Online Space of Alvin Jimenez
Publishing
Another Men’s Health Magazine Belly Off Club post
Apr 20th
To offset the waste of bandwith I caused with my last post, I decided to share a scan of the following page in the May issue of Men’s Health US.
The Belly Off Club page of Men’s Health US’ Malegrams section is probably one of the most inspiring pages in the magazine. Just by looking at the vital statistics on this guy and the before and after pictures, I just realized that if you really want it bad and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices, you can start feeling good about yourself.
Is Inquirer.net closing?
Jan 26th
If you’re a Filipino and have spent s lot of time abroad (or has more or less made the choice to not watch TV anymore), you probably pay Inquirer.net a visit more than once or twice per day. I’m talking about the most visited Filipino-run news site in the world here fellas. That’s how popular this site is.
But for rumors of the site to halt operations permanently? If there is some truth to this particular news item, I’m sure it’s going to be a huge blow to not only the manpower they currently have, but more importantly and on a wider perspective, makes you ask if there’s currently a viable online content business that will survive these hard times in the Philippines.
Here’s a link to the article Inquirer gobbles its future.
As things are shaping up within the Prieto-Rufino media empire, not only would the dinosaur Inquirer save the money-losing Web operations, the Inquirer.net as a corporate entity would be collapsed and be folded into the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which, despite the similar names, has a different shareholding structure altogether.
If anything, IÂ think operating independently from the country’s most widely read newspaper was not a good decision. Why? Because the newspaper and website are catering to two entirely different markets. The print version caters to the ordinary Juan who rides the bus or MRT on his way to work. Inquirer.net on the other hand, is targeted towards people abroad (or people like me who don’t need to read about their daily news on paper).
It wouldn’t matter if both mediums contained the same content, don’t you think? What a price to pay for “creative space to innovate”.
A little perspective
Jan 12th
If you’re one of the few who keep on returning to this blog for updates and can’t find any it’s because I’ve been trying to put together another blog for the past two months (to my friends who I’ve flaked on in the past few, now you know what I was doing). When I started Justanothergame, I had planned on making this an online resource for everything I learned in the print industry.
After having spent almost two years in the field of Internet marketing, I realized one thing — even if print and online are two entirely different worlds, there’s not much difference between the two. I guess you could say that little button on the right leading to my other blog will be an ongoing project to see if print and online can coexist. While I will still continue to blog on Justanothergame, this blog will focus more on my learnings as an Internet marketer.
I’m not good at online launches, but please pay a visit Printrospective. Here’s an open call for some link love!
Thank you GamesMaster Magazine
Apr 16th
Five months after my first post about GamesMaster, and I’m finally done with my story. Everyone who was able to read (love it or hate it) a copy of the mag should be thankful to the following people for making it possible. 
- Lisa Gokongwei and Aurora Mangubat, for deciding to bring in a videogame magazine
- Denis del Callar and Neil Palabrica, for giving me the chance to make my own decisions.
- Ed Geronia, Jaykee Evangelista, and the rest of the GM staff. Next to the FHM people, I think we had the most fun at the office
- The Summit Advertising Team. Special mention to Cha Clarino and Ginger Taduran (O wag na masama loob) for literally hitting our monthly quotas by themselves.
- The Production, Circulation, Trade, Web, and Events teams, for making GamesMaster’s presence felt in the three years that it was on the newsstands.
- Of course, my fellow Associate Publishers, for sitting through the long video presentations
If I forgot anyone, again, I’d like to thank you. So this doesn’t end like a goodbye blog post, time to move on…. 
To everyone who bought an issue, two issues, all issues — my sincerest thanks.
*For our June 2005 issue, we decided to give away a PSP to anyone who can give us the best picture showing how much he loves GamesMaster. Apparently, the winner was a she
*The GamesMaster forums are still active! Just visit Gamebayan.com.ph
If you haven’t read my blog posts about GamesMaster, just click on the following links:
The Truth About GamesMaster: Last Part
Apr 16th
I was just reading the news on IGN earlier today when I saw an item on World of Warcraft — 10 million subscribers worldwide. To put things in perspective, that’s roughly one-tenth of what the Philippines’ population will be in 2030.
“It’s very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we’re looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead.”
There have also been numerous claims about bringing over the game to the country. From LUG and Egames, to AMDG, the none of those rumors ever came into fruition. The license may have just proven to be too expensive not just for the aforementioned companies, but for gamers as well.
It put things into even clearer perspective for me, as to why GamesMaster Magazine had to be let go of, even if I felt that it was the right time to have a local videogame mag.
How important is Magazine Cover Identity?
Apr 10th
You look at the magazine stand and this mess is what you see. Hundreds of cover lines. So many different covers. Each title only has a few seconds to catch your attention.
Ensuring customer loyalty is an integral part of any magazine’s overall strategy. You have to make sure that you evolve just enough, so your readers are able to experience something new after a year or so. How do you reel in all those first time purchasers?
You put half of Priscilla Merielles’ face — er, you get their attention with the cover.
All editors and publishers will tell you that the cover is their greatest sales pitch of all.
Some general rules when it comes to making a magazine stand out at the newsstands:
- All main cover lines must be visible from 6 feet away.
- Put the most important piece of information on the upper left side of the cover. You know how magazines are stacked over one another because of the limited space — well this is done to address that concern.
- Don’t effin’ cover your masthead, no matter how good your cover image is. This is pretty basic stuff when it comes to branding.
- The most important story for the month is usually placed at the upper left side of the page. Believe it or not, some people still buy magazines for the articles.
What happens when you change so many elements on your cover in such a short period of time?
My Review of Playboy Philippines Issue #1
Apr 5th
I was finally able to browse a copy of Playboy Philippines last night, as one of my former officemates had one. Here’s my personal take.
*Please note that I only skimmed through the issue and did not read any of the articles.
You know a Magazine Publishing Company is churning out BS when…
Apr 3rd
You go to two separate pages on their site…
and see two different pieces of BS information
Just click on the images to enlarge. Pfft.
Who is Vartuk Aruelles?
Mar 16th
In my first post about Playboy Philippines, I mentioned that someone had created a Blogspot account for the magazine. At the bottom of the page, was a name — Vartuk Aruelles. I then decided to browse the Internet for even more information.
Surprisingly, two more sites came up — Heineken Philippines, and another site bearing Vartuk’s name. Both are also Blogspot accounts! This is what I found on the second site.
Playboy Philippines’ First Cover Girl?
Jan 21st
I know, I know, this is my third consecutive post regarding Playboy Philippines. It wasn’t really a choice. News just keeps on coming in, and I’m sure no one’s complaining.
In my previous post, I mentioned that Playboy should follow the route of C! and Manifesto, and have the title distributed by Mega Publishing. Apparently, C! publishing is bringing in Playboy! What this bodes for Manifesto, no one knows for sure, but there is a definite overlap in terms of target market.
On to the juicier stuff. Do you want to know who the first cover of Playboy Philippines will be?