2008 Top 10 most reported Australians

Little surprise that our most reported Australian in 2008 was the Prime Minister with around 960,000 news items mentioning him last year. Next was fallen Liberal leader Brendan Nelson, and then the treasurer Wayne Swan arounding off the top three positions. In fact the only person in the top 10 not in politics was Ricky Pointing, captain of the Australian cricket team.

The figures also show just how powerful radio broadcasting in generating news coverage, outstripping all other news outlets for nearly every person on the list.

If you are interested in the entire list of 2008 Top 50 most reported Australians complete with figures for each media type, email me at kylie at slicemedia dot com and I'll send a copy your way.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Australia's Top Magazines of 2008

OK! magazine, published by Northern & Shell Pacific, has been named Magazine of the Year at the recent 11th annual Magazine of the Year Awards presented by the Magazine Publishers of Australia. The awards recognise excellence and achievement in consumer magazine publishing and editorial.

OK! magazine, also winner of the General Excellence (General Interest / News) category, was selected as Magazine of the Year from the winners of the four major general excellence award categories.

For the second year Australasian Dirt Bike took home the General Excellence (Special Interest) category while the other General Excellence winners were Shop Til you Drop (Lifestyle) and real living (Home & Food). Editor of the Year was awarded to OK! magazine’s Kim Wilson.

Other winners included:

Ad Trade Marketing Campaign:
‘The Test of TIME’, TIME Magazine, TIME South Pacific

Consumer Marketing Campaign of the Year:
‘It’s Good To Be You’, Women’s Health, Pacific Magazines

Australia Post Magazine Subscription Award:
Mother’s Day Campaign (Magshop), ACP Magazines

Best Use of the Magazine Environment for Advertising: ‘My Australia Campaign’,TIME Magazine, TIME South Pacific

Best Use of Special Execution:
Australian Home Beautiful, Pacific Magazines

Best Use of Photography/Photographic Feature:
Modern Masterpieces Food Feature, Vogue Entertaining + Travel, News Magazines

Cover of the Year:
Street Machine, ACP Magazines

Best Use of Digital Media:
Zoo Weekly, ACP Magazines

Feature Writer of the Year:
Michael Sheather, The Australian Women’s Weekly, ACP Magazines

Columnist of the Year:
John Carey, Wheels, ACP Magazines

Editorial Initiative of the Year:
‘Push It’, marie claire, Pacific Magazines

Story of the Year:
‘Culture of Violence’, TIME Magazine, TIME South Pacific

Designer of the Year:
Huw Reynolds, belle, ACP Magazines

Lunch/Relaunch of the Year:
Women’s Health, Pacific Magazines

The voting for this year’s awards involved 33 judges across seven judging panels. Winners were selected from 72 finalists from a total of 291 entries.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Digital magazines for all!

In the space of few days I was notified about completely digital versions of some of my favourite magazines. The terrific Australian 'mook' Dumbo Feather, is offering a free trial of one of their recent issues, and the US based ReadyMade magazine is offering a 'tree-free' version of their latest issue. Great to see the world of magazines evolving.

Then Springwise tell me about issuu, where you can create and publish YOUR OWN MAGAZINE. I'm in publishing nirvana.


What issuu really does is take your run of the mill pdf file, and make it a flip-the-page style digital file, which you can then share on their website, or embed on others.

See for example the Media Kit created by MMP Communications which they then embedded into their website, the case study booklet by AdWalker or Network PR's monthly newsletter. But what about also using it for your clip books, brochures, white papers, portfolios etc etc?

To test it out, I took a pdf version of the Slice tour on our website, and converted it into an issuu file, then posted it to our facebook page. Admittedly the text is too small, and you need to zoom in, but more usability testing will further refine the interface. The great thing about the file though is it adds interactivity to your website, and allows people to access graphic information without having to download a pdf file. Also by sharing the information on the issuu website and inviting comment, you've created another tool in your web 2.0 arsenal.

Issuu describes themselves as "the place for online publications: Magazines, catalogs, documents, and stuff you'd normally find on print. It's the place where YOU become the publisher: Upload a document, it's fast, easy, and totally FREE. Find and comment on thousands of great publications. Join a living library, where anyone finds publications about anything and share them with friends."

But hey, don't be shy. Just get on issuu, give it a whirl and see where your creative comms juices take you. It's free after all!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message