Finally Some Uplifting News From BoSacks?

BoSacks Speaks Out: Finally Some Uplifting News From BoSacks?
www.bosacks.com
I received a letter from a reader who said that some of his friends have stopped reading BoSacks because of all the bad news. I wasn't shocked at the note, but I admit that I was a little disappointed. I thought that my position was clear. I wrote back that I did not think that the industry is in death mode, nor has that ever been the intent of my coverage. And I also wrote that I try my damnedest to find positive and uplifting news.

Indeed I am very upbeat about our industry, and I see a bright future for the industry and the people in it. But there are a few things that have to be stated. The industry is never going to be the way it was; it is not even going to be the way it is. But I think the stories I send out give our readers a chance to see how the future may bend, blend and re-form, and hopefully offer a place of steady employment, if you are smart enough to read between the lines.

The industry is radically changing. So what? Why do you find that so depressing? I do not. Change is an elixir, and should be treated that way. The possibilities of information distribution in the next few years will be nothing less than staggering. Quite possibly we could be heading into the great, golden years of publishing. Is that a downer? Not in my book. There is more reading material available now, to more people than ever before in the combined history of man.

There are no age qualifiers on my web site when you sign up, so I'll ask this question: What were you doing five years ago? If you were in the business, what were you doing ten years ago? Are you doing the same thing now that you were doing then? I doubt it. What do you think you will be doing ten years from now? Do you think it is possible your job description and responsibilities might change? What might they be?

Our technology is growing exponentially. What used to take ten technologic years to advance now takes five, perhaps even less. My advice is to be very prepared to face the future with full frontal aggressiveness and make it your friend, not your combative enemy. If technology and the future are not your friends, you are fighting a battle you can not possibly win. As I have said before, the future is here now; it is just not widely distributed yet.

There are two options -- we can stick our heads in the ground in denial and hope that the industry problems will somehow go away and we will be able to continue to do what we have been doing, or we can do our very best to stay informed about the industry as it changes and grow with it. The choice is ours. Information is our power. That is why I am bullish about the publishing industry. We own the content. I do not care how we distribute that content. Some of it will always be on paper and some will be distributed electronically. So what? Once writers needed quill pens to write. Many years later came fountain pens, and then typewriters. Now we have computers. Are my words typed on a laptop and distributed by electrons, any less important because of this method of delivery? The reading of the written word is what is most important, not the pathway to receiving them. The truth is those words are more important when they are as fresh as possible and only a few electronic minutes old.

The bottom line for us all is to try to stay employed as long as we wish to work. The only way to that end is to work hard and be as informed as is possible.

Oh, yes, and I might mention that I do try my hardest to find articles that are positive and uplifting about our industry. They do exist from time to time; it's just that they are very few and far between. When I find them, I send them. I also think most negative articles are not fully understood by the authors and are written with a very narrow perspective. But what I do send out is important to anyone in the industry. That is my criteria and the only reason I send anything out. I think it is important to know. Remember, this industry's future is your future. The world of publishing is not going to evaporate. I think it will grow and prosper, in fact, I guarantee it.

Well, there you go. Am I wrong? What do you think?

BoSacks Readers Speak Out: Mag Industry Successes, Kindles, Ziff and more

BoSacks Speaks Out; My good friend Peter Meirs of Time Inc fame has created a short video that I think is really worth viewing. He was the chair of an excellent group discussion on digital magazines at the Publishing Executive trade show last week. Every time Peter and I get together in the same room, there is a wonderful time warp of sorts and our conversations careen towards that semi-accurate future of our business. I know that together we have conceptualized many reading devises that are 25 years or more on the horizon. When we do this, I know we are not wrong, we are just not right yet.

Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative.
H. G. Wells (1866 - 1946)

BoSacks Readers Speak Out: Mag Industry Successes, Kindles, Ziff and more
www.bosacks.com

Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: Review of the Kindle
and i would tell you that the magazine publishers don't want digital magazines to work. i really suspect they have no clue what to do with them since they don't get paid to make them work . . . but the kindle tells another wonderful story: linux works and works well, and great things can be built with it . . . i took windows off my two notebooks and i don't crash and i don't lose wireless signals.
(Submitted by an industry researcher and daily morning IM pal of BoSacks)

Re: Book lovers have emotional bond with paper
bob, this is absurd . . . i have always loved magazines, books and newspapers, now, i love my kindle . . . what a great way to buy and read books, especially if you are a 2 or more books per week reader, as i am.
i have no doubt that some years from now, most people will be doing most of their reading on egizmos . . . regards
(Submited by a Publisher)


Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: Review of the Kindle
you sir, are a voice of reason . . . the sony is a model t . . . and yes it is . . . . too bad u didn't have a kindle with you which is the tucker of e-book readers.
(Submitted by an industry pundit and writer)

RE: Book lovers have emotional bond with paper
Bo - I could not get into the show this week to hear your talk but hope that you would have talked about the Amazon Kindle - perhaps outfitted in full body armor. I have used the Kindle for a few months and it has become a must carry along. It has not 'replaced' the paper book nor do I feel it will ever do so. The Kindle is not all that useful on the beach (sand would not be a good thing). It is not yet readable in the dark (I cannot believe they did not find a way to offer even a light extension since the technology offers no backlighting). The graphs and photos do not work well at all. The wireless access is surprisingly fast and versatile and the bookmark, dictionary, notes and other features are quite intuitive (which is good since I hate reading directions). Most of all as with any first generation application it will be refined, they will get it better the second time around and likely the third time will be the charm. It is here to stay. Embrace it folks. It's not the end, it's only the beginning.
(Submitted by a longtime print and now marketing application guy)

Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: Review of the Kindle
I like mine as well, cool, but the back lighting real big disappointment, mags a total bust.
(Submitted by a Senior Director of Manufacturing)

Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: Review of the Kindle
Bo, I saw you at the show last week and was very impressed. Your three lectures were the best of all the meetings that I attended. But for me it was more the sum of the parts. Your keynote, then the Bo-epaper dissection and predictions and followed by your key trends of the industry, blended for me into a terrific forecast of where I need to apply my energy as a publisher and career focused family man. Many thanks for the very rational approach to a confusing business forecast. I guess I'm trying to say that you grounded me, and I need that.
(Submitted by a multi-title Publisher)

Re: Mag Industry Inches, With Some Success, Toward Efficiency
This is fascinating, and I've anticipated it for well over a decade.
If only the distros would buy all the copies -- like any rational business -- instead of the
consignment shellgame -- they would make it their business to get sell through up. Same should go for the stores.

I've been selling a significant portion of my niche titles NO RETURNS (at 75% off cover) for a decade. Some of the larger niche distributors (notably, XXXXXX) now request no returns contracts with all their vendors. (I was the first to suggest it to them, by the way.) These distributors that buy "no returns" from me keep the copy count really, really tight, but their sell through is great. I get a steady source of income in a timely fashion and they get a really excellent discount. Win-win-win.

Oh, and why should I, the publisher, pay for shrink? It's utterly beyond my ability to
control. If someone steals a box of cookies at Safeway, does Safeway tell the cookie company "too bad, it didn't scan?" Or if someone breaks a box of eggs, does Safeway tell the egg farmer -- "too bad, you should have made the eggs harder to break?"

BTW, I think if we are to be faced with shrink and SBT then we should get *paid* net 30 days from when the issue scans. Live by the scan, die by the scan, indeed.

P.S. I would dearly LOVE the big chains and distros to regulate for 50% sell through. It's
been my goal for years; I have tiny niche titles and I need to actually make *money* on newsstand.
(Submitted by a multi-title Publisher)

RE: ziff davis media files for bankruptcy
Do you know if the big creditors are printers? At first I thought it was strange that they were going to write off so much in return for the big majority stake in common stock. On reflection, it started sounding like someone pretty desperately needed those publications to keep printing, and that might well describe major printers who would be hard pressed to see that much business suddenly drop off the revenue side, which would smack their own stock prices.
(Submitted by a Writer)

RE Why do good magazines die
Bob: Greatly enjoyed your column which I read in a place I never bring my laptop.

My business depends in part on digital information and the web but I am
certain the flight from print is folly. Smart people will be making money
from print for as long as people can read - the written word is the basis of
our civilization and print is still the one of the best technologies for
disseminating and preserving the written word.

My motto in this business has always been, "first figure out what you want
to say, then figure out how to make it pay." The trouble with a lot of
corporate information businesses is that the decision makers really don't
care about the products. Editorially driven information enterprises are the
kind I love.

I just signed up for your newsletter. My interest in paper and pulp is due
to my involvement in a timber magazine, not as a potential buyer of paper.
(Submitted by an Unknown)

RE; Does the next generation read?
Finally I have a few moments to respond to your question of October, 2007 "Does the Next Generation Actually Read?" which you posed in Publishing Executive.

The one word answer is "Yes".

However they do not read useless words which still fill the gaps between ads and pretend to be of importance.

