"If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint."
Edward Hopper (American Painter who strongly influenced the Pop art and New Realist painters of the 1960s and 1970s. 1882-1967)
BoSacks Readers Speak Out: Time, USPS, Reiman and Circ
www.bosacks.com
RE: Buyers Still Choose Time's Circ Over Audience
The statement that "newsweeklies face a tough ad environment" is interesting, given that The Economist and The Nation have substantial growth in ad pages so far this year and that U.S. News is also up. I guess Lucia Moses is defining "newsweekly" as Time and Newsweek -- wrong definition, and wrong diagnosis. The problem is not newsweeklies but rather mass media. Niches are thriving; mass media are dying.
(Submitted by a Paper Person)
RE: BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Magazines now and Later
Just read about the WallSt Journal and USA TODAY providing a Free Magazine for their Weekend Editions, similar to the New York Times. What is most interesting here is that the Google model of free content and a cheap efficient distribution system is working to HELP newspapers by providing the magazine and its contents FREE, Will the day come when daily newspapers in the major cities give away the paper as contents and rely on Advertising for Revenue.. Isn't that the true competition for the WEB???
(Submitted by a Publisher)
Re: Meredith's Griffin Describes Whirlwind of Change, Both for Industry and for Company
Griffin has his act put together. Hope everyone in the audience was listening and hearing, except those folks East of the Hudson, who probably think Griffin represents a company from the 'OUTBACK'.
(Submitted by a Paper Person)
Re: No Reprieve on Postal Rate Hike
Hi Bob: Wow. What does the mailing industry do when faced with monopolistic decisions made by a small handful of unelected officials who scoff at the laws of supply and demand, and scoff at the industries who depend on the postal monopoly as a lifeline to their customers?
This, without a doubt, was one of the worst rate cases in postal history. Even USPS, while trying to mitigate catalog increases, bought into the malarky being peddled by the big publishers, who for years have been trying to strike a death blow to smaller publishers and remove the hated "fragmentation" of the periodical industry so loathed by Time Inc.
If Time Inc could succeed in killing 50% of the periodical industry, they would be partying in the halls, lighting their cigars with $100 bills, and offering free makeovers to all employees. But, does the USPS exist to function as a tool of Time Inc and big publishers?
Why are weird things happening? One big reason is the near complete and total abandonment of efforts find viable means and methods of alternate delivery. What do you do when faced with a monopoly? You do everything in your power to inject competition, real competition, into the marketplace. A monopoly, unchecked, will ultimately render the kind of decisions imbedded in this ugly rate case. If this case is not a wake up call to the mailing industries, what then will it take? The mailing industries need to suspend their "zero-sum" battles, and find a common ground. That common ground should be the long, slow, painful, and costly march to building viable alternative delivery systems that can provide a break on USPS rate increases.
The only shorter term relief here may be in the response to the inevitable failure of these rates. If the response is to reduce rates, there might be some relief, but it would be at least 1-2 years away. Even if it comes, it would be a mistake to continue the policy of
ignoring the need for viable alternative delivery systems as the best way to battle USPS and its quirky rate making bodies, the PRC and BOG.
(Submitted by a publishing expert at a major university)
Re: BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Magazines now and Later
Bo, Latest on Reiman happened last week but announced on Tuesday. The name is being dropped off the door, Newton got fired, who has run the show for the last three years. RDA is not really RDA anymore because it is owned by Ripplewood. The name that is going on the door is RDA Milwaukee. Quote of the day came out of some guy in the announcement to the press, "Reiman is not the brand, the titles are", What rock has this guy been hiding under?"
The next thing, it has been also told to the Reiman folks that they will begin selling advertising in their publications. This will be the beginning of the end as their subscribers will bail at renewal time. Taste Of Home is already on a downward trend after peaking at about 5.4 million just before Readers Digest purchased Reiman for $750 million. The biggest problem that faces these decision makers is many subscribers they have are multiple in nature and receive several titles. whoops.
(Submitted by a Paper Person)
RE: 'Time' Shoving Its Reluctant Writers Online
I'm curious . . . were the editorial obligations for print adjusted to allow for the additional time needed to produce unique pieces on the web? In this day and age, I'd think not. No wonder some of the writers are reluctant to increase their workload for no additional compensation. Is it the usual, "you're lucky to still have a job" spiel from management?
(Submitted by an Editor)
RE: Biggest Threat to Newspapers Is ... MySpace?
Bob; Maybe it's just having been on vacation and out of touch for ten days, but your recent articles (Time editors, Time.com, Time Circ, Yahoo, Paper pricing, and MySpace, among others) ALL seem to be particularly relevant to the industry's current plight (not current "situation"). The changes are coming at warp speed. The good news is that for anybody not paying attention, the end will be mercifully quick.
(Submitted by a Senior Director of Manufacturing and Dst)
RE:
What a jackass. You lose more credibility every day.
(Submitted by a Director of Operations)
((Written in regards to Bush Quotations which were incorrectly attributed by Bo))
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/bush.htm
RE: paper Companies
Nobody likes to hear about threats to their business model; if it worked in the past, and it has, it should work in the future. This attitude is also very prevalent at XXX. . . . Unfortunately things change. Just ask the people at Polaroid. I still like to read the printed word on paper, but I am an old geezer. I just don't like bending over a computer terminal since I may have been on it all day. With my old eyes, I like the small columns of printed articles in newspapers and magazines and not the written story the width of the computer screen. For me it is simply easier to follow. But my kids seldom read a newspaper or look at a magazine. I guess I never knew in the old days when I was calling on you, I was going to be the company of a star.
(Submitted by an old friend and former paper sales person to BoSacks)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Is YouTube, Supposed King of Online Video, Doomed to AOL's Fate?
"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."
Thomas Jefferson (American 3rd US President (1801-09). Author of the Declaration of Independence. 1762-1826)
Is YouTube, Supposed King of Online Video, Doomed to AOL's Fate?
Aggregator on Fast Track to Irrelevance as Media Bigs, Marketers Realize They Can Serve Content on Their Own
By Simon Dumenco
http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=118688
Once upon a time there was a huge, rapidly growing new-media company that consumers really seemed to love, that made competitors sweat and that just about everybody seeking to prosper online figured they had to do business with. Its shtick was that it had the common touch -- that it gave consumers exactly what they wanted and made the online experience effortless, thanks to its unprecedented ease of use.
YouTube dudes: Are Chen (l.) and Hurley the next Steve Case?
Photo Credit: Gabriela Hasbun
Lots of old-media companies, awed by this company's seeming invincibility and its apparent lock on the mass online audience, signed hugely disadvantageous deals, essentially giving away their content in exchange for the exposure. Marketers in particular groveled, lining up to throw money at the company.
The company I'm talking about is, of course, America Online.
And pathetically, or hilariously -- depending on your perspective -- we're now reliving the (unlearned) lessons of AOL with another company that has seemed, until very recently, like the unavoidable 800-pound gorilla of the viral-video space: YouTube.
I'll just go ahead and say it: YouTube is the new AOL -- in all the worst possible ways.
There's a tipping point at play here -- the moment when a critical mass of media companies and marketers will realize that they can do just fine (and probably much better) if they don't play ball with YouTube -- and we're arriving at it just about now.
As Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube for copyright infringement continues to plod though the legal system, what's really interesting is how quickly Viacom has gained traction with its own viral-video initiatives. These days, when you see a video from "The Daily Show" on a blog, chances are it's being served up directly from Comedy Central's Motherload, not from YouTube.
Even more interesting is how instantaneously other media companies, big and small, have figured out not only how to bypass YouTube, but how to quickly duplicate its ease-of-use and intrinsic virality (as with YouTube, embedding, say, a MySpace video on your blog is a simple matter of copying and pasting a line of code). Meanwhile, the talent drain continues, with sites such as Turner Broadcasting's Superdeluxe.com and Will Ferrell's FunnyorDie.com locking up viral-video whizzes that you previously would have automatically assumed you'd be able to find on YouTube.
Up until recently, it really seemed like all viral-video roads necessarily led to, or through, YouTube. Seemingly overnight, that's changed -- and I'm amazed at how often I end up (via blog links or search results or links that friends send me) on non-YouTube video sites.
Yes, YouTube continues to grow rapidly -- and it continues to enjoy considerable heat for the role user-generated video agitprop is playing in the presidential race. But tellingly, although you could find multiple user posts of Hillary Clinton's "Sopranos" spoof on YouTube, most viewers seem to have gone directly to HillaryClinton.com (half a million visitors in 24 hours) to see it.
You don't have to wait for the much-hyped, overcapitalized next-gen internet video sites, including Joost, Babelgum and VeohTV (the Michael Eisner-backed Veoh spinoff that quietly made its debut last week) to emerge from their beta trials to see that the days of YouTube hegemony are numbered. Right now, the best new viral-video aggregators and curators -- see two of my favorites in Media Guy's Pop Pick -- are proving to be entirely agnostic about which viral-video sites they cull from.
The mistake we've been making in evaluating mass-market first-mover YouTube has been in thinking that Google-like dominance is possible in the content arena.
But, of course, that's as daft as thinking that we'd always need America Online.
Thomas Jefferson (American 3rd US President (1801-09). Author of the Declaration of Independence. 1762-1826)
Is YouTube, Supposed King of Online Video, Doomed to AOL's Fate?
Aggregator on Fast Track to Irrelevance as Media Bigs, Marketers Realize They Can Serve Content on Their Own
By Simon Dumenco
http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=118688
Once upon a time there was a huge, rapidly growing new-media company that consumers really seemed to love, that made competitors sweat and that just about everybody seeking to prosper online figured they had to do business with. Its shtick was that it had the common touch -- that it gave consumers exactly what they wanted and made the online experience effortless, thanks to its unprecedented ease of use.
YouTube dudes: Are Chen (l.) and Hurley the next Steve Case?
Photo Credit: Gabriela Hasbun
Lots of old-media companies, awed by this company's seeming invincibility and its apparent lock on the mass online audience, signed hugely disadvantageous deals, essentially giving away their content in exchange for the exposure. Marketers in particular groveled, lining up to throw money at the company.
The company I'm talking about is, of course, America Online.
And pathetically, or hilariously -- depending on your perspective -- we're now reliving the (unlearned) lessons of AOL with another company that has seemed, until very recently, like the unavoidable 800-pound gorilla of the viral-video space: YouTube.
I'll just go ahead and say it: YouTube is the new AOL -- in all the worst possible ways.
There's a tipping point at play here -- the moment when a critical mass of media companies and marketers will realize that they can do just fine (and probably much better) if they don't play ball with YouTube -- and we're arriving at it just about now.
As Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube for copyright infringement continues to plod though the legal system, what's really interesting is how quickly Viacom has gained traction with its own viral-video initiatives. These days, when you see a video from "The Daily Show" on a blog, chances are it's being served up directly from Comedy Central's Motherload, not from YouTube.
Even more interesting is how instantaneously other media companies, big and small, have figured out not only how to bypass YouTube, but how to quickly duplicate its ease-of-use and intrinsic virality (as with YouTube, embedding, say, a MySpace video on your blog is a simple matter of copying and pasting a line of code). Meanwhile, the talent drain continues, with sites such as Turner Broadcasting's Superdeluxe.com and Will Ferrell's FunnyorDie.com locking up viral-video whizzes that you previously would have automatically assumed you'd be able to find on YouTube.
Up until recently, it really seemed like all viral-video roads necessarily led to, or through, YouTube. Seemingly overnight, that's changed -- and I'm amazed at how often I end up (via blog links or search results or links that friends send me) on non-YouTube video sites.
Yes, YouTube continues to grow rapidly -- and it continues to enjoy considerable heat for the role user-generated video agitprop is playing in the presidential race. But tellingly, although you could find multiple user posts of Hillary Clinton's "Sopranos" spoof on YouTube, most viewers seem to have gone directly to HillaryClinton.com (half a million visitors in 24 hours) to see it.
You don't have to wait for the much-hyped, overcapitalized next-gen internet video sites, including Joost, Babelgum and VeohTV (the Michael Eisner-backed Veoh spinoff that quietly made its debut last week) to emerge from their beta trials to see that the days of YouTube hegemony are numbered. Right now, the best new viral-video aggregators and curators -- see two of my favorites in Media Guy's Pop Pick -- are proving to be entirely agnostic about which viral-video sites they cull from.
The mistake we've been making in evaluating mass-market first-mover YouTube has been in thinking that Google-like dominance is possible in the content arena.
But, of course, that's as daft as thinking that we'd always need America Online.
Commentary - Prostitution Is Legal
"Asked how he became a writer: In the same way that a woman becomes a prostitute. First I did it to please myself, then I did it to please my friends, and finally I did it for money."
Ferenc Molnar
Commentary
Prostitution Is Legal
BY Atoosa Rubenstein
http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/06/22/atoosa-prostitutes-advertising-oped-cx_ar_0625atoosa.html
Atoosa Rubenstein
Several years ago, during my editor days, I let my American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) membership expire. I had a magazine to turn around and didn't want mom's rules to get between my team and our audience.
I realized the implications of my decision when the press tried to cook up a mini-scandal connecting my withdrawal from ASME to a "back to school" fashion issue where I'd mentioned several of our readers' favorite retailers by name on the cover (implying this was an advertiser-driven move).
The decision was purely editorial (what teenager isn't loyal to certain stores?), but they suggested I was pimping the magazine out. In truth, no money was exchanged. I felt like I'd gotten in trouble from mom--for something I didn't even do.
The puritans should be aware, though, that today this kind of prostitution is legal. Martha Stewart says it's OK--and whom do we trust more than Martha? As has been previously reported, advertisers who buy at least $250,000 of 30-second spots--hers cost an average of $10,000 compared with Oprah's $100,000--get a branded segment with America's favorite homemaker.
Yes, you heard right, you can essentially buy a segment with Martha! But Martha sleeps with the companies Martha wants to sleep with, thank-you-very-much. She claims to only promote products she truly believes in, which puts her at the top of the corporate prostitution pyramid: a woman in charge of her own affairs.
At the bottom of the corporate prostitution pyramid? Magazine beauty editors. (Not all, just most.) These well-paid, well-heeled ladies are shuttled from press event to press event in Town Cars provided by the advertisers (yes, of course I miss it!) to chartered planes to exotic locations - - wined and dined, fluffed and buffed while their corporate pimps look away. Sure, all the fun comes at a cost: Beauty editors just have to put out a little . . . a credit here, a mention there. Though awards await the ones who put out a lot.
The FIFI Award (for the best Fragrance Editorial), the most fabulous prize of them all, is presented at a beautiful gala in front of the entire industry. But even the smaller ones are nice. Every year at the Cosmetics, Toiletry and Fragrance Association convention in Boca Raton, Fla., Revlon (nyse: REV - news - people ) always gives an award to the magazine at each publishing company that gave them the biggest editorial mention of the year.
How's that for treating your girl right? They may not be raking in the dollars like Martha, but positive reinforcement and perks work well at the bottom of the pyramid.
