Are magazines prepared for the digital era?

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Permalink Reply by Tony Karrer on May 18, 2009 at 10:33am

Great question. I hope you get some good dialog going around this topic.

It seems like there's going to simultaneously be fragmentation of information creation and magazines (and others) will have a hard time competing with the multitude of information sources that are essentially free. But that same fragmentation increases the need for community, aggregation, filtering. It seems like the trick is to effectively lower costs and harness the power of existing community, brand, distribution and monetization.

Looking forward to other thoughts on this.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Davies on May 18, 2009 at 1:20pm

Yes - Magazines certainly have more than just information at the core of their value, so if they can use digital methods to foster community and shared experience then their is hope. My concern is that many of the traditional magazine publishers have allowed new online communities to leapfrog them into pole position for creating community/meaning/experience online.

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Permalink Reply by Chelsea Monet Fort on May 18, 2009 at 3:10pm

Magazines are such romantic objects. You still see them everywhere, in doctor's offices and on the treadmills at the gym. Because they are something so concrete, they lend credibility to their web presence. Yoga Journal is a great example. Their website is full of wonderful resources, but I love having that beautiful magazine and turning those pages. I'd like to think that magazines can benefit from the online world and still maintain a print presence, but the rule book has not been written yet. It's new and exciting territory.

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Permalink Reply by Vince Wolff on May 26, 2009 at 2:47pm

I think we are definitely in an era of 'survival of the fittest,' with so many titles folding in the past year of so (I liken this to the sub-prime bubble). What will be interesting to see is the model of the survivors, and how they reinvented themselves. Are they effectively combining online and print content? What will the editorial consist of? I'm very interested in seeing how Newsweek's new format will go over with readers, as they are attempting to model themselves after The Economist, one of the few success stories.

As an agent, we have so little control over all of these changes, but it directly impacts our business.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Milburn on May 26, 2009 at 4:49pm

Sorry ya'll, if you are optimistic about mags I think you're in denial. The romance is gone. If you're a publisher and not closing in on 50% digital rev in the next 24 months I'm not sure you will make it. Why? Not because magazines aren't great -- it's just that the whole process of cutting a log, floating it down a river (or however it's done these days), milling it, processing into paper, transporting to printer, applying ink, shipping to wholesalers (who aren't exactly going to be around much longer either) or via USPS (also not gonna be around in same form for much longer), sorting at postal sectional facilities and then into postal delivery routes and into mailbox (and that's a simple version) so that information can get to consumers days or weeks out of sync without the ability to bookmark it or share it with anyone and then have to bundle and dispose of it, just doesn't seem like a model that will be around much longer. Especially when you can download it instantly and mostly for free.

Printing and distribution is 50% of publisher overhead and that money could be better spent on creating better content.

See below as just one example to buttress the case:

'Why Print Journalism Must Invariably Die" http://tinyurl.com/o7dovy

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Permalink Reply by Bart Mariner on May 26, 2009 at 5:49pm

I don’t thing it’s just about putting the content online. Of course devices like Amazon’ Kindle will evolve becoming thinner, lighter –even flexible- and full color providing then an experience somewhat similar to the in print experience although there is not yet anything invented to put samples online.

But more than that or the option of adding motion online –videos- what I find exciting is the possibility of having an open bi-directional channel with readers with a totally new contact frequency – daily. That adds a new dimension to the readers’ engagement with the magazine and a way of building community that changes for better the traditionally one-way channel in print.

Before going further I have to say that in my view online shouldn’t kill the in print magazine. They complement to each other. A website with no in print magazine is somehow perceived as ethereal, whereas in print adds a valuable sense of permanence.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Milburn on May 26, 2009 at 8:49pm

Bart, I agree that print editions won't just disappear and that publishers would be wise to continue to serve those that want them (at a premium). I also agree about the engagement that daily feedback can provide. For example, I like what BusinessWeek's John Byrne (@JohnAByrne ) is doing with Twitter. He's constantly feeding information about what's popular on the site, what's drawing traffic and providing insider accounts of the daily process. His tweet from 3 hours ago:

News meeting: We'll lead in the a.m. with "Facebook Gets a Big $300 Mlllion Boost"

I just think that digital revenue needs to be a majority of revenue for most publishers to be in a healthy long-term position. If anyone wants to follow the developments about publishing trends, eReaders etc. I post anything interesting I find @redirectny.

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Permalink Reply by Joel Hastings on May 28, 2009 at 11:03am

I agree with your concept. Our challenge as publishers it seems to me is to make sure we're the ones to create community in our industry or market or among our readers... that job is easier online for someone else to do.

Having said that, I'd still rather be a publisher than a printer.

Joel Hastings

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Permalink Reply by Arjun Basu on May 28, 2009 at 11:04am

Some of them are and some of them aren't. I think people who think print will die are wrong. But I also think there is not a single magazine that has yet to do something right on the web. The web is a different medium. People read it differently than print. We all know that. First one to figure out how to engage the reader wins the prize, I suppose. And everyone's eternal envy. And gratitude...

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Permalink Reply by Tom Butts on May 28, 2009 at 11:04am

It's very easy for us to get caught up in the idea of electronic media conquering print, but we have to remember that the majority of the world's population (and the American public to a lesser extent), don't have iPhones, laptops, Kindles, etc. We get so caught up in all these new gadgets because we report on them and use them but you have to think like Joe Consumer first. And I don't think Joe Consumer is ready to give up print yet.

That said, market forces in the end will force Joe Consumer to adopt. I just don't think we're at that point yet.

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Permalink Reply by Sunrise305 on May 28, 2009 at 11:05am

"Are magazines prepared for the digital era?" Certainly some are doing a great job online editorially and community-wise. Unfortunately the tougher question is "Can magazines replace lost print revenue via online properties?" The answer, with few exceptions is, no. Most appear to be recouping ten cents online for every dollar lost in print.

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Permalink Reply by Lee Michaelides on May 28, 2009 at 11:14am

Chelsea Monet Fort makes a strong point. To put it another way, live theater didn't disappear with the advent of film, television, or YouTube. If magazines only transmitted information, they would be doomed. But the best magazines combine art and words in a format that is pleasing to hold and read. Better still, they don't require expensive repairs when the morning coffee is spilled on them.

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