BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Circ, AMI, Time, Covers and Jon Stewart

BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Circ, AMI, Time, Covers and Jon Stewart
www.bosacks.com

Re: Star Publisher to Slash Guaranteed Paid Circ

Bob: This article quotes a John J. Miller, COO of AMI, saying STAR's advertisers "like the transparency" of learning their ads were seen by 10% fewer readers than the minimum guarantee. Where I come from, it is a legal, and ethical, requirement to notify advertisers when the publication misses the ABC audited rate base for whatever reason. The next step is to agree on a rebate, additional insertion, makegood, or other compensation to give the client the audience reach he paid for. As your article says, AMI fiscal year results showed a loss of $160.9 million. The industry has been watching the AMI scam for years, and it is apparent that the newly found "transparency" is motivated not by sense of honesty and fair play, but by the belated realization that fraud in contractual agreements (insertion orders) and misrepresentation of financial results is of great interest to the staff at the SEC, and usually results in time served in prison.
(Submitted by a Senior Publishing Manager)

Re: AMI Bleeds $160 Million - Inside the Star Slashings
When you can get sick news on the internet ,why buy a tabloid which is old news?
Almost like Newsweek, US World Report and Time. Is this a surprise to these guys?????
(Submitted by a Paper Person)

Re: Is Time Warner's AOL A-OK?
I find personal experience is always a good indicator of how well a business is being run. Let's see...I first signed up for AOL around 1995 or so. Dial up seemed sufficient (remember the beep-beep-beeps from the modem - how quaint!) and I, along with millions of others, happily paid $23 per month for the new service. And the wonders of the internet! Wow! Since then, like the rest of AOL Time Warner, the business strategy has fossilized. I must have paid at least $3,036 ($23 x 12 months x 11 years) through direct credit card payments, no billing or collection fees for AOL. Now, I get AOL for free, just by asking. But even Free, it's no bargain.

Those stupid mortgage dancing presidents are REALLY annoying. And this is the business model with Wall Street thinks will be successful? The analysts should take a look at buying the bridge to Brooklyn just a few blocks east of their offices.
(Submitted by a Senior Director of MFG and DST)

Re: Is Time Warner's AOL A-OK?
Bob, who needs AOL if you have High Speed internet? Have you ever tried to cancel your AOL membership? It is very entertaining. No I don't want it anymore, No at $29.99 and no not either at $19.99. No really I don't.. not even at $9.99. I really don't need it please cancel it. Oh I have to hear you tell me about your other offers before you can cancel me...OK... No.. Nope.. not interested . . .nope.. no. Please cancel it, I wholeheartedly agree that I no longer whish to have my service.
(Submitted by a Paper Director)

Re: Magazine launches down in Q 1, '07
Why is this such a surprise? With no more such thing as the mass market, as suggested by Procter and Gamble which means markets have to be more pinpointed across several demographics, why should this not be true for magazine publishers?
(Submitted by a Paper Person)

Re: Before Jon Stewart - The Truth about Fake News
Wonderful article. Thanks for including it as I would never have seen it. Why does the Jon Stewart show appear more honest, intelligent, credible and respectable than Fox news, for example? The Jon Stewart show with the president of Pakistan was great, he has quite a sense of humor.
(Submitted by a Publisher)

Re: Before Jon Stewart - The Truth about Fake News
Talk about fake news . . . . . . I can't believe you would publish such crap.
(Submitted by an Unknown on a Blackberry)

Re: Before Jon Stewart - The Truth about Fake News
There goes my blackberry vibrating again. Bo go to sleep you work too hard for us every day!
(Submitted by a Publisher)

Re: Before Jon Stewart - The Truth about Fake News
Bo you are the very best. What I have learned in the past 15 years from you is to expect the unexpected. You are best damn editor that I know of. Thanks for the thrills.
(Submitted by a Senior Publishing Sale Rep)

RE: The Magazine Split Cover Explosion
When I saw the title of this piece I thought, “At last! Someone is going to address the damage done to the products we produce by the USPS with their shovels and rakes and implements of destruction, elsewhere known as ‘automation equipment’” But then, I’m just a printer and generally concern myself with matters more mundane than those that occupy big brained publishers and high powered industry oracles.
(Submitted by a Printer and life-long pal of BoSacks)

RE: The Magazine Split Cover Explosion
During a split cover test I worked on for one weekly publisher, we got a significant number of complaints from newsstand buyers who felt tricked into purchasing two copies of the same issue, only to realize in the first few pages that "Hey, I've already read this issue". Customers who have been deceived, or who feel their subscriber cover is somehow inferior to the newsstand cover, will take that into account when renewal time comes around. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, I cancel.
(Submitted by a Senior Production Director)

RE: The Magazine Split Cover Explosion
Bo, The first thing I do when I receive a magazine? Rip off the split cover(s), remove all blow-ins and remove all other bind-ins, inserts, and other clutter. These are distracting and annoying to the reader and I don't think I am the only one who feels this way.
(Submitted by a Prepress Manager at a global publisher)

RE: The Magazine Split Cover Explosion
hmmmmm . . . .covers that scream for attention . . . . newsstand sales on a long-term decline . . . . hmmmmm . . . .
(Submitted by a Bo’s Second Favorite Industry Pundit)

Re: Boomer Boon: 'Crazy Aunts and Uncles' Spend $1.7 Trillion
In the 14 years since I passed the age that many media planners feel I no longer exist:
I have purchased five different auto brands manufactured by four different carmakers.
My annual vacation has taken me to five different foreign and four different domestic destinations.
Carried by at least seven different airlines.

Business trips and conferences have found me in four different hotel chains.
I have changed my cell phone carrier three times and my primary banking relationship just as often.
My choice in restuarants, shows, clothing brands and music is just as eclectic as it was 24 years ago.

If you're no longer advertising to my affluence you are the one who is missing out. Not me.
(Submitted by a "senior" marketer)

Re: Boomer Boon: 'Crazy Aunts and Uncles' Spend $1.7 Trillion
Bob, Thanks for sending Boomer Boon: 'Crazy Aunts and Uncles' Spend $1.7 Trillion.” It’s sweet solace for those of us who routinely ask ourselves “How did my folks get to be so much cooler than I am and why haven’t the advertising agencies figured it out?” Disclosure: I work for a magazine that’s been frustrated by this question for years.

As a guy in his thirties with two kids I spend a lot of my consumer time hanging out in the diaper isle, comparing Elmo-branded products, and reading the labels on baby food jars. And I’m not alone. Most of my friends, even those pulling in the most money, are in the same boat.

Meanwhile, my Mom and Dad are having the fun they deserve in retirement and spending a lot of money. iPods, big screens, computers and the newest of new cell phones routinely grace their monthly statements, not to mention mountains of the most technologically advanced outdoor garb and membership fees for the gym where they work out to stay in shape for their next adventure-oriented trip. They are hip, curious, and can run further without stopping than I can. . . .

Guess who drives the four-door domestic and aging SUV destined for use until it dies? Hey media buyers, wake up and go after the real money. My wife and I are not your ticket to CPM nirvana. Don’t believe me. Ask your parents to dinner and see who picks up the tab.
(Submitted by a communications manager)

RE: Why are so Many Publications so Ugly?
This makes me think of direct marketing. I used to do a lot of it, and a rule of thumb was ugly often sold better than pretty. This article smacks of an insider’s attitude. Above all, design must work for the end of the communications, and that means testing to see the effect. When you think of how important customer reaction is to a periodical, it’s amazing how often magazines and newspapers undergo visual overhauls in almost a vacuum. When your customer isn’t the governing factor, then it’s your ego. I’ve seen people responsible for communicating with customers decide on looks because they liked it, not because the customers did.
(Submitted by a Writer)

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: Is the Internet Facing Gridlock?
So when this happens and something needs to be done, people may finally realize it ain't free ?

Or will it matter anyway, because by then we will just be a nation of people that spend their lives watching homemade videos ?
When every single individual becomes a publisher, where is quality ?
(Submitted by a Senior Printer)

Re: BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Life, Time, Mags and Content
Bob, I love the new trend of closing a magazine, but saying that "it will continue to stay alive online." It is like the politician or celebrity who gets in trouble and announces that they are going into rehab. Who is fooling who?
(Submitted by an Industry Supplier)