As America’s rapid response armed service, the US Marine Corps early saw the advantages of adding air power to its traditional amphibious capabilities. Marine Corps aircraft, flown by legendary figures such as Medal of Honor recipient “Pappy” Boyington and his Black Sheep Squadron, helped win pivotal victories in World War II, Korean, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The May-June issue of Semper Fi, the magazine of the Marine Corps League, which we publish for the League, looks at what’s ahead for Marine aviation. With its long-awaited new bird, the tilt-rotor Osprey, racking up impressive service in Iraq and now Afghanistan, the Corps must aggressively update its other rotary wing aircraft, as well as acquire a new generation of fighters.
The article explains the urgency behind these replacement programs and what the Corps expects from birds that Pappy and his boys would’ve given their eyeteeth to command.

Our client the Marine Corps League held its annual Marine South Military Expo aboard Camp Lejeune, NC, on 21-22 April. The event afforded more than 200 military vendors and hundreds of Marines a chance to hold frank, face-to-face discussions about equipment.
The opening ceremonies included a brief address from Major General Carl B. Jensen,
Commanding General, Marine Corps Installations East. He drew an appreciative chuckle from the assembled vendors, Marines and Marine Corps League members when he bluntly described the equipment on display as “slicker than deer guts on a door knob.”

Like Mark Twain, reports of the death of print continue to be exaggerated, though, like the Black Knight in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” print has suffered considerably more than a flesh wound.
But the recently launched “Magazines, The Power of Print” campaign underwritten by leaders of five major magazine companies—Charles H. Townsend, Condé Nast; Cathie Black, Hearst Magazines; Jack Griffin, Meredith Corporation; Ann Moore, Time Inc.; and Jann Wenner, Wenner Media—is betting $90 million worth of ad space on assuring advertisers (and readers) that magazines remain a vital — a necessary — medium.
To those who scoff, we can point to Dr. Samir Husni, aka “Mr. Magazine,” who recently reported there were 170 magazine launches in 1Q 2010 — the same number as 1Q 2009 and more than in either 2007 or 2008.
“Call it what you want,” writes Dr. Husni, “but yet again the innovative media companies and entrepreneurs have shown a resiliency against all odds, and for that matter against the prophets of doom and gloom.

A new study released today found that interactive digital magazines outperform traditional Web sites when it comes to engagement, according to BtoB.
Eighty-two percent of respondents said they were more engaged with their digital magazine than with Web sites covering the same topic. Seventy percent of survey respondents said they were more likely to ignore Web site banner ads than ads in their digital magazine.
The survey polled readers of eight interactive digital magazines that “are taking advantage of the interactivity offered by the Web and supplying readers with video, slide shows and Flash animation,” study author Josh Gordon told BtoB.
Speaking of engagement, Junta42 founder Joe Pulizzi posted a free whitepaper on the topic at his blog. It’s called “Engagement: Understanding It, Achieving It, Measuring It.” You can get it for free, no strings attached, and it includes great insight on something we’re passionate about here at Hammock.

I’ve been a fan of the Good organization since it launched in 2006. It continues to post content that I want to see, read and experience.

Digital marketing is all the rage right now, but recent statistics show that you shouldn’t count print out when planning your marketing strategy, according to the Junta42 Content Marketing blog. Statistics from APA (the UK’s association of branded editorial content) reveal the following:
•The average time a reader spends with a custom print magazine is 45 minutes.
•Custom print magazines get an average 44 percent response rate and an 8 percent increase in sales annually.
•And most surprising of all, men and women between 18–24 who receive custom magazines from a corporation are the most engaged age group.
One company that’s doing this is Fortune magazine, which has a content marketing strategy for its Web site and social networks, but is also investing heavily in its print magazine. The magazine, in addition to adding more useful news for readers about careers and entrepreneurship—and extending those conversations online—is also switching to higher quality paper and making significant design and font changes. The reason for the redesign? To make the aesthetic experience of flipping through a print magazine more rewarding for readers.

The jury is still out on how the iPad and other tablets will impact what has been a struggling magazine industry the last few years, but Wired editor Chris Anderson has a positive outlook on the potential of the tablet to change the industry. Why is Anderson so confident in the opportunities tablets will create for magazines and content marketers? He shared the following insights at the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ Transformation Conference in San Francisco last week:

“Uncommon valor was a common virtue.” — Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN, 16 March 1945.
Guadalcanal. Bougainville. New Britain. Saipan. Tarawa. Peleliu. Guam. Tinian. Iwo Jima. Of all the names steeped in blood and honor during Marine campaigns of World War II, Iwo Jima has always resonated most deeply in the American imagination. The March-April issue of Semper Fi magazine, which we publish for the Marine Corps League, commemorates the American capture of that desolate little volcanic island.
But neither casualty statistics nor the strategic importance of its airfields explains why Iwo Jima emerged as an icon. It’s the photograph … THE photograph. Joe Rosenthal’s image of four Marines and one Navy Corpsman raising the second American flag atop Mt. Suribachi flashed around the world days after the event.

Ever wonder how all the puzzle pieces come together to create a bimonthly publication? Take a peek into the process for American Spirit, a history- and preservation-focused magazine Hammock publishes for the Daughters of the American Revolution. The upcoming May/June issue is a special one, as it will be distributed to all DAR members to commemorate the three-year term of President General Linda Gist Calvin. No two cycles of the magazine are the same, but here are roughly the steps the editors and designers take from initial story ideas to the magazine landing on the coffee table:

The illustration of a fashionable woman with a sky-high wig gracing the March/April issue of American Spirit, the magazine we publish for the Daughters of the American Revolution, is for a story on 18th-century hairstyles. It’s a relief to learn that an obsession with how our hair looks is far from a modern phenomenon. Our early American forefathers spent time and money on their hairstyles — whether importing wigs from Europe or forming their own distinctly American looks. In our cover feature on “Revolutionary Hair,” readers learn more about big wigs, men in pigtails and the origin of the term powder rooms.