Jay McGill Senior Vice President & Publisher, SmartMoney

In October 2003, McGill was named senior vice president and publisher of SmartMoney. Previously, he was vice president and publisher of Popular Mechanics. He joined Hearst Magazines in 1979 as an advertising representative for that magazine. He has served as the publisher of Country Living, Sports Afield and Motor Boating & Sailing.

SmartMoney magazine debuted in March 1992. It is a joint venture between Dow Jones & Company and The Hearst Corporation. The magazine was founded to meet the personal financial information needs of professional Americans. It also covers technology, automotive and lifestyle subjects. Today the magazine has a paid circulation of over 800,000.

Q: How can magazines endure the digital landscape?

A: I think there's something tactile about magazines. They appeal to senses electronic media just don't appeal to. Magazines will retain their role as an entertainment and information vehicle while the Internet evolves into more of a just-in-time information vehicle.

Q: What new business opportunities are now emerging in the magazine world?

A: Just when you think that every niche has been filled, they'll find another one. What is kind of interesting is that the advancement in technology has considerably reduced the price of entry for new magazine development. Basically anyone who has a passion to crank out a magazine has the ability to see if they can find an audience with it.

The one thing that's holding magazines back now is distribution channels; reliance on the U.S. Postal Service is a big barrier to many publishers entering the marketplace, and newsstand distribution is in total shambles. It needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Q: Are there any new or unconventional distribution channels that you're looking at right now?

A: One of the things we're trying to do, and we're somewhat successful at it, is developing partnerships with certain organizations that will buy publications on behalf of many of their employees as a tool. For example, we're working with Merrill Lynch and their financial advisers to provide them with publications to help advise their clients. It's a very targeted approach to distribution.

The other thing we're looking at is distributing the magazine on a digital basis. We don't see this as replacing the publication. It is an opportunity for people who already subscribe or have already bought the magazine on the newsstand to also access information via the web with full search capability and links to advertiser web sites or our own web site for additional information.

Q: What are some of the goals for your web site?

A: One of our major initiatives we launched a year and a half ago is called "Smart Money Select," a portion of the site that's subscriber-based with several levels of opportunities. What it does is package some high-powered financial tools that the user can access to track their investments, keep track of their portfolio or acquire information on certain investments. Right now we have about 15,000 subscribers; our goal is to have about 100,000 or so by the end of next year.