Hasta La Ideas

Time’s latest cover is powerful. Never has the phrase “The more things change, the more they stay the same” been more relevant.

To coincide with Life Ball, an annual AIDS charity event in Vienna, Saatchi & Saatchi Switzerland partnered with a progressive men’s magazine headquartered in that city for a most unusual cover. From the Saatchi brief:

The front cover of 3,000 copies of Vangardist’s Spring issue are printed with ink infused with HIV+ blood donated by three individuals living with the HIV virus.

The magazine has been produced according to the most stringent controls and using processes developed according to guidelines established by Harvard and Innsbruck universities, ensuring that the handling of a physical copy of the magazines carries no risk of infection, and is 100% safe; the debate and discussion around the magazine and the issue it highlights has already been significant.

Each designated copy of the German and English-language publication is wrapped in plastic and includes a note that reads: ‘Break the seal and help break the stigma.’ Commented Vangardist publisher and CEO Julian Wiehl: “With 80% more confirmed cases of HIV being recorded in 2013 than ten years previously, and an estimated 50% of HIV cases being detected late due to lack of testing caused by social stigma associated with the virus, this felt like a very relevant issue for us to focus on not just editorially but also from a broader communications stand point.”

The issue arrive at newsstands May 4. Vangardist has also created a Facebook page, HIV Heroes, and together with the hashtag #HIVHeroes, is hoping to foster renewed online support and discussion. Vangardist originally launched in 2009 as a digital-only publication. The 2015 edition of Life Ball, Europe’s largest AIDS charity event, will take place May 16.
 
[H/T: New York Daily News]

You may remember JSTOR from your college days, that store of scholarly articles you drew on for your end-of-term research papers. But then you left school, and swapped out the world of scholarly research for more recent, faster news. Staying up on current events took precedence over deepening your knowledge of the historical and analytical research that explains those events.

Last fall, JSTOR introduced JSTOR Daily, a digital publication that bridges those worlds. As editor Catherine Halley explained: “We are looking at current news stories and giving you the scholarly backstory.” One of those areas for which JSTOR Daily is actively seeking pitches is for its “Long Reads” section.

These stories are published once a week on Wednesdays and run from 1,800 to 2,000 words. Ideally, the feature will have a hook that’s tied to a newsworthy event or an upcoming anniversary. Halley advises that you think of these as a new way to explore a current topic. “It’s slow news,” she says, adding that features should identify patterns between current events and scholarly work, provide the backstory for new studies, and keep a conversational, approachable tone. The idea is to reference journals, not to sound like them.

For more, including how to structure your pitch emails, read: How To Pitch: JSTOR Daily

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