Are Weekly Magazines to Go Down Next?
May 6, 2010 72 Comments
It was first the Newspaper, and now magazines going down too?
Nearly 50 years after first acquiring the weekly news magazine, The Washington Post Company is exploring the possible sale of Newsweek that purchased backin1961. The company has retained Allen & Company to help find potential buyers for the publication, which has seen mounting red ink over the past three years.
Jon Meacham, the Newsweek editor discussed the future of Newsweek on The Daily show last night.
“The good news today is we did not close today, we went up for sale,” Jon Meacham told Jon Stewart.
There was a dark edge to Meacham’s humor, but he seemed realistic about the challenges facing his magazine.
Meacham echoed his earlier comparison of Newsweek to a catcher in the rye, preventing the American people from tumbling over the precipice into ignorance. “I don’t think there are many on the edge of that cliff,” he said.
Watch the full episode of The Daily show with Jon Meacham as the guest. You may have to fast forward the video to get to the interview part with Jon Meacham.
Listen the part when Meacham tells Stewart that the Economist has the right model. I didn’t quite catch his rational. Did you?
Here are some memorable coverage of the magazine:
About Elias Shams
Elias Shams
Kamran Abdi
Tatiana Sorabi
My personal experience was just the opposite. I was an editor with The World & I magazine from 1992 until the magazine was downsized 80% in April 2004. Then I was a special assistant at The Washington Times. Now I’m part of the 40% downsizing there!
Sorry to hear that. Did you watch the video in the article where Meacham tells Stewart the Economist has the right model. I didn’t quite catch his rational. Did you?
Don’t many magazines already have an online mirror? Printing and distribution is expensive. Does the combination of web and print get more advertising out there or is it the same people?
I love magazines. I get about six subscriptions and occasionally buy a single copy, half of which I got with frequent flyer miles (more like infrequent). But advertisers need eyes. (two of the magazines I get are ad-free.)
I like Senator Cardin’s proposal to create a 501c category for those newspapers who want to go not-for-profit. They couldn’t endorse candidates, but they’d be freed to investigate the industries that currently sponsor them (developer, automobile). Then maybe we could put public money where it’s needed: Jobs, Clean Water & Air, Education.
No, I don’t think so. Newspapers died because the news was old by the time they were off the presses. With the internet, 24 hour cable news, and blogging journalists, there is access to minute by minute updates of breaking news and constant updates for those who like that kind of thing. Newspapers were/are too slow. And advertisers know that once the paper is read, it goes straight to the
recycling bin. I still read the NY Times–online– for local NY news since I am now out west and no one cares about what’s going on in Flatbush here in CA. Magazines, on the other hand, are perfect for restructuring into digital formats. Not just the turn the corner flip book types, commonly used for catalogs, but the real interactive design that will engage a reader to go further. Now that advertisers have smelled the coffee and realize you can sell a car by literally seeing it at 360 degrees, inside and out, how the doors open, highlight features and link to “a dealer near you”, they will be demanding more of this media from their ad agencies–staffed with high quality designers and super-IT back-up to make sure it all flows from the back end. Magazines won’t need to report the news–they will be able to examine the news they receive in daily sound-bytes, give relevant commentary, delve into trends with feature stories newspapers can no longer afford to carry– and oh!–they will have the time to fact check for accuracy. News , fashion, general interest publications, all can take something that happened during the week or month and give real insight to a story. The big picture. Newspapers have been running on empty (no revenue) for so long, many of them have skeleton staffs and run stories from Reuters and the other wire services. Very few have been able to afford sending journalists on location where they can interview people on the scene. They skype or interview via phone. Local news has been more closely related to the vanilla reporting in USA Today or the tabloid prototype of questionable credibility, so well executed, no one cares if the stories are true or not. It’s time to break the paradigm and turn around our thinking about magazines in a completely different way. We need to learn from the failures of the newspapers and switch gears NOW. Most of all, magazines don’t need to maintain a linear format–breaking that mold will be much easier without that restriction. If all of this is done correctly, we may even be able to save some of the newspapers too. And resurrect the Sunday funnies as well!
Long answer to a short question, but this is something I have been thinking about for a very long time. So, no. Magazines are not going down–they are heading up and perhaps a few newspapers can hitch a ride on their coattails.
on the contrary. eBooks / eNwspapers and eMags are a total different market.
Verticals will grow more and more and allow interactivity, so i think the magazines market will grow fast and move into the portable website market
but in India,. it’;s a different story. Too many similar magazines have fought for the same mind space and lost readership as a genre. While newspapers seem to be a thriving tribe!
Poor internet penetration in India has kept newspaper sales buoyant.
