NEWSPAPER vs. City magazines

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Permalink Reply by Katy Ryan on September 2, 2008 at 10:23pm

Richard, I'm not sure how inter-connected I see the two. For newspapers who launch city magazines (including the one at which I work), sure, I can see that there is some competition with existing ad accounts, etc. Plus, if the newspaper has a questionable reputation within the community, then you have to work beyond that on the magazine side and show both your customer and your reader what you bring to the table beyond what they can get from the newspaper.
But newspapers remain the powerhouse in delivering local, breaking news and in-depth features of various topics that aren't a good fit for publications of the glossy variety. People turn to magazines for lifestyle coverage, and they want the stories behind the people and places they know (and even those they don't) -- for that, they'll turn to magazines. You also have to consider the differences in advertising ability -- you wouldn't run the same ad in a newspaper that you would in a magazine because of printing differences, black and white versus color, etc.
In my personal experience, it's a world of co-existing with each other while capitalizing on the distinctive benefits that each type of publication brings to the table. City and regional magazines are enjoying a boom, and it's a wave of popularity and revenue success that should be ridden to its full potential. Where newspapers falter, magazines should pick up the slack, resulting in the overall success of print media as a whole--and that's a powerful message no matter how it's delivered.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Dixon on September 6, 2008 at 1:25am

I may have a somewhat unique perspective on your question, Richard. For the past five years, I've been editor of a regional business newspaper owned by a chain of daily newspapers. They completely screwed it up by trying to force the business paper into a centralized sales and management mold with much larger daily newspapers (that's my opinion, as someone who has done regionals for more years than I care to count). There are, in my view, significant differences not only in how a city or regional magazine or publication relates to its audience editorially, but in how ad sales, circulation, and community relations need to be handled, as well. I'm not sure whether this post goes directly to your point, and I'm sure it's different in every market, but that's one aspect to consider. I suspect that smaller local papers present a different competitve challenge. In the end, I think the publication that is most attuned to and responsive to the interests of its readers wins.

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey R. Orenstein, Ph.D. on September 28, 2008 at 2:49pm

Several of our new and existing advertisers have switched form the local newspapers to our city magazine in the last few months.

On the other hand, the furniture, automobile and real estate industries seem resistant to switching or using both in our area. Frankly, I think they are wasting a lot of money on a dwinling readership. Anybody have any ideas on how to get them to switch or at least try a glossy lifestyle magazine?

Publisher. Living Out East Magazine.

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