Hi, I’m Ron Galotti. Many of you probably remember me from my tenure as publisher of Vanity Fair. Others of you may recall that I used to date Candace Bushnell, and am the basis for the character "Mr. Big" (super name!) in the widely-acclaimed HBO series "Sex in the City," based on Candace’s "Sex in the City" columns that ran in the "New York Observer" during the early 1930s. Still others of you have never been invited out to my place in the Hamptons. The point is, I’m here to tell you exactly why Talk is more than just, well...talk.

Talk is new. Talk is unique. Talk is a new magazine for a new decade and a new millennium. (But Talk is not for a new century–although we’re hoping to fix that glitch by our third issue.) If you are reading this, you are most likely the kind of Valued Associate who would enjoy Talk most. You have a level of sophistication that matches our own, a quick and agile wit that is slightly inferior to ours, and an acute sense of style about half the level of our sense of style.

Forget what you may heard, or have read, or have lied about reading, or faked hearing: Talk is about commitment. And not just commitment to four pages of ads in each of the first four issues.

What kind of commitment is required to make Talk everything I know it can be, should be? Can I promise my friends in the media-buying community that Talk is a commitment worth making? Wouldn’t it be more fun to make movies, and hang out with movie stars, instead of publishing a magazine? Perhaps. But we at Talk are committed to success. Over the past six months I’ve personally put together a one-of-a-kind publishing dream team-cum-death squad that will ensure that the magazine’s goals are met. No expense has been spared to equip this elite group of salesmen and saleswomen with the tools needed to get the job done, at all costs. Iridium "sat" phones, Prada shoes, reconstructive dental work, Tae-Bo and pilates classes. You name it, they’ve got it. All to better serve you. As further incentive, I have instituted an in-house sales and circulation contest, in which my team will compete for prizes the likes of which small children in foreign countries spend a lifetime hoping for. (One difference: they’ll never get ‘em!) Think the Talk team isn’t trying? Think again.

1999 Talk Sales and Circulation Contest Prizes:

1st prize: Lunch with the next senator from the great state of New York, Hillary Clinton

2nd prize: A piece of the irrepresible Roberto Benigni’s back hair

3rd prize: Your very own Miramax publicist for a day!

4th prize: You’re fired!

Yours,

Ron