Mark: The question was will magazines go down. and I said no. They may not take on the model I’ve suggested, but yes, they will grow and probably revive newspapers in some alternative format as well. Portable websites are a really a viable option. Sounds like we agree in theory but at this point, things are moving so quickly, it is difficult to determine the final outcome of what will be the consumers’ favorite. eBooks are, indeed a totally different market.The printed book industry will survive through specialty items like coffee table books–I guess people continue to have coffee tables (?) First, the demise of the local mom-pop bookseller. Then, the rise of the giant brick and mortar mega-stores serving coffee–there just isn’t any way a retail operation of that size can earn enough money per sq.foot to justify the costs of paper, printing, distribution and promotion, not to mention baristas. So, while some folks will cling to the model of getting comfy in bed with a “real book” the industry just can’t sustain itself anymore..Where I live, people meet at one of the giant bookstores, browsing the aisles while waiting for the movie to start at the local 21-theater super-plex. But they don’t leave with a book…
>Sathya, you have addressed a problem that we have had in the US as well. Part of the redundancy on the magazine newsstand, left lots of publishers having to delete publication that were too similar to one another (just look at the battle of the food category at Condé Nast. It became the survival of the fittest and the best mags often didn’t survive–only the most profitable ones.This weeding out process probably wasn’t done soon enough–might have kept some of the better products alive longer. But the internet readership will continue to grow in India too, as consumers gain better access. Until then, newspaper sales will remain strong, as Prashant pointed out.
Yes more people will be drawn to online magazines etc….but just because you build them it does not mean they will come. Print Magazines/Journals will continue to be relevant to consumers. I work on two business to business publications, interestingly clients are eager to put their advertising dollars into online initiatives (because that is what everyone is talking about! The way to go!) But when I speak to members from the trade, there are many who like print and want to continue to receive print. It all comes down they said on value! Content – commentary, information is a product. What do people desire to know and read. Yes the internet is a great tool, many have said, but it requires people to actively make time to search for this information, up loading the computers etc. They enjoy the ease of picking up a magazine, carry it around and passing it around to their staff. Magazines still have a place but editors/marketing managers need to become more savvy about content. We’ve been able to get people interested in the print version by using our E-newsletters. We don’t double up on content, each offers unique information but the E-news platform is a great way to bring awareness to the magazine and capture new readers.
Newspapers…well I like to get my Saturday newspaper with different sections. I have a travel and arts/lifestyle section I love to pull out. I quickly look over and read about whats happening in my city/world, without having to jump onto the computer. I try and stay away from booting up my computer at home after a week at work looking at a monitor all day long! My Saturday paper provides me with all the information I need, its easy to transport around. I don’t want to type/search over so many web sites to get all this information and carry my laptop around the house!. Thats the value of the Sat newspaper for me and thats why I keep buying it. It services me well.
As someone who spent 25 years of his life in newspapers and oversaw several of them, it is the overall business model that needs to change to reflect the needs of today’s consumer. A hybrid print/digital product is certainly the answer, but I am not convinced that newspaper publishers can generate the level of income that is necessary to more than simply survive in the digital age. This means that while newspapers attempt to cultivate a long term multi-platform readership/advertiser base, their owners should explore other entrepreneurial activities. For example, host conferences, trade shows and music performances; further develop targeted and customized direct mail, e-mail and website design/marketing programs for local businesses and launch side business ventures utilizing the medium’s resources to promote them. With the magazine industry reporting decent growth in the last two years, newspapers should be more aggressive in using their distribution resources to partner with them in a more time flexible, cost effective manner than the USPS.
I agree with the many of the comments. I have tried for years to get advertisers to realise that if they want to show designers a chair, using the web they can make the chair rotate to show back and sides as well as front. It saves them money in that many times it may reduce the need for ssamples. I am trying to add in Video to http://www.hoteldesigns.net organically as well as writing in depth about hotel design (see http://www.hoteldesigns.net/industrynews/miniview_6013.html for an example of where we are going).
Pacing the introduction to match the speed at which technology becomes commonplace with the readers is difficult, but we are also going inthe opposite direction – looking for ways in which to take what we have into the print arena- not as a magzine but as a vehicle to expand our offering – I suppose as a kind of coffee table magazine/monograph.
The technology is becoming easier (we started 8 years ago with 56k telephone downloads, remember them?) but people still need to learn how to use the web – for example clicking on any image on our site brings up a fullscreen image to supplement the first – a different view of the same interior perhaps, or even a piece of video. Getting the reader to give that kind of attention when they expect to be passive grazers is not easy.
