Glossies May Go to East Bloc

If all goes well, the people of Poland and Hungary will soon have Good Housekeeping, Road and Track, and Elle to help them understand democracy and the American way of life. And the distribution of these and other unsold American publications in those countries is only the beginning of what may come from the collaboration between the U.S. Information Agency and a newly appointed blue-ribbon panel that reads like a who’s who of magazinedom.

The private-sector Magazine and Print Committee includes more than a dozen editors and publishers from Time Inc., Good Housekeeping, the New York Times Magazine Group, Times Mirror Magazines and Reader’s Digest.

According to a press release announcing the panel, USIA director Bruce Gelb asked the committee to “examine the agency’s overseas publications and recommend how they could be made more effective in light of dramatically changing developments around the world . . . and to work with publishers in Poland and Hungary, in support of President Bush’s Eastern European initiative to strengthen the emerging market economies of those countries.”

The committee was put together, at Gelb’s request, by Anne Sutherland Fuchs, senior vice president and publisher of Elle, who served on the USIA books and library committee when President Reagan made his initial call for private-sector involvement in government.

“The magazine industry should be at the forefront (of) embracing the burgeoning democracy movement in Eastern Europe, country by country,” Fuchs said. “We hope to be influential by encouraging its progress through the power of the printed word.”

Starting with Poland and Hungary, and possibly branching out to other countries in Eastern Europe, the committee will launch management exchanges, scholarship programs and internships. Fuchs said it will also arrange for unsold copies of American publications to be distributed in Poland and Hungary and conduct a study of the publishing industries in those countries to determine the best ways to influence foreign investment there.

In addition, the committee will examine and offer advice on the USIA’s overseas publications, which include the Russian-language America Illustrated and Problems of Communism, “a bimonthly scholarly periodical distributed in the United States and worldwide.”

No one has raised questions about the propriety of private-sector editors and publishers helping the foreign propaganda arm of the executive branch, Fuchs said, adding that she sees any potential conflict of interest as a “non-issue.” Some USIA publications already use reprints from American magazines, she pointed out.

But media critic Ben Bagdikian of UC Berkeley sees several problems with the arrangement. Contacted by phone, he wondered whether the publications involved would be able to “forget the enormous stakes that some of them have in getting a commercial advantage in what is probably the biggest untapped commercial media market in the world.”

He is also concerned that the lines separating the U.S. government from the Fourth Estate, which is supposed to report on it, not tumble along with the walls in Eastern Europe.

“Just as the law says USIA material abroad cannot be used domestically, I think U.S. news agencies ought not to be involved in government propaganda, even if it is perfectly proper propaganda,” Bagdikian said. The government has a history of attempting to get cozy with the media, he said, and in this case, “it makes them a partner in an agency that at least some of them should be monitoring and reporting on to make sure it is operated in a proper fashion.”

Fuchs merely sees the publishers’ involvement as a public-spirited effort to help advance freedom and democracy abroad. The goal of the USIA, Fuchs said, “is to support the United States and its policy and make sure the American way of life is spread” throughout the world. “The magazine industry has never been tapped as a vehicle for the USIA to spread its message about the American way of life,” she said. “It’s a first. It’s setting a precedent. I think it’s pretty exciting for the magazine industry.”

The New Yorker May Get In on the Picture

The New Yorker, that stately symbol of restrained sophistication, is still squirming about, figuring out how it will fit into the last quarter of the 20th Century. Now it may be about to succumb to yet another temptation of hoi polloi publishing: photography!

As any self-respecting New Yorker devotee knows, for most of the magazine’s 64 years, editor William Shawn turned his nose up at not only photography but also color of any sort and many types of splashy advertising.

Since taking over three years ago, Robert Gottlieb has given in to using color illustrations and even “advertorials.”

Now, as Jeannette Walls reports in her New York magazine “Intelligencer” column, The New Yorker has asked photographers to submit portfolios.

At least one tradition at the magazine remains intact, though.

“We never ever comment on anything that is not in the current issue on the stands,” New Yorker spokeswoman Rhonda Sherman said. “We simply don’t discuss future plans, even to confirm or deny them.”

And old-school New Yorker loyalists may take some comfort, however, in the knowledge that in January, the magazine will take one baby step backward. In a move that would seem to acknowledge recent environmental awareness, the magazine will replace the plastic jacket in which it now arrives in mailboxes with a biodegradable paper covering similar to the one it used before.

Another Tube Tribute for Small-Screen Fans

Tube magazine, a vacuous new tribute to the vacuum tube premieres this month, apparently making it the millionth magazine launch of the decade. Geared to fill the attention span of hard-core vidiots, the publication is, for the most part, a collection of black-and-white photos with 100-word blurbs. Two longer profiles--of Arsenio Hall and Pee-wee Herman--are set in king-size type, perhaps to counter the eye damage inflicted by round-the-clock viewing.

In his opening editorial statement, Zachary Rosenberg explains that the magazine’s calendar will highlight only “key programming,” to assist viewers “in selecting the most personally satisfying menu from the enormous variety of programming available on television today.” It says something that half the days of December remain blank.

In a highly laudable move, the magazine will contribute a share of its profits to charity. Judging from the premiere issue, though, it seems unlikely that the end of world hunger is near.

To order a subscription of Tube, call (213) 286-7840.

Editor Is 1st Woman to Lead Harvard Review

The Harvard Business Review, the respected bimonthly that stirred up feminist debate earlier this year with its “Mommy Track” article, has a woman editor. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a Harvard Business School professor, took over the top slot last Friday, replacing Theodore Levitt, a spokeswoman for the school said.

Kanter, 46, is the first woman to assume editorial responsibilities at the 67-year-old magazine, which is published as an educational program of the school.

An extremely well-paid corporate speaker, Kanter has the sort of resume every Harvard Biz student lusts after: She is the author of 10 books on business and management, has taught at Brandeis and Yale, has received a Guggenheim fellowship and 10 honorary doctoral degrees, is on all sorts of Hall of Fame and Most Important lists and sits on several boards of directors. Her expertise is in organizational change and corporate entrepreneurship.

The magazine’s 210,000 subscribers will begin to see Kanter’s editorial stamp, whatever that may be, in the March/April issue.