FRMAG FALL2007

Thanks to you all for contributing to our greener mag and for helping us get positive message out there in the most stylish manner.

Check out your articles on FRMAG!!!! We'll be publishing our mag twice a year and the rest of the time we'll be creating similar spaces for clients who are interested in taking this further. We're really proud of what we've put forward as a starting point, it's only going to get better. Use these links below to send your articles out if you'd like.


FRMAG FALL07 a greener mag

Homemade Spots by FirstRide
A choice selection of video
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=6

Arthur Nights
Four Night LA Music Experience by Arthur Mag
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=9


Daptones: Sharon Jones & The Budos Band
Interviews, articles and photos. by Richard Segan, Lord Lewis and Randy
Tunnell
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=7


FEATURED: The Budos Band II
Watch out for the sting! New Budos Album out now.
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=0

Mahogany
Our favorite Brooklyn shoegaze sensation - by Will Swofford
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=13

Charlotte & Jill
What would we be without these tales from the street?
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=15

Scrapile
Long-time greenies, Bart and Carlos of Scrapile
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=19

Cover Feature: Kanae Maeda
Todd Stewart proofiles Kanae Maeda for Zona Biophilia, Costa Rica
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=22

Condor Rodeo
Condor protection in the Big Sur - By Randy Tunnell
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=30

Todd Sigaty - Village Focus International
Daniella Caplan interviews...
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Williamsburg Brooklyn
Our daily stroll through the neighborhood
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=40

Tokyo
On a trip with Asha Babat
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=46

Cape Town
My first trip to Cape Town by Jarrett Mason
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=50

Mali
Hauntingly beautiful photos and stories from Mali
by Lindy Cohen and Julia Raphaely
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=54

Spain
A day trip up the southern coast from Cadiz to Marbella
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=60

Deviwo Projects / Edward Chao
Sam Bathrick gives us an inside look into his Ghana project
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=66

Venice Beach
I could hang out here all day
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=74

SUBSYNC by PMURPHY.ORG
The world of illustrator Patrick Murphy
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=80

Douglas Rushkoff
What are you doing now?
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=81

FEATURED: jetBlue Airways
A tribute to a role model
http://www.frmag.com/index.php?issue=fall07&pg=21



About www.FRMAG.com

FRMAG lives on our interactive magazine platform, inspired by
the feeling of getting lost inside a great magazine...

We call it Greener Mags, designed to bring pages to
life online and communicate with readers in an intelligent way -
aiming higher instead of settling for the mundane.

And saving a tree or two in the process ;)

Thanks for being a part of a FirstRide Green Initiative.


--
--
Grant Lyons
Founder
www.FirstRide.com
Do good. Do well.

FRMAG - SEPT 2007

FRMAG lives on our unique, interactive magazine platform, inspired by the feeling of getting lost inside a great magazine...and saving trees. We call it the Greener Mag platform, designed to bring readers, publishers and advertisers together on the most intuitive, magazine-inspired interactive space out there.

FRMAG

This is just the beginning. We're making improvements to it all the time and are enjoying sharing and developing it further with creative, forward-thinking people and companies who want to do good. Our magazine celebrates that spirit, featuring stories, video, music and photos from like-minded independent contributors.

Thanks for supporting FirstRide Green Initiatives.
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FRMAG - A Greener Mag Platform is Born

FRMAG is inspired by getting lost inside a great magazine. And saving trees. We call it the GreenerMags platform, designed to bring pages to life online and communicate with readers in an intelligent way - aiming higher instead of settling for the mundane. And saving trees;)

There will be changes all the time as we continue to make the experience better. Now if I could just use the force, everyone will love the mag... Love the mag...Love the mag...

Thanks for being a part of a FirstRide Green Initiative.
g

FRMAG

Success on a Road Less Taken

Car Insurance Aimed
At Young, Urban Drivers
Is Engelhardt's Niche
By IAN MCDONALD
September 10, 2007; Wall Street Journal

Henry Engelhardt's speech pattern -- part Chicago, part Cardiff, Wales -- is as distinctive as his approach to car insurance.