The page turning magzine simulacra in my eyes is very bad web design and a poor reader experience, not a model that will, i beleive, have genuine longevity – and has the added disadvantage of helping owners stay tied to a deadline /print model.
We certainly live in interesting times! By the way we have built readership up to around 80,000 a month and it still grows by about 3% a month.
I have been reading all the thoughts and responses about How to Save Newspapers and I only have one question…..
Why?
If the market decides that newspapers are obsolete then why save them?
The market has NOT decided. Newspapers have lost revenue in classifieds, clearly, but I wouldn’t be engraving the tombstone just yet.
I love newspapers and I want them to survive. A newspaper while having a cup of tea in the morning with breakfast is a great daily ritual. Wherever I travel in the day or evening, if I see a free publication, I pick it up. I subscribe to the Sunday paper yet I do get most of my news online. My mother loves newspapers as she is not on the computer. I think it is a definite balance between the printed word on newsprint and the web. I have written with traditional monthly publications for the Irish community in So. California and there was always the push for the writers to be ad sellers as well to keep it going. Since 2003 I am an online columnist, Dubliner’s Daughter with http://www.emigrant.ie for Irish Emigrant Publications based in Galway. The Irish community of So. California has two monthly publications, Irish News and Entertainment with an out of state publisher and a San Francisco publication to report it events yet no web presence. I think local papers could take this situation and publish weekly culture pages for different groups as there is so much going on in the communities which doesn’t get enough press.
If newspapers, the public and even our government REALLY want to know how to save newspapers then read The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again by Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols. It thoroughly outlines the problem and solution.
Interesting times! I’ll say! I agree that finding ways to deliver new technology easily to those without computer savvy will take time. Certainly, digital publishing is still in its infancy, but baby is going to grow up soon and publishers, designers, writers, production staff– will all need to be ready. However (and I am aging myself here for sure…) I remember when banks introduced ATMs in the late 70s and people were afraid to use them. I knew an elderly couple who didn’t get around to using the ATM until the late 90s–they waited 20 years–all because they were afraid they would push then wrong button and it would blow up. We’ve come a long way since then, but there will definitely be people out there who won’t make changes now, or maybe not ever. Our global audience is a lot more savvy than the folks who introduced the ATM to their target market in the 70s. I believe, once hi-speed internet service is widely accessible to everyone and apps are simplified further, the fear factor will disappear. People have taken to their computers with real zeal. Facebook, Google, eBay, (need I mention porn?) are pretty easy to locate if you’re looking for them, and I don’t think switching magazine formats will be too painful. It will take time, money, skill, and lots of PR which Steve Jobs is taking care of for you right now.
B2B, in my opinion, is a totally different playing field than consumer mags. I have worked for both, and have found that businesses often use their trade magazines almost like catalogs with more copy. They like to keep them so they can look back and, yes, share them with other staff members. I have worked for a business that wanted print AND web presence, sometimes splitting their websites into two sections that are linked: one is password protected for wholesalers and the link takes you to an online shopping section with shopping cart capabilities.
>Patrick, I can see where HotelDesigns magazine would be tougher to put into the usual B2B category. It has one foot in the consumer arena like the shelter magazines and the other catering to your hotel clients. If you have a growing circ. of 80,000 readers with growth at 3% monthly, I’d just sit back and see what happens, You’d be crazy to change a thing. Maybe run a test, or something, but you have a great job, Pal. Better not to mess with a winner.
Thanks Hellen, I set out to produce a site that would replace those magazines (and catalogues) sitting gathering dust on shelves and which often led designers in my studio astray. The information they contained went out of date so quickly. We do fill a slot on design that has few other occupants.
Thanks for your final paragraph. We are making money although not much ($250,000 a year). The recession hit us like others but where print went down by 47% we dropped 12-15%, and seem to be recovering ground quickly at the moment. I liked your last sentence particularly!
As long as an honest, reliable news source (journalism) is maintained then you are correct, it doesn’t matter if they survive in their current form. However, without newspaper (journalism) we are left without local reporting and will only rely on opinionated bloggers and slanted TV cable news. Newspaper journalism is the best source of honest news we have in the U.S. and it is vital to Americans that we maintain trustworthy reporting. It is to easy to pass bogus information on the internet (as we have witnessed in the past few years) and TV cable has a huge reach as one voice and their “news” is often misleading. Many reports are only opinions from pundits and not actual facts.
So yes, if newspapers do not survive in their current form something else will take their place. I just hope that whatever does take their place has similar fact checking and editing resources as the newspapers currently have.
Helen, I agree B2B is a different playing field, but I am not at all convinced that print is the future for B2B. If you step back and look at what the two sides (seller and buyer) want in a B2B relationship, it is pretty simple: the buyer is looking for a product or service and the seller is offering a solution. Both want it “now.”
