Meredith's Better Homes and Gardens "posted a 71.5 percent jump in single copy sales" in the second half of 2007, making it a rare success story in an industry struggling with newsstand sales across the board. Their secret: selling overrun copies of the mag at "steep discounts" at the dollar store. They had to end that deal when "Wal-Mart threatened to turn the publisher's titles away from its newsstands." Yes, the publishing industry has less clout than the people who manufacture budget toilet paper. [Folio]

The ouster of the New Yorker from Wal-Mart's shelves is an honor of sorts. Although the the Conde Nast title sells more copies in California than in New York, and has a surprisingly wide reach, its readers aren't the kind to shop at the mass-market retailer. Better Homes and Gardens, another magazine cast out, is appropriately mainstream for Wal-Mart, which makes the Meredith property a more surprising reject. The banishment couldn't have had anything to do with Meredith's over-aggressive sales efforts, could it? [Keith Kelly]