They want the information they need and they do not care whether it comes to them in leather bound, gold leaf, low acid content volume, which they physically have to access somewhere or visually in pictures or abbreviated in an IM. They can't waste their time with what the publishing industry habitually tries to pass off as important knowledge.

Their generation has to absorb about 10 times the knowledge we did and they have to do it in much shorter time. I like to compare our knowledge transfer industry (schools) as the most inefficient time spent in our lives. It is as if we tried to eat all we will need for the rest of our lives in the first 20 years. It does not work. They can no longer spend 20 years to learn all that we will need to know for the rest of our lives. Most of what the next generation will have to know has not even been invented yet. They will need access to knowledge instantly, whenever, and wherever they are.

I have just begun the 32nd year of publishing Futurific Leading Indicators. Part of the reason our very small circulation is reaching a new high every month is our formula for reporting news by:
eliminating all the unnecessary words to get the story across.
we also skip all self-serving, promotional verbiage that helps to fill news pages.
we make sure to eliminate all dead-on-arrival news items. These are items that are done with and have no impact of the future.
we do not promote any creed, politics or products.
we do not entertain, distract or create hype of any sort.

After this filtering we are left with bare facts that are organized in a logical format which continues and refines the picture we are presenting, month after month.

For these 32 years, our only agenda has been, and continues to be, to accurately forecast the future. It can be done . . . and somebody had to do it.

Hope this answers your question.

Keep asking why.
Yours for a better future,
(Submitted by a President)

Bosacks Readers Speaks Out: On Magazines, Ads, Digital, and Google

Bosacks Readers Speaks Out: On Magazines, Ads, Digital, and Google
www.bosacks.com

Re: Americans have Skewed View of Ad Industry
Advertising, marketing, PR, et al have become ubiquitous and excessively intrusive. So, an unfavorable opinion on the part of the people on the receiving end of their constant barrage is unsurprising. But in the larger context of the popular culture, it would be more surprising to hear an American voice a positive opinion about any aspect of any business.

The entertainment industry is dominated, somehow that word is not strong enough, by a socialist mindset. In the products they produce, business people are evil, venal, unfeeling exploiters of innocent people and the sacred environment. The good guys are hesitant soldiers (grunts only, not officers), free spirited teachers, crusading politicians, maverick lawyers, and muckraking journalists. You will note, the common thread among the anointed is taxpayer money. Either these people dine at the public trough or they pal around with those who do.

In real life, it is the free market and commerce rather than government and it allies that are responsible for American freedom and prosperity. The image most Americans conjure when the subject arises is not really a businessman. He just plays one on TV.
(Submitted by a Printer)


Re: French Newspaper to Debut Electronic Newspaper
This is just a toe hold for the future. As the hardware gets better, people will finally accept the digital path as the best and easiest way to read and be informed. Anything less, will just be less. When is the last time you unrolled a scroll?
(Submitted by a Publisher)


Re: All Digital, All Commerce, All The Time
I don't actually agree. Its not that the digital era will be devoid of altruistic or journalistic pursuits, but rather that consumers want all content from all sources available all the time, for free. Once publishers get hip to that they can end the hand wringing and get on with the business of monetization, its still about content, it just doesn't have to be your (google).
(Submitted by a Industry supplier) Sent via BlackBerry


Re: AM, FM Radio Predicted to End in 15 Years
Sure and the world will stop spinning too! And when it does, I will put another coin in the juke box.
(Submitted by an Unknown)

Re: AM, FM Radio Predicted to End in 15 Years
Its a very aggressive prediction that free radio will end in fifteen years, but I think it is possible. With greater distribution if WiFi signals across the county, it is easy to see that it COULD happen. As soon as I got satellite radio I stopped listening to terrestrial free AM?FM. Too much junk on the old style radio. (Submitted by a Publisher)

Re: Media Remix
Bo, this goes along with what P&G said several years ago that "there is no such thing as mass media anymore and new approaches have to be found to connect with customers on a more direct basis" . . .
(Submitted by a Paper Person)

REThe Magazine Marketplace in Flux-How Can PR Benefit
Mr. Magazine may know magazines but, doesn't know sports. I can't see why he is so stuck in the paper world. Sure it does and will have a place in the next media circus. But I am sure that the printed produce will be a sideshow event and not in the big tent.
(Submitted by a Publisher)

REThe Magazine Marketplace in Flux-How Can PR Benefit
When sporting events see small crowds, you don't hear the managers bemoaning the death of a sport;