These special relations aren't just taking place in traditional media. Lonelygirl15, as you may know, is a popular video blog. The world initially thought it was the work of a real teenager named Bree, but it was discovered to be a professional production. Well, "Bree" has just jumped into bed with an advertiser: Neutrogena.
And so Bree will introduce a new "friend" to her cast of characters: a scientist from the skin care company. If Bree were a real teen, she'd probably like Neutrogena products. So it's not like she's shilling something random. That would be even dirtier than the already dirty thought of a teenager in bed with a corporate giant. Luckily in reality they're all adults . . . at least the ones performing.
Now meet someone who is taking product placement to the next level: Robert Verdi, a lively television personality who has hosted a variety of fashion and interior design shows such as "Surprise by Design" on Discovery, which was the network's highest-rated daytime show.
At first, Mr. Verdi cashed in on his cache by building alliances with a slew of brands from Panasonic to Oral B. But he saw opportunities to service his high-end clients beyond the television screen. Enter Luxe Laboratory, Robert's new venture.
This will be a luxurious real life (a beautiful 5,000-square-foot space on West 30th Street) and virtual "brothel" for product placements. Robert has created a chic salon where his most stylish friends can meet his biggest, sexiest clients.
It's a place where the participating brands (like Kohler and Smith & Hawken) can entertain editors, celebrities and other style makers--a place to show them new products and seduce them in the comfort of their own bachelor pad . . . Robert's bachelor pad. Lots of brands were turned away. "I only wanted stuff I would put in my own home." He chooses his bedmates, like Martha.
Listen, I don't stand in judgment. I can appreciate the Martha/Robert model. Only sleep with who you like. So perhaps the advice to the bottom of the triangle is raise your standards when you drop your drawers (but perhaps I'm just mad that I bought a mascara mentioned in a magazine that doesn't work very well) or jump into bed with your consumers and you'll see that advertisers will once again pay you, and pay you what you're worth. After all, as cute as you are, they don't like you in that way . . . they're after your audience.
Now that I'm off the street, I'm mostly spending quality time with my audience: smaller, intimate gatherings. Though there's plenty of prostitution in the online world, I don't want to play that game. I don't want to over-promise on my numbers to compete with the traditional world and their inflated numbers and end up working the streets again. I want to organically build a brand by being true to my Alpha Kitties.
The advertising folks have pushed the editorial door in so far that the audience (myself as a viewer/reader included) have fewer and fewer trusted sources. My girls don't necessarily know that prostitution is legal, and like ASME, I guess I want to try to protect them from that reality. You know what they say - - we all eventually turn into our mothers.
Atoosa Rubenstein left the job of editor in chief of Seventeen magazine to start her own digital business and blogs to the delight of her legion of fans at www.myspace.com/atoosaspage. She has also started a consultancy advising companies how to speak to the teen market . Her own digital network, Atoosa.com, will be coming soon.
Ferenc Molnar
Commentary
Prostitution Is Legal
BY Atoosa Rubenstein
http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/06/22/atoosa-prostitutes-advertising-oped-cx_ar_0625atoosa.html
Atoosa Rubenstein
Several years ago, during my editor days, I let my American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) membership expire. I had a magazine to turn around and didn't want mom's rules to get between my team and our audience.
I realized the implications of my decision when the press tried to cook up a mini-scandal connecting my withdrawal from ASME to a "back to school" fashion issue where I'd mentioned several of our readers' favorite retailers by name on the cover (implying this was an advertiser-driven move).
The decision was purely editorial (what teenager isn't loyal to certain stores?), but they suggested I was pimping the magazine out. In truth, no money was exchanged. I felt like I'd gotten in trouble from mom--for something I didn't even do.
The puritans should be aware, though, that today this kind of prostitution is legal. Martha Stewart says it's OK--and whom do we trust more than Martha? As has been previously reported, advertisers who buy at least $250,000 of 30-second spots--hers cost an average of $10,000 compared with Oprah's $100,000--get a branded segment with America's favorite homemaker.
Yes, you heard right, you can essentially buy a segment with Martha! But Martha sleeps with the companies Martha wants to sleep with, thank-you-very-much. She claims to only promote products she truly believes in, which puts her at the top of the corporate prostitution pyramid: a woman in charge of her own affairs.
At the bottom of the corporate prostitution pyramid? Magazine beauty editors. (Not all, just most.) These well-paid, well-heeled ladies are shuttled from press event to press event in Town Cars provided by the advertisers (yes, of course I miss it!) to chartered planes to exotic locations - - wined and dined, fluffed and buffed while their corporate pimps look away. Sure, all the fun comes at a cost: Beauty editors just have to put out a little . . . a credit here, a mention there. Though awards await the ones who put out a lot.
The FIFI Award (for the best Fragrance Editorial), the most fabulous prize of them all, is presented at a beautiful gala in front of the entire industry. But even the smaller ones are nice. Every year at the Cosmetics, Toiletry and Fragrance Association convention in Boca Raton, Fla., Revlon (nyse: REV - news - people ) always gives an award to the magazine at each publishing company that gave them the biggest editorial mention of the year.
How's that for treating your girl right? They may not be raking in the dollars like Martha, but positive reinforcement and perks work well at the bottom of the pyramid.
These special relations aren't just taking place in traditional media. Lonelygirl15, as you may know, is a popular video blog. The world initially thought it was the work of a real teenager named Bree, but it was discovered to be a professional production. Well, "Bree" has just jumped into bed with an advertiser: Neutrogena.
And so Bree will introduce a new "friend" to her cast of characters: a scientist from the skin care company. If Bree were a real teen, she'd probably like Neutrogena products. So it's not like she's shilling something random. That would be even dirtier than the already dirty thought of a teenager in bed with a corporate giant. Luckily in reality they're all adults . . . at least the ones performing.
Now meet someone who is taking product placement to the next level: Robert Verdi, a lively television personality who has hosted a variety of fashion and interior design shows such as "Surprise by Design" on Discovery, which was the network's highest-rated daytime show.
At first, Mr. Verdi cashed in on his cache by building alliances with a slew of brands from Panasonic to Oral B. But he saw opportunities to service his high-end clients beyond the television screen. Enter Luxe Laboratory, Robert's new venture.
This will be a luxurious real life (a beautiful 5,000-square-foot space on West 30th Street) and virtual "brothel" for product placements. Robert has created a chic salon where his most stylish friends can meet his biggest, sexiest clients.
It's a place where the participating brands (like Kohler and Smith & Hawken) can entertain editors, celebrities and other style makers--a place to show them new products and seduce them in the comfort of their own bachelor pad . . . Robert's bachelor pad. Lots of brands were turned away. "I only wanted stuff I would put in my own home." He chooses his bedmates, like Martha.
Listen, I don't stand in judgment. I can appreciate the Martha/Robert model. Only sleep with who you like. So perhaps the advice to the bottom of the triangle is raise your standards when you drop your drawers (but perhaps I'm just mad that I bought a mascara mentioned in a magazine that doesn't work very well) or jump into bed with your consumers and you'll see that advertisers will once again pay you, and pay you what you're worth. After all, as cute as you are, they don't like you in that way . . . they're after your audience.
Now that I'm off the street, I'm mostly spending quality time with my audience: smaller, intimate gatherings. Though there's plenty of prostitution in the online world, I don't want to play that game. I don't want to over-promise on my numbers to compete with the traditional world and their inflated numbers and end up working the streets again. I want to organically build a brand by being true to my Alpha Kitties.
The advertising folks have pushed the editorial door in so far that the audience (myself as a viewer/reader included) have fewer and fewer trusted sources. My girls don't necessarily know that prostitution is legal, and like ASME, I guess I want to try to protect them from that reality. You know what they say - - we all eventually turn into our mothers.
Atoosa Rubenstein left the job of editor in chief of Seventeen magazine to start her own digital business and blogs to the delight of her legion of fans at www.myspace.com/atoosaspage. She has also started a consultancy advising companies how to speak to the teen market . Her own digital network, Atoosa.com, will be coming soon.
Monday, June 25, 2007
BoSacks Speaks Out: Time Inc. Dives Into Digi-Mags
BoSacks Speaks Out: This foray by Time Inc to get further into the Digi-mag world is absolutely brilliant. I have been a fan of Dennis publishing's Monkey Magazine for quite some time, But Monkey Magazine is very busy and almost overwhelming in its pursuit to use all the available technology. Monkey is far too busy for my more simple tastes, but then again, I am not really the intended audience. People Magazine on the other hand, uses the technology with elegance and style. It is understated and very smoothly rendered. The downloads are extremely fast, and almost seamless. This is a terrific display of prowess and my hat is off to Time Inc. Bravo!
As some of you may know I will be debating Samir Husni about the future of our industry this Thursday, June 28th at the Periodical and Book Association of America (PBAA) 21st Annual Convention in Philadelphia. I will no doubt use Time Inc and People magazine as an example of a small piece of the puzzle of the future our publishing business. Check out this link and then imagine a combination of e-paper technology and this style of publishing. Five or six years from now it will be a reality. Actually in five or six years this will probably seem very archaic, but it is still a terrific starting point.
Now before the devoted fans of Samir and the dead trees only society send me nasty notes, I feel it prudent to explain that I am not prophesizing the end of printed matter as we know it. Rather I am suggesting that at some time in the very near future printed products will not be the predominate method of information distribution for publishers. Digital distribution will be the leader, but there will still be an abundance of printed products for those who can afford them.
"The future masters of technology will have to be light-hearted and intelligent. The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb."
Marshall McLuhan
Canadian communications theorist educator, writer and social reformer, 1911-1980
Time Inc. Dives Into Digi-Mags
Exclusive: Taps Huge Subscriber Base for Online Issue of People
By Nat Ives http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=118739
NEW YORK
(AdAge.com) -- The exploration of those magazine-website hybrids sometimes called digi-mags is taking a big step toward mass reach this week with the introduction of People magazine's first entry in the field.
People's digi-mag Beginning today, some 1.2 million subscribers to Time Inc. magazines will receive e-mails pointing them to People's "Best Summer Ever" issue online. The print magazine, which reaches 42 million adults, according to Mediamark Research Inc., will also promote the online effort. Under scrutinyPeople can't claim to be first with a dynamic, soundtracked, video-packed e-magazine; the Europeans are ahead of us on that front. But the potential scope is new. Time Inc.'s digital extensions, of course, come under a lot of scrutiny, partly because many employees were laid off to free the resources required to fund digital efforts -- and partly because Time Inc. has one failed experiment under its belt already, the ill-fated Office Pirates site. On top of that, no one at People has any idea how well this digi-mag will perform, and understandably is keeping expectations low.
"It's just a nice, fun bonus that we're offering our consumer," said group publisher Paul Caine. Unilever, which has nine ad pages in "Best Summer Ever" and is its exclusive sponsor, got involved for the experience. "Is it a risk?" asked Irene Grieco, the Unilever senior U.S. lead print manager. "It might be. But we've always challenged our partners to come to us with new and innovative and unique opportunities." InteractivityThe 30-page digi-mag starts with an animated cover in which dolphins leap out of the water behind a bathing suit-clad Beyonce Knowles while a "Plus: Matthew McConaughey On The Beach!" tease floats up and down. Surf sounds play in the background. Editorial spreads allow consumers to watch movie trailers, tool through McConaughey photos, try different accessories on a mannequin wearing an Ella Moss dress and play with the advertising.
Buffering delays are eliminated by loading the issue all at once. People's staff designed most of the creative elements but worked with a digital-magazine production company called Blogform Digital Magazines to get the issue built. Unlike magazines digitally reproduced on systems such as Zinio, there's no software to install, there's a different soundtrack for every page, ads are interactive far beyond clickable URLs and all the content is original. Brad Adgate, senior VP-director of research at Horizon Media, shared the others' curiosity. "For certain demographics I think there is a certain appeal, but I don't think it's widespread yet," he said.
"It may be ahead of the curve -- but I don't think it's a bad thing to do." "This thing could pan out or it could be a dismal flop that they learn something from," he added. "This could be a template for future initiatives or this could be something along the lines of New Coke." For now, "Best Summer Ever" is a one-shot test, but expect to see more issues eventually if readers and advertisers like it. "We don't know if this is one of the tools in our kit -- or a new business," said Martha Nelson, the People Group editor. "We have a lot of things we need to find out: how big the audience can be, what kind of life it has, how much they're engaged. We're going to be looking at everything."
You, Too, Can Grace a National Magazine's Cover
"There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it"
Mark Twain (American Humorist, Writer and Lecturer. 1835-1910)
You, Too, Can Grace a National Magazine's Cover
By CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/business/media/25adco.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
IN the old days - say, maybe a month ago - a "customized" magazine meant that it had ads tailored to your age group or articles about your region. Now, it seems, it has your picture on the cover, too.
A personalized version of the July issue of Wired magazine.
In its April issue, Wired magazine, in partnership with Xerox, invited subscribers to upload their photographs to Wired.com. The first 5,000 who did so are now receiving their July issue with themselves as the cover art.
Not coincidentally, the editorial theme of the issue is the growing personalization of all things in cyberspace, and the headline over the photo is "You are here."
Wired, which is owned by Condé Nast, publicized the promotion to its subscribers via e-mail, magazine inserts and on its Web site. And while the Xerox name is not on the covers themselves, the promotions and Web site made clear that the project depended on software from Xerox and the company's iGen3 110 digital production press.
Neither Xerox nor Condé Nast would disclose costs, but since neither had to farm tasks out to third parties, both say it was not very expensive.
"We didn't make money on this, but it really didn't cost anything," said Drew Schutte, vice president and publishing director of Wired Media.
Which was probably a good thing, since neither company expects to get an immediate rush of sales from the do-it-yourself cover. Wired aimed its promotion entirely at people who already subscribe. And those people tend to be "younger, male and affluent," according to Mr. Schutte, which means they have probably not risen high enough in the corporate ranks to where they can authorize purchases of expensive equipment.
But new sales were not the immediate goal for either Wired or Xerox. Both companies are looking to update their images.
In Wired's case, that meant integrating - or rather, re-integrating - the way it markets itself. In 1998, five years after Wired first started publishing, Condé Nast bought the magazine and Lycos bought the Web site. Lycos, and thus Wired.com, has been through a series of ownership changes since then.
Last July, Condé Nast bought the Web site from Daum Communications, its last owner. It created Wired Media and gave Mr. Schutte responsibility for integrating all of Wired's offerings.
Wired will sponsor a science show on public television this fall, and it is working with a homebuilder in Los Angeles to build a green "wired" home. And, of course, it is trying to draw more traffic to its Web site.
"We're going to give our advertisers the integrated, turnkey solutions that they want," Mr. Schutte said. "But if we're going to create buzz for an advertiser, we want to create buzz for ourselves as well."
So the Wired marketers suggested the collaboration to Xerox. Xerox had done 70,000 personalized covers for the December 2006 issue of Graphic Arts Monthly, in which it printed subscribers' first names as stars against a night sky, and their companies' names on a rocket ship. But that cover used the Graphic Arts database; a reader-generated cover represented uncharted territory.
