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The historical moment we’re currently living in is changing the world around us, including the magazine industry. People are bombarded by information but have less understanding, so they want somebody to explain, to curate, to vet, to provide a trustworthy conversation with them. What will the magazine industry look like? How the trends will shape the future of magazines? These are the questions that are often posed to magazine people.
Advertisers vanished. That’s why we’ve seen a shift in terms of the business model. A magazine that has been published for 20 years changed its circulation to quarterly with a cover price of $15.99. This is more than what you paid to get 12 issues when it was a monthly magazine. Magazines are going to focus much more on their audience and get away from the business of selling the audience to the advertiser. And instead, they will get back to selling content to the audience. But if magazines are only in the content-providing business, we’re dead, because there’s so much content out there. To survive, it must be an experience-making business that feels like an exchange between trusted friends.
The shift towards relying more on consumer revenue than advertising revenue is the new reality for magazines. We’re seeing it implemented more than ever before. But during the 2008 recession, magazine executives were saying we have to change the business model and be in the business of circulation and depending more on the consumer. Then the minute the economy started picking up, they went back to their old ways. But this time because of the magnitude of the impact it will be different, and because there are so many other outlets for advertisers like mobile media. Advertisers know how to reach their customers; they don’t need a third party to sell their stuff.
There’s a major change taking place, and whether it shifts to bookazines or quarterly magazines, there is less dependence on advertisers and more dependence on people reaching into their pockets and spending up to $15 for a magazine. So, the content of the magazine better be experience-making content that is timely yet timeless—it’s not going to make a difference whether we read the magazine today, tomorrow or next month. That’s where we’re going to be seeing the big change; magazines are going to be the only non-disposable media platform.
Bookazines are the future of magazines. From a content point of view maybe, but there is still a need for that continuous relationship with the audience. Magazines are love affairs and long-lasting relationships; people want that trusted friend more. Magazines are the original influencers. People used to say, “I saw this in Life Magazine, ”or “I read this in Better Homes and Gardens .”It was the brand that carried that influence, and we need that. While bookazines are flooding the market, what’s helping us is that we’re learning that people are willing to pay for good content that they are interested in. So, there’s nothing wrong with us launching a quarterly mountain bike magazine like Beta , for example, which just came out with a cover price of $8. Niche publications like these are numerous, but they have the same goal in mind: we’m providing you with curated, vetted and trusted content, but you have to pay for it.
The magazine publishers have to accept the fact that print is here to stay, but also that print is changing; you can’t do the same magazine you did 10 years ago. There’s no problem with print because study after study shows us that people comprehend more, engage more and remember more with a printed product than digital. We don’t have a print problem; we have a business problem.
Some magazine media outlets are launching new ways to generate revenue, such as doing all kinds of membership deals that go beyond just getting a subscription to a magazine. The smart publishers are finding new ways to create revenue, but they are still using print as the base. Look at Us Weekly , they have a television program, podcasts and bookazines. But no matter what, the printed weekly edition is going to be with us so long as there is Us . We’ve never given up on print; We’ve given up on the traditional business model.
If magazines see that print is the only non-disposal media we have now, they will realize that you can’t print it on tissue paper. You have to be very creative with the printing, and in terms of ensuring that when you get that magazine you’re paying $15 for, it better feel worth that amount of money. There are so many different ways we can print today, especially now with digital printing. We’re getting some magazines they print only 500 of, but they are collectable or collectibles. Some even have hardcovers. Printers should think out of the box, and they should think they are creating a luxury item. There is no such thing as a disposable item because the price is over $10. It’s not about cutting costs when it comes to printing. You are in the business of creating a collectible item.
bombard：狂轰滥炸
curate：管理
niche：小众的
tissue paper：薄纸，劣质纸张
collectible：收藏品
Will print magazines still be around in the future?
These questions typically spike whenever there is news involving closures or layoffs at once-powerful magazines like Time or Newsweek , or when a famous person like a Facebook co-founder sparks a lot of media coverage for buying a magazine like The New Republic .
When there are events like the layoffs at Time , the coverage of them typically refer to something that readers are presumed to understand as being “the problems in the magazine industry.”However, what the reporter is actually referring to is a specific subset of the magazine industry called consumer magazines. Furthermore, the “magazine industry”to which the reporters are referring is even a more narrow subset of consumer magazines that are distributed nationally and published by a handful of very large media companies located in New York City and Des Moines, Iowa. The fact is there are magazines that are a business model, and there are magazines that support a business model.
The print magazine business model—the one that has a magazine as the foundation of a brand and the business generates a profit exclusively from advertising, newsstand and subscription revenue—is dead, kaput, over. Even the executives who run companies that have the magazine business model know it. That’s why they have all dropped the word “magazine”from their company’s names, laid off lots of reporters and are trying desperately to replace them with software developers. They have declared themselves digital media companies and like to use phrases like “multichannel”and “integrated.”Rather than being media and editorial experts, today they describe themselves as if they were marketing agencies, internet startups or designer labels. Perhaps that’s what they should be doing. But that’s not the magazine business model. It bears repeating: That model is dead.
