My guest post for Peppercom’s  Pepperdigital blog 

According to an Associated Press article that appeared in USA Today, “Made-to-order magazine lets readers choose.” Time Inc. is pilot testing a customized magazine that combines reader-selected sections from eight publications to create a new magazine compilation called mine. In an effort to mimic the personalized news feeds that has become ever so popular online, this experiment tests the extent to which people appreciate aggregated content by applying the method to Time’s magazines.

The article states, “The five-issue, 10-week experiment also aligns readers with the branding message that its sole advertising partner, Toyota Motor Corp., has for its new Lexus 2010 RX sport-utility vehicle: It’s as customizable as the magazine carrying its ads.”

As of right now, the magazine is of free subscription. The print edition is limited to the first 31,000 respondents, while an online version is available for another 200,000. If you are interested in checking it out or signing up for a free subscription, you may do so at www.timeinc.com/mine. I’ll be looking forward to receiving mine soon. 

You can pick your five favorites from eight different Time Warner/Amex publications listed for your personalized magazine. Titles include, Time, Sports Illustrated, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Money, In Style, Golf, and Travel + Leisure.  Editors will pre-select the stories that make it into each biweekly issue, and readers won’t have the option of switching their “top five” list of publications from one issue to the next.

The entire experience will have Toyota written all over it.  Even when you subscribe, you are asked a few simple and generic questions such as, “Do you crave sushi or pizza?” This sort of survey strategy allows Toyota to direct hyper-targeted messages geared towards a user’s persona. Having come up with the idea for mine, Toyota will be the single and only advertiser nabbing four full-page ads per issue.  Apparently, the cost of this program is comparable to that of one of their standard advertising campaigns. In fact,the company’s VP of marketing suggests that this campaign is more targeted and that the message of “driver inspired” and “customization” will resonate far greater with this medium.

Time Inc.’s president of advertising sales and marketing, Stephanie George, says in the article, “The mine experiment represents the latest effort by traditional media organizations to appeal to readers increasingly accustomed to picking and choosing what they read on the Internet. Online advertising, through growing, hasn’t generated enough revenue to offset declines in print; personalized print products could help fill some of the gap.”

Here is another eye-catching excerpt from the article:

“This summer, MediaNews Group, publisher of The Denver Post, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News and other newspapers, plans to experiment with its own reader-created publication, likely at its Daily News in Los Angeles. Readers will be allowed to choose specific stories, or those by author, keyword or subject. Details on that venture are expected next month.”

Now, reading all this probably has you questioning a few things. First, will these media ventures succeed? Lately, our lives have been tough enough, with newspapers shutting down and media laying-off staff.  Now what?  How will this impact our world in PR? Will we be forced to compete with the cash flow advertisers are using to sustain these publications? Gasp. 

The good news is that we’ll find out fast.  The promotion of mine kicks off this Friday and both Toyota and Time will be conducting extensive research on consumer reaction.

We’ve been hearing this for awhile now. In fact, if you read our previous post, “Silicon Valley Tech Gurus Claim What’s Hot When It’s Not So Hot,” Elisa Ackerman from The San Jose Mercury News cited non-profit and privately sponsored journalism as a growing trend over the next five years.

I also recall in the book Groundswell that authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff claimed, “RSS is the grease that lubricates the groundswell.”  They talk about how RSS feeds or, customizable content such as mine, accelerate mechanisms that drive groundswell and can very quickly signify whether the masses’ are for or against a product, company, etc.  We no longer rely on the institutions to tell us.

At the end of the day, the groundswell will decide, and it’s all just survival of the fittest. What happens if Travel & Leisure magazine doesn’t get “chosen” as much as the others? With initiatives like mine, the process of natural selection will work itself out much faster –with the assessment of publications, content, editors–and even the advertisers.

Tell me what you think.