"We jumped at it, we loved it, it clicked immediately," said Joanna Havlin, a partner in Media Edge: Cia, the media planning and buying unit of WPP that represents Xerox. "It was a way to showcase Xerox as an innovator, a technology leader and a document solutions provider."
It could also help Xerox bury a stereotype. What was once its greatest blessing is now a lingering curse - the name Xerox was so linked to stand-alone copier machines that a whole generation of people used it as a lowercase verb.
These days Xerox sells all sorts of copiers and printers that can be connected to networks, as well as software and services that allow publishers to print books on demand, banks to personalize bills inserts - or, of course, magazines with personalized covers. But the Xerox name is not at all synonymous with those activities.
With this promotion, "Xerox will get to demonstrative an inventive, fresh technology, and it will get a halo effect just by linking itself to a young, edgy brand like Wired," said Allen P. Adamson, managing director for the brand consulting firm Landor Associates.
Granted, few Wired subscribers are likely customers for an iGen3 production printer, a heavy-duty piece of business equipment. But that does not bother Xerox. Indeed, Xerox has been a regular advertiser on Wired.com for more than two years and for even longer in the magazine. For the July issue, it bought the back cover on all the issues; in the 5,000 customized ones, it took the inside front and inside back covers, too.
"The Wired audience is savvy and forward thinking, and even if they are not yet buyers, they are influencers," said Barbara Basney, director of global advertising at Xerox.
Xerox and Wired are also doing some direct influencing themselves. At the March convention of TED - the annual Technology, Entertainment and Design conference attended by high-ranking executives in the advertising and printing world - they set up a booth at which attendees could have their pictures taken. Each will receive a personalized July issue of Wired. They also printed covers for David Letterman, Katie Couric and other television celebrities who could possible mention it on their shows.
And, of course, they reached out to reporters at business publications that reach a wider audience than Wired. "One reason to do an inventive campaign is to get the press interested, since they will write stories that reach the people who make the buying decisions," said Ran Kivetz, a professor of marketing at the Columbia Business School.
Nor is the promotion over when the last July issue is sent. For another two months, anyone can upload a photo to Wired.com, write a headline, and print a personalized cover at home (or e-mail it to friends or post it on blogs or MySpace pages). Xerox, meanwhile, is already working out details with Time magazine's Canadian edition to gives its subscribers a chance to get their September issue with a personalized cover wrapped around the regular one.
All of which raises a question that even the smartest brand specialists or technophiles cannot yet answer. If your cover is on a national magazine, but only on the issue you receive, does that qualify as your 15 minutes of fame?
The want ads department
c"It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious."
Alfred North Whitehead (British Mathematician and Philosopher, 1861-1947)
The want ads department
By: Edited by Valerie Block
http://www.newyorkbusiness.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070624/FREE/70623029&SearchID=73285232776603
Publisher David Carey was pressing the flesh last week during the final stretch of his race to fill Conde Nast Portfolio's second issue with ads. He met with clients to share enthusiastic e-mails from some of the business title's high-profile readers, media buyers say.
His efforts to retain all his advertisers haven't been entirely successful. The debut issue, which arrived in April amid tremendous hype and mixed reviews, had 185 ad pages. The September issue will have roughly 120, a Portfolio spokeswoman says.
One executive at a major media-buying shop explains why some clients whose ads appeared in the first issue will not return: "They expected a more hard-hitting, substantive business environment, and what they got was a fashion-centric, business-as-background type of Conde Nast title," he says.
Portfolio executives say the publication is meeting its original goals, which were to run an average of 125 pages in September, October and November. "This was the plan," says the spokeswoman. "We have solid fall issues and at least 30 new advertisers."
Mr. Carey will be booking September ads until July 10.
Union Rejects Time Inc. Offer
Union Representing Time Inc. Magazine Workers Rejects Contract Offer From Company
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070622/time_inc_union.html?printer=1
NEW YORK (AP) -- Members of a union representing editorial employees at Time, Fortune, People and other magazines at Time Inc. have unanimously rejected a contract offer from the company.
The Newspaper Guild of New York said Friday its members had voted 133-0 to turn down the company's offer, which the union said would have "drastically cut" severance pay, provided no guaranteed wage increases and allowed the company in several cases to change health coverage without consulting the guild.
The union has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board claiming that the magazine publisher, part of the media conglomerate Time Warner Inc., has been bargaining in bad faith by presenting proposals that "demonstrate a lack of intent to ever reach an agreement."
Negotiations have been going on since last December, and the most recent contract expired on March 22, the guild said. In January, Time Inc. announced nearly 300 job cuts, including 100 union-covered jobs.
In addition to editorial employees at Time and Fortune, the guild also represents workers at Time Inc.'s Fortune Small Business, Money, People and Sports Illustrated magazines.
Time Inc. spokeswoman Dawn Bridges said in a statement that the company "gave the union very fair and reasonable proposals, including generous severance, a merit pay system and overtime after 40 hours work. Our hope and expectation is to reach a new contract."
http://www.minonline.com/min/
The Weeklies'/Biweeklies' 2007-Versus-2006 Ad Pages At Mid-Year: "Gossip" Remains Advertising Stronger Than "Real" News And Business.
We do not know whether the ever-growing legion of Us Weekly/InTouch/Life & Style Weekly and Star readers fully believe the never-ending pregnancies/anorexia/bulimia/obesity/marriages/separations/divorces afflicting America's celebrities, but advertisers continue to believe in the product. All of the aforementioned are up significantly in ad pages through the first half, with Bauer Publishing's IT (+30.20%) and L&SW (+51.83%) posting the biggest differentials overall. (Success did not stop L&SW editor-in-chief Mark Pasetsky from dismissing seven staffers last week.) That suggests quite an ad "welcome wagon" for Bauer's planned September launch of Cocktail Weekly, which advertising president Ian Scott said (min, May 7, 2007) will be less gossipy and more in the beauty/fashion/relationships mold of Cosmopolitan and Glamour. But, given the numbers, it is not only a woman who has the right to change her mind.
People (-1.91% through June) is not on this ad gravy-train perhaps because it is not gossipy enough, but it certainly earns more than its rivals combined. Conditions are tough at Newsweek (-7.21%) and the restructured Time (-5.57%), and continue to be so at BusinessWeek (-12.58%), Forbes (-3.52%), and Fortune (-17.43%). The much-improved economy and strong stock market (in spite of end-of-first-quarter concerns) is not yet reflected here.
We cannot guarantee that TV Guide's +29.74% first-half has removed it from intensive care, but the differential is the most pleasing since its major overhaul in October 2005. New-to-min's-boxscores The Nation did better "left" (+23.03%) than National Review did "right" (-7.77%).
Alfred North Whitehead (British Mathematician and Philosopher, 1861-1947)
The want ads department
By: Edited by Valerie Block
http://www.newyorkbusiness.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070624/FREE/70623029&SearchID=73285232776603
Publisher David Carey was pressing the flesh last week during the final stretch of his race to fill Conde Nast Portfolio's second issue with ads. He met with clients to share enthusiastic e-mails from some of the business title's high-profile readers, media buyers say.
His efforts to retain all his advertisers haven't been entirely successful. The debut issue, which arrived in April amid tremendous hype and mixed reviews, had 185 ad pages. The September issue will have roughly 120, a Portfolio spokeswoman says.
One executive at a major media-buying shop explains why some clients whose ads appeared in the first issue will not return: "They expected a more hard-hitting, substantive business environment, and what they got was a fashion-centric, business-as-background type of Conde Nast title," he says.
Portfolio executives say the publication is meeting its original goals, which were to run an average of 125 pages in September, October and November. "This was the plan," says the spokeswoman. "We have solid fall issues and at least 30 new advertisers."
Mr. Carey will be booking September ads until July 10.
Union Rejects Time Inc. Offer
Union Representing Time Inc. Magazine Workers Rejects Contract Offer From Company
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070622/time_inc_union.html?printer=1
NEW YORK (AP) -- Members of a union representing editorial employees at Time, Fortune, People and other magazines at Time Inc. have unanimously rejected a contract offer from the company.
The Newspaper Guild of New York said Friday its members had voted 133-0 to turn down the company's offer, which the union said would have "drastically cut" severance pay, provided no guaranteed wage increases and allowed the company in several cases to change health coverage without consulting the guild.
The union has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board claiming that the magazine publisher, part of the media conglomerate Time Warner Inc., has been bargaining in bad faith by presenting proposals that "demonstrate a lack of intent to ever reach an agreement."
Negotiations have been going on since last December, and the most recent contract expired on March 22, the guild said. In January, Time Inc. announced nearly 300 job cuts, including 100 union-covered jobs.
In addition to editorial employees at Time and Fortune, the guild also represents workers at Time Inc.'s Fortune Small Business, Money, People and Sports Illustrated magazines.
Time Inc. spokeswoman Dawn Bridges said in a statement that the company "gave the union very fair and reasonable proposals, including generous severance, a merit pay system and overtime after 40 hours work. Our hope and expectation is to reach a new contract."
http://www.minonline.com/min/
The Weeklies'/Biweeklies' 2007-Versus-2006 Ad Pages At Mid-Year: "Gossip" Remains Advertising Stronger Than "Real" News And Business.
We do not know whether the ever-growing legion of Us Weekly/InTouch/Life & Style Weekly and Star readers fully believe the never-ending pregnancies/anorexia/bulimia/obesity/marriages/separations/divorces afflicting America's celebrities, but advertisers continue to believe in the product. All of the aforementioned are up significantly in ad pages through the first half, with Bauer Publishing's IT (+30.20%) and L&SW (+51.83%) posting the biggest differentials overall. (Success did not stop L&SW editor-in-chief Mark Pasetsky from dismissing seven staffers last week.) That suggests quite an ad "welcome wagon" for Bauer's planned September launch of Cocktail Weekly, which advertising president Ian Scott said (min, May 7, 2007) will be less gossipy and more in the beauty/fashion/relationships mold of Cosmopolitan and Glamour. But, given the numbers, it is not only a woman who has the right to change her mind.
People (-1.91% through June) is not on this ad gravy-train perhaps because it is not gossipy enough, but it certainly earns more than its rivals combined. Conditions are tough at Newsweek (-7.21%) and the restructured Time (-5.57%), and continue to be so at BusinessWeek (-12.58%), Forbes (-3.52%), and Fortune (-17.43%). The much-improved economy and strong stock market (in spite of end-of-first-quarter concerns) is not yet reflected here.
We cannot guarantee that TV Guide's +29.74% first-half has removed it from intensive care, but the differential is the most pleasing since its major overhaul in October 2005. New-to-min's-boxscores The Nation did better "left" (+23.03%) than National Review did "right" (-7.77%).
Sunday, June 24, 2007
What Can Magazines Learn From Newspapers' Digital Transition?
Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
What Can Magazines Learn From Newspapers' Digital Transition?
Posted by: Scott Karp
http://www.foliomag.com/page.asp?prmID=273&dspMore=1&prmPID=118&showmonth=6#118
So often you hear generalizations about the future of print publishing, e.g. print is dead, newspapers are doomed, online revenue is soaring, print revenue is shrinking. None of these generalizations tell you what's actually going on at the P&L level, which all publishers have to manage in age of rapidly changing media economics. There's nothing like digging into the actually numbers to give you a sense of how the publishing business is transforming, especially in comparing the economics of digital to the economics of print.
I was struck today by the data flowing out of the Newspaper Association of America's Mid-Year Review:
As we reported last week, Media General's May print ad revenues fell 14.9 percent, to $42 million from $48 million, while the interactive division posted a rise in May 2007 revenues of 43.1 percent to $2.8 million from $2 million the previous May. At Tuesday's presentation, COO Reid Ashe told attendees: "For many things, the internet is now our primary medium."
Although not presenting until Wednesday morning, Lee Enterprises, the Davenport, Iowa-based publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other newspapers, issued its May figures on Monday: online ad revenue was up 60 percent in May to $5.3 million from $3.3 million year-over-year. In general, advertising revenue declined 1.7 percent to $73 million from $74.6 million, for the same period. Combined print and online classified revenue for the month was pretty much flat, coming in at $29.1 million from $29.2 million in May 2006. Lee's claimed its websites attract more than 11 million visits per month. Lee expects June's declines to be similar to May's and April's.
These numbers are really astonishing when you look at them -- and when you do the math that no one ever does in press releases. Media General's print ad revenue is down $6 million for May year-over-year. But online is only up $800K. That's a net loss of $5.2 million! Online revenue may be up 43.1 percent, which seems like a lot, but it really needs to be 10X that. The caveat, of course, is that the $800K in online is more profitable, but is it really, given how much of newspapers are using print content online?
The Lee numbers are even more striking. First, the $2 million year-over-year increase in online ad revenue is impressive in absolute terms. Even more impressive is that this increase in online ad revenue is nearly compensating for the decline in print ad revenue.
But this is what really gets me -- Lee's online ad revenue is online 7% of it's total ad revenue -- yet Lee reaches 11 million per month online across its newspapers. That made me wonder how many people Lee reaches in print:
As Lee's paid daily circulation held stable at 1.7 million daily and 1.9 million Sunday, total print plus online audiences keep growing.
Think about this -- advertisers paid $67.7 million to reach about 2 million people in print -- but they only paid $5.3 million to reach 11 million people online! Now, granted, it's not as simple as that, since not all 11 million people visit the site every day. But still.
Clearly, newspapers have a BIG pricing problem. And that's where the lesson for magazines comes in. Print publishers, both newspapers and magazines, have long enjoyed monopoly pricing. Even in competitive magazine categories, there were typically only 2 or 3 books competing for ad dollars to reach a particular audience. Online competition has exploded, thanks to cheap publishing tools like blogging software. Newspapers have been the hardest hit by the loss of pricing power, since most newspapers enjoyed a true monopoly, and news has become highly commoditized online. But there are few topics or niches where there aren't new sources of information proliferating online -- in many cases, A LOT of new sources.
But it's not just competition that has created such huge disparities in pricing and media value. For most print publishers, the online pricing problem is, to a large degree, a self-inflicted wound from all of those years of giving online away as "added value" to advertisers paying top dollar for print ad pages. Publishers taught advertisers to devalue online, and now that advertisers are devaluing print, it's hard to convince them that online is worth at least as much as print -- if not more.
So what's the lesson for magazine publishers?
1. Advertiserswill value your online audience not a penny more than how you value it,and likely a lot less -- that means you need to price onlinecommensurate with its value and you need to make it the site LOOKvaluable -- so much of the appeal of print is in the appearance.
2. Keep advertisers focused on media 101 -- a larger audience, assuming it's all the right people, is worth MORE, not less.
3. Reachingpeople in their preferred medium or one with a high degree of utility,e.g. email newsletters, has MORE value for advertisers, even if the adunits don't have the same aesthetic appeal as a glossy print ad.
4. Evenif your online ad revenue is small or non-existent, seize control of itNOW -- don't wait, like newspapers did, until the horse is out of thebarn.
Scott Karp writes for Folio online about digital media and its impact on magazine publishing, and also on Publishing 2.0, a blog about how digital media is transforming the entire media industry.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
What Can Magazines Learn From Newspapers' Digital Transition?
Posted by: Scott Karp
http://www.foliomag.com/page.asp?prmID=273&dspMore=1&prmPID=118&showmonth=6#118
So often you hear generalizations about the future of print publishing, e.g. print is dead, newspapers are doomed, online revenue is soaring, print revenue is shrinking. None of these generalizations tell you what's actually going on at the P&L level, which all publishers have to manage in age of rapidly changing media economics. There's nothing like digging into the actually numbers to give you a sense of how the publishing business is transforming, especially in comparing the economics of digital to the economics of print.
I was struck today by the data flowing out of the Newspaper Association of America's Mid-Year Review:
As we reported last week, Media General's May print ad revenues fell 14.9 percent, to $42 million from $48 million, while the interactive division posted a rise in May 2007 revenues of 43.1 percent to $2.8 million from $2 million the previous May. At Tuesday's presentation, COO Reid Ashe told attendees: "For many things, the internet is now our primary medium."
Although not presenting until Wednesday morning, Lee Enterprises, the Davenport, Iowa-based publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other newspapers, issued its May figures on Monday: online ad revenue was up 60 percent in May to $5.3 million from $3.3 million year-over-year. In general, advertising revenue declined 1.7 percent to $73 million from $74.6 million, for the same period. Combined print and online classified revenue for the month was pretty much flat, coming in at $29.1 million from $29.2 million in May 2006. Lee's claimed its websites attract more than 11 million visits per month. Lee expects June's declines to be similar to May's and April's.
These numbers are really astonishing when you look at them -- and when you do the math that no one ever does in press releases. Media General's print ad revenue is down $6 million for May year-over-year. But online is only up $800K. That's a net loss of $5.2 million! Online revenue may be up 43.1 percent, which seems like a lot, but it really needs to be 10X that. The caveat, of course, is that the $800K in online is more profitable, but is it really, given how much of newspapers are using print content online?
The Lee numbers are even more striking. First, the $2 million year-over-year increase in online ad revenue is impressive in absolute terms. Even more impressive is that this increase in online ad revenue is nearly compensating for the decline in print ad revenue.
But this is what really gets me -- Lee's online ad revenue is online 7% of it's total ad revenue -- yet Lee reaches 11 million per month online across its newspapers. That made me wonder how many people Lee reaches in print:
As Lee's paid daily circulation held stable at 1.7 million daily and 1.9 million Sunday, total print plus online audiences keep growing.
Think about this -- advertisers paid $67.7 million to reach about 2 million people in print -- but they only paid $5.3 million to reach 11 million people online! Now, granted, it's not as simple as that, since not all 11 million people visit the site every day. But still.
Clearly, newspapers have a BIG pricing problem. And that's where the lesson for magazines comes in. Print publishers, both newspapers and magazines, have long enjoyed monopoly pricing. Even in competitive magazine categories, there were typically only 2 or 3 books competing for ad dollars to reach a particular audience. Online competition has exploded, thanks to cheap publishing tools like blogging software. Newspapers have been the hardest hit by the loss of pricing power, since most newspapers enjoyed a true monopoly, and news has become highly commoditized online. But there are few topics or niches where there aren't new sources of information proliferating online -- in many cases, A LOT of new sources.
But it's not just competition that has created such huge disparities in pricing and media value. For most print publishers, the online pricing problem is, to a large degree, a self-inflicted wound from all of those years of giving online away as "added value" to advertisers paying top dollar for print ad pages. Publishers taught advertisers to devalue online, and now that advertisers are devaluing print, it's hard to convince them that online is worth at least as much as print -- if not more.
So what's the lesson for magazine publishers?
1. Advertiserswill value your online audience not a penny more than how you value it,and likely a lot less -- that means you need to price onlinecommensurate with its value and you need to make it the site LOOKvaluable -- so much of the appeal of print is in the appearance.
2. Keep advertisers focused on media 101 -- a larger audience, assuming it's all the right people, is worth MORE, not less.
3. Reachingpeople in their preferred medium or one with a high degree of utility,e.g. email newsletters, has MORE value for advertisers, even if the adunits don't have the same aesthetic appeal as a glossy print ad.
4. Evenif your online ad revenue is small or non-existent, seize control of itNOW -- don't wait, like newspapers did, until the horse is out of thebarn.
Scott Karp writes for Folio online about digital media and its impact on magazine publishing, and also on Publishing 2.0, a blog about how digital media is transforming the entire media industry.
'Cyberphobia' afflicts many Time Inc. writers
Never fear shadows. They simply mean there is a light shining somewhere nearby."
- Unknown
JON FRIEDMAN'S MEDIA WEB
'Cyberphobia' afflicts many Time Inc. writers
Commentary: By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- This column is a public-service announcement: I want to help some needy, ignorant people conquer an illogical fear.
The group consists of many journalists at Time, Fortune and presumably other pockets of the "old media." Their nemesis is the dreaded Internet. Somehow, they seem to have developed a serious case of what I'd call "cyberphobia."
I would like to propose a sure-fire solution to Rick Stengel and Andy Serwer, the respective top editors at Time and Fortune. Both are published by Time Inc., a division of Time Warner Inc. What's required isn't an outpouring of tender loving care -- not that Time Inc. is exactly a touchy-feely company these days, anyway. Instead, I'd recommend that Stengel and Serwer kick prima donnas, who think they're too good for online bylines, in their backsides.
The editors should issue this warning: "Write for my Web site or you're history."
When journalists start writing for the Internet or a blog, they often find what I discovered when I joined MarketWatch nearly eight years ago. This is the most demanding, liberating, creative and fulfilling work available today in journalism.
It's a hell of a lot of fun, too.
Time magazine spokeswoman Betsy Burton reported in an e-mail message: "We're doing well on the Web and have large participation by staff. We have 12 blogs and May was the highest traffic month yet, with over 4.6 million unique visitors and [the] time spent by users on the site up by 50%." Fortune is also pleased with its progress. "Most Fortune writers produce for both the magazine and the site," according to spokeswoman Danielle Perissi.
Get tough
I suspect that the leaders of Time Inc., particularly Editor in Chief John Huey, are pushing the magazine's senior managers to put the Web on the front burner.
On Monday, Andy Serwer, the managing editor of Fortune, told me: "I'm going to hold people accountable on the Web. Their compensation, in part, will be tied to how much they do online."
To me, this is the journalistic equivalent of Mommy or Daddy telling Junior that he had better clean up his room, or else he won't get any dessert.
The following day, Gawker's Doree Shafrir had a story, headlined "Time Shoving Its Reluctant Writers Online."
While Stengel, Time's managing editor, informed his staff that the relaunched Time.com has seen page views jump 70% over last year he chastened the troops: "We're doing well ... but not well enough." The problem is that Time.com "needs more content, much more," he said.
Stengel acknowledged that many of his people are contributing to the Web effort. But he noted that the list of contributors "needs to grow. ... Evaluations of every Time writer, correspondent and reporter will be based on the quality and quantity of the contributions each makes to both the magazine and to Time.com."
Then Stengel qualified his reprimand: "I suspect that some of you regard writing for Time.com as an obligation, and not what you came to Time to do. But times have changed, and we have to change with them."
Sheesh. If any of them needs to be prodded to get up to speed, they can talk with journalists who just lost their jobs at, say, the San Jose Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle. They could also pick the brains of the ex-Time magazine employees who were shown the door in the past year.
"The memo was a reminder to staff about moving things even further forward," Time's Burton told me.
Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated, also published by Time Inc., gets it.
The magazine's best-known writers, Peter King, Rick Reilly and Tom Verducci, are all on board. Plus, Media Industry News noted that in the month after the SI relaunch of recently acquired FanNation, a social-networking site, the site contributed 4 million monthly unique visitors and 30 million page views to SI.
I'd recommend that Time and Fortune spring for a cameo by Alec Baldwin.
Progress
Time Inc. says it's making progress.
Spokeswoman Dawn Bridges points out that her company ranked 12th among media properties in terms of page views. Time Inc. also has built a studio in the basement of its headquarters and is "aggressively pursuing video online."
Still, I can't get away from the conclusion that the editors feel the need to cajole, if not plead with, their writers to jump on the bandwagon. That's certainly not what Stengel came to work on at Time.
Time Warner is famous for its events. So I'd recommend that Time and Fortune spring for a cameo by Alec Baldwin. He could reenact his memorable scene in "Glengarry Glen Ross."
To light a fire under a room of jaded salesmen, Baldwin's character tells them: "We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives.
"Third prize is you're fired." Watch the video clip.
- Unknown
JON FRIEDMAN'S MEDIA WEB
'Cyberphobia' afflicts many Time Inc. writers
Commentary: By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- This column is a public-service announcement: I want to help some needy, ignorant people conquer an illogical fear.
The group consists of many journalists at Time, Fortune and presumably other pockets of the "old media." Their nemesis is the dreaded Internet. Somehow, they seem to have developed a serious case of what I'd call "cyberphobia."
I would like to propose a sure-fire solution to Rick Stengel and Andy Serwer, the respective top editors at Time and Fortune. Both are published by Time Inc., a division of Time Warner Inc. What's required isn't an outpouring of tender loving care -- not that Time Inc. is exactly a touchy-feely company these days, anyway. Instead, I'd recommend that Stengel and Serwer kick prima donnas, who think they're too good for online bylines, in their backsides.
The editors should issue this warning: "Write for my Web site or you're history."
When journalists start writing for the Internet or a blog, they often find what I discovered when I joined MarketWatch nearly eight years ago. This is the most demanding, liberating, creative and fulfilling work available today in journalism.
It's a hell of a lot of fun, too.
Time magazine spokeswoman Betsy Burton reported in an e-mail message: "We're doing well on the Web and have large participation by staff. We have 12 blogs and May was the highest traffic month yet, with over 4.6 million unique visitors and [the] time spent by users on the site up by 50%." Fortune is also pleased with its progress. "Most Fortune writers produce for both the magazine and the site," according to spokeswoman Danielle Perissi.
Get tough
I suspect that the leaders of Time Inc., particularly Editor in Chief John Huey, are pushing the magazine's senior managers to put the Web on the front burner.
On Monday, Andy Serwer, the managing editor of Fortune, told me: "I'm going to hold people accountable on the Web. Their compensation, in part, will be tied to how much they do online."
To me, this is the journalistic equivalent of Mommy or Daddy telling Junior that he had better clean up his room, or else he won't get any dessert.
The following day, Gawker's Doree Shafrir had a story, headlined "Time Shoving Its Reluctant Writers Online."
While Stengel, Time's managing editor, informed his staff that the relaunched Time.com has seen page views jump 70% over last year he chastened the troops: "We're doing well ... but not well enough." The problem is that Time.com "needs more content, much more," he said.
Stengel acknowledged that many of his people are contributing to the Web effort. But he noted that the list of contributors "needs to grow. ... Evaluations of every Time writer, correspondent and reporter will be based on the quality and quantity of the contributions each makes to both the magazine and to Time.com."
Then Stengel qualified his reprimand: "I suspect that some of you regard writing for Time.com as an obligation, and not what you came to Time to do. But times have changed, and we have to change with them."
Sheesh. If any of them needs to be prodded to get up to speed, they can talk with journalists who just lost their jobs at, say, the San Jose Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle. They could also pick the brains of the ex-Time magazine employees who were shown the door in the past year.
"The memo was a reminder to staff about moving things even further forward," Time's Burton told me.
Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated, also published by Time Inc., gets it.
The magazine's best-known writers, Peter King, Rick Reilly and Tom Verducci, are all on board. Plus, Media Industry News noted that in the month after the SI relaunch of recently acquired FanNation, a social-networking site, the site contributed 4 million monthly unique visitors and 30 million page views to SI.
I'd recommend that Time and Fortune spring for a cameo by Alec Baldwin.
Progress
Time Inc. says it's making progress.
Spokeswoman Dawn Bridges points out that her company ranked 12th among media properties in terms of page views. Time Inc. also has built a studio in the basement of its headquarters and is "aggressively pursuing video online."
Still, I can't get away from the conclusion that the editors feel the need to cajole, if not plead with, their writers to jump on the bandwagon. That's certainly not what Stengel came to work on at Time.
Time Warner is famous for its events. So I'd recommend that Time and Fortune spring for a cameo by Alec Baldwin. He could reenact his memorable scene in "Glengarry Glen Ross."
To light a fire under a room of jaded salesmen, Baldwin's character tells them: "We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives.
"Third prize is you're fired." Watch the video clip.
What Circulation Taught Me
"If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem."
Abraham Lincoln (American 16th US President (1861-65), who brought about the emancipation of the slaves. 1809-1865)
John Griffin
President, National Geographic Magazine Group
http://www.magazine.org/press_room/speeches/23012.cfm
What Circulation Taught Me
Circulation Management Conference & Expo
As a former circ nerd, there are few things more beautiful to me than a 50% sell through or an 85% renewal rate, but now that I am the president of National Geographic Magazines I am inspired by other sights as well . . .
It is a privilege to lead this great brand in all disciplines but I will always love the creativity, clarity and detail of circulation. My circulation trainings has influenced how I think about managing national geographic magazines in the 21st century and how I see my responsibilities on the ABC and MAP boards.
What circulation taught me
In 1979 when I was made circulation director of PVN (cir 1,900,000) my prior publishing experience had been as an editor. In my most recent job at the exceptional parent magazine, In addition to being managing editor I also managed its circulation of 20,000. What maniac would hire a person who never seen a spreadsheet, never mailed a direct mail package, and thought of himself as an editor to be the circulation director of a magazine with 1,900,000 circualtion? Bob Teufel, the first of my three great teachers.
Bob taught people at Rodale to:
respect your customers
respect and learn from coworkers and competitors
be creative and aggressive
and that the only test you will regret is the one you don't do
Bob himself had moved from circulaton director to president, so he knew that more important than formal training is an aptitude for math and for marketing, a respect for people and brands and an enthusiams to learn and test.
Bob had the rodale circulation department work with a consultant named Gordon Grossman-Gordon had been the circulation director and more at the reader's digest where he had introduced the sweepstakes, regression analysis and led the transition of circulation from the creative age to the computer age. Gordon taught us how to think not only about circulation but about business:
leave no idea unchallenged
good decisions are impossible if you don't understand the numbers in aggregate and in detail
and that when you find success be aggressive in capitalizing on it.
Teufel also put me in charge of single copy sales which Rodale at the time did none of. Having no idea how single copy sales worked, I went to a conference where Mike Andrews spoke. Mike was a retail consultant who had been the circulation director of The New Yorker and then had launched penthouse in the us. As Mike would say I went from class to --.
Mike taught me that the retail business was:
a business of detail
of finding what works in one town or even one retailer and then aggressively duplicating that success in other towns and in similar retailers.
And in those days with over 400 wholesalers, 400 separate experiments in your magazine's distribution, it was almost always possible to find something to build on. While the distribution system has consolidated and changed these principals still hold.