In traditional print, the buyer would wade through the print magazines in the office, looking for information. Once potential suppliers were found in the magazines (ads or editorial articles), the buyer would seek to make contact to obtain more information; the seller would use the contact to try to initiate a sale.
Print magazines have tried over the decades to help the buyer and seller make contact by serving verticals with specialized titles. The problem of specialization has been, the magazine can rarely be as specialized as any one buyer would wish (not enough ad revenue to support the title).
A more general problem for print magazines has been the issue of timeliness. If a B2B title serves a very dynamic vertical (for example, semiconductor devices), the time between signing an ad contract and the ad reaching potential buyers can be much longer than the seller would wish.
A second, general problem for far too many B2B print magazines has been their use of editorial as leverage to sell advertising, turning their “articles” in near-worthless “advertorial” from the buyer’s perspective.
For the above reasons and more, I think the B2B magazine has to (1) move online, and (2) reinvent itself as a service which truly _connects_ buyers with sellers, facilitating conversation. Take a look at http://www.globalsources.com/ for an example. It currently serves nearly 900,000 active buyers in over 240 countries and hosts over 250,000 suppliers in 14 verticals which are further divided into over 4,000 categories with information on over 4.5 million products.
B2B news is probably best handled via (vertical) email newsletters from the publisher, with the emphasis on news. Longer articles (not advertorial) via the website. Print, with all its problems, will not thrive in this online environment, though it may stagger on for a few more years.
I don’t think I said print was the future to B2B. I think that converging into digital media will be more difficult than it is for consumer magazines. Ultimately, (but it is hard say when) everyone will need a primary digital publication. For one thing, we’re running out of trees for paper and print doesn’t provide you with the immediacy of digital. It’s hard for a company’s sales staff to embrace technology that is still not proven to increase their bottom line. There are still a few ‘Willie Loman” characters out there that like to carry a bag of samples and write orders on triplicate carbon paper pads. Each situation has its own needs to reassess, which for us, is good for business. There is no one correct way to reach people. It is a wait- and- see story for now, but up to us to drive innovation where and when it will work.
Also, just took a look at http://www.globalsources.com . Neither print OR digital can create meaningful, conversation-facilitating media with 900,000 active buyers, 240 countries and 4.5 million products. It is neither a magazine, nor is it a newspaper. It is an entirely different category–a phone directory size catalog of unrelated offshore vendors trying to offload unbranded merch. quickly.
But hey…whatever works for you. We are now off-subject.
Helen, you are confused. Globalsources is a logical extension of a magazine publishing business … I was intimately involved … we had over 30 monthlies in the late 80′s when we started developing the software which became the B2B portal. We knew who our advertisers were and we knew who our readers were. We talked to both with the single objective of finding ways to allow better communication. The initial means of communication was pre-web and involved technologies like EDI; the portal site went online as soon as the Internet could handle the task.
“a phone directory size catalog of unrelated offshore vendors trying to offload unbranded merch. quickly.” is a rather silly comment, and uncalled for. The site is considerably more than a “catalog” — it provides the information our focus groups told us they wanted (including Macy’s on the buyer side and major Asian brands like Sony, LG and Acer on the vendor side).
As I tried to explain to you, this is B2B print publishing reimagined — we didn’t dream up the facilities the site offers: they were the result of a significant investment in getting to know exactly what our clients (buyers and sellers) wanted and then implementing a system to provide that — news in the precise niche(s) each works in, delivered electronically and immediately; tools for researching purchase options; facilities for buyers and sellers to hold private conversations and retain a record; … and a heck of a lot more.
Yes, it may be hard for a company’s sales staff to embrace new technology. But it can be done and given the state of print, in many instances it needs to be done.
No offense intended toward you personally, Mr. Day. There are lots of silly comments posted on these pages and all silly comments are uncalled for. One or both of us may be confused and I am ok with that. There is a lot to be learned by everyone. B2B is not what I do best or often, so I defer to your knowledge and experience.
Roger,
24 out of 25 newspapers in this country are declining in subscriberships. Ad revenues are plummeting, and not in just the classifieds. As soon as car dealerships figure out their next e-advertising move (which can account for up to 60% of a paper’s revenues), newspapers will officially be dead… literally overnight.
[And if you go ask any dealership owner what their #1 pain is in running the dealership... they will say it's their ad spend, much of which is with the papers, which give them no measurable ROI. They advertise with the papers due to the fact the guy next door does, and because they have blind fear that if they don't run the weekday and Sunday full spread ads, their customers will stop coming through the door. They spend $20k - $150K+ per dealership, PER LOT. Ridiculous. And they are hungry to make a move to a better strategy and increase their ROI... and when they do... THAT will literally be the actual day that newspapers died. It's the entire reason Cox got into the car business with AutoTrader and Manheim... to try and control the bleed.]