Most magazines in America never had a magazine business model or strategy. Most magazines are created and published to support another kind of business model.
Think about the magazines you receive in your mail box or that are delivered to your desk. You probably get a magazine from organizations that have a wide variety of business models: the university business model, the professional association business model or the nonprofit service organization business model. More and more, your magazines may come from companies that have an automobile business model or a supermarket business model. Some of the largest circulation magazines in America have lobbying group business models or religious organization business models.
Each of these organizations has different reasons for publishing print magazines that are known to provide a significant return on investment, even when they do not carry advertising or require readers to pay a subscription. Again, these are magazines that support a business model other than the magazine business model.
Print magazines supporting other business models are still quite powerful if the content is aligned with the objectives of the business model and serves the needs of the audience. I do not mean that the magazine should be a “house organ”or some form of propaganda—I believe such magazines fail. I mean the magazine must align with the reason the reader has a relationship with the organization, and must serve a unique role in starting or extending a relationship that is beneficial to both the reader and the organization.
Print magazines will be around for the long run. And by that, it’s referred to the time-horizon made popular by the economist John Maynard Keynes when he observed, “In the long-run, we are all dead.”
layoff：遣散
magazine format：杂志版式
subscription：订阅
Wile E. Coyote：怀尔狼，华纳兄弟动画片“兔八哥”(Looney Tunes)系列里的一个经典形象，故事的反角，是一个不幸的角色。
time-horizon：时间范畴
Less than a decade ago the future of magazines appeared to be both solid and certain. Magazines provided a way to reach a highly targeted audience. Advertisers that wanted to reach male sports fans could turn to Sports Illustrated from the Time family of publications, or to reach runners turn to Runner ’ s World from the Rodale family, and these types of specializations existed across hundreds of specialized markets. While the increase in online media consumption has led to a decrease in print readership, this isn’t the only issue facing magazine publishers. The magazine industry has been disrupted by changes in how readers consume media, the formats of content they prefer, and how advertisers reach their desired audience.
Specialized advertising no longer requires reaching audiences while they read specific content, which dramatically impacts the future of magazine revenue. Online ad networks such as those run by Google offer user profiles, allowing for specialized advertising to reach users anywhere online. Through advertising targeting, a sports fan can be targeted while visiting a weather website or reading the local news, while a pet lover can be targeted for advertising on websites that are totally unrelated. This, combined with the amount of time consumers spend on computers, has caused more ad dollars to shift online. Google now brings in more revenue from advertising than every magazine combined—but not just every magazine, you could add the advertising revenue from magazines, newspapers, and radio networks together and Google still received more advertising revenue than the combined group, taking in more than $80 billion in ad revenue.
The future of magazine publishing will include fewer brands and publishers, which is already starting to occur. The Time Inc. sold itself after being spun-off from the Time-Warner group. Rodale, another major magazine publisher announced that it is considering selling itself. The independent publisher of Men ’ s Health , Runner ’ s World , Prevention , and many other magazine titles appears to be encountering the same challenges as Time . Magazine publishers will likely consolidate to leverage economies of scale, combining production, marketing, website hosting, and editorial operations across imprints and brands.
As consumers shift to online media consumption, magazines will need to follow them there to remain relevant. In some cases, this may involve creation of apps and better online experiences; and in others it involves magazines shifting from print content they own to content syndication through services such as Apple News. These services may provide pennies on the dollar, and thus may require implementation of paywalls for some content in an effort to convert users to subscribers. This model is already used by more news-centric publications such as The New York Times and Washington Post , and magazines are likely to follow this in order to recover lost subscriber revenue. Magazine publishers will also need to monitor their online activities more closely. They may learn Google Analytics or other web analytics tools to better target their content and understand their audience.
Successful magazine publishers will diversify into events and awards that leverage their brand identity and awareness. In some instances, this may support their brand through increased publicity, while in other cases these will be revenue generating events that align with the publication’s expertise. A technology-focused publication could host a technology event, while a fitness publication would host events that appeal to their audience while showcasing their expertise. Magazines are also likely to increase the use of sponsored content, which may be developed exclusively for a specific business, or underwritten by a brand. As this occurs, expect a further blurring of lines between editorial and advertising.
With reduction in traditional readership and in advertising revenue, these future of magazine publishing holds many changes which are likely occur quickly over the coming years. While this shift may appear to have a negative impact on technology vendors such as Adobe that support publishers, most have shifted their focus to corporations and businesses and away from magazines.
consolidation：合并
leverage：平衡，平均
analytics：分析，分析工具
expertise：专业知识
corporation：公司，法人