These three people and an amazing group of executives-Pat Corpora, Bob Reinhart, Ed Fones, Barb Newton, Joyce Shirer, Rich Alleger and now Terry Day-and suppliers-especially Bob Castardi at Curtis-reinforced these lessons and taught me many new ones.
Some of the things I learned as a circulator:
lessons
editorial leads
the importance of positioning
sell benefits
substance, quality and leadership sell
live in a fact based world
understand that patterns and trends matter
make numbers pass the common sense test
too much data is as bad as too little data; act now
aggressively follow up on success
pay attention to you two major cost centers: circulation expense and production expense
good ideas can come from anywhere
as a person who came up through the circulation side of publishing, I have a strong point of view about the current state of our business that I bring to my roles on the board of ABC and MPA.
The future and the abc
In our business we are dealing with new media, recent circulation scandals, new abc rules and circulation categories, and changing reader and advertiser expectations and demands. I'll start by describing the world as I see it.
Magazines suffer from troubles of their own making
Because of the poor circulation practices of the recent past- especially the practice of counting unpaid circualtion as paid-magazines have a credibility problem with the advertising community. While the creation of the verified category has brought more transparency to the abc statement, we still spend a stupid amount of time dealing with the past instead of building for the future.
Importance of advertising revenue increases
It is likely that advertising revenue will remain the primary source of revenue for magazines and probable that, for large magazines, it will increase as a percentage of total revenue, especially as we are able to increase our sale of on-line advertising and other kinds of parnerships that our strong brands can bring to advertisers.
Comparability a necessity
While advertiser's enthusiam for micro targeting and response based advertsing evaluation may wane, the demand for
greater comparability between media and
accountability for achieving advertising goals will remain or grow.
Demand for speed
advertisers will want to buy advertising as late as possible and evaluate effectiveness as soon as possible after an ad runs-the demand for speed will only increase. Magazines will always be at a disadvantage but we must minimize that disadvantage. Sometimes we speak only as a print magazine owner, other times as a multi-media brand owner. In this case print magazines may be at a disadvantage but online magazines brands will not be.
In face of these challenges,
What is a consumer marketer to do?
Distribution and paid circulation are measures that have nothing to do with the effectiveness of an ad. And they are comparable to no other media. Even newspapers are beginning to move to audience measurement and possibly to combined measurement of web and print audience. If we don't change, then magazines will be comparable only to themselves. This will not happen, so prepare to have your work judged on audience size and quality as we have traditionally been focused on paid circulation and distribution.
It will take some time to create accurate, stable, and fast issue by issue audience measurement. But we can deliver transpaprent distribution data faster with tools we have at hand-verified circualtion for transparency and rapid report for speed.
I challenge us all to make distribution completely transparent-to put all sources that leave the possibility of abuse into verified and to report distribution early through rapid report. If we do this we can hopefully regain the confidence of buyers by putting the discussion of value where it belongs-in the negotiation between buyer and seller, and take it away from the ABC board and off the front page of Ad Age. If you really think penny sold distribution has greater value than free public place distribution, argue it in the sales process, but don't keep categories on the ABC statement that allow for abuse and an industry focus on the minutia of distribution and not the effectiveness advertising.
What we don't need is more abc rules. What we do need is transparency on distribution and faster reporting while concurrently moving to fast audience measurement.
So lets drop the smoke and mirrors and enjoy the process of creating great editorial material that provides a positive environment for advertsiers and put it in front of the people who want it and need it in print or digitally or however they want it.
And if all this sounds hard and like a big pain, just remember you could be working in a chinese chicken factory.
Abraham Lincoln (American 16th US President (1861-65), who brought about the emancipation of the slaves. 1809-1865)
John Griffin
President, National Geographic Magazine Group
http://www.magazine.org/press_room/speeches/23012.cfm
What Circulation Taught Me
Circulation Management Conference & Expo
As a former circ nerd, there are few things more beautiful to me than a 50% sell through or an 85% renewal rate, but now that I am the president of National Geographic Magazines I am inspired by other sights as well . . .
It is a privilege to lead this great brand in all disciplines but I will always love the creativity, clarity and detail of circulation. My circulation trainings has influenced how I think about managing national geographic magazines in the 21st century and how I see my responsibilities on the ABC and MAP boards.
What circulation taught me
In 1979 when I was made circulation director of PVN (cir 1,900,000) my prior publishing experience had been as an editor. In my most recent job at the exceptional parent magazine, In addition to being managing editor I also managed its circulation of 20,000. What maniac would hire a person who never seen a spreadsheet, never mailed a direct mail package, and thought of himself as an editor to be the circulation director of a magazine with 1,900,000 circualtion? Bob Teufel, the first of my three great teachers.
Bob taught people at Rodale to:
respect your customers
respect and learn from coworkers and competitors
be creative and aggressive
and that the only test you will regret is the one you don't do
Bob himself had moved from circulaton director to president, so he knew that more important than formal training is an aptitude for math and for marketing, a respect for people and brands and an enthusiams to learn and test.
Bob had the rodale circulation department work with a consultant named Gordon Grossman-Gordon had been the circulation director and more at the reader's digest where he had introduced the sweepstakes, regression analysis and led the transition of circulation from the creative age to the computer age. Gordon taught us how to think not only about circulation but about business:
leave no idea unchallenged
good decisions are impossible if you don't understand the numbers in aggregate and in detail
and that when you find success be aggressive in capitalizing on it.
Teufel also put me in charge of single copy sales which Rodale at the time did none of. Having no idea how single copy sales worked, I went to a conference where Mike Andrews spoke. Mike was a retail consultant who had been the circulation director of The New Yorker and then had launched penthouse in the us. As Mike would say I went from class to --.
Mike taught me that the retail business was:
a business of detail
of finding what works in one town or even one retailer and then aggressively duplicating that success in other towns and in similar retailers.
And in those days with over 400 wholesalers, 400 separate experiments in your magazine's distribution, it was almost always possible to find something to build on. While the distribution system has consolidated and changed these principals still hold.
These three people and an amazing group of executives-Pat Corpora, Bob Reinhart, Ed Fones, Barb Newton, Joyce Shirer, Rich Alleger and now Terry Day-and suppliers-especially Bob Castardi at Curtis-reinforced these lessons and taught me many new ones.
Some of the things I learned as a circulator:
lessons
editorial leads
the importance of positioning
sell benefits
substance, quality and leadership sell
live in a fact based world
understand that patterns and trends matter
make numbers pass the common sense test
too much data is as bad as too little data; act now
aggressively follow up on success
pay attention to you two major cost centers: circulation expense and production expense
good ideas can come from anywhere
as a person who came up through the circulation side of publishing, I have a strong point of view about the current state of our business that I bring to my roles on the board of ABC and MPA.
The future and the abc
In our business we are dealing with new media, recent circulation scandals, new abc rules and circulation categories, and changing reader and advertiser expectations and demands. I'll start by describing the world as I see it.
Magazines suffer from troubles of their own making
Because of the poor circulation practices of the recent past- especially the practice of counting unpaid circualtion as paid-magazines have a credibility problem with the advertising community. While the creation of the verified category has brought more transparency to the abc statement, we still spend a stupid amount of time dealing with the past instead of building for the future.
Importance of advertising revenue increases
It is likely that advertising revenue will remain the primary source of revenue for magazines and probable that, for large magazines, it will increase as a percentage of total revenue, especially as we are able to increase our sale of on-line advertising and other kinds of parnerships that our strong brands can bring to advertisers.
Comparability a necessity
While advertiser's enthusiam for micro targeting and response based advertsing evaluation may wane, the demand for
greater comparability between media and
accountability for achieving advertising goals will remain or grow.
Demand for speed
advertisers will want to buy advertising as late as possible and evaluate effectiveness as soon as possible after an ad runs-the demand for speed will only increase. Magazines will always be at a disadvantage but we must minimize that disadvantage. Sometimes we speak only as a print magazine owner, other times as a multi-media brand owner. In this case print magazines may be at a disadvantage but online magazines brands will not be.
In face of these challenges,
What is a consumer marketer to do?
Distribution and paid circulation are measures that have nothing to do with the effectiveness of an ad. And they are comparable to no other media. Even newspapers are beginning to move to audience measurement and possibly to combined measurement of web and print audience. If we don't change, then magazines will be comparable only to themselves. This will not happen, so prepare to have your work judged on audience size and quality as we have traditionally been focused on paid circulation and distribution.
It will take some time to create accurate, stable, and fast issue by issue audience measurement. But we can deliver transpaprent distribution data faster with tools we have at hand-verified circualtion for transparency and rapid report for speed.
I challenge us all to make distribution completely transparent-to put all sources that leave the possibility of abuse into verified and to report distribution early through rapid report. If we do this we can hopefully regain the confidence of buyers by putting the discussion of value where it belongs-in the negotiation between buyer and seller, and take it away from the ABC board and off the front page of Ad Age. If you really think penny sold distribution has greater value than free public place distribution, argue it in the sales process, but don't keep categories on the ABC statement that allow for abuse and an industry focus on the minutia of distribution and not the effectiveness advertising.
What we don't need is more abc rules. What we do need is transparency on distribution and faster reporting while concurrently moving to fast audience measurement.
So lets drop the smoke and mirrors and enjoy the process of creating great editorial material that provides a positive environment for advertsiers and put it in front of the people who want it and need it in print or digitally or however they want it.
And if all this sounds hard and like a big pain, just remember you could be working in a chinese chicken factory.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Bauer Tops List of Newsstand/Subscription Pricing Ratios
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
George W. Bush
Bauer Tops List of Newsstand/Subscription Pricing Ratios
By John Harrington
The New Single Copy
www.nscopy.com
Harrington Associates, publisher of The New Single Copy, completed a comparison of magazine newsstand cover prices and the "average price" the publisher is selling a subscription copy for. The latter figure is now required by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The list of major titles with the highest ratio (subscription price versus newsstand cover price) is dominated by the titles of Bauer Publishing (page 2). The company's weeklies, Life & Style, Woman's World, and In Touch, are the only magazines combining average newsstand sales of more than 500,000 with ratios of over 70%. A fourth Bauer title, the monthly First for Women, is next on the list with a 58.3% ratio. The weeklies sell well over 90% of their circulation at retail, and First for Women's share is 85%. Only a handful of magazines have newsstand shares over 50%, and only another handful have a better than 50% newsstand/sub ratio.
An irony is that Bauer is clearly committed to newsstand as its primary circulation source, yet its largest titles all currently have cover prices below $2.00. Wholesalers have been very vocal in the last year about their inability to produce profits from magazines with under $2.50 cover prices, regardless of volume or sales efficiency figures.
In addition to the figures listed on page 2, six magazines with average newsstand sales of over 30,000, maintained newsstand/sub ratios of over 60%: Girl's Life, Fine Gardening, Discovery Girls, Easy Home Cooking, Travel & Leisure, and Woodenboat.
The obvious question is How important is the newsstand/sub ratio? More than a few industry observers, not just wholesalers and their representatives, have long argued that large subscription discounts, heavily marketed, have depressed newsstand sales. Samir Husni, known for his counts of new magazines, recently devoted his blog, mrmagazine.wordpress.com (6/5/07) to the subject, urging publishers, if they are serious about the newsstand, to even up their pricing strategies. He wrote, "Stop selling your magazine on the newsstands if you are not willing to reduce your newsstand price or increase your subscription price." Most would agree with the latter, but probably not with the former.
George W. Bush
Bauer Tops List of Newsstand/Subscription Pricing Ratios
By John Harrington
The New Single Copy
www.nscopy.com
Harrington Associates, publisher of The New Single Copy, completed a comparison of magazine newsstand cover prices and the "average price" the publisher is selling a subscription copy for. The latter figure is now required by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The list of major titles with the highest ratio (subscription price versus newsstand cover price) is dominated by the titles of Bauer Publishing (page 2). The company's weeklies, Life & Style, Woman's World, and In Touch, are the only magazines combining average newsstand sales of more than 500,000 with ratios of over 70%. A fourth Bauer title, the monthly First for Women, is next on the list with a 58.3% ratio. The weeklies sell well over 90% of their circulation at retail, and First for Women's share is 85%. Only a handful of magazines have newsstand shares over 50%, and only another handful have a better than 50% newsstand/sub ratio.
An irony is that Bauer is clearly committed to newsstand as its primary circulation source, yet its largest titles all currently have cover prices below $2.00. Wholesalers have been very vocal in the last year about their inability to produce profits from magazines with under $2.50 cover prices, regardless of volume or sales efficiency figures.
In addition to the figures listed on page 2, six magazines with average newsstand sales of over 30,000, maintained newsstand/sub ratios of over 60%: Girl's Life, Fine Gardening, Discovery Girls, Easy Home Cooking, Travel & Leisure, and Woodenboat.
The obvious question is How important is the newsstand/sub ratio? More than a few industry observers, not just wholesalers and their representatives, have long argued that large subscription discounts, heavily marketed, have depressed newsstand sales. Samir Husni, known for his counts of new magazines, recently devoted his blog, mrmagazine.wordpress.com (6/5/07) to the subject, urging publishers, if they are serious about the newsstand, to even up their pricing strategies. He wrote, "Stop selling your magazine on the newsstands if you are not willing to reduce your newsstand price or increase your subscription price." Most would agree with the latter, but probably not with the former.
Meredith's Griffin Describes Whirlwind of Change, Both for Industry and for Company
The thing that's wrong with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur"
George W. Bush
Meredith's Griffin Describes Whirlwind of Change, Both for Industry and for Company
By Tony Silber
http://www.foliomag.com/viewmedia.asp?prmID=1&prmMID=7802&print=yes
In an 'Age of Participation,' magazines are a great business to be in, according to Meredith Corp. Publishing Group president Jack Griffin, who in a speech Tuesday offered up seven reasons why this is true-and a revealing picture of how Meredith is acting on this.
Griffin, speaking in New York at the latest installment of Magazine Publishers Of America's Breakfast With a Leader series, opened with a description of the dramatic changes in the media world. This era, he said, is marked by "discontinuous change." It breaks with past patterns, he said. It's not incremental. "The impact of search in general and Google in particular rivals the introduction of the telephone or the automobile in its impact," Griffin said. "In the age of participation, communications power is open to anyone who wants it. Smart marketers are inviting people into conversations."
This new approach to marketing is doubly important today, Griffin said, since traditional go-to-market strategies don't work anymore because they assume consumers will stay in the same channel. But the traditional channels do still have relevance. "Television and print are crucial in brand building, and are the spark for other kinds of creative marketing," Griffin said. However, he added, echoing National Geographic's John Q. Griffin earlier this month at the Circulation Management Conference & Expo, "Magazines have got to make progress on selling on audience. Selling magazines based on distribution is akin to selling television advertising based on the number of TVs that exist, or online advertising based on the number of computers."
The seven reasons why magazines are a great business in an age of participation are these, Griffin said:
1. Editors are a lighthouse in a sea of information.
2. New technologies are enhancing the knowledge of consumers.
3. Magazines are opt-in in an opt-out world. "Consumers are in avoidance mode until something interests them," Griffin noted. "But they invite magazines into their lives."
