Back in March, while having coffee with two good friends of mine, Alina Fekete and Violeta-Loredana Pascal, I first mentioned my idea of creating an online magazine for women that would be so much better than any other glossy magazine available on the Romanian market, pretending to know what women want and need. A magazine that would speak of career choices, successful women, real world relationships. A magazine for and with real women, the women beyond makeup and stereotypes.

Luckily, the jumped on board right then and there, and we started working on bringing our baby to life. It took us quite a while, the hardest part being to decide on a name. After a few failed tries, Alina Fekete who’s a designer suggested Cenuşă de trandafir, rose ashes. It’s the name of a colour, also called dusty pink. We loved the idea. Simply because complicated color names say women, but mostly because we loved the metaphor: purging through fire all the misconceptions, stereotypes and fake images on women. And then enjoying the real substance that’s left.

Cenuşă de trandafir was oficially launched last Tuesday. Mostly on Twitter and through word of mouth, from us to our friends, to their friends, to their friends. Based on the traffic, the number of comments, the retweets and the private messages, I’d say it was quite a success! And given the right amount of passion and hard work, plus some luck, it’s bound to keep growing.

Unfortunately, only my Romanian readers will be able to enjoy this new magazine. But since it means so much to me, I wanted to share the news with all of you! Good news are meant to be shared, hoping they’ll put a smile on the faces of those you care about

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If you follow me on Twitter, you know I’ve not completely disappeared. But if we only connect through this blog, well, I might have led you to believe I’ve deserted and am hiding away . So I thought it was high time for a quick update on what yours truly has been doing lately.

• Working, of course. Both with my existing clients on some amazingly cool projects and with new ones I’ll tell you more in a short bit. It’s been fun and challenging, but is also took a lot of my time, including weekends The situation won’t change, but I’m learning to better adapt to it.
• Reading and listening to music – these have been my favorite ways of relaxing. I’ve finished the first three books of the Twilight series (the fourth will only be published in Romania this autumn, so I’m getting it from Amazon). As for music, I finally reconnected with my old habit of listening to music while working. I draw a lot of inspiration from it.
• Looking into buying a house. Actually, rent it first, then buy it, as this is not the best moment ever to get a loan. So, thank God for smart companies, they’ve invented this Rent-2-Buy program, where you pay rent for a couple of years and after that, when you buy the house, all your rent is deducted from the price. So it appears I’ll soon have my own little house, with a little garden, a terrace and a huge kitchen
• Writing! I can’t really explain when exactly I’m doing this, but I’ve started writing a novel. It’s been a while since I last considered writing fiction again! But it’s a great opportunity to use my English vocabulary for something more than business writing. I can tell you it will be a vampire story. Simply because after dozens of books, movies and TV series, I still fee I haven’t been told the story I always wanted to hear. So I’m writing it

I’ve missed being here, reading blogs and connecting with you all! But I bet my break from my online home is over! See you around

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Now that you know that the Mirror Communications PR and Marketing Agency is up and running, I’d like to share another piece of news today. I’ve also launched the Articles and eBooks section with a first piece on events and the myth of the almighty booth.

This section will cover PR and Marketing topics, but not in the usual format of this blog. There will be longer articles and ebooks that will each debate a topic and present it more thoroughly. This first article is intended to show how getting a booth at a trade show is not always the best alternative, especially for the business to business segment and for products with a medium to long purchase cycle.

Hope you like this new section and that you find it usefull in planning yoru PR strategy and in getting more business.

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2008 has been an interesting, challenging and far from boring year for me and those close to me. And not that 2009 is right around the corner, I’d like to share some of the amazing things that have happened and what’s to come in the next year.

I’ve been dropping hints here and there about a big something I was planning to tell you about and it’s finally time to tell you what I am really talking about. Some of you already know it, some of you have picked up the track on LinkedIn, but I’m making it official now. Drums please! Continue reading

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This is the kind of news that makes all those predicting the end of print media go “Aha!”. Starting February 2009, we’ll have to say goodbye to the print version of PC Magazine. It will be changed into a digital format, with similar subscription options. I’m looking forward to see how advertising options will change, but even more curious to see how many of they readers switch from paper to downloadable format.

How did they announce it? Well, it’s all posted on their site, the CEO emailed their contacts and, just in case that email was lost among others, account managers also contacted their clients. From what my contact shared with me, before this move, a large part from the magazine’s income was generated by their digital branch. This leads me to believe the complete switch was a pretty smart move.

What do you think? Any predictions you’d like to share? Will other magazines follow the same pattern? Is this easier for a tech magazine? I’d love to read your thoughts.

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