Golf Magazine Sets Multimedia Push

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Thanks to reader Kevin for the heads up on this WSJ story (subscription req.) about Golf Magazine's attempts to diversify.

Basically, they've generated $163.9 million in ad revenue for the first 11 months of the year according to Publishers Information Bureau, but ad pages are off 11.7% while the rest of the industry is down 0.4%. So they are coming up with a $250,000 contest culminating in in two one-hour shows where advertisers will get to push their stuff on TV too. You know, a reverse cross-pollination of synchronized multi-pushbacked brand repurposing initiative.

But here's the interesting part, courtesy of TNS Media Intelligence:

Golf Magazine's top five advertisers of 2005, in millions

Callaway Golf: $8.62

Fortune Brands: $6.11

Honda Motor: $4.0

Nissan Motor: $3.93

Adidas-Salomen: $3.85 
 

Must Cringe TV

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Uh yes, I've watched the first two episodes of Natalie Gulbis's "reality" show after someone suggested I inflict this form of self-torture to help heal my acid reflux. Shoot, I even  TiVo'd it. That's how sick I am.

But won't you be watching Tuesday night when after reading about last week's episode:

Natalie plays a practice round at the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill with Danielle, the winner of The Golf Channel's Big Break 3. [Hey, she's resurfaced!] Natalie & Se Ri Pak shoot the LPGA's new print campaign, "These Girls Rock!" [As captivating as it sounds.] Natalie & fellow LPGA beauty Cristie Kerr spend a day at the spa. [Uh, not as captivating as it sounds.] Natalie, Kelli Kuehne, and Paula Creamer spend the rain delay at Kingsmill playing poker. [Apocalyptic.] Natalie finishes the Michelob Ultra Open T-3, her best finish ever, which still isn't good enough for her father. [A real peach.]

I wonder what Ozzy, err, dad is going to do? 

Do watch the Gulbis show at least once just to see what kind of intense dialogue and layered plots you're missing. Natalie does look amazing in a bathing suit, unfortunately we barely saw her in it during episode two. The cold Malibu wind required her to parade around in robe. If she had done the calendar shoot today, it was 71 and clear, with a light breeze...oh sorry. Remember you East Coasters, you get to enjoy the seasons.

Who Invited Golf Digest?

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From the New York Post...

Christmas came early this year.

No, not the lighting of the Rockefeller Center tree but the elite luncheon of the top editors, publishers and executives who work for billionaire S.I. Newhouse Jr. inside the glitzy Condé Nast publishing empire.

This year's extravaganza at the posh Four Seasons restaurant was the first to stretch beyond Condé Nast's traditional top-bracket titles such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour and The New Yorker, to include the less prestigious titles of its Fairchild group, home to Jane and W, and the more pedestrian Golf Digest Companies.
 

McDonald on Golf Digest/Tour Deal

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Tim McDonald at Travelgolf.com writes about the new media partnership between Golf Digest and the PGA Tour, and wonders if this will water down Golf Digest's coverage.

...to sum up, we know what the corporate partners, the PGA Tour and the magazine (not to mention its sister publications in the Conde Nast family: GolfWorld, Golf For Women, GolfWorld Business, etc.) get out of this new marketing agreement. What do we readers get out of it? Well, I can tell you what we probably will not get out of it: any negative coverage of the PGA Tour, and maybe not even the whole story. That isn't what partners do.

Thanks to reader Stu for passing along the Travelgolf newsletter where managing editor Mark Nessmith slams me and other bloggers (including his own Travelgolf blogs) for not looking harder at this deal and questioning Golf Digest's integrity (guess he didn't see my recent Golfobserver column).

Nessmith suggests that I'm a "contributor" to the publication, which theoretically explains why the story was not posted here (actually, I didn't think it was news...these relationships are standard in golf):

A few reported the deal when it went down, some even dutifully posting the press release. But none - not one - thought to expound on the ramifications of such a cozy "partnership." Not engolfed, not Brent Kelley, not Geoff Shackelford (go figure, since Shack  is a contributor to Golf Digest  among others), not Golf Fore Golfers, not Going For The Green (go figure, since Robert Thompson is a contributor to PGATour.com and a course rater for Golf Digest), not Just-For-Golf  ... and none of the TravelGolf.com bloggers either. I couldn't find anyone who thought to stick up his or her hand and ask: Hey, aren't journalists supposed to offer critical coverage of what's going on, not just sanitized pap that their "partner" has vetted!? Not even the Rebel Blogger could be roused from his (welcome) silence of late to take on the Big Boys.

I'd email Nessmith to find out where my contributor's check has been going all these years, since it was six years ago that I last appeared in the pages of Golf Digest. But for some curious reason all of the Travelgolf people don't want to be contacted (it does help cut down on the emails when you can't get your facts straight).

Huggan on Schofield, Hewitt

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John Huggan looks at Ken Schofield's post European Tour work and includes this anecdote:

...there is little doubt that Schofield is enjoying his new roles in life. Already, there is a more relaxed aura about him, a less guarded and less intense outlook. Even his legendary propensity for talking in politician-like circles when answering the awkward questions is less pronounced.

The edge is still there, though. Sitting with his notoriously jingoistic and often xenophobic Golf Channel colleague, Brian Hewitt, during an on-air conversation at last month's USPGA Championship, Schofield was quick to stick up for those he represented so zealously for so long. More than once the horrible Hewitt found himself politely chastised.

I think it's safe to say that if there's ever a Golf Writer's Association of America four-ball, there will not be a Huggan-Hewitt team! 

AP Els Story

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There's an AP story appearing all over the place announcing that Ernie Els "will skip the first two PGA Tour events in the United States next year to rest his knee and stay fresher for the majors."

He had to have won a tournament to be eligible for the first of the two that he's chosen to skip. I know, quibbling again. Anyway...

"The South African will not play in the United States until the Nissan Open in California in mid-February, and he will only be there for 10 weeks until after the Masters in April."

Hey, at least someone knows the 2006 PGA Tour schedule! So we can pencil the Nissan in for mid-February?

Anyway, the main point here is that this is all from John Huggan's reporting in The Guardian (Sept. 17), which was posted here a few days ago. The AP story does not mention Huggan or The Guardian.

Now I know he wasn't reporting the content of the Pentagon Papers or the names Hugh Sloan mentioned to the grand jury investigating Watergate, but Huggan did have an exclusive that should have been acknowledged by AP. Maybe this looser standard is part of AP's attempts to pander to a new audience, though I thought such shenanigans would be left to its forthcoming asap service (which you can bet the 18-34 year old obsessed PGA Tour will be pandering to in no time).