4. Adult millennials are reading magazines, research shows.
5. Starcom reader-engagement research indicates that advertising in magazines is essential content, with ads pages being cited as key content for three pages in 10, according to the research.
6. Magazines drive new-media consumption.
7. Magazine advertising works across the spectrum. Ad share is up, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
Broad industry trends aside, Griffin's presentation was most fascinating for his description of where Meredith fits and what it is doing to adapt. Meredith has been active in preparing for this new era, Griffin said, creating an internal 'flexible architecture,' and concentrating on developing and enhancing its skills in marketing. Consequently, it has focused acquisition and investment activity in the last three years on those areas. It:
· Acquired four parenting and family magazines from Gruner + Jahr in 2005, including Parents, Child, Fitness and Family Circle
· Acquired the five-year-old DIY brand ReadyMade in 2006.
· Acquired the interactive and relationship marketing firm O'Grady Meyers in 2006. "This took Meredith into beyond-ink-on-paper custom marketing," Griffin said.
· Acquired another marketing-services firm, Genex, and the 'buzz-marketing' firm New Media Strategies, earlier this year.
· Acquired Helia, a consumer health search engine specializing in high quality and personalized healthcare information online.
In all, Griffin said, Meredith has made over $600 million in investments in the publishing group alone. It has transitioned from a home-and-shelter focused company to a leading media company that reaches women across media platforms. "Our connection to this audience is crucial to our future relevance and prosperity," Griffin said.
And all this activity is based on five core strengths, according to Griffin:
· Leadership brands across life stages. "We have a database of 75 million women," Griffin said. "Using our database, we are becoming skilled at migrating our customers across our brands at different life stages." American Baby has 95 percent coverage of new-parents market. At ReadyMade, over one-third of all content is user generated.
· Trusted content in multiple platforms.
· Focus on consumers. "We have created an 'architecture of participation.' Our More team, for example, doesn't make a move without considering how the audience can participate."
· Deep and diverse marketing capabilities. "Meredith has always been more than a magazine company," Griffin said. "It is an integrated marketing-services company as well. Today, more than ever before, what we do is like riding a bicycle: We are either moving forward or we are falling down."
· Operational excellence, defined as publishing fundamentals, digital development, integration, organizational alignment, developing people, measuring what matters. "The idea of meeting the consumer on the consumer's terms seems to be working for us," Griffin said.
George W. Bush
Meredith's Griffin Describes Whirlwind of Change, Both for Industry and for Company
By Tony Silber
http://www.foliomag.com/viewmedia.asp?prmID=1&prmMID=7802&print=yes
In an 'Age of Participation,' magazines are a great business to be in, according to Meredith Corp. Publishing Group president Jack Griffin, who in a speech Tuesday offered up seven reasons why this is true-and a revealing picture of how Meredith is acting on this.
Griffin, speaking in New York at the latest installment of Magazine Publishers Of America's Breakfast With a Leader series, opened with a description of the dramatic changes in the media world. This era, he said, is marked by "discontinuous change." It breaks with past patterns, he said. It's not incremental. "The impact of search in general and Google in particular rivals the introduction of the telephone or the automobile in its impact," Griffin said. "In the age of participation, communications power is open to anyone who wants it. Smart marketers are inviting people into conversations."
This new approach to marketing is doubly important today, Griffin said, since traditional go-to-market strategies don't work anymore because they assume consumers will stay in the same channel. But the traditional channels do still have relevance. "Television and print are crucial in brand building, and are the spark for other kinds of creative marketing," Griffin said. However, he added, echoing National Geographic's John Q. Griffin earlier this month at the Circulation Management Conference & Expo, "Magazines have got to make progress on selling on audience. Selling magazines based on distribution is akin to selling television advertising based on the number of TVs that exist, or online advertising based on the number of computers."
The seven reasons why magazines are a great business in an age of participation are these, Griffin said:
1. Editors are a lighthouse in a sea of information.
2. New technologies are enhancing the knowledge of consumers.
3. Magazines are opt-in in an opt-out world. "Consumers are in avoidance mode until something interests them," Griffin noted. "But they invite magazines into their lives."
4. Adult millennials are reading magazines, research shows.
5. Starcom reader-engagement research indicates that advertising in magazines is essential content, with ads pages being cited as key content for three pages in 10, according to the research.
6. Magazines drive new-media consumption.
7. Magazine advertising works across the spectrum. Ad share is up, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
Broad industry trends aside, Griffin's presentation was most fascinating for his description of where Meredith fits and what it is doing to adapt. Meredith has been active in preparing for this new era, Griffin said, creating an internal 'flexible architecture,' and concentrating on developing and enhancing its skills in marketing. Consequently, it has focused acquisition and investment activity in the last three years on those areas. It:
· Acquired four parenting and family magazines from Gruner + Jahr in 2005, including Parents, Child, Fitness and Family Circle
· Acquired the five-year-old DIY brand ReadyMade in 2006.
· Acquired the interactive and relationship marketing firm O'Grady Meyers in 2006. "This took Meredith into beyond-ink-on-paper custom marketing," Griffin said.
· Acquired another marketing-services firm, Genex, and the 'buzz-marketing' firm New Media Strategies, earlier this year.
· Acquired Helia, a consumer health search engine specializing in high quality and personalized healthcare information online.
In all, Griffin said, Meredith has made over $600 million in investments in the publishing group alone. It has transitioned from a home-and-shelter focused company to a leading media company that reaches women across media platforms. "Our connection to this audience is crucial to our future relevance and prosperity," Griffin said.
And all this activity is based on five core strengths, according to Griffin:
· Leadership brands across life stages. "We have a database of 75 million women," Griffin said. "Using our database, we are becoming skilled at migrating our customers across our brands at different life stages." American Baby has 95 percent coverage of new-parents market. At ReadyMade, over one-third of all content is user generated.
· Trusted content in multiple platforms.
· Focus on consumers. "We have created an 'architecture of participation.' Our More team, for example, doesn't make a move without considering how the audience can participate."
· Deep and diverse marketing capabilities. "Meredith has always been more than a magazine company," Griffin said. "It is an integrated marketing-services company as well. Today, more than ever before, what we do is like riding a bicycle: We are either moving forward or we are falling down."
· Operational excellence, defined as publishing fundamentals, digital development, integration, organizational alignment, developing people, measuring what matters. "The idea of meeting the consumer on the consumer's terms seems to be working for us," Griffin said.
It's Final: No Reprieve on Postal Rate Hike
"One of the common denominators I have found is that expectations rise above that which is expected."
George W. Bush
It's Final: No Reprieve on Postal Rate Hike
By Mark Del Franco and Jim Tierney
http://multichannelmerchant.com/news/postal-rate-reprieve-rejected-06202007/
Catalog mailers can kiss any dreams of a postal rake hike reprieve goodbye. The U.S. Postal Service's Board of Governors (BOG) on June 19 rejected the Postal Regulatory Commission's temporary rate reduction. That means catalogers, who were hit hardest when the new pricing structure took effect May 14, will have to live with the postage increases of 20%-25%, and as high as 40%.
The PRC had less than one month ago recommended to the BOG a temporary rate reduction of $0.03 in its reconsideration of rates for Standard Mail flats--the category affecting most catalogers. The PRC recommended the temporary lower rates last through Sept. 29, before fiscal year 2008 begins for the USPS on Oct. 1.
No dice, said the BOG: "We appreciate the commission's thorough review of this matter and its creative recommendations to implement temporary rate reductions for mailers of Standard Mail flats. We are concerned, however, that approving those recommendations would not be legally sound or practically prudent." The BOG had asked the PRC to consider whether "some rebalancing between Standard Mail letter and flat rates might be appropriate."
By recommending temporary rate reductions that would expire before the test year (the postal fiscal year 2008 that runs from Oct. 1, 2007 through Sept. 30, 2008) begins, the BOG says the PRC "devised an approach that would avoid any direct financial consequences in the test year." The PRC failed to address the BOG's request to rebalance the pricing between flats and letters, the decision says. As postal rate cases are a zero-sum game, the BOG says lower rates for some must be offset by higher rates for others. "As the commission estimates, the financial cost to the Postal Service would be on order of $100 million. That amount of money is substantial and its financial effect cannot be discounted even though the effect comes before the test year, rather than during the test year."
The BOG also said the temporary rate reduction for Standard Mail flats would be difficult to implement. "Given the amount of lead time necessary to develop the software changes required to support these rate changes, the actual number of weeks in which the reduced rates might be in effect would be minimal," according to the decision. "Such a short timeframe of relief, during the low mailing season of a catalog industry that makes plans months in advance, is not likely to mitigate rate shock significantly."
Others disagree. Mark Lee, who owns the Charlottesville, VA-based catalog consulting firm Mark Lee Group, says the majority of damage to catalogers was already inflicted on May 14. But he adds that "Its abruptness and severity is sending a shock wave throughout the catalog industry, and some companies probably won't survive it. The $0.03 temporary reduction would have eased the pain a bit, since it represents a 5% - 6% reduction in the overall cost of a typical catalog. Given the length of the planning cycle, most firms could have altered the course of one catalog as a result of the reduction."
Dana Springfield, the general manager of consumer direct for South Deerfield, MA-based scented candles manufacturer/marketer Yankee Candle, says "a favorable ruling would have allowed us to increase circulation in August-September and drive more growth in our business. Now we are forced to employ a conservative growth strategy in the face of this cost increase."
Indeed, in a June 20 release, DMA President John A. Greco Jr. warned that the BOG's rejection of any rate reduction for flat-shaped mail would have a severe impact on the mailing community. "America's mailers sent a clear message to postal officials that the surprisingly high increases in flat mail rates will lead to significant cuts in mailing volumes, and a long-term downward spiral in postal revenues," he said. "The Postal Governors made a bad call yesterday. It was a bad decision in February when the PRC made its recommendations for rates far in excess of what the Postal Service originally requested. Now by refusing to make the much-needed corrections, the Governors have all but assured a decrease in mail volume that will be felt for years to come."
It's not just the catalogers that are going to feel the pain, warns the DMA's senior vice president, government affairs Jerry Cerasale. "Paper companies are dropping production of coated papers in anticipation of lower demand caused by these high postal rates," Cerasale says. "This is only the beginning."
George W. Bush
It's Final: No Reprieve on Postal Rate Hike
By Mark Del Franco and Jim Tierney
http://multichannelmerchant.com/news/postal-rate-reprieve-rejected-06202007/
Catalog mailers can kiss any dreams of a postal rake hike reprieve goodbye. The U.S. Postal Service's Board of Governors (BOG) on June 19 rejected the Postal Regulatory Commission's temporary rate reduction. That means catalogers, who were hit hardest when the new pricing structure took effect May 14, will have to live with the postage increases of 20%-25%, and as high as 40%.
The PRC had less than one month ago recommended to the BOG a temporary rate reduction of $0.03 in its reconsideration of rates for Standard Mail flats--the category affecting most catalogers. The PRC recommended the temporary lower rates last through Sept. 29, before fiscal year 2008 begins for the USPS on Oct. 1.
No dice, said the BOG: "We appreciate the commission's thorough review of this matter and its creative recommendations to implement temporary rate reductions for mailers of Standard Mail flats. We are concerned, however, that approving those recommendations would not be legally sound or practically prudent." The BOG had asked the PRC to consider whether "some rebalancing between Standard Mail letter and flat rates might be appropriate."
By recommending temporary rate reductions that would expire before the test year (the postal fiscal year 2008 that runs from Oct. 1, 2007 through Sept. 30, 2008) begins, the BOG says the PRC "devised an approach that would avoid any direct financial consequences in the test year." The PRC failed to address the BOG's request to rebalance the pricing between flats and letters, the decision says. As postal rate cases are a zero-sum game, the BOG says lower rates for some must be offset by higher rates for others. "As the commission estimates, the financial cost to the Postal Service would be on order of $100 million. That amount of money is substantial and its financial effect cannot be discounted even though the effect comes before the test year, rather than during the test year."
The BOG also said the temporary rate reduction for Standard Mail flats would be difficult to implement. "Given the amount of lead time necessary to develop the software changes required to support these rate changes, the actual number of weeks in which the reduced rates might be in effect would be minimal," according to the decision. "Such a short timeframe of relief, during the low mailing season of a catalog industry that makes plans months in advance, is not likely to mitigate rate shock significantly."
Others disagree. Mark Lee, who owns the Charlottesville, VA-based catalog consulting firm Mark Lee Group, says the majority of damage to catalogers was already inflicted on May 14. But he adds that "Its abruptness and severity is sending a shock wave throughout the catalog industry, and some companies probably won't survive it. The $0.03 temporary reduction would have eased the pain a bit, since it represents a 5% - 6% reduction in the overall cost of a typical catalog. Given the length of the planning cycle, most firms could have altered the course of one catalog as a result of the reduction."
Dana Springfield, the general manager of consumer direct for South Deerfield, MA-based scented candles manufacturer/marketer Yankee Candle, says "a favorable ruling would have allowed us to increase circulation in August-September and drive more growth in our business. Now we are forced to employ a conservative growth strategy in the face of this cost increase."
Indeed, in a June 20 release, DMA President John A. Greco Jr. warned that the BOG's rejection of any rate reduction for flat-shaped mail would have a severe impact on the mailing community. "America's mailers sent a clear message to postal officials that the surprisingly high increases in flat mail rates will lead to significant cuts in mailing volumes, and a long-term downward spiral in postal revenues," he said. "The Postal Governors made a bad call yesterday. It was a bad decision in February when the PRC made its recommendations for rates far in excess of what the Postal Service originally requested. Now by refusing to make the much-needed corrections, the Governors have all but assured a decrease in mail volume that will be felt for years to come."
It's not just the catalogers that are going to feel the pain, warns the DMA's senior vice president, government affairs Jerry Cerasale. "Paper companies are dropping production of coated papers in anticipation of lower demand caused by these high postal rates," Cerasale says. "This is only the beginning."
BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Magazines now and Later
"A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility."
Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scientist and Physician, 384 BC-322 BC)
BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Magazines now and Later
www.bosacks.com
RE: BoSacks Speaks Out - Printed Magazines as Plastic Records
Although you might be right in your conclusions, I am somewhat skeptical of your reasons. Being pretty much a curmudgeonly traditionalist, I ditched my crystal ball many years ago. Being a card carrying futurist, you keep yours strapped to your wrist. Heck, you probably picked mine up in a garage sale. But I see what I see when I look around.
What I see is that, if magazines die, it will more likely be the result of the actions of government sponsored monopoly. The impact of their ill conceived tariffs on paper prices is one example but is another subject. At the moment, I speak of the USPS. Their latest innovation to their already Byzantine rate structure adds interesting limits to co-mailing. And anyone who knows me will tell you that I hate "interesting."
For Periodicals to co-mail, they must now adhere to a maximum weight of 20 ounces. Above that you lose the co-mail savings. This is one more step that pushes their customers to electronic delivery instead of physical delivery. Good plan.
Essentially, fat magazines are now illegal or at least unprofitable. You know about fat magazines. Those high page count issues are the ones where publishers and printers make their highest margins. They are to us what Christmas shopping season is to retailers. Imagine what would happen to retailers if the government made Christmas illegal? Oh wait, that effort is already underway too. Never mind. I am glad I am old.
(Submitted by a Printer)
RE: BoSacks Speaks Out - Printed Magazines as Plastic Records
Publishing from its earliest time was about ideas and getting them from one place to another, from one generation to another. Paper was what was available at the time, from the times of the scribes to the times of the presses. Why is it that there is such trauma over the movement from one capture method to myriad methods? It's the revenue and cost streams that have been associated with that transportation of ideas, and the potential disruption of them. But in the end, publishing is still that transmission of ideas, and that's what should still be exciting everyone.
(Submitted by an Industry Analyst)
Re: Data Reveals Mags Are Fastest Growing 'Non-Digital' Ad Medium
ugh! this is not exactly right in the mpa study. where do i begin? a bigger slice of a smaller pie? the fact that this is measured media alone? that non-traditional media are still growing? that the size of change is well within any statistical error of measurement or misreporting? that the study period is just a blink in a longer well-entrenched trend?
the fact that the report was paired with the abm story was quite appropriate, as it showed that the media mix / communications mix is broader and more volatile than ever.
the key to misunderstanding what is happening in communications is studying only "measured media." the old saying is "if it doesn't get measured, it doesn't get done" is an old saying most people are familiar with. in media, if it doesn't get measured, you can act with impunity and undermine the old guard because you'll never be on their radar screen until it is too late for them to act.
(Submitted by an Industry Analyst)
Re: Taking to Strangers
Bo. Do any of these jerks go down on the pavement and talk to their lost customers. They have numerous data of lost customers and yet I have never read one thing about what the lost customers have said about why they walked away?
Procter and Gamble talk to their customers, one way or another, on a daily basis. What is wrong with the newspaper guys doing the same thing and getting back to us with some objective stuff, instead of all the poor mouth "layoff stuff"?
(Submitted by a Paper Person)
FW: ABC NewsBulletin - June 2007 Issue
I'm glad to see that our ABC publisher membership fees are going to good use. ABC's cutting edge R&D department has created a rebate calculation tool to assist advertisers with those tedious rebate calculations. Yippee!
(Submitted by a Publisher)
RE: A Publishing Quandary: Do Excerpts Help Sales?
Some of this book-excerpts-vs-book-sales discussion seems over analyzed. The reason Paula Deen sold more books than Jessica Lynch might be as simple as the fact that people like ladies who make good fried chicken better than they like girls who degrade prisoners of war, even though each did it with a smile on her face.
(Submitted by a Printer)
Re: 10 Obvious Things about the Future of Publishing you Need to get Through your Head
Well done! If truck-loads of pontificating doesn't work, let's try a list and make it all perfectly clear. I'm still amazed that my own local paper doesn't "get it"- they don't even have a website! I'm really curious about the J-school angle to this . . . what are their curriculums like today, and how's the hiring going?
(Submitted by a Circulator)
RE: Hail to the power of print
Except for the fact that he can't spell color ("colour"? What, no spell check in the UK?), Mr. O'Reilly got it right. It's nice to see that someone is able to see the forest without feeling the need to write an obituary for dead trees.
(Submitted by a Printer)
RE: Tab Wars: Breaking News or Faking News?
There's a big difference between pleasing your customers and pandering to them. If you don't have enough self respect to do your work correctly, you customers will start to lose respect, and the next step is that they'll find something else to do. Perhaps I'm misremembering, but aren't some of the biggest gossip rags having large financial troubles? If it's insulting to a reader to assume he or she can't figure out when titles are full of crap, isn't it doubly insulting to peddle that crap?
(Submitted by a Writer)
Re: Growth Demands From Publishers, Rise of Online Rivals May Cause Shakeout
Bo: All these idiots talk about are ad pages, loss of subscribers, etc. Does anybody talk about the out-of-date, timely content, lack of imagination stuff that might stem the downward slide?
(Submitted by a Paper Person)
RE: The Biggest Niche
With an entire XM station devoted to advertising the government, wouldn't the Fairness Doctrine require a SIRIUS Common Sense channel as a counterbalance?
(Submitted by a Paper Person)
RE: Carbon Neutral Paper
Bob, Did you see the piece about Rolling Stone and Catalyst's carbon neutral paper? So much environmentalism is pure posturing, appearing to help the environment rather than actually helping it. First it was PCW in magazine paper. What a crock! Now it's carbon neutral paper. Please! In the meantime, there are actually sensible and effective initiatives that make sense for the earth and from the perspective of our business. The Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification are the two best and most prominent examples.
Anyway, my favorite part of the Catalyst story was where they said they had reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 70%. We'll ignore the fact that we both remember when emission of "greenhouse gases" was called photosynthesis and was a good thing. But if you know anything about the history of Canadian environmental regulations, you know that reducing a Canadian mill's emissions by 70% is like saying, "Use new lower fat Crisco - 70% less fat than a big old tub of fat." It's marketing, not substance.
(Submitted by a Printer)
Re: What Difference Does a Cover Make?
After Readers Digest purchased Reiman Publishing, they started massaging the covers on the various publications, using head liners in reverse, like you would see on any newsstand issues. The one that broke the back of Bird and Booms was when they pictured a couple in a garden, instead of either flowers or birds only. I was told that the folks in Pleasantville, New York at Readers Gigest thought Reiman's covers were too out of date. It is the old adage, anyone West of the Hudson River is in the "Outback"
The rest is history.
(Submitted by a Paper Person)
Re: A magazine in every niche
Wow, this article actually describes what I do for a living. Of course, my niches-within-a-niche only total 1/10th of Garden and Gun's circ, but hey, it's enough to keep bread on my table. Thanks for bringing the good news not just the doom and gloom that characterizes more reportage on our industry these days.
(Submitted by a Publisher)
Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scientist and Physician, 384 BC-322 BC)
BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Magazines now and Later
www.bosacks.com
RE: BoSacks Speaks Out - Printed Magazines as Plastic Records
Although you might be right in your conclusions, I am somewhat skeptical of your reasons. Being pretty much a curmudgeonly traditionalist, I ditched my crystal ball many years ago. Being a card carrying futurist, you keep yours strapped to your wrist. Heck, you probably picked mine up in a garage sale. But I see what I see when I look around.
What I see is that, if magazines die, it will more likely be the result of the actions of government sponsored monopoly. The impact of their ill conceived tariffs on paper prices is one example but is another subject. At the moment, I speak of the USPS. Their latest innovation to their already Byzantine rate structure adds interesting limits to co-mailing. And anyone who knows me will tell you that I hate "interesting."
For Periodicals to co-mail, they must now adhere to a maximum weight of 20 ounces. Above that you lose the co-mail savings. This is one more step that pushes their customers to electronic delivery instead of physical delivery. Good plan.
Essentially, fat magazines are now illegal or at least unprofitable. You know about fat magazines. Those high page count issues are the ones where publishers and printers make their highest margins. They are to us what Christmas shopping season is to retailers. Imagine what would happen to retailers if the government made Christmas illegal? Oh wait, that effort is already underway too. Never mind. I am glad I am old.
(Submitted by a Printer)
RE: BoSacks Speaks Out - Printed Magazines as Plastic Records
Publishing from its earliest time was about ideas and getting them from one place to another, from one generation to another. Paper was what was available at the time, from the times of the scribes to the times of the presses. Why is it that there is such trauma over the movement from one capture method to myriad methods? It's the revenue and cost streams that have been associated with that transportation of ideas, and the potential disruption of them. But in the end, publishing is still that transmission of ideas, and that's what should still be exciting everyone.
(Submitted by an Industry Analyst)
Re: Data Reveals Mags Are Fastest Growing 'Non-Digital' Ad Medium
ugh! this is not exactly right in the mpa study. where do i begin? a bigger slice of a smaller pie? the fact that this is measured media alone? that non-traditional media are still growing? that the size of change is well within any statistical error of measurement or misreporting? that the study period is just a blink in a longer well-entrenched trend?
the fact that the report was paired with the abm story was quite appropriate, as it showed that the media mix / communications mix is broader and more volatile than ever.
the key to misunderstanding what is happening in communications is studying only "measured media." the old saying is "if it doesn't get measured, it doesn't get done" is an old saying most people are familiar with. in media, if it doesn't get measured, you can act with impunity and undermine the old guard because you'll never be on their radar screen until it is too late for them to act.
(Submitted by an Industry Analyst)
Re: Taking to Strangers
Bo. Do any of these jerks go down on the pavement and talk to their lost customers. They have numerous data of lost customers and yet I have never read one thing about what the lost customers have said about why they walked away?
Procter and Gamble talk to their customers, one way or another, on a daily basis. What is wrong with the newspaper guys doing the same thing and getting back to us with some objective stuff, instead of all the poor mouth "layoff stuff"?
(Submitted by a Paper Person)
FW: ABC NewsBulletin - June 2007 Issue
I'm glad to see that our ABC publisher membership fees are going to good use. ABC's cutting edge R&D department has created a rebate calculation tool to assist advertisers with those tedious rebate calculations. Yippee!
(Submitted by a Publisher)
RE: A Publishing Quandary: Do Excerpts Help Sales?
Some of this book-excerpts-vs-book-sales discussion seems over analyzed. The reason Paula Deen sold more books than Jessica Lynch might be as simple as the fact that people like ladies who make good fried chicken better than they like girls who degrade prisoners of war, even though each did it with a smile on her face.
(Submitted by a Printer)
Re: 10 Obvious Things about the Future of Publishing you Need to get Through your Head
Well done! If truck-loads of pontificating doesn't work, let's try a list and make it all perfectly clear. I'm still amazed that my own local paper doesn't "get it"- they don't even have a website! I'm really curious about the J-school angle to this . . . what are their curriculums like today, and how's the hiring going?
(Submitted by a Circulator)
RE: Hail to the power of print
Except for the fact that he can't spell color ("colour"? What, no spell check in the UK?), Mr. O'Reilly got it right. It's nice to see that someone is able to see the forest without feeling the need to write an obituary for dead trees.
(Submitted by a Printer)
RE: Tab Wars: Breaking News or Faking News?
There's a big difference between pleasing your customers and pandering to them. If you don't have enough self respect to do your work correctly, you customers will start to lose respect, and the next step is that they'll find something else to do. Perhaps I'm misremembering, but aren't some of the biggest gossip rags having large financial troubles? If it's insulting to a reader to assume he or she can't figure out when titles are full of crap, isn't it doubly insulting to peddle that crap?
(Submitted by a Writer)
Re: Growth Demands From Publishers, Rise of Online Rivals May Cause Shakeout
Bo: All these idiots talk about are ad pages, loss of subscribers, etc. Does anybody talk about the out-of-date, timely content, lack of imagination stuff that might stem the downward slide?
(Submitted by a Paper Person)
RE: The Biggest Niche
With an entire XM station devoted to advertising the government, wouldn't the Fairness Doctrine require a SIRIUS Common Sense channel as a counterbalance?
(Submitted by a Paper Person)
RE: Carbon Neutral Paper
Bob, Did you see the piece about Rolling Stone and Catalyst's carbon neutral paper? So much environmentalism is pure posturing, appearing to help the environment rather than actually helping it. First it was PCW in magazine paper. What a crock! Now it's carbon neutral paper. Please! In the meantime, there are actually sensible and effective initiatives that make sense for the earth and from the perspective of our business. The Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification are the two best and most prominent examples.
Anyway, my favorite part of the Catalyst story was where they said they had reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 70%. We'll ignore the fact that we both remember when emission of "greenhouse gases" was called photosynthesis and was a good thing. But if you know anything about the history of Canadian environmental regulations, you know that reducing a Canadian mill's emissions by 70% is like saying, "Use new lower fat Crisco - 70% less fat than a big old tub of fat." It's marketing, not substance.
(Submitted by a Printer)
Re: What Difference Does a Cover Make?
After Readers Digest purchased Reiman Publishing, they started massaging the covers on the various publications, using head liners in reverse, like you would see on any newsstand issues. The one that broke the back of Bird and Booms was when they pictured a couple in a garden, instead of either flowers or birds only. I was told that the folks in Pleasantville, New York at Readers Gigest thought Reiman's covers were too out of date. It is the old adage, anyone West of the Hudson River is in the "Outback"
The rest is history.
(Submitted by a Paper Person)
Re: A magazine in every niche
Wow, this article actually describes what I do for a living. Of course, my niches-within-a-niche only total 1/10th of Garden and Gun's circ, but hey, it's enough to keep bread on my table. Thanks for bringing the good news not just the doom and gloom that characterizes more reportage on our industry these days.
(Submitted by a Publisher)
Buyers Still Choose Time's Circ Over Audience
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now."
Proverb
Buyers Still Choose Time's Circ Over Audience
by Lucia Moses
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/print/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003600293
Last fall, Time announced sweeping changes in the way it would do business, planning to offer advertisers the chance in January to buy ads at a 19 percent reduced rate base of 3.25 million, or by a guaranteed audience of 19.5 million. Nearly six months after the new sales approach took effect, media buyers seem to be keeping it Old School and not buying by audience. While the newsweekly says it's ahead of plan in getting advertisers on board, nearly a dozen buyers surveyed by Mediaweek reported none of their clients signed up for the audience option or that they haven't heard much about it.
A widely expressed buyer concern was that the guaranteed audience, representing adults 18-plus, as measured by MRI, is too broad. Others said the audience data are too new and worried that it could be manipulated. Some balked at Time's demand that they commit for the entire year.
Kelly Foster, print director, senior partner, MindShare, said she recommended that her clients, which include pharmaceuticals, financial services and packaged goods marketers, continue to buy on rate base. Kelly said in addition to the broadness of the audience, she was concerned about the methodology (MRI measures audience by asking adults if they read a particular magazine). "The self-reported nature of it makes it very difficult to trust it for buying purposes," she said.
Others said they supported Time's initiative, even if the audience data are too new. (Time is using MRI's new Issue Specific Readership Study as a basis for its audience, but MRI's issue-specific audience data likely won't come out until this week.) "We look forward to working with audience guarantees for all titles when the research is more timely and accurate," said Robin Steinberg, senior vp, director of print investment and activation, MediaVest.
Buyers also noted that other steps the magazine has taken to stay competitive in a nonstop news cycle haven't led to key changes in their appraisal of Time. The weekly moved its on-sale date to Friday from Monday, while managing editor Rick Stengel has made the magazine more visually dramatic, and put more focus on breaking news on the Web site. Even those who said the on-sale date change could help Time accumulate an audience faster said it wouldn't impact their recommendations.
"Is it fundamentally changing our evaluation?" Serge Del Grosso, executive vp, director of media planning at Lowe New York, said of the audience offer and new on-sale date. "No."
