The magazines, published by GSG World Media, will cost $7.95 each at Office Depot stores. They will also be free in various digital formats to five million people who will receive an e-mail from Office Depot this week. The magazines are called: Tweeting & Business; LI & Business; fb & Business and The Big G & Business. A related Web site called socialmediamags.com opened on Monday.
Despite the huge volume of information about social media tips and tools online and in print, Eric Yaverbaum, associate publisher of the magazines, says he and his partners see an opportunity to use the print magazine format to reach some business owners trying to learn more about the digital world. He said that they were printing a total of 250,000 copies of the magazines at their introduction.
“Small-business owners and entrepreneurs are all trying to figure social media out,” Mr. Yaverbaum said. “Print magazines help make the information accessible to them. There will be great success stories and useful information.”
Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, the former chief marketing officer for Kodak, and one of the early evangelists for Twitter, is the editor of the magazine about Twitter. He will also have a monthly column and videos offering tips. “In this first column, it will be about best practices for business,” he said. “And what works, whether you are on Main Street or Wall Street.”
Another magazine, The Social Media Monthly, published by the Cool Blue Company, made its national debut in August. The cover article in its October issue asks what impact Google Plus will have on Facebook.
This article originally written by Jennifer Preston for the New York Times Media Decoder section.
