As the world kept him thinking in turns so would the blank, empty, undiluted space in the upper right corner of his unimaginative American blog. It left itself for last - as if it knew it was much too smart for him - as if the search bar that had once been there was an overture to another space in time - as if that corner meant more than it really did.
More Advice For Magazine Publishers
Because something is happening here but you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?
There’s a lot of talk about the ways in which emerging technologies are changing the newspaper business… and for good reason… but there’s something equally interesting and slightly less talked about going on in the magazine industry. Magazine publishers, unlike the ugly situation in daily news, aren’t being killed from without. No, strangely enough, they seem to be dying from within.
Put simply, magazine publishers are dying from addiction. Yes, friends they are addicted to solutions, to bridge technologies that may do a great job of fixing that digital jones, but do little to help publishers face the truly difficult questions. Like the raconteurs of Gutenberg’s time who made a quick living reading books to the illiterate public, these stop-gaps that graft the old model onto the new (digital magazines for instance) may prove fruitful in the short term. Yet, if the slumping raconteur industry has taught us anything it’s that model grafting can only get you so far. At some point the people will learn to read.
It seems to me that the current publishing model based on copious display advertising revenue has more than a few holes in it when it is imposed onto emerging media platforms. While this fact is hovering in the air wherever magazine publishers gather it is rarely attacked and there has yet to be anything even approaching a solution offered. Currently the digital models that find harmony with the trends of a digitally networked world are not big money makers… at least not on the level that magazine publishers are used to. Finding the model that works is going to be difficult… and it just may be that publishers are going to have to dramatically adjust their concept of success.
In any event it is clear that what magazine publishers need more than anything is a source of counsel that does more than just advocate the extension of the current model to new platforms. Publishers need to break free of model protectionism and start to take a holistic view of new technologies and devices. Doing this means more than just looking at new toys… it means taking a good long look at your organization… it means re-inventing operations… it means developing new types of relationships with advertisers… it means getting closer to the reader, the customer, the transaction… it means studying not only what technologies are on the horizon, but most importantly studying how those technologies can and do change the behavior of the people they touch.
That last point is the key. I can’t state emphatically enough how important it is to take a behavior driven, person oriented approach to parsing emerging technologies. In fact the changes in technology are the least of your worries… it’s the changes in people, in the culture and behavior of your workers, your readers, your advertisers, that will really blind-side you if you’re not careful. If you fail to understand the hows and whys… fail to comprehend the ways in which human beings respond to technology… fail to grasp the anthropology of what you’re deploying… then you might as well fold right now.
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Michael-
Couldn’t agree more that a “a behavior driven, person oriented approach” is exactly what’s required in the coming age. That being said, I think that one of the things we’ve learned is that there is no holy grail behavior that everyone will flock to… some readers (like me) gobble content on their RSS readers, some (like you) gobble it on their phones and some (a million or more per month in our case) read digital magazines.
I tend to think that a behavior driven, person oriented approach will look like “publish once, syndicate many times,” and the publishers that can seamlessly integrate all of the syndication technologies their readers want will come out ahead.
You say it yourself – “If you… fail to comprehend the ways…” There is no one way, and I agree whole-heartedly that digital magazines are hardly THE way, but they are A way, and one that’s shown strong growth in recent years.
You’re also correct that “the current publishing model based on copious display advertising revenue has more than a few holes in it,” but the Times Reader with re-scalable ads has already shown us one way around this and I have faith we’ll see many more in the coming months. Look how few firms are doing an effective job of monetizing RSS feeds currently — same concept. It will take time for the business models to be refined, but they’ll get there.
Great insights, btw – I’m glad you take the time to share them.
M
Michael-
Couldn't agree more that a “a behavior driven, person oriented approach” is exactly what's required in the coming age. That being said, I think that one of the things we've learned is that there is no holy grail behavior that everyone will flock to… some readers (like me) gobble content on their RSS readers, some (like you) gobble it on their phones and some (a million or more per month in our case) read digital magazines.
I tend to think that a behavior driven, person oriented approach will look like “publish once, syndicate many times,” and the publishers that can seamlessly integrate all of the syndication technologies their readers want will come out ahead.
You say it yourself – “If you… fail to comprehend the ways…” There is no one way, and I agree whole-heartedly that digital magazines are hardly THE way, but they are A way, and one that's shown strong growth in recent years.
You're also correct that “the current publishing model based on copious display advertising revenue has more than a few holes in it,” but the Times Reader with re-scalable ads has already shown us one way around this and I have faith we'll see many more in the coming months. Look how few firms are doing an effective job of monetizing RSS feeds currently — same concept. It will take time for the business models to be refined, but they'll get there.
Great insights, btw – I'm glad you take the time to share them.
M
Marcus-
I think we are definitely in the same camp.
I may beat on digital magazines too much… I don’t mean to. I do like the idea and the technology, but as you yourself say they are hardly the only way forward for magazine publishers.
I do think that they may be getting a bit more play than they should because it is so familiar to publishers… the idea of the contained issue with edit bumping up against ads… it’s comfortable.
It’s that comfort level that has got to change. I think that if you are publishing a magazine today and you are comfortable with where your digital business model is then you are in serious trouble.
Marcus-
I think we are definitely in the same camp.
I may beat on digital magazines too much… I don't mean to. I do like the idea and the technology, but as you yourself say they are hardly the only way forward for magazine publishers.
I do think that they may be getting a bit more play than they should because it is so familiar to publishers… the idea of the contained issue with edit bumping up against ads… it's comfortable.
It's that comfort level that has got to change. I think that if you are publishing a magazine today and you are comfortable with where your digital business model is then you are in serious trouble.
Great point about the recent “play” we’ve seen in the media. I’ll give you several reasons for this:
Here’s 1 that’s just a reality:
Increased players in the marketplace results in way more publishers experimenting.
Here’s 1 that’s true, though not justified:
Increased media spend among the vendors… We started this trend and others are following it.
Here’s 1 that’s just silly:
Trying to attach digital magazines (in their existing format) to the iPhone hype… what’s next, stenciled keyholes to help us read print?
And here’s 1 that’s truly deserved:
Success of the industry among the vendors who’ve been refining our products for some time. Our readership is up and our revenues are up.
You’re smart enough to be aware of all four of those realities, though 1 is only truly important to publishers.
And yes – we all need to burn our comfort zones.
M
Great point about the recent “play” we've seen in the media. I'll give you several reasons for this:
Here's 1 that's just a reality:
Increased players in the marketplace results in way more publishers experimenting.
Here's 1 that's true, though not justified:
Increased media spend among the vendors… We started this trend and others are following it.
Here's 1 that's just silly:
Trying to attach digital magazines (in their existing format) to the iPhone hype… what's next, stenciled keyholes to help us read print?
And here's 1 that's truly deserved:
Success of the industry among the vendors who've been refining our products for some time. Our readership is up and our revenues are up.
You're smart enough to be aware of all four of those realities, though 1 is only truly important to publishers.
And yes – we all need to burn our comfort zones.
M
This article I so true, keep on writing like this, enjoyment to read
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Sent via mobile (so please excuse the brevity and any typos)
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Sent via mobile (so please excuse the brevity and any typos)