And remember… this single point is independent of all the other points that digital media now brings to the table of 1) redundancy in reporting, 2) delays in reporting, 3) costs of raw materials increasing in comparison, 4) costs of delivery increasing independently, 5) new higher ROI ad channels developing, etc., etc., etc.
Saying that newspapers are already “dead” is simply trendy maven-speak to read the writing on the wall, when in actuality, newspapers are only now just dying, with seemingly no way to pull out of the tailspin.
In actuality, I point out the way many newspapers can survive by going with digital delivery on my vlog through mobile app development (paid subscriptions), but that’s going to take a transition that the newspapers execs aren’t ready to make.
There are still people who listen to CDs, and cassette tapes, and even 8 track tapes. Those aren’t officially dead either. But studies show that very few millenials listen to these media. So are you going to invest in CD manufacturing technology? Very few under 30 read physical newspapers. Personally, I’m not betting on them.
Helen – Newspapers died? That would probably come as a surprise to the 400 million in this country who still read one every week. 50 million read one yesterday (Sunday) and shared it with 50 million others. That’s all data from audited paid circulation in this country. Millions more read free papers each week and thousands more visit newspapers web sites each day, Just the facts.
I concur with both Mike and Roger – newspapers are far from dead. They’re under a lot of strain, that’s true, but you should not forego the massive technological strides the serious quality newspapers have made in the last couple of years to be able to offer multimedial content to its readers.
Also, it’s important to distinguish between countries and their respective relationships with newspapers. Yes, I agree, we’ve seen a tremendous downfall of the newspaper industry especially in the USA (I believe every month in 08 and 09 one US publisher went bankrupt..) and others around the world have faced foreclosure, barely survived and are still kicking water from drowning.
However, there are still those societies that hold firm believes in their daily news consumption in paper, apart from the Internet. Look at Japan, India, Korea and China of course, here are countries with gargantuan circulation numbers. What’s more, in Japan (Asahi Shimbun a.o), the total circulation of combined titles has grown in 2009. Moreover, on a daily basis over 1.9 billion people wordwide read a paid daily newspaper.
Newspapers are dead….I don’t see it.
I don’t think magazines and newspapers going down in two three years, even ten years maybe. But i think we have to find a way to stay with the reader and it’s need for news, vision and interface.
In Holland, Fryslan we’re organize so called one hour one magazine. All creative professionals; illustrators, copywriters, art directors, designers, photographers and journalists are determined to re-create the magazine.
This event will be may 21th in Leeuwarden, Fryslan.
It is a positive way to create awareness for the magazine, the love for paper, press, design and typography and understanding the do’s and don’ts, to make contacts and to have fun.
If we love the magazine (if = when) then we will find new ways to bring the magazine/newspaper as medium (even in paper if you like) to the people.
for more info
twitter.com/1u1m (most dutch, but now also english)
twitter.com/ekokooistra
excuses for my english writing skills
I think newspapers that can adapt will survive – perhaps not in the finger-staining ink-and-paper format we know now, but they will survive. I still read my local paper (neighborhood local), which is free. Magazines are another creature completely – I still subscribe to, and actually read, several magazines. The timeliness of their content was not an issue to begin with (excepting pubs like Newsweek, etc). There’s something about reading an article in a glossy that is more attractive to me than reading it online. Maybe it’s the lack of iannoying ads that popup or have audio you can’t turn off. Or maybe it’s just the process of reading something printed instead of something displayed….not sure what it is. Then again, perhaps I’m just inundated with web content at work and need a break from it at home.
There are several studies out there that show magazine readership has increased over the last decade across the demographics, including young readers. Although we’ll have to see over the next few years as iPad-like devices deliver the electronic experience of magazine reading with color and photos.
The trend that started with the massive decline in newspapers is bleeding over to the magazine industry. With a hard-to-quantify return and so many people moving to the web and social media, magazines are taking a hit.
I think there will always be a place for print and magazines albiet smaller. For every magazine that goes under, more niche ones emerge. I think the dynamics of the entire media industry are in a state of flex however. We all need to stay tuned!
I think Ronald has something here. I gave a presentation about 3 years ago about media adoption in the now converged marketplace. Print publishing will not completely die, it will be one of the mediums we publish content. Having flexible business models will be key in the future of saving each title. Not, will they die.
This is a fun topic. I think the “newsprint” formula can adapt to the changes in distribution and access. The old format is dead, not the print.
