While independent newspapers and magazines are in deep distress, business-sponsored print publications seem to be flourishing. Costco Connection, for example, is a monthly lifestyle magazine for Costco members. The Sept. 2010 issue offers 72 pages chock-full of advertisements. Its masthead shows a large, traditional print organization (managing editor, associate editors, assistant editors, copy editor, production managers, assistant production manager, etc.). In the column “from the editor’s desk” in the Sept. 2010 issue, the editor describes himself as “trained in the age-old tenets of journalism.” True to that heritage, Costco Connection online looks just like the print product. Costco Connection claims “the largest audience of small-business readers of any magazine in the United States.” While Costco Connection has no subscriber revenue, I would guess that it’s a more valuable magazine than Newsweek.
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