Ed McCarrick, president and worldwide publisher, Time Group, acknowledged that a lot of clients are waiting for issue-specific audience data. A "variety of clients," which he wouldn't name, have signed on, he said. Time estimates 20 to 30 percent of clients to be buying based on audience by year's end. "We're right where we want to be on every [index] we set up, and that's not a smoke screen," he said. "Actually, we're ahead of where we thought we'd be."
McCarrick said clients have responded well to Time's effort to foster speed in audience reporting, although Time hasn't yet signed up for the Audit Bureau of Circulation's Rapid Report, which allows for continuous online circ reporting. "We've had enormous positive feelings out there," he said. "Because I think everybody's about immediate return on investment."
Stengel said the earlier close lets Time reach readers when they have more leisure to read it, and that internal research showed people are spending more time with it. "They're enjoying getting it Friday and reading it on the weekend, which is when they said they've always wanted to get the magazine," he said.
It's unclear if the Friday on-sale date has helped Time on the newsstand, though. Preliminary newsstand estimates from an industry source show Time fell 10 percent in the first quarter of '07, a period in which Time published one fewer issue (a spokesperson said the decline is not that steep); Newsweek was down 2 percent. (U.S. News & World Report grew 9 percent, a rise it attributed to some strong-selling history and service covers.) Time, Newsweek and U.S. News averaged 133,084, 110,588 and 36,666, respectively, on the newsstand in the six months ended December 2006, per the ABC.
Only about 30 percent of newsstand copies are getting to racks by Friday, though, according to distribution sources. McCarrick pointed out that single-copy sales are a small percentage of total circ (3.3 percent), and that 90 percent of home-delivered copies are getting to subscribers by Saturday. "We're right on the number that we want to be at in terms of our newsstand distribution for Fridays," he said.
Another complicating factor is that all have raised their cover prices in recent months: Time by $1, to $4.95; Newsweek by 55 cents, to $4.50, and U.S. News by 50 cents, to $4.50.
Greg Osberg, executive vp, worldwide publisher, Newsweek, allowed that the Web has impacted Newsweek's newsstand sales (which he contended were essentially flat in the first quarter), but said Time hasn't hurt Newsweek by going on sale three days earlier. Recognizing the Web's impact, Newsweek has been focusing on building its online site, with a redesign on the way in the coming months. Both titles' sites have grown over the past year, although Newsweek.com (linked to by msnbc.com) kept its lead over Time.com in May, with a unique audience of 6.7 million vs. Time's 4.6 million, per Nielsen//NetRatings.
Elsewhere on the circ front, McCarrick said an adjustment in the draw has resulted in a roughly 4 percent improvement in sell-through. He said that with the ABC publisher's statement for the first half of 2007, all subscriptions will be to direct-to-publisher. Verified, or public-place, copies will be down to about 4 percent, from 8.8 percent in the second half of '06. (Newsweek does not use verified copies; at U.S. News, 1.8 percent of circ was verified.)
For now, newsweeklies face a tough ad climate. Pages for Time fell 5.4 percent through June 25, while Newsweek slid 4.3 percent through June 18, per the Mediaweek Monitor. (U.S. News was up 4.8 percent.) Osberg pointed to softness in automotive, in addition to pharmaceutical and tech. "We've taken a pretty dramatic hit, and so have all the weekly magazines," he said.
"Ten years ago, our largest advertisers were headquartered in Detroit. And that is not the case by far anymore." McCarrick said despite soft domestic auto, foreign auto, pharmaceutical, financial and luxury ads have been strong in Time, with the result that, although the title rolled back ad rates this year in line with the rate base cut, revenue declined less than ad rates did. He believes eventually, audience will be the currency for buying magazines, just as it is for TV, radio and online.
Meanwhile, Stengel plans more changes, like new writers and a fresh approach to covering elections: "I feel like we're just at the beginning. Now we can actually run a little bit."
Proverb
Buyers Still Choose Time's Circ Over Audience
by Lucia Moses
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/print/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003600293
Last fall, Time announced sweeping changes in the way it would do business, planning to offer advertisers the chance in January to buy ads at a 19 percent reduced rate base of 3.25 million, or by a guaranteed audience of 19.5 million. Nearly six months after the new sales approach took effect, media buyers seem to be keeping it Old School and not buying by audience. While the newsweekly says it's ahead of plan in getting advertisers on board, nearly a dozen buyers surveyed by Mediaweek reported none of their clients signed up for the audience option or that they haven't heard much about it.
A widely expressed buyer concern was that the guaranteed audience, representing adults 18-plus, as measured by MRI, is too broad. Others said the audience data are too new and worried that it could be manipulated. Some balked at Time's demand that they commit for the entire year.
Kelly Foster, print director, senior partner, MindShare, said she recommended that her clients, which include pharmaceuticals, financial services and packaged goods marketers, continue to buy on rate base. Kelly said in addition to the broadness of the audience, she was concerned about the methodology (MRI measures audience by asking adults if they read a particular magazine). "The self-reported nature of it makes it very difficult to trust it for buying purposes," she said.
Others said they supported Time's initiative, even if the audience data are too new. (Time is using MRI's new Issue Specific Readership Study as a basis for its audience, but MRI's issue-specific audience data likely won't come out until this week.) "We look forward to working with audience guarantees for all titles when the research is more timely and accurate," said Robin Steinberg, senior vp, director of print investment and activation, MediaVest.
Buyers also noted that other steps the magazine has taken to stay competitive in a nonstop news cycle haven't led to key changes in their appraisal of Time. The weekly moved its on-sale date to Friday from Monday, while managing editor Rick Stengel has made the magazine more visually dramatic, and put more focus on breaking news on the Web site. Even those who said the on-sale date change could help Time accumulate an audience faster said it wouldn't impact their recommendations.
"Is it fundamentally changing our evaluation?" Serge Del Grosso, executive vp, director of media planning at Lowe New York, said of the audience offer and new on-sale date. "No."
Ed McCarrick, president and worldwide publisher, Time Group, acknowledged that a lot of clients are waiting for issue-specific audience data. A "variety of clients," which he wouldn't name, have signed on, he said. Time estimates 20 to 30 percent of clients to be buying based on audience by year's end. "We're right where we want to be on every [index] we set up, and that's not a smoke screen," he said. "Actually, we're ahead of where we thought we'd be."
McCarrick said clients have responded well to Time's effort to foster speed in audience reporting, although Time hasn't yet signed up for the Audit Bureau of Circulation's Rapid Report, which allows for continuous online circ reporting. "We've had enormous positive feelings out there," he said. "Because I think everybody's about immediate return on investment."
Stengel said the earlier close lets Time reach readers when they have more leisure to read it, and that internal research showed people are spending more time with it. "They're enjoying getting it Friday and reading it on the weekend, which is when they said they've always wanted to get the magazine," he said.
It's unclear if the Friday on-sale date has helped Time on the newsstand, though. Preliminary newsstand estimates from an industry source show Time fell 10 percent in the first quarter of '07, a period in which Time published one fewer issue (a spokesperson said the decline is not that steep); Newsweek was down 2 percent. (U.S. News & World Report grew 9 percent, a rise it attributed to some strong-selling history and service covers.) Time, Newsweek and U.S. News averaged 133,084, 110,588 and 36,666, respectively, on the newsstand in the six months ended December 2006, per the ABC.
Only about 30 percent of newsstand copies are getting to racks by Friday, though, according to distribution sources. McCarrick pointed out that single-copy sales are a small percentage of total circ (3.3 percent), and that 90 percent of home-delivered copies are getting to subscribers by Saturday. "We're right on the number that we want to be at in terms of our newsstand distribution for Fridays," he said.
Another complicating factor is that all have raised their cover prices in recent months: Time by $1, to $4.95; Newsweek by 55 cents, to $4.50, and U.S. News by 50 cents, to $4.50.
Greg Osberg, executive vp, worldwide publisher, Newsweek, allowed that the Web has impacted Newsweek's newsstand sales (which he contended were essentially flat in the first quarter), but said Time hasn't hurt Newsweek by going on sale three days earlier. Recognizing the Web's impact, Newsweek has been focusing on building its online site, with a redesign on the way in the coming months. Both titles' sites have grown over the past year, although Newsweek.com (linked to by msnbc.com) kept its lead over Time.com in May, with a unique audience of 6.7 million vs. Time's 4.6 million, per Nielsen//NetRatings.
Elsewhere on the circ front, McCarrick said an adjustment in the draw has resulted in a roughly 4 percent improvement in sell-through. He said that with the ABC publisher's statement for the first half of 2007, all subscriptions will be to direct-to-publisher. Verified, or public-place, copies will be down to about 4 percent, from 8.8 percent in the second half of '06. (Newsweek does not use verified copies; at U.S. News, 1.8 percent of circ was verified.)
For now, newsweeklies face a tough ad climate. Pages for Time fell 5.4 percent through June 25, while Newsweek slid 4.3 percent through June 18, per the Mediaweek Monitor. (U.S. News was up 4.8 percent.) Osberg pointed to softness in automotive, in addition to pharmaceutical and tech. "We've taken a pretty dramatic hit, and so have all the weekly magazines," he said.
"Ten years ago, our largest advertisers were headquartered in Detroit. And that is not the case by far anymore." McCarrick said despite soft domestic auto, foreign auto, pharmaceutical, financial and luxury ads have been strong in Time, with the result that, although the title rolled back ad rates this year in line with the rate base cut, revenue declined less than ad rates did. He believes eventually, audience will be the currency for buying magazines, just as it is for TV, radio and online.
Meanwhile, Stengel plans more changes, like new writers and a fresh approach to covering elections: "I feel like we're just at the beginning. Now we can actually run a little bit."
'Time' Shoving Its Reluctant Writers Online
"A habit cannot be tossed out the window; it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time."
Mark Twain (American Humorist, Writer and Lecturer. 1835-1910)
'Time' Shoving Its Reluctant Writers Online
http://gawker.com/news/platform-agnosticism/time-shoving-its-reluctant-writers-online-270291.php
Yesterday, Time Inc. chairman and chief executive Ann Moore did a Q&A with the Wall Street Journal. One of the things she said was:
The really big breakthrough is that editorial drank the Kool-Aid. The editors of Time Inc. really don't fear the Web anymore. The people who are leading the charge are the writers. When you realized that you could write online, and you would get thousands of readers responding, disagreeing, arguing, it was really great.
Oh, really? Because, in a recent in-house memo, it seems like Rick Stengel's having to really crack the whip over at Time to get his boys on the internets.
To: TIME Edit Staff
From: Rick Stengel
It's been a little more than four months since TIME.com re-launched with a new look and purpose. By any metric the re-launch has been a success. Page-views are up about 70% over last year, time spent on the site is up 50% and I think we can all agree that TIME.com not only looks better but reads smarter. We're doing well.
But not well enough. As good as TIME.com is, it still needs to be better. And it still needs more content, much more. A number of our best journalists are writing stories and covering their beats for TIME.com and the magazine simultaneously, and it gives me pleasure to single some of them out by name: Joe Klein, Jim Poniewozik, Karen Tumulty, Simon Elegant, Richard Corliss, Alex Perry, Bryan Walsh, Sean Gregory, Bobby Ghosh, Massimo Calabresi, Tim McGirk and Bruce Crumley. As you can see, this list includes many of our best traditional magazine journalists, and that's no accident; if you cover a beat or territory with passion and expertise, you can and should cover it any medium.
That list needs to grow. I sent out a memo last week about evaluations. Let me make this explicit: evaluations of every Time writer, correspondent, and reporter will be based on the quality and quantity of the contributions each of you makes to both the magazine and to TIME.com. TIME.com is a daily responsibility; Time magazine is a weekly responsibility. TIME is made up of both.
I suspect that some of you regard writing for TIME.com as an obligation, and not what you came to TIME to do. But times have changed, and we have to change with them. If you care about what you do - and I know you do - then you need to display your talent, your expertise, and your dedication online as well as in the magazine. That goes for editors as well as writers. Everyone should now have beats and areas of responsibility (Ratu has the list), and you should talk to Josh as well as your editors about what your contribution to TIME.com should be.
All of this will only make you better at what you do - and make TIME stronger. It will serve you and serve our readers, who can and should expect the same devotion to great writing and reporting online as in print. We are now both a 24/7 news organization online and the indispensable weekly magazine that we have always been, and always will be. We don't own our readers or their time - we have to earn their attention and loyalty every week, every day and every hour in a media landscape that is only getting more competitive. Let's go to work.
Thanks, Rick
Mark Twain (American Humorist, Writer and Lecturer. 1835-1910)
'Time' Shoving Its Reluctant Writers Online
http://gawker.com/news/platform-agnosticism/time-shoving-its-reluctant-writers-online-270291.php
Yesterday, Time Inc. chairman and chief executive Ann Moore did a Q&A with the Wall Street Journal. One of the things she said was:
The really big breakthrough is that editorial drank the Kool-Aid. The editors of Time Inc. really don't fear the Web anymore. The people who are leading the charge are the writers. When you realized that you could write online, and you would get thousands of readers responding, disagreeing, arguing, it was really great.
Oh, really? Because, in a recent in-house memo, it seems like Rick Stengel's having to really crack the whip over at Time to get his boys on the internets.
To: TIME Edit Staff
From: Rick Stengel
It's been a little more than four months since TIME.com re-launched with a new look and purpose. By any metric the re-launch has been a success. Page-views are up about 70% over last year, time spent on the site is up 50% and I think we can all agree that TIME.com not only looks better but reads smarter. We're doing well.
But not well enough. As good as TIME.com is, it still needs to be better. And it still needs more content, much more. A number of our best journalists are writing stories and covering their beats for TIME.com and the magazine simultaneously, and it gives me pleasure to single some of them out by name: Joe Klein, Jim Poniewozik, Karen Tumulty, Simon Elegant, Richard Corliss, Alex Perry, Bryan Walsh, Sean Gregory, Bobby Ghosh, Massimo Calabresi, Tim McGirk and Bruce Crumley. As you can see, this list includes many of our best traditional magazine journalists, and that's no accident; if you cover a beat or territory with passion and expertise, you can and should cover it any medium.
That list needs to grow. I sent out a memo last week about evaluations. Let me make this explicit: evaluations of every Time writer, correspondent, and reporter will be based on the quality and quantity of the contributions each of you makes to both the magazine and to TIME.com. TIME.com is a daily responsibility; Time magazine is a weekly responsibility. TIME is made up of both.
I suspect that some of you regard writing for TIME.com as an obligation, and not what you came to TIME to do. But times have changed, and we have to change with them. If you care about what you do - and I know you do - then you need to display your talent, your expertise, and your dedication online as well as in the magazine. That goes for editors as well as writers. Everyone should now have beats and areas of responsibility (Ratu has the list), and you should talk to Josh as well as your editors about what your contribution to TIME.com should be.
All of this will only make you better at what you do - and make TIME stronger. It will serve you and serve our readers, who can and should expect the same devotion to great writing and reporting online as in print. We are now both a 24/7 news organization online and the indispensable weekly magazine that we have always been, and always will be. We don't own our readers or their time - we have to earn their attention and loyalty every week, every day and every hour in a media landscape that is only getting more competitive. Let's go to work.
Thanks, Rick
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