• by Joe Mandese , May 16, 2005

The next installment of a massive magazine industry marketing effort aimed at Madison Avenue will prove to be nothing but a cover story--several of them, in fact. Beginning June 16, at the Association of National Advertisers' Print Advertising Forum in New York, the Magazine Publishers of America will kick off a series of quarterly panel discussions featuring the top editors of popular magazines.

The series, dubbed "Inside The Covers," is aimed at an audience of advertisers and print media buyers, and represents the next phase of the Magazine Marketing Coalition's three-year, $40-million multimedia campaign to demonstrate the power of magazines to the advertising community.

The first panel will feature Forbes Editor Bill Baldwin, Fortune Managing Editor Eric Pooley, and BusinessWeek Editor in Chief Steve Adler discussing business and economic trends that could impact advertising and marketing in the coming year. Jean Chatzky, Editor-at-Large of Money, and Financial Editor of NBC's "Today Show," will moderate.

The goal of the "Inside the Covers" campaign, says MPA President Nina Link, is to remind the marketing community about the role magazines play in identifying and shaping trends.

The print medium couldn't have picked a better venue to introduce the effort. Among other things, the ANA forum will focus on the connection between newspapers and magazines and the advertising process, including a panel on "Branded Entertainment in Print--Threat or Opportunity," a media buyers panel, and one discussing "What Advertisers Want From Print."