Mr. Engelhardt, an American who attended business school in France and has long worked outside the U.S., is chief executive of Admiral Group PLC. He co-founded the Cardiff-based car insurer, which sells coverage over the phone and the Internet, in 1993.
[Theory and Practice]

Mr. Engelhardt borrows ideas from consumer marketers selling cosmetics or shampoo -- targeting specific customers with a fleet of brands. Entering a crowded, competitive market dominated by brokers, Admiral focused on selling directly to customers others shunned: young, urban drivers. Now, Admiral has brands focused on women, commercial vehicles, low-claims drivers and online buyers.

The company employs a different financial strategy from most peers, passing off much of its policies' risks to deep-pocketed reinsurers. This allows Admiral to sell ample numbers of policies without keeping heaps of money in the bank to back them up.

For the first half, Admiral reported profit rose 25%, to £60.2 million ($122.1 million). Revenue after reinsurance costs totaled about £178 million. The company's shares, about 15% of which are owned by Mr. Engelhardt, are up more than 24% over the past 12 months.

How did this executive who stays up late to watch the Chicago Cubs on television carve out a lucrative niche in a mature business? Excerpts of an interview with him follow:

WSJ: What was your initial impression of the United Kingdom car-insurance business?

Mr. Engelhardt: At first I thought, "Car insurance? How boring." Then I found out the U.K. insurance market is fascinating and one where counterintuitive thinking pays off. Customers are generally very rational and willing to consider new ideas, but many companies stick with the status quo.

In the U.K., 70% of consumers shop for motor insurance every year. That figure is 20% or less in the U.S. and most other big insurance markets. That creates a big opportunity for someone who is willing to take a fresh look at the business.

WSJ: What have you done differently?

Mr. Engelhardt: There have been a lot of basic things we've done that were totally new in the U.K. One was a free phone line. There were other little things, like comment forms. We asked customers what they thought. All of that seemed pretty standard to us, but it wasn't happening in U.K. motor insurance.

WSJ: How did you start picking market niches?

Mr. Engelhardt: When we started in 1993, the other phone-based companies had gone for the good-driver market. We knew we couldn't compete there. We had to go where they weren't, and that was younger drivers. Brokers were getting about 15% in commissions. So, a premium of £1,000 a year meant paying £150 to the broker. We saw that if we could select good risks among those customers without paying brokers, we could have a big cost advantage.

WSJ: That led to other targeted brands?

Mr. Engelhardt: Yes, and that targeting started because we weren't car-insurance people. We started out with Admiral for younger people in 1993. We added Diamond in 1997, focusing on women, who really responded to that. And we launched Elephant.co.uk in 2000 for people who wanted to use the Internet.

If you said to the people at L'Oréal or Procter & Gamble that we do multibranding, they'd yawn. Look at shampoos in [U.K. pharmacy chain] Boots and you'll see yards of different types. But look at the back and they're all from P&G and Unilever.

WSJ: Every car insurer has decades of accident data. How can you get an edge at underwriting?

Mr. Engelhardt: We ask about 30 questions, compared with about 22 or 23 for our competitors. That might not sound like much, but it actually makes a huge difference. You need that extra information if you want to be better at risk selection. Some of these extra questions have to do with second drivers, for instance. We might sort second drivers by gender, occupation and years they've held a license.

WSJ: You're expanding in Europe. How is that going?

Mr. Engelhardt: Our business [in Spain] started last year and is a telephone and Internet business. We have more than 16,000 customers now. Germany is a work in progress. We hope to launch late this year or early next year. It will be Italy next, in 2008 sometime.

WSJ: How do you choose your markets?

Mr. Engelhardt: Our international expansion is based on a simple premise: The Internet is an unstoppable force. The 21-year-old in [Peoria, Ill.,] and the 21-year-old in Bonn are both using the Internet for virtually everything. We know a lot about it and we know how to do it.

WSJ: Do you think you'll be in the U.S. in five years?

Mr. Engelhardt: I hope so, yes. In 2009 we are looking at opening in France or the U.S. The upside of the U.S. market is that it's huge. The downside is that it's 50 different markets [due to state-by-state regulation]. But it does give us the opportunity to pick and choose among states if we like.

Write to Ian McDonald at ian.mcdonald@wsj.com