HUH? WHAT'S HAPPENED TO NHL HOCKEY? PRO BOWLING USED TO GET A TV AUDIENCE OF 11 MILLION IN THE 1970S FOR ITS LIVE TELECAST. WHERE IS IT NOW? WHAT ABOUT U.S. SOCCER? BOXING? SURE YOU DO. THESE SPORTS ALL HAVE TROUBLE GETTING ADVERTISING SPONSORSHIP THE WAY THEY USED TO AND OFTEN HAVE TO FUND THEIR BROADCASTS ON THEIR OWN AND SELL THEIR OWN ADVERTISING, RATHER THAN SELL THE BROADCAST RIGHTS THE WAY THE NFL, MLB, AND NBA DO.

when stocks prices fall, you don't hear CEOs complaining that money is no longer a viable product;

WHAT ABOUT INFLATION? EXCHANGE RATES? SURE THEY DO.

but for some reason a drop in new magazine launches makes our industry think our days are numbered.

IF IT BECOMES A PERSISTENT ISSUE, THEN IT WILL
(Submitted by an Industry Consultant)


Re: Don't give Google double the power
Bob: Despite my appetite for the good things that Google seems to be doing for me as an internet user, (gmail, Picasa), an article like this can be a little chilling. Seems like many really big, really useful companies have ideas about total domination of their industry. GM, Firestone, Microsoft come to mind in a flash. What happens when you're the only show in town? How limited is your imagination?

My attitude began to turn when the internet security suite installed on my computer began to flash warnings of SPYWARE whenever I'd open my gmail account. I have queried Google with no response. I have also notified the maker of my internet security software. Is there such a thing as a Benign Big Brother?

Google's ad scheme is based on their software reading my emails, then tailoring advertising to the text it read. Right now, the ads are unobtrusive, and often cogent to the substance of my note.
Now, factor in an administration that wants to know what we read in libraries, and has no compunctions about Geneva Conventions or our own Constitution. Would it take a special genius to combine the capabilities of Google's email reader programming with, say, any of the several government agencies that feel as though they need to know more about what we citizens are saying among ourselves?

It wasn't all that long ago that a major news story had to do with AT&T being co-opted by our government guardians. Why not Google, too?

(Submitted by a Publisher)

BoSacks Readers Speaks Out: Printing, Publishing, Spirals? and Paper

BoSacks Readers Speaks Out: Printing, Publishing, Spirals? and Paper


RE: Magazines: How 'Vogue' and the other cool prints stay ahead

None of the magazines I subscribe to, and read, could be called "cool" by any stretch of the imagination. If advertisers follow "cool" and "hot" titles because some marketing person describes them as such, my bet is the client will be hiring a new agency within six to eight months. For the zillionth time, it's about compelling editorial on subjects the reader is interested in, and will pay full price for - subscriber or newsstand. For example, The Economist is the only remaining newsweekly that is gaining subscribers and advertisers, because they give their educated readers great content. Now, THAT's cool!
(Submitted by a Senior Director of Manufacturing and distribution)



Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: Is Anyone in Control Here?

Bob, to a degree the consumer is in control. What you fail ro recognize is that the large chains have taken control of the wholesalers distribution channel. This is who dictates what is going to be on the newsstand racks. it has been that way since 1996-97. They are telling the Anderson's, Source?Levy & TNG what they want. Unfortunately these big guys let this happen. They are the ones who lost control of the marketplace.
(Submitted by a Distributor)



Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: Is Anyone in Control Here?

Bo, Longtime reader and big fan, but I have a hard time believing that I am reading columns about newsstands and rate bases in 2007. Publishers worried about newsstand efficiency and the balance of crap (excuse me) vs real subs on their file are long since doomed.

I love magazines, I read magazines and spent most of my career in magazines. Unfortunately they are the equivalent of trains in the transportation industry, I will take one to boston or dc once in a while, but flying is always better.

We should just all admit we are in the wind down phase of print publishing and manage that part of our media mix as such, and get on with the continued proliferation of our products on the web.
(Submitted by an Industry Supplier) Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile



Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: Is Anyone in Control Here?

I was taught that publishing was like flying a 747 with 4 engines - very difficult to get them all in sync, but when you did, the plane flew like a dream for years and years.

1.Identify and serve the consumers you need to 'round up' for advertisers.

2. Build an audience advertisers want (whoever they are), and be able to prove who they are.

3. Build them on a sustainable basis - look at Vogue, or GHK or Time, good for years and years and years, as long as the audience keeps up with the advertisers changing needs. This means invest in edit not bleed it! This means invest in readers who are in the target group and will come back for the length of time you need, not the necessarily the cheapest path.

