Apple CEO Steve Jobs as CEO of the decade in their November 2009 issue. Good job, Job.

The decade of Steve: How Apple’s imperious, brilliant CEO transformed American business. Adam Lashinsky

How’s this for a gripping corporate story line: Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley.

Sound too far-fetched to be true? Perhaps. Yet it happens to be the real-life story of Steve Jobs and his outsize impact on everything he touches.

The past decade in business belongs to Jobs. What makes that simple statement even more remarkable is that barely a year ago it seemed likely that any review of his accomplishments would be valedictory. But by deeds and accounts, Jobs is back.

It’s as if his signature “one more thing” line now applies to him as well. After a six-month leave of absence in the early part of this year, during which he received a liver transplant, he is once again commanding a 34,000-strong corporate army that is as powerful, awe-inspiring, creative, secretive, bullying, arrogant — and yes, profitable — as at any time since he and his chum Steve Wozniak founded Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) in 1976.

Superlatives have attached themselves to Jobs since he was a young man. Now that he’s 54, merely listing his achievements is sufficient explanation of why he’s Fortune’s CEO of the Decade (though the superlatives continue). In the past 10 years alone he has radically and lucratively reordered three markets — music, movies, and mobile telephones — and his impact on his original industry, computing, has only grown.

Remaking any one business is a career-defining achievement; four is unheard-of. Think about that for a moment. Henry Ford altered the course of the nascent auto industry. PanAm’s Juan Trippe invented the global airline. Conrad Hilton internationalized American hospitality.

In all instances, and many more like them, these entrepreneurs turned captains of industry defined a single market that had previously not been dominated by anyone. The industries that Jobs has turned topsy-turvy already existed when he focused on them.

He is the rare businessman with legitimate worldwide celebrity. (His quirks and predilections are such common knowledge that they were knowingly parodied on an episode of “The Simpsons.”) He pals around with U2’s Bono.

Consumers who have never picked up an annual report or even a business magazine gush about his design taste, his elegant retail stores, and his outside-the-box approach to advertising. (”Think different,” indeed.)

It’s often noted that he’s a showman, a born salesman, a magician who creates a famed reality-distortion field, a tyrannical perfectionist. It’s totally accurate, of course, and the descriptions contribute to his legend.

Yet for all his hanging out with copywriters and industrial designers and musicians — and despite his anticorporate attire — make no mistake: Jobs is all about business. He may not pay attention to customer research, but he works slavishly to make products customers will buy.

He’s a visionary, but he’s grounded in reality too, closely monitoring Apple’s various operational and market metrics. He isn’t motivated by money, says friend Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500). Rather, Jobs is understandably driven by a visceral ardor for Apple, his first love (to which he returned after being spurned — proof that you can go home again) and the vehicle through which he can be both an arbiter of cool and a force for changing the world.

Read the full article here.

PHOTO CREDITS
Diana Walker/Contour by Getty Images

I have to agree. Trust the Philippines to win when the winner is determined through online or text voting. I can’t seem to remember how many times we’ve won Miss Photogenic in Miss Universe, even without us placing in the top ten. If the next presidential elections were held online, everyone would vote, even the unregistered ones. However, that doesn’t lessen Efren’s win. It just means we spend more time  online.

Embodying the spirit of Filipino volunteerism that bloomed in this stormy year, Efren Peñaflorida Jr. was named CNN Hero of the Year, the international news network announced on Sunday (Manila time). The Cavite City native pioneered a brand of mobile education, or the “pushcart classroom,” for urban poor youth.

“Efren Peñaflorida, who started a ‘pushcart classroom’ in the Philippines to bring education to poor children as an alternative to gang membership, has been named the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year,” the world-renowned Cable News Network said in an article posted on its Web site.

The 28-year-old Peñaflorida will receive $100,000 from CNN. The network’s top anchor Anderson Cooper announced the winner at the conclusion of the annual awards ceremony.

Efren Peñaflorida wins CNN Hero of the Year

From GMANews.tv

While every magazine publisher, editor, writer, photographer, or art director may want to believe that people buy magazines based on the content they create, the sad (or better) truth is that, like all ordinary mortals, people buy magazines based on what they see on the cover.

In Entrepreneur, the cover, which up until last month, was always a graphic text-based cover, goes through the hands of a handful of people before it finally hits the stands. They check the blurbs, the brief intro’s that indicate what’s inside the magazine, and the total impact of the photo. And after the November redesign issue, the scrutiny has been more intense. It’s perfectly wrong to judge a book by it’s cover. There are a lot of good books with crappy covers. But for a magazine, that’s just fine.

