Thoughts On The State Of Magazines
January 28th, 2009 | ideas | Matt | 7 Comments
- Has anyone seen the new (starting in January on) issues of a lot of national magazines? It blows my mind to see how small they are. Wild to see how many ads were pulled after their year contract expired. The December issue of GQ is almost twice as big as the January issue.
- I still love magazines. There’s something about the physical aspect of them that’s a refreshing change from the web. Also, to me anyway, the content seems one more step “finished” in the great writing spectrum. Which possibly looks like this Post-it Note >> Twitter >> Blog Post >> Magazine >> Book.
- What’s the problem with magazine advertising? Can they not lower the prices to lure advertisers back? Is it just a “dead medium”? Are they stubborn, stupid, or just handcuffed? I’d really like to talk to someone at a mag who could explain this to me.
- Will e-book readers, like the soon-to-be announced Kindle 2, “save” magazines? Digital essentially nullifies printing costs. And the e-book format wouldn’t entirely kill the physical/tactile thing.
- Magazines should include unique URLs at the end of each article saying something like “Continue the conversation” or “Learn more” and then include a simple web address that hosts the article or discussion for the article. Also, advertisers who have ads near the print version can continue to run ads on the article page. Would this work?
7 Responses and Counting...
Will be watching this post to see what your followers say here Matt.
I think a lot of the giant magazines aren't nimble enough. They are tied up in red tape, incredibly high overhead, and too clumsy to make life saving decisions effectively.
I'm hoping that with Lowcountry Dog if I discover something isn't working I can change for the better, and change quickly. In my case, my low overhead = low ad rates so I don't have a large number of people choosing to not advertise over price. A company in Denmark enables me to cheaply turn the same PDF I use to print the magazine into a digital version of the magazine. This added online exposure has been of huge benefit to LCD advertisers and the magazine itself. The decision to add a digital version was made and implemented in two weeks time.
With that said, I'm glad to hear that you still love the physical aspect of reading print magazines and books. I'm right there with you. I spend all day in front of a computer screen and when it comes time for leisure reading the last place I am is the computer desk.
One point: Circulation practices ultimately affect readership levels, which then affect ad $$ and magazine profitability.
Check out things like magazine.org (the Magazine Publishers of America website), and minoline.com.
Very true Jennifer – circulation practices do affect readership and trickle down to bottom line.
When times are tough are people still purchasing magazines? Yes and No.
I'm eating out less, going out to bars less, going out to events less. Staying in more, renting more movies, reading more books, reading more magazines. Eating in with friends on a pot luck, and reading a $12 book or a $4 magazine is a lot less than I used to spend on a Friday night.
Have I cut down on purchasing magazines that are just “okay?” Yes. Cut down on magazines that are fantastic and that I truly find value in? No. I just sent in renewal subscriptions to Garden and Gun and Domino, two of my favorites that closed up recently. ( Or in the case of G&G lost their parent investor). Apparently my $$$ didn't help them.
LCD is a free community resource, so my advertisers don't have to worry about a price point in a bad economy lowering readership. So we've got that going for us. Granted, there's plenty of other things that I do worry about! Wish me luck!
On the one hand, I pick up a magazine for the exclusivity of the articles inside. If I can get it online, it loses that appeal. On the other hand, it's such a pain to type URLs from one source into another. Only on rare occasions will a magazine influence my online behavior, and in those cases, it's usually the advertising that does the driving. Not the article. My take.
@Leah
You're probably right that the big mags aren't agile enough to make some of the changes needed to survive. I can image at huge publishers like Hearst or HC that it takes a lot to get anything done. I only have a little bit of insight into the magazine world because my girlfriend (@ashlebo) is the copy editor for Charleston Home + Design. We pick up your magazine every time we go to the vet, keep up the good work!
@Jennifer
I know that more readers = more ad revenue, so I guess my question is, are people reading magazines less? Or are ads getting pulled and the pinch is on that end?
@Mitch
I do read a lot online, especially stuff that's printed as well, but sometimes it's just good to have the physical copy. I can't take my computer with me everywhere, and sometimes the presentation of a magazine helps. Then again, maybe that's just me.
I think part of it is that advertisers are now especially looking for turn-key opportunities from “media” companies vs. magazine companies.
Magazine research is a funny thing. The company should have some sort of public place strategy, i.e. copies in doctor/dentist offices, paying for pockets at supermarket checkout. The more heavily trafficked areas tend to lead to higher audience numbers; however, the pass-along readership usually has lower involvement scores than subscriber copies. Advertisers have pushed for a better measurement of engagement that a reader has with a magazine. Over the past few years, Affinity Research has really made a name for itself in providing this (no, I don’t work for Affinity).
For so long, magazine media companies worked in silos; yet at one particular company, they had made a concerted effort to say to advertisers, “Think of us as a media company, not a magazine company.” But some magazines may have come to this conclusion too little, too late, if at all.
For advertisers, external pressures can be strong, from Washington, the public and the media. Pressures are attributable to public perception created by the media. External pressure creates cost pressures, which affects advertising budgets.
And let’s face it, the Internet is traditional at this point. But advertisers are following the consumer to find the right content. People continue to embrace the digital level, and are seekers of information – they’re writing things in blogs, etc. What digital media has over print is a) targetabilitiy, and b) the metrics. For print, readership is not measured on an issue-by-issue basis, and circulation information comes out too late (although some changes are being/have been instituted). The benefit, though, is that magazines are content-based, there’s a strong edit foundation. As far as magazines online, edit from magazine shouldn’t be regurgitated.
Sorry, did you want a short answer?
Think the bigger magazines just aren't niche enough to turn a profit. They are no longer quick to react and often are comprised of rehashed articles that you read earlier in the week.