If you’re a magazine publisher trying to reach 18- to 25-year-old females, who better to enlist than a group of 18- to 25-year-olds?

That’s the theory behind Modus, a sports-driven lifestyle and fashion magazine that will be produced by a team of students from Los Angeles’ Otis College of Art and Design and bankrolled by Action Sports Group, a unit of Primedia Inc., the publisher of Motor Trend magazine and many other targeted publications.

Four faculty members and 15 students will provide the creative and editorial energy for the 140-page publication, which beginning in September will be included with three Action Sports Group magazines: Surfer, Surfing and Snowboarder.

“The key is to focus on what’s new and what’s next, and our students will drive the fashion, design and trend forecasts,” said Samuel Hoi, president of Otis College. “This kind of project is real-world experience for the students involved. It’s not a ‘student magazine.’ They have to present all their ideas to Action Sports to be vetted through their staff.”

The idea to collaborate with the school on a magazine came about last summer, after Action Sports decided to stop publication of SG, an action sports title for females. SG was launched eight years ago as an insert in Primedia’s surf magazines, but after it was spun off as its own stand-alone magazine it failed to reach the volume of female readers the group had hoped for. They decided to combine the new magazine with the other three other mags, which already reach many young women.

“The answer was right in front of our nose and we hadn’t really seen it,” said Don Meek, Action Sports Group president. “The disappointing thing was we were missing any opportunity to go after any fashion direction that was coming out of those sports that’s huge right now and very, very big in influencing girls’ fashion. Sports culture today has a global reach.”

Meek approached Otis about the project through friends on the college’s board in early September and weeks later the college and Action Sports were setting up the collaboration.

Action Sports which publishes eight action sports titles and 11 Web sites has committed to publishing spring and fall editions of the new mag.

Meek said Modus could evolve into a stand-alone title. It will have an oblong shape rather than the standard magazine format and will feature a heavy matte cover.

The early advertiser response to the magazine has been encouraging. About 40 pages have been sold to buyers including Hurley, Roxy, Quicksilver, OP, Adidas, John Paul Mitchell Systems, Rip Curl, Vans, Billabong and Teen Vogue.

Meek declined to disclose how much Action Sports and Primedia are putting up to back the magazine, but said the group was paying what he called “fair market value” for the editorial.

“There is a financial commitment that we’ve made to Otis for this, and our goal is to be able to endow a full scholarship at the school through the magazine as we get it up on its feet,” Meek said.

Reed Return


Onetime editor Marcy Magiera is back at Reed’s Video Business magazine as editorial general manager. Magiera was editor of Video Business from 1998 to 2005. Her return follows the layoffs of editor-in-chief Scott Hettrick and managing editor Carl DiOrio after the shuttering of Video Business’ sister publication, DVD Exclusive magazine in January part of the struggling publication’s effort to right the ship.

Magiera praised Hettrick’s work during his six-year tenure, but characterized the layoffs as part of a “strategic restructuring” and said the move was necessary for the publication to “move in a different direction.”

Magiera spent much of the last year consulting for the magazine and said the new goals are to focus on core print publications and expand its online presence with new properties.

Huge Screens


Los Angeles-based Big Moving Pictures is rolling out huge televisions screens for events literally.

The privately-held company, founded in 2004, is using the world’s largest mobile television screens with built-in sound systems, high-definition quality and a viewing range of up to 1,200 feet to televise live outdoor events, and is adding commercials to the mix. The embedded ads will provide the bulk of the company’s revenue.

The mobile units can be placed throughout event or show sites, on trucks for land shows or on barges for waterfront shows. The company spent more than a year developing and testing its initial content, and recently teamed with the United States Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Team, the first media partner in the 60-year history of the stunt plane show.

Short Trajectory


It took Television Week a while to find its new editor, and he turned up right across the hall.

Bloomberg’s Los Angeles bureau chief Greg Baumann resigned last week and headed to Television Week magazine housed in the same Wilshire Boulevard building to take over the position vacated by Alan Ben Block in October. Television Week Publisher Chuck Ross and executive editor Tom Gilbert did not return calls seeking comment last week.