4. Build a profit model which is stable, not one based on flipping the company every 2 or 3 years.

Over the 100+ years of some of the titles I have worked on (mostly privately owned) we had good years and bad years, but we never messed with the core edit or audience, and guess what, they are still around and still have good years. I would hope that advertisers and agencies are after the same thing, but sometimes you have to wonder.
(Submitted by a Senior Distribution Consultant)



Re: BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Death Spirals? Jobs, Printers, and PR

Both Publishers and printers have done disservice to the world of words. Neither one of us realized that we were in the same business. Delivering Content. We became adversarial and we allowed outsiders (accounting type people) to marginalize a creative and interpersonal business.

Yes, profit is very important. Yes, readership is important. But what we allowed to occur in our business is allow profiteers to think that they could increase profitability to commoditize the industry. We took pennies and nickels off the printers table and we eliminated the partnering that has been going on forever. We eliminated competition in print and paper.


We did not look at technology as the initiative to get our content to the readership (only happening now).

Now we are all struggling to survive. What a mess.
(Submitted by a Printer)



Re: BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Death Spirals? Jobs, Printers, and PR

I thought the comment, from a printer, that prices are set just like the airline industry, by the stupidest competitor was very naive. It's no accident that the most consistently profitable airline in the U.S. is Southwest, which has the lowest prices because they have better and more rational costs than any of their competitors. It's amazing how many people believe that lower prices are always the cause of various ills. When you have superior costs to your competitors, it can be a tremendously effective weapon that can be used against them. It's no accident that Southwest, AirTran and Europe's RyanAir are the only airlines that are surviving profitably, and growing.

It's also the case that prices are always out of control of management; marketplaces always determine whether or not the prices management sets make sense. The only thing management can control is its costs and how those costs are constructed to deliver a product that prospective customers will find of interest.

Whether or not a competitor is viewed as stupid has consistently been the view of the old guard whose old costs are constructed in such a way that they cannot respond to new competitive threats.
(Submitted by an Industry Consultant)

Re: Stora Enso sells its North American paper operations to NewPage

Translation of Stora Enso CEO's statement: "The paper business stinks, we found a private investment group willing to buy us with other people's money, so we're folding and cashing in our chips. Thanks for the memories, good bye and good luck".
(Submitted by a Senior Director of Manufacturing and Distribution)



Re: Stora Enso sells its North American paper operations to NewPage
remember, newpage is the co with the request for paper tariffs against china.
newpage is owned by cerberus. it's chaired by former treasury secy john snow
if china is hurting their business so much, how'd they'd get the money? :)
in my mind the china thing is an attempt to hold on long enough despite their incredible debt load to make an ipo. can this pass antitrust muster? i would assume so
(Submitted by an Industry Analyst)



Stora Enso North American Market Report.

bob- it's an interesting sign when paper companies start sending their literature out via e-mail!
(Submitted by a Senior Director of Manufacturing)



Re: Americans giving up friends, sex for Web life

From 8:45am to 8pm I live in cyber space. That leaves twelve hrs. and fifteen minutes for the bedroom. I guarantee one can strike a balance!
(Submitted by a Production Manager)

BoSacks Readers Speak Out: Jobs, Mags, and and the Future

BoSacks Readers Speak Out: Jobs, Mags, and and the Future
www.bosacks.com


Re: Update
Bob, Once again I find myself unemployed. I got laid off yesterday from XXX XXX Media. The impact of high paper and postage costs and reduced ad revenue is real and hitting home in a big way.

I was totally caught off guard. I'll be 46 in Sept. My only hope is that I can reinvent myself in another industry other than print or publishing. I've been in this business since I was 16 years old. This is my second layoff in 17 months for similar reasons. They want a professional to come in to straighten out the business, but once things are back on track, are handed over to the bean counters to manage. There is no loyalty, no long term view and no regard for the production staff. Production has become a "cost center" and a "dumping ground". The thought process that we will just hire anyone off the street to get it done and if the production staff or supplier screws up, we will just get another, one prevails. When I started in this business, we were craftsmen, now we are overhead.

I've got ink in my veins, but the passion has faded. One door closes, another one opens.

Please keep the newsletters coming.
(Submitted by a Former Senior Production Director and long time BoSacks reader)



Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: On Media Buyers, Mags, and Football
Digital doom and gloom. Analyst, pundits and vested interests all insist on it. Meanwhile they are probably shorting the New York Times Company and Washington Post while even the Oracle of Omaha says the print business is challenging. Thing is, margins are margins and if you are a profitable print venue, with North of a 40% ad content (many are closer to 50% ads or even for many fashion books 70% ads!), you are making tidy sums indeed. Harder to do with constant USPS increases, paper price creep upwards and distribution hurdles let alone printer consolidation giving you fewer option.