Check out http://www.48hrmag.com
These guys have invented a new magazine product using social media tools and print on demand to create an exciting novelty with value and a new audience of subscribers.
This new idea would not have worked without today’s technology. It would have been stupid to try 48hrmag 10 years ago. Many struggling “newsprints” are holding on to their formula from 50+ years ago, thats just lizard brain. Right?
yes it is like. Because of Internet and tv cable newspaper and magazines went down. people prefer to read news on internet.due to picture we see television that makes any news more interesting and attractive. Now we can’t imagine that we are reading newspaper with a cup of tea. it’s a passe. but still they are fighting for theirs existence.
Jitendra, because one or two things (i.e. medium types) went down, doesn’t mean that others will go down as well. Perhaps in certain countries or regions, people prefer to read their ‘news’ on the Internet, in others they prefer the paper conveyor of news, next to, possibly the Internet and/or mobile (internet) devices. The thing with newspapers is that at least the self-respecting quality daily’s do realize they cannot compete with the Internet when it comes to broadcasting news – after all: nothing is older than yesterday’s newspaper…
However, when I look at the quality daily’s in my home country, the Netherlands (which by the way has one of the world’s highest percentages of subscription numbers per title – on average around 89%. This is e.g. the opposite in Holland’s neighbouring country to the South, Belgium where most newspapers are bought at news stands), they vehemently realize this given and hence focus much more on the background stories, in-depth news analysis, high-brow interviews, in other words explaining the issues behind the news. The (remaining) journalists have become more than just news-covering-and-running-around-and-behind-so-called-news-items. They cover certain stories/topics which are interesting to follow, therefore still people will buy or subscribe to newspapers. They give meaning to the word paper.
However, I also agree with the pessimistic yet realistic view that in due time newspapers will disappear, but this won’t happen in the next 20-40 years. What I think will happen in the next 5-10 years is that newspapers will become more like magazines, in the way that they will speak more and more to a certain (niche) group of people sharing the same interests.
And one shouldn’t underestimate the growing population of elderly in our societies. They, after all, are used to reading a daily newspaper, especially in the Netherlands.
Still, for a lot of people reading their newspaper is almost a ritual, every day – reading YOUR paper while sipping your tea.
Let us all agree to the fact that Newspaper is not gonna die, but we should also agree to the fact that the subscription revenue and the Ad revenue is on a decline.
What I would like to point out here is that how do I retain my existing “Loyal Customers”, forget about increasing my subscriber base for the current given scenario.
The second part is how to increase my customer base that in turn can give me more AD revenue. “Build a Loyalty Solution”, give our customers some loyalty points that can be redeemed.
Get a hook to your customers once they get into the vicious circle of accruing and redeeming points the customer retention would obviously go up considerably.
The higher the customer base the higher would be the Ad revenue.
This is a framework that we have built, there are lots of intricacies that cannot be listed in this forum, but what I believe is that create some additional benefits to your Loyal Customers.
Request all your inputs on this idea, I might be wrong completely, but it is always worth a try since we have nothing to loose.
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What if newspapers believed in a new audience of subscribers with a passion for reading and touching paper? It’s redundant to sell headlines in print when they are all over the internet.
What if newspapers believed in selling long form stories with more sub-topics and more facts and opinions explained, with larger type for aging baby boomers? Watch PBS news hour then watch NBC nightly news to see the difference in short and long stories.
If the sad truth is a rise in “Headline Culture” with limited information, newspapers could go in the opposite direction and sell long form news.
Magazines can follow a similar path.
Does anyone agree with me?
It sounds like a newspaper version of The New Yorker, which up until recently, was in the red for about 40 years. But its audience loved it and in even in its best years with double-digit millions in losses, they demanded it stay alive. Fortunately Conde Nast had enough $$ from other publications to cover TNY’s losses and nurture its revival–not many of us have the back up of Mr. Newhouse who has such strong beliefs and the money to back them up They are having a paid subscription digital edition now too, basically, because you almost have to. My guess is in their case, print will outsell the digital by far. Each issue has enormous shelf life–people keep them for years. It is something you read in more than one sitting.
I love what you’re saying, though. If you’ve ever read The New York Observer it is a newspaper somewhat like this–makes everyone who reads it feel like “an insider”. It speaks to a specific audience and they know who they’re talking to. It even has a little retro look to it as if Clark Kent were working there. So, yeah, even though I was “b-slapped” for about a week because I said newspapers are dead– it is really newspapers as they are now. There are great newspapers and great magazines and likely, there always will be (only fewer). But they can’t stay the way the are now. There seems to be a big fear of change among our group here, but you can’t stop the world from changing. I have a collection of old Life magazines at home and they were like a sophisticated version of today’s tabloids and People magazine. Life was, well, larger than life. Over-sized format, and beautiful photography. Few words, minimal giant type–but filled with gossip and news and politics. If someone today could make a newspaper/magazine combo that offered what Life magazine did up until the early 70s, what a cool thing THAT would be. Their online presence could be “the picture of the week” and the on-sale date, driving people away from the computer.
“Sorry, but the contents of this publication can be viewed in paper and ink, only.”
That would be a fun project that recreates something old and wonderful in a new way. Just thinkin’.
No reason for papers , magazines , radio or TV to fear the future which is digital. Those that embrace it will be the first to grow revenue from this new delivery platform. My thoughts are that there will be a meshing of all media that utilizes the web as the means to reach people on line and on portable devices. I would be interested in connecting with some of you in publishing to share with you our concepts focused on streaming audio and how it can enhance any magazine or papers web site and generate new revenues. We are also looking for forward thinking companies to partner with to help market our products and services , see http://www.amsinteractive.com to learn more about us. Everyone has to realize that with electronic hand held devices that offer everything available on the planet they had better have their content offered there or they will be left behind ….
I think newspapers always were ad-papers and the ad-flight to Ebay, Google etc as well as the internet sites poperty and so forth are the stake through the revenue heart…. and, places like this, but especially with perhaps younger people (younger than me anyway) , that disintermediate the news gathering process (This is the best article I have read for ages on the issue)
–and finally information is moving to screen from page and I feel that doesn’t mean ‘read’ it means listen and watch (and interact) and link, and respond……. so it means video/sound rather than stills/text…
These trends have been around for ages but the Lehman bust was the accelerant as the revenue from the debt boom just popped in ad-land —- where we are now is at the stage of the man with red flag walking along in front of the car—- the key agent of change is the disintermediation..people not sitting passively waiting for the journos and snappers to decide what’s interesting… and that’s a process with far more reach than just newspapers and mags, it brings in Tv, interactivity in Games, and ads/marketing professions as well as editorial—- it’s like a Big Bang in reverse as formerly separate professions collapse into a point of singularity..
I get tired of hearing that newspapers are “dead.” It’s like the IN thing to say. The truth is that newspapers now have a smaller market–but, still, a very viable one. There are many who still want to see “what’s above and below” the fold. Newspaper management needs to figure out how to become more relevant, yes, but they are very much around–and for a more educated audience, really.
Budgets are shrinking for magazines. I talk to these editors every day. Frustration is growing. More are on Paxil for the first time in their lives.
We have still found traditional media helpful for our clients, although we now incorporate a large social media program in everything we do.
Newspapers will never “die”. The delivery method may die, but as long as the public needs current information, there will be a “newspaper”. It may not be in the format we are used to, paper & ink, but it will still live. If you look at the top 10,000 most visited websites in the US. many are news papers. The old school newspaper exec’s were slow to change, thus caused their own demise
I have to agree with the dominant opinion above – newspapers and magazines will never truly die, they will just fade. There will still be those who prefer to ‘hold’ the magazine, curl up at night and take the time to read each page. I do, however, believe that publications need to diversify. In fact, I am working with a publication which is doing just that: they recently launched an all digital magazine and is relaunching their website to better serve the online crowd.
Will there be so many dialies? No. Will there be so many magazines on the stand? No. But truthfully, there doesn’t need to be! Condensed your titles to serve similar interests and/or demographics. Restructure and re-energize. Newspapers need to create a new format which best serves the public’s changing needs and interests.
@Sarah – you live and die by people’s perception. In fact, as a publicist, you pretty much control it! I have been in publishing and the ad market for quite a few years, and they were telling us that newspapers would be gone years ago. Guess what? They’re still here. In advertising, if all of my clients ‘perceived’ that their print ads were not generating leads or customers, I would have been on the streets years ago. Just as you, I too, live and die by people’s perception.
BUT! I read all of my news online, I receive way too many RSS feeds, and follow too many networks. It’s simply too much. And yes, I will be cutting many of them down soon, too – just like I cut down reading 4 exercise magazines to one (how many different style curls can one person actually do??), I cut down my daily/weekly newspapers, and I cut down my online newsletter subscriptions. Too much is too much. Is anyone talking about newsletter dying any time too soon? My guess is that more of those die daily than print newspapers? I cancelled two newsletters today alone…
Will tablets run the world? No. As interested as I am in the tablets (which I was using back quite a few years ago), I do not see them eliminating paper publishing; not until I see a more cost-effective form of receiving alternative media at least.
