BoSacks Readers Speak Out: The Looming Pullback or the Start of Something Bigger?

BoSacks Readers Speak Out: The Looming Pullback or the Start of Something Bigger?
www.bosacks.com

Re: Magazines, And The Looming Pullback In Automobile Adv
Auto advertising and Rick Wagoner. Why is that name so familiar? We all know he recently flew in his corporate jet to the Congressional hearings, but how many remember him from a few years ago as the guy who tried to merge church and state by intimidating magazine publishers with threats to pull GM's advertising unless favorable editorial appeared in the same magazines? That's called extortion. This is the same guy who brought us the Hummer and the Lincoln Navigator. If GM gets bailout money, Wagoner's departure must be a precondition to any financial assistance. And, if David Pecker is such a strong supporter of the auto industry, why did he close AMI's auto titles a few short months after forcing their move to Detroit? What goes around, comes around. Sadly, this development will does not bode well for mass circulation magazines.
(Submitted by a Senior Dir of Mfg)

Re: Consumers Bugged by Many Ads
Reminds me that there are three kinds of lies. Lies, damned lies, and
statistics.
(Submitted by an Industry Icon)

RE: What Makes the ebook Experience Potentially Viable
If things get any worse, we are going to using real books and mags for kindling.
(Submitted by a Senior Dir of Mfg and Dst)

Re: NYT's 10K subscribers on Kindle: The start of something bigger?
The only major issue I see with the logic at the end of this piece, is that subscribing to something on the kindle downloads it - so it's on the device. If you're reading it on the web, and you lose signal . . . in the subway, or at any point during your commute (when I assume most people use the device) . . . then suddenly it's no good. And I think there is a major draw for e-readers if we get them tailored to the point where students can use them for text books and for research . . . i think they have HUGE potential as research/reference tools that are not currently being exploited. Add a ready, searchable reference tool in addition to being able to search in books, and suddenly you can save articles and then search through them later to find the one you saved. You could actually create a device that has everything any consumer reads on it, where they can go "I know I read something about this..." and search and pull up exactly what they read.

Of course this will only be helpful with news if they remember this will have the opposite effect as the internet - it will lengthen circulation of each issue and each article so they will have to do more editing, not less. When people refer to something again and again errors will be less likely to slip through; if too many mistakes are present, it will discredit the paper, and people will not continue to buy it.
(Submitted by a Publisher)

Re: BoSacks Speaks Out: The Mumbai Attack and Social Media
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. George Bernard Shaw
We gave up dreading liberty long ago, and shelved it instead. Liberty has been replaced with license, which is much less demanding on us as individuals and as a culture but only in the short term. Freedom, properly understood, means the freedom to do the right thing, not the freedom to do anything. Freedom to do anything based on the whims of our convenience and comfort is license, not liberty. It is what we currently practice. And it cannot last.
(Submitted by a Printer)

RE: Where mail goes to die...
Bob- This is symptomatic of Philadelphia. We should not be surprised.
(Submitted by a Paper Person)

RE: Magazine Survival Thoughts..
Bob: I'm a former publisher of a few titles in the consumer print magazine biz; I was always a bit of a maverick in this industry, as I truly believed that our role, in the media, is not to sell customers advertising. Heretical as that may sound, I rather believe it was our role to sell their products and services. I have quite a few customers who could not agree more. Seems simple on the face of it, but the stark reality is that the magazine industry has rarely served in this capacity.

In media, we live in a zero-base market, where advertisers/agencies retreat to a re-evaluation of their media plans each year. How you have managed their ads, where you placed them, the discounts you've given and the added value you've thrown on top is irrelevant in the analysis. The full value of the medium or property is never exposed or exploited. When times get tough, and spending dials back, there's no foothold with the customer that ensures further business...all you get is a 'we're sorry'.

When you elevate the business philosophy to leverage captive and external assets to effect results on sales, you now transcend zero-base media planning. Immediately, the conversation shifts to 'what can you do for me next'. Customers will ALWAYS spend money with vendors that drive their business...regