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magazine goes pssst
From inspirational lifestyle title to Nike catalogue
By Jeff Bercovici
The news, announced last month, that Nike and Hearst Custom Publishing were planning to publish a Michael Jordan magazine raised numerous questions among media watchers.
Could Michael Jordan emulate Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart in parlaying his fame into a publishing hit?
Could Jordan, as the magazine was to be called, avoid the taint of being a marketing prop and establish a legitimate editorial identity?
Would it be able to articulate its founder's worldview in a way that would resonate with the average man?
Alas, we will never see these intriguing questions answered.
Nike, it seems, is seeking answers to a very different question: Can we use this magazine to sell a lot of stuff?
Jordan, a magazine expressing "the style, spirit and strength of Michael Jordan" and addressing "the diverse interests of trend-setting young males," has been scrapped.
In its place the world will see Brand Jordan, a shoppa-logue hawking Nike products.
It appears that on the very eve of launch, Nike executives had a massive change of heart regarding the title and told Hearst to halt publication of the 116-page premiere issue. The rollout, which was to have been during last weekend's NBA All-Star festivities, has been pushed back indefinitely.
When questioned by Media Life about the sudden change, both Hearst and Nike sources seemed embarrassed. One got downright snippy.
"[Nike] just needed to do it in April based on some editorial issues and their own business decisions," said Michael Hurley, head of Hearst Custom Publishing.
Asked to provide clarification, he snapped, "I'm not going to interpret that for you."
A Nike spokeswoman reached later was able to offer a bit more insight.
"The name reflects a decision by Nike to present the magazine as a marketing tool rather than a lifestyle publication," says Nike's Theresa Tran.
"It's not a personality magazine, it's a brand magazine," says Tran, contrasting it with Hearst's O: The Oprah Magazine and Gruner + Jahr’s Rosie. "It's a magazine that embodies what the Jordan brand stands for and what the Jordan consumer follows."
That's a far cry from the promise set forth in Hearst's description of Jordan as a magazine "about enjoying the most valuable things in life, but also understanding that sometimes the most valuable things--community, respect, success--can't be bought."
Though it will still have editorial and non-Nike advertising, says Tran, "Obviously with the title change we had to make sure it’s going to be a marketing piece for the Jordan brand."
A new launch date has yet to be set, and the planned print run of 300,000 may be altered, she says.
Custom-published magazines don't usually garner much attention, but Jordan had been a notable exception, owing to the unbeatable name recognition of its namesake.
Magazine experts have for some time speculated that a superstar athlete could be the Oprah Winfrey or Rosie O’Donnell of men’s magazines.
Most of the heavy breathing has focused on the possibility of Tiger Woods starting a golf magazine with Hearst.
That's a long shot, however, as Woods not only has an exclusive contract as a columnist for Golf Digest but has a reputation for being extremely boring and uncontroversial.
Jordan presents a whole different set of problems. While Winfrey stands for self-knowledge, O’Donnell for sincerity and Stewart for waspy perfection, Jordan isn’t known for much besides his basketball prowess, his gambling and his licensing cash-ins. (It didn’t help his image that his wife filed for divorce just days before Jordan the magazine was scheduled to debut.)
February 14, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
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