-By Lucia Moses

The five rival publishing companies that are collaborating on a magazine marketing campaign plan to announce details of the campaign in March and break it in April in the pages of their magazines.
 
Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Time Inc. and Wenner Media are funding the campaign, which Mediaweek first reported in November, in the latest example of embattled publishing competitors coming together to promote the medium as a vital one.
 
The first four of those companies, along with News Corp., also are backing Next Issue Media, a newly formed digital publishing consortium. Next Issue’s goals include setting digital publishing standards and creating a digital storefront to sell magazine editions for e-readers.
 
As for the magazine promotional campaign, Young & Rubicam is handling the creative, which will take the form of magazine ads in the titles of the backing companies. The campaign will be open to other members of the Magazine Publishers of America. The effort may also have a digital component.
 
Some of the backing companies plan to announce the campaign at the 4A’s Transformation 2010 conference, set for Feb. 28-March 3 in San Francisco.
 
“The message is this: Industry leaders are joining forces to solve problems,” Jack Griffin, president of Meredith’s National Media Group, told Mediaweek. “I think it’s an opportunity to speak up at a time when the media landscape has gotten very confusing, and I think the campaign asserts the intrinsic value of the magazine medium.”
 
Griffin mentioned the campaign in passing while speaking on a panel at DeSilva + Phillips’ Media Dealmakers Summit 2010.
 
He is scheduled to share the stage at the 4A’s along with Hearst Magazines’ Cathie Black, Wenner Media’s Jann Wenner and Time Inc.’s Ann Moore, according to the conference agenda.

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