TV Guide Trys to Refresh With New Publisher

TV Guide Mission: Rejuvenation

�The brand is certainly tired and certainly needs an infusion of freshness,� says Horizon Media VP/director of planning Eric Blankfein, whose agency buys print for clients such as NBC, A&E, History Channel, Game Show Network, and Fine Living. What has Blankfein most concerned is the magazine�s recent declines in circulation. Since 2000, TV Guide has cut its rate base twice. While it presently sits at 9 million, it is a far decline from the 20 million subscriptions it counted in the mid-1970�s. �We�re buying people, and we have seen less and less people there, so we are questioning if we want to use it as a vehicle,� he says.

J. Scott Crystal will fill the publisher position which has been empty for a year.

�Our mission will be to reinvigorate this flagship magazine brand,� says Crystal, who joins TV Guide from Gruner & Jahr, where he served as president/CEO of its Business Innovator Group, which included Inc. Magazine and Fast Company. Prior to that, he was the publishing director of the consumer magazine group at Ziff Davis Media. He is also the former publishing director at National Geographic.

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