Just one guy’s opinion…
We better hope newspapers survive because they and NPR are the only ones holding politicians’ feet to the fire when they betray our trust. Sadly, aside from Meet the Press, there is nothing in the way of TV news that I come close to trusting. I read the local paper daily and the NY Times on line during the week, not to mention a handful of weekly magazines (New Yorker and The Week) and one monthly (Vanity Fair).
The problem with newspapers is that what I read on-line tonight will often be in tomorrow’s paper verbatim. Worse yet, sometimes the print version is even shorter than the the Web version I read the night before. If papers don’t find a way to be relevant and timely, then they will go the way of the dinosaur. But I believe there is too much at stake to let that happen.
That’s a great point, Jay. The quality of the reporting is the best reason for both newspapers and the magazines you mentioned to stay ALIVE. We can find a way for them to stay relevant. For example, some publishers recognize that putting unique content in print is the way to go. Also, you can offer content in a hard copy that is much easier to digest–in debth reporting that may take longer to read, but it informs the reader. We are beginnning to recognize that there are some who have the attention span for in-depth news. It’s quality, as you say, that’s important. Investigative reporting is here to not only stay, but thrive among certain publics.
As a career journalist, I don’t get how a newspaper with 150,000 daily buyers could go out of business. As a former Gannett employee, I understand it quite well, however.
But that’s another (HUGE) discussion about institutionalized corporate cultures of mediocrity. After six years at the helm of my own magazine, my biggest challenge has been keeping up with demand. My most difficult challenge has been to find quality ad sales personnel to support the magazine’s growth throughout the region. We are nowhere near the point of fully filling our niche, and we have enormous growth potential with no end in sight. That’s both encouraging, and challenging, but I like a good challenge.
Magazines aren’t going away anytime soon. There are new competitors, and new opportunities. And I’d better get back to work – after all, new opportunities aren’t worth anything unless you do something with them.
It is key that print adapts if it is to survive. I find it hard to believe that many large publishing corporations still have got their head around where the internet fits in. Multiplatform seems to be a concept too far for most. It shouldn’t be the same content on all platforms, but complimentary words/images/sounds/video. Yet commissioning editors aren’t thinking enough about this when ordering their copy from writers and photographers, or their publication hasn’t built a suitable platform for this to happen.
I love to buy newspapers but I don’t think that bombarding the reader with multiple supplements in place of news is the way to retain circulation. There are far too many of them chasing the same stories, and more often than not we’re talking about a product. It is as though print journalism has become just another arm of consumer marketing. If there isn’t a book/film/CD/item of clothing or furniture/holiday to plug, it’s not worth writing about. So everyone writes about the same old stuff at the same time. Sometimes it is only the design that identifies which title you are reading. Bring back originality and individuality. It doesn’t have to be bite-size or superficial. I worked on one of the UK’s most successful weekly magazines. The then editor believed in picture-led features with as little copy as possible, and to be fair the circulation was high. But the new editor, who came from a broadsheet, believes in in-depth features with a good deal many more words, and circulation has rocketed. It is not true that readers do not like to read!
People want news as it happens. I know I do. I read news online, both from UK and US sites. I like to read newsprint for insight and in-depth information. Sadly, that seems to be the very thing that is suffering in budget cuts, when in fact it should be the USP of magazines and papers. And the web can add so much more, too; whether offering multiple images, article updates and video content.
The publishing industry hasn’t fully worked out how to incorporate new technology or monetise the internet. It’s as though we are going through an industrial revolution. Print WILL survive, I am sure. I can’t imagine a world without papers, magazines and books, but I see the value at times of using a Kindle or iPad. I just wish everything was integrated NOW, and I could get back to earning a decent living!
So in this discussion I heard someone asking “what do the editors want?”…I think the question should be the opposite of that – “What do the users want when consuming content (quality, length, medium, payment choice et al) those will be the choices that mean the most?” I am not sure the market is listening because the answer to the questions are so painful. Business models are not flexible, business partners always want to be in control and the user is just darn fickle. So what do we do? Listen, learn, provide flexibility.
They’re obviously going to die because on Sci Films things are posited that cycle through to reality…the bogus profession of futorologists would have no material if Sci-fi writers and film makers didn’t provide them with it all……..BUT in how many Sci_films does anyone ever read a newspaper…compared to getting the ‘news’ from big screens hanging everywhere in private and public and by using personal internet connected mobile devices?
I rest my case
Oh and for over a century journalists have been seen as a cost centre in papers (and TV) while ad sales is the revenue raiser..that’s why journalists salaries are now pathetic across most of the Western World when compared alongside what were once peer group professions but are no longer