A Limbaugh Vents but, No, It’s Not Rush

Marta Limbaugh says she wanted to create a magazine “that helps people find the mentor who will point them in the right direction.” One of those who warmed to her idea for Vent Magazine was her husband, Rush Limbaugh.

Vent, a quarterly whose spring premiere goes on sale next week, presents gripes and other observations previously posted by readers on the magazine’s Web site (https://www.ventmag.com), along with features unique to the print edition.

The cover story examines “Annoying People.” Other pieces include “How Uncle Sam Picks Your Pocket” (sounds like a Rush Limbaugh topic), managing emotions in the workplace, baseball-career opportunities for the nonathletic, and an interview with Ben Stein, the writer, actor and quiz-show host.

Marta Limbaugh, the former Marta Fitzgerald, became Rush Limbaugh’s third wife in a 1994 ceremony at the home of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Among their few invited guests were the odd couple of American politics, Mary Matalin and James Carville, who support the premiere of Vent by serving on a cover-story “panel” that advises on how to deal with such annoying personality types as The Critic, The Gossip and The Sponge.

Marta Limbaugh is editor in chief and publisher of Vent, which is being distributed by the Hearst Distribution Group. It’s an unusual magazine, targeting young readers (18 to 24 years old) with helpful bits and longer pieces, and is, as Rush Limbaugh might say, about 75% celebrity-free.

Rejuvenating a Men’s Mag: When it comes to men’s magazines, the talk usually turns to GQ, Esquire and Details, even though their circulations pale alongside those of Playboy (3.2 million), Field & Stream (1.75 million), Men’s Health (1.5 million) and Popular Mechanics (1.4 million).

Popular Mechanics? Indeed.

The how-to magazine for men who want to know about taming active volcanoes and installing a new kitchen sink has served readers’ fathers and grandfathers during its 96 years of publication. However, to help ensure that a younger generation also will pick up the monthly, Hearst Magazines says it will introduce a more contemporary design in the May issue, along with monthly computer and software columns, while preserving the signature home-improvement content.

A prototype of the redesign has a cover story that screams, “SPEED MODEMS! 56K,” plus “Driving the 10 Best-Selling Vehicles in America” and “Choosing the Right Glue for Any Repair.”

Publisher Jay McGill, 42, said last week that the median age of Popular Mechanics’ subscribers has dropped in recent years to 48 years old--the median of all the magazine’s readers is 42--as younger, tech-savvy men gravitate to the magazine’s growing amount of digital coverage. Meanwhile, in a mark of its traditional orientation, a line of hand tools branded with the magazine’s name and sold at Wal-Mart stores generated sales of more than $300 million last year.

“We’re never going to be the next Rolling Stone in the ad marketplace,” said McGill, whose ad revenues, rising to nearly $48 million last year, were about a third of what the rock magazine took in. But the message suggested by the redesign, and the updating of the magazine’s content, may be that today’s Popular Mechanics is no longer your father’s Popular Mechanics.

Online Muscle for Grisham: At this stage in John Grisham’s career, sales of each new legal thriller seem to come as easily and as quickly as you can say “Barnes & Noble.” Doubleday nevertheless is crediting an online marketing twist with helping to accelerate sales of Grisham’s “The Street Lawyer,” which rooted itself at No. 1 on national bestseller lists after going on sale Feb. 4.

On the first day of sale, Doubleday ran ads in national newspapers that contained half of the legal thriller’s first chapter and invited readers to receive the second half, via e-mail, by sending a request to TheStreetLawyer@JGrisham.com or by inputting their e-mail address at https://www.jgrisham.com.

An estimated 13,000 people asked for the missing second half, and that number has since grown to 36,000. Last year, Doubleday offered readers a preview of Grisham’s “The Partner” by running the beginning of the novel on America Online before the book was available in stores.