Print that has an online tie in seems to be the ticket. Not some cheap online webpage like the often dismal reader service cards in the back of the trade pubs, but real vibrant streaming video, links to related blogs and ties to advertiser product demonstrations. Not hard sell- inform and offer a good product and the world will beat a path to your door or am I paraphrasing WR Hearst here and totally sounding dated?

All the same, an audience that trusts your content is the best asset.
(Submitted by a Publisher)



RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: Ask Yourself, Do I feel lucky? Well do you, punk?
Bob, I'm sure you can guess my response to this. No, I don't fell lucky. Having just lost my 2nd job in the last two years due to cost cutting measures, the painting on the wall is quite clear that the middle management production professionals are a dying breed. My prediction: Publishers will continue to publish, mostly electronically. Those publications that can support itself in print will be sent directly to the printer, who in turn will manage everything from files, ads, paper and distribution. Writers, editors and graphic artists will be able to work more from home, thus eliminating the need for brick and mortar office buildings, further cutting overhead costs. If paper and postage costs continue to rise at double digit rates and ad dollars continue to stay stagnant, we may see this evolution quicker than a decade. It's now survival of the fittest.
(Submitted by a Man on the Street)

Living in the past you accomplish nothing, living in the future, you can only dream, ask me what I did today and I might give you direction.

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: Ask Yourself, Do I feel lucky? Well do you, punk?
I see print on paper never leaving our hands! And someday, some young kid getting out of school will come up with a bright idea to publish his ideas on paper and send it in the mail thinking this is novel idea. Hopefully, what is old is new!

Excuse me while I get up to turn my record over to the "B" side.
(Submitted by an Unknown)





RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: Ask Yourself, Do I feel lucky? Well do you, punk?
You ask, how long I intend to keep working? Those plans changed when the early 21st Century stock market crash hit. Today, my retirement plans consist of hoping they let me keep working long enough to drop dead at my desk. And maybe, if I am really lucky, it will happen on a business trip. Then my wife will get two times the face value of my company life insurance. There's always hope.
(Submitted by a Printer)



Re: BoSacks Readers Speak Out: Time, Newsweek, and Staying Employed, Circ
Good stuff. The printing rep. response is so true. After 40 years in the paper business, I can only remember a handful of printing rep's who knew their company's capabilities. We would get requests for paper quotations from the uninformed printing rep's and ask ourselves, do these folks know who they are working for, because nothing fit their company? If they did get unlucky and get a job, we would end up sending the paper to a printer they farmed the job out to do the work and they would lose their you know what.
(Submitted by a Paper Person)





Re: Filling Landfills with New Books
In "Filling Landfills with New Books," blogger Sylvia Day complains that hundreds of books are thrown away at the end of a book publishers' conference called the Romantic Times Convention. Naturally, I was shocked to hear that unwanted reading material was being discarded (as any magazine publisher would be). I decided to check out the conference at http://www.romantictimes.com/home.php . After seeing the kinds of titles under discussion, all I can say is, "Keep tossing!"
(Submitted by a Publisher)



Re: Filling Landfills with New Books
Good Lord--this is a problem that seemingly intelligent people can't solve? If that's the case, thenf orget about solving global warming.


How about this: The conference planner calls local libraries or senior centers before the event, and gets them to send a small truck to the hotel loading dock at the end of the show. Or, at the grassroots level, four attendes can share a cab to the nearest public or high school library, or senior center, or foster home, or hospital, on the last day of the show. They use their wheelie suitcases to bring along as many books as they can. They ask the cab to wait five minutes, and then they bring the books inside and give them to the librarian. They got back to the hotel, pack their clothes, and go home.
(Submitted by senior Editor)


Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: Your Ad Here
Wow that's an interesting story too bad I drive old cars. I tell you who should take on that approach....NASA. The space program never has enough cash to get things built quick enough. Let's get some free parts for the new space shuttles and slap the company's logo on the side of them. We could have a base on the moon by now if we took that approach and would probably have better equipment as well.
(Submitted by a Senior Paper Manager)


Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: Your Ad Here
Believe it or not, this concept is not new. In 1976, my father was paid to drive his VW Beetle, painted green and silver and plastered with Kool cigarette decals, to and from work in downtown Chicago. My parents have never smoked, but they sure appreciated the extra income. . . . the Surgeon General's warning was also affixed to the car! Next to the rear passenger side window, in fact.

