BoSacks Readers Speak Out: Magazine Measurement ,

BoSacks Readers Speak Out: Magazine Measurement ,
Magazine Profit, Manufacturing Woes
www.bosacks.com
Re: Magazine Measurement: Right Direction, Wrong Speed
Ms. Frank lays out some important truths about the intrinsic value of magazines, truths you and I have discussed and analyzed and beaten to death for years. The problem, as I see it, with putting this truth to work for the mutual benefit of advertisers and publishers (and, not incidentally, printers) remains the same. Media buyers are entry level kids who know only what they know, which amounts to very little. They have grown up planted in front of a screen, being told everything else will pass away but the Internet will not pass away.

This results in media money poorly spent and clients ill served. And the fault lies neither with the inexperienced media buyers nor with magazines. The fault lies with upper management in the ad agency community who are too busy with the sexier, creative aspects of their agencies to rethink what actually helps to sell their clients to consumers. This amounts to nothing less than negligence and perhaps malfeasance.

As a legendary ad man said, "If it doesn't sell, it's not creative." One hopes that someone in agency management will remember this, use it to reinvent the lost art of effective media planning, and perhaps make his own legend in the process
(Submitted by a Printer)


Re: Discovering Real Magazine Profit in Sustainability
The future can't be paper bob, it has to be devices and downloads. 100 per cent sell through means no newsstands. I live in the burbs where optimum on line already delivers 90 per cent of the media that comes into my house via my local distributor cablevision. I am sure they would be happy to set up a digital newsstand for me and add it to my ever growing cable bill and even supply me the hardware to read it on in addition to the various modems and cable boxes they supply and service).
(Submitted by an Industry Supplier)

Re: The Classic Rock Magazine Is Switching to a Smaller, Rack-Friendly Size
That's a mistake. It will get lost on the newsstand. Size matters.
Submitted by an Unknown)

Re: Reading in Public Accounts for 45% of All Magazine Reading
Bob, just how many pages of a magazine does the patient in a Dr's or Dentist office actually get to see or read. Bet it is not more than 25%. Dentist office yoy do not take publication to the chair. Dr's office you might- Eye Dr's office you have to wait, and might see 50% of the full copy. Just do not agree with that survey. Unless someone is very EARLY for appointment your wait is usually under 10 minutes.
Submitted by a Publisher)

RE: PPA warns members against magazine sharing website
Oh, this is beautiful. It isn't enough that our industry is in the crapper. Now we are going to go after people WHO ACTUALLY WANT TO READ! Targeting file sharer's certainly worked for the RIAA and the music companies, didn't it?

Anyone think that file sharing can be a good thing? After all, it's eyeballs on our products. And since most of us are giving away our content on our sites, we should be looking at monetizing the peer to peer process.

Do advertisers care if readers are buying magazines vs downloading them for free versus controlled circ? It's not the method of transmission, it's the message!
Submitted by an Executive Director of Manufacturing)


Re: In my book, the Kindle is not a kindred spirit
Bo, I love your newsletter and I also love my Kindle. It doesn't replace reading books, it supplements them; just the way you often describe online reading supplementing newspapers and magazines.

When I have an interest in a subject, I can download sample chapters of several books from that niche for free. Then I can download the entire book I perceived
as the most valuable immediately, most of the time for only $9.99.
O.K., reading the kindle is not the same experience as reading the physical book, but there are many advantages I haven't discussed that make it a great informational tool, and it is now in my briefcase daily right next to my laptop computer.
Submitted by an Unknown)

RE: Facing Today's Woes
Ink? She wants me to get all concerned about ink prices going up? That's 4% of my print bill. (Not sure where you get 8% from Alex, unless you are running a 16-color,16-page form.) Ink could go up 50% and I would still be "unscathed" so bring it on you Printers! Raise my ink prices! Go ahead! Make my day! It's about time the cost of ink increased since the cost of oil has gone up 400% in less than a year. Most Printers have not passed on fuel surcharges, let alone the cost of ink so it's about time. Although some inks are soy based, most inks are still made from oil. (Gee Alex, why do you always make the Printers out to be the sneaky, underhanded, bad guys? Clearly, this ink increase is prompted by the greed of the oil companies and us self-absorbed Americans who can't stop driving our cars. Don't blame the Printers. It ain't their fault.)

P.S. "Keep your guns in their holsters?" I have purchased printing for 20+ years and I have never found it necessary to wear my holster--let alone bring my guns--for negotiating a printing contract. All my printers wear white hats.
Submitted by a Senior Manager, Production)

Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: Free Textbooks Coming Near You
Bottom line is you can't get something for nothing! Doesn't matter if it's
textbooks, music, magazine, etc. etc. Someone has to create the content!
(Submitted by a Printer)

RE: Magazine People - Arrive to Teach Ink-Stained Wretches a Thing or Two
Bob, This was a great bit. Since no one I know has a working crystal ball, I won't dare profess to know what could really save the newspaper industry. Maybe it just needs to implode, go niche and come back up as something no one has even thought of? Who knows? One thing I do know - as a former Times Mirror person - is that the LA Times has and has had such deep rooted problems, from mega-inflated budgets to a management hierarchy that would make Homeland Security look like a modern marvel of efficiency. Somehow they always pumped out great news despite themselves, but as a business it was a publishing tsunami. So people shouldn't get too bent out of shape about this cute little magazine diversion. In the scheme of things, it is just a bit of seaweed on Otis Chandlers' surfboard.
(Submitted by a Senior Sales person)


RE:IPDA Newsstand Forum.
Bob- Saw you published items from the August issue of IPDA Newsstand Forum. We're always glad to see you pick up and redistribute our articles.

However, as we explained, in this case, one article, "Putting A Rough First Half in Perspective," was not yet finalized when you picked it up from our site (we hadn't yet actually sent the August issue out to our email subscribers). Thanks for offering to publish the link into the Newsstand Forum site, for those who might be interested in reading that full article and other content in our August issue: http://www.news.ipda.org.

RE: The Numbers
Bo, A good one. My answer to all this cutting back of advertising is my wife, Judy and yours truly. We refuse to watch TV because of all the advertising glut. Nightly National Network news is so loaded with advertising, the actual news is incidental to the ads. Likewise, the PGA has allowed so much advertising, that the actual play is incidental to the ads. Exceptions to this are the Masters and British Open, both of which limit the amount of advertising so they are fun to watch because you get to see a lot of great golf.

I historically listened to WBBM radio out of Chicago because they built their reputation as the "all news radio station" Not anymore you cannot dial into that station without hitting an ad 80% of the time. As far as I am concerned they should change their moniker to "the all advertising news radio station". At least we can get the traffic and weather on the 8's, and sports at 15 after and 15 before the hour. what a shame.

The weather channel on cable has gone down the same path, where they used to have interesting topics inserted between weather news, has been replaced by ads. Same situation, the local weather news comes on the 8's. Do not dial in 3 minutes before the 8's because guess what , you are right, ads, sometimes 2 to 3 straight minutes of them.

The last survey we saw was well over 60% of TV viewers complained there are too many ads. Takes a few of the big guys like P&G and Johnson and Johnson to voice there displeasure with a medium and make cuts. Remember, P&G is the Pied Piper in the consumer products industry and the rest of the suppliers to consumers will take notice and follow suit.
(Submitted by a paper Person)