Magazine Publishers of America recently released the year’s best magazine covers and the finalists that almost made it. US President Barack Obama’s Rolling Stone cover was named Magazine Cover of the Year. No surprise there. Now why isn’t Megan Fox’s numerous covers in any of the categories? She would’ve qualified for Magazine Cover of the Year, but would most probably win Most Delicious. Yes, there is such a category, reserved for food shots, but in her case, I’m sure there’s an exception.

June 2009

June 2009

May 2009

October 2009

But I digress. Now for the actual winners.

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As I attended the last day of Consumer Electronics Live! at the World Trade Center Sunday morning, I wasn’t able to catch the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. While the cab was going at warp speed on what looked like a deserted EDSA at high noon, the announcer on the radio was describing the fight, well, blow by blow. I only caught the replay later that night. This is my version of what happened. As I am a visual person, I say it with pictures.

Before

PHOTO CREDITS
www.zimbio.com
www.pacquiaovideo.com

From serial-entrepreneur, Lex Ledesma, founder of The One School and the School of Fashion and the Arts (SoFA).

November 21-22, 2009
T-Shirt Design by AJ Dimarucot: Winner of the prestigious international t-shirt design contest, Design By Humans

December 5-6, 2009
Silk Screening by Team Manila: The group that has helped to bring t-shirt design and production to the next level
Music Video Production by Marie Jamora: MTV Pilipinas Best Director
Film Production by Raymond Red: Winner of the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival

December 12-13, 2009
Music Packaging Design bu Inksurge: Behind the packaging of Sandwich, Taken By Cars, Rico Blanco, Pupil, Sugarfee and more
Basic Animation by Ricky Orellana: Winner of the Best Documentary at the 13th Gawad CCP Awards and Head of the Audiovisual Archives of the Mowelfund Film Institute

With the Pacquiao-Cotto fight, today is the best day to go out as the streets will be deserted like it’s the end of the world. See you at the iBlog Summit.

Image Nation Holiday Sale at Cel Manila 2009
November 13-15, 2009
World Trade Center, Pasay City

What is CEL Manila?

It’s the biggest electronics show in the country that brings together all the latest gadgets under one roof.

What makes it bigger and better than last year’s?

The products were just on display last year. This year, you will get the chance to see, test, and buy the latest gadgets.

What are some of the interesting things we’ll be seeing at CEL Manila?

• Electric-powered vehicles
• The first dancing iPod speaker (an Ozaki)
• A karaoke microphone system from Memorex that lets you sing along to any song on your iPod or music player
• Dell’s super-thin laptop
• One Philips, a model-sized, fully furnished home that features the latest in Philips technology

What are some of the activities that both techies and non-techies can enjoy at the show?

• Launch of, ehem, Techie.com.ph
• Mini iBlog Summit for aspiring bloggers
• [Get the chance to] watch the Pacquiao-Cotto fight live
• A demo by the Philippine Robotics Team
• Techno-Anime Cosplay Contest

Drop by CEL Manila 2009 at the World Trade Center, Financial Center Area, Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue corner Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City this weekend.

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After his appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show, Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao makes it to the cover of TIME Magazine’s Asia edition, with his five-page feature story published in all editions. The magazine, to be released this weekend, comes just in time for his face-off with Puerto Rican boxer Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 14 (November 15, Sunday, in Manila). The “Jinkee” tattoo is a nice touch.

Other prominent Filipinos who made the cover of TIME Magazine were former President Corazon C. Aquino who appeared four times, including her Woman of the Year cover,

Ferdinand Marcos superimposed on the Philippine map and facing off with Cory Aquino during the snap elections,

Manuel Quezon, and a feisty-looking Ramon Magsaysay. So do you see where we’re going? After singing his version of Sometimes When We Touch on Jimmy Kimmel, the comedian-host calls Manny the “future president of the Philippines.”

The honesty’s too much.

Toys R Us Big Toy Sale at Cel Manila 2009
November 13-15, 2009
World Trade Center, Pasay City

The place is five minutes away from the Summit Media office. I plan on going to work extra early.

Anvil Publishing Early Christmas Book Sale
November 17 – December 12, 2009
Monday – Saturday (8am to 9pm)
8007-B Pioneer Street, Brgy. Kapitolyo, Pasig City

According to the Department of Tourism, in the first half of this year alone some four million tourists from all over the world visited the Philippines. The number is already more than the yearly total of the previous two years. And with airlines now offering affordable travel packages plus cheap accommodations catering to jet-setting business travelers and backpackers, the numbers are bound to rise. But what happens when travel agencies and tour services have closed for the night? Seeing the opportunity to create a new service, Singapore native Darren Murali Palanisamy created the country’s first 24-hour touring service in Eliz & Ethan Tour Services.

Established in June of this year with his Filipina wife Arlyn Carino, and with a start-up of only 25 thousand pesos and a staff of six, Palanisamy developed a simple concept: to give every traveler a personalized, cheap, and round-the-clock touring service in and around the Philippines.

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