The advertising company would only paint Beetles. You had to leave your car with them for one day, and you didn't know which of five products you were going to get. In addition to Kool cigarettes, there was some brand of shampoo that would have had our car covered in pink and orange flower decals.
(Submitted by a Global Procurement & Manager)


RE: Men's Magazines turn the Page on their Adolescence
Interesting. Any way you cut it, my husband is all man. He reminds me of a cross between Jack Bauer and Jesse James (of Sandra Bullock marriage, but maybe the outlaw, too!). He also has a penchant for nice things (cigars, John Lobb shoes, Kiton shirts, pocket squares, and cars). He's 35 years old and thinks Men's Vogue is hands down the best magazine published for men today.
(Submitted by an Editor in Chief)

RE: The Worst PR Debacle in History
Bob, I've been lucky enough to visit China several times on magazine production business, including Hong Kong six times, Beijing twice, and Shenyang once. (Shenyang is a city of more than 7 million, but most Americans have never heard of it.) The working conditions, pollution, and production of poisonous or dangerous products is as described in this article. The responsibility, however, is joint - both the Chinese businessman, who comes from an entirely non-Western culture, operates without the "ethical" boundaries that most of us adhere to, as part of his busines DNA. Equally to blame is the purchasing agent from WalMart, or any other large buyer of off-shore produced goods, who insists only on lowest price, without regard to environmental or societal consequences. The Chinese supplier will do ANYTHING to reduce the cost of his goods, in the hopes of making the sale. It is the responsibility of the buyer to review the conditions under which goods being sold by his firm are manufactured. Unfortunately, today's Wall Street culture of money is everything is too often used as an excuse to not address these real, and serious issues. I'd love to see some news articles about what the TRUE cost of Chinese manufactured goods are - factoring in pollution, environment, and child labor, to start. Making things in the USA might not seem so expensive.
(Submitted by a Senior Production Director)

BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On jobs, editors, Circ, $70 magazines

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane." Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic, 1854-1900)


BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On jobs, editors, Circ, $70 magazines
www.bosacks.com

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: The $70 Magazine!
Bob, Because you understand the mechanics of printing you wanted to be impressed by what the medium can really accomplish in terms of beautiful printing using state-of-the-art reproduction processes on extraordinary paper. However, what is being sold is not beauty, but (you said it yourself) "style". Behind style is an idea that if expressed at all, even if not well, may find an audience. Of course, like beauty, style is certainly in the eye of the beholder -- a beholder who is obviously willing to pay through the nose for it. One thing for sure, there's no accounting for taste, as only the self-indulgent would pay $70 or more for a magazine, a sure reflection of the some of the imbalances rife in our economy and society.
(Submitted by a Printer)

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: The $70 Magazine!
Interesting, but in a way not that different from specialized newsletters or magazines that cost multiple hundreds for a subscription. If you have what the right audience wants, you can charge a lot. In fact, I'm becoming more certain that the future of publishing isn't what the large companies do, but what individual writers and photographers will create. For example, I'm considering self publishing a book that a number of publishers have passed on. The audience - professional and aspiring writers - is one that would probably be willing to shell out a reasonable amount, it's an area where I have some expertise (a number have been paying me around $160 for six-week online courses), and I could keep all the profits myself. Given that publishers expect me to do the writing on tight deadlines for little and then, for books at least, do the majority of the marketing, I see less and less reason to bother with them.
(Submitted by a Seasoned Professional Writer)

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: The $70 Magazine!
The first thing I did (a decade ago) when I acquired our flagship title from a failing publisher was to raise its cover price: from a (then-high) $5 to $6. (Of course, I also gradually increased the page count and quality of the book.) The old publisher tried to wriggle out of the sale, on the basis that "no one will pay $6 for a magazine" but nothing in our sale contract said I couldn't raise the cover price, so I won.

I now sell my titles at $7.50 (that flagship title), $5.95 and $6.00 and I am about to launch (spring 2008) a semi-annual book with a cover price of $10. All of this without color (except on the cover) or glossy, high-end production values. But we deliver value: real editorial. We restrain advertising to 25% of the total book, and depend on circ (primarily newsstand) for about 75% of revenue.

If readers like your work, they *will* pay good money for it. But you have to remember to put the reader, not the advertisers, first. Advertising is good money, and excess liquidity sloshing around Madison Avenue has made the American (world?) publishing business sloppy, greedy, and lazy. But when circ is king, the publisher is forced to treat readers like the gods that they truly are. Readers are why we are in this business.
(Submitted by a Multi-title Publisher)

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: The $70 Magazine!
Bob: Thoroughly depressing; The next issue of aRUDE should be made up of silvery reflective Mylar pages, so that the reader can admire him-or-herself, then on the inside covers, write compliments inspired by the views just seen. That would be a perfect follow up to the Hilton issue. The age of Narcisism is indeed here, populated by people living vicarious lives, indifferent to the realities most of us swim in. There is a 'market correction' in our cultural future. p.s. If aRUDE does a mylar-paged issue, i want credit for the idea.
(Submitted by a Publisher)

RE: The World May be Flat - Dateline Delhi
Bo: What's the big deal about outsourcing all those tedious, difficult, and unpleasant tasks that, fifty years ago, were called "work"? We live in the most wonderful country in the world, and anyone who doesn't think so should just move. I mean, where else can you get such GREAT programs as American Idol? And, so MANY wonderful celebrity magazine's to choose from, every week! If you gave a quiz to American teens about Paris Hilton's latest antics, like, they'd score higher, like, than teens in ANY other country in, like, the entire world! Forget about algebra, physics, or chemistry. That stuff is HARD, and after all, that's why those Chindians are there, to do that work. I mean, Detroit's latest gigantic SUV's even have in car TV's so you can watch Idol and drive, at the SAME time! Nobody else has all these wonderful things....nobody! We've shipped all our investment money to Iraq, so we won't be doing any public works or infrastructure repairs for GENERATIONS, so who needs skilled labor, anyway? Don't Worry, Be Happy!
(Submitted by a Senior Director of Manufacturing)

RE: The World May be Flat - Dateline Delhi
This is an immature and whining take on reality. Standing on a hill? Oh, you mean you figured that you were safe, so it was ok to send other jobs overseas? It shows you how morose and self-piteous her thinking is when you realize that she writes, "I can't even complain, as U.S.- based Reuters' workers did when their jobs were outsourced, that the quality of journalism will suffer as a result," when these reporters will watch a video of a city council meeting and have no possibility of asking a question or knowing anything of the greater context of the meeting. . .
(Submitted by a Writer)

Re: All-out outsourcing
Insightful article. I suspect that it's only a matter of time before this begins to become even more prevalent in our industry. Editorial in some companies has been outsourced for some time now and prepress is already being outsourced to India with some prepress houses serving as the liaisons between the Publishing companies they serve and those responsible for the outsourced work in foreign lands. At the end of the day, it's all about the bottom line and if the same work can be done more cost effectively overseas then unfortunately that's all that seems to really matter these days.
(Submitted by a Group Production Manager)

Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: Marketers to Mags: Give Guarantees or We'll Walk
"hardeeharhar. I should be making a million bucks a year as a consultant for the industry.

Our policy has been to offer proof positive of our paid rate base (actual copies printed! USPS Periodical Statement of Ownership!) to any advertiser upon request. Our policy has been this way for over a decade, since we found out about the rampant insane chicanery and outright lies that competitors in our market were waving around in front of their marks.
(Submitted by a Publisher)

Re: How to Sink a Newspaper
We all just have to keep our heads until this internet thing blows over.
(Submitted by an Industry Supplier)

RE: Craigslist founder questions print future
The common question is, "If you're so smart, how come you're not rich?" The better question many times is, "If you're so rich, how come you're not smart?"
(Submitted by a Printer)

Article on AdAge.com: GM Wants More Newspaper Advertorials
hey, didn't that pcworld editor get canned for not running favorable articles? an advertorial is where you bribe the sales staff with money and free content. a p.r. placement is where you bribe them with lunch. :)
(Submitted by an Industry Pundit)

Re: BoSacks Readers Speak Out: On Mr. Magazine, Time Inc, MPA, Editorial Integrity, and More
Bob, I sort of thought you had jumped into a deeper pool than most of us imagine, with your Copake Town Council win. But, I am glad you did it. It is as important to bring what you have to Copake as it is to share it with us, your readers, and admirers.

Yeah, I sort of miss your rants, too, but to me, Rants are not the centerpiece of your Blog; the Digest Presentation of industry information and news is. I can only wonder at the volumes of chaff you comb through to glean the newsworthy pieces you send our way. That you see fit to periodically add your own well- considered thoughts, is a major plus, and adds greatly to the VALUE of your Blog. That I take the time daily to read through what you have suggested is worthy news, is a sort of Consumer Loyalty that the Advertisers in our Publications only dream about.

So, keep up the good work. Bob, as best you can, and continue to become yourself, even if we might real fewer words from your own keyboard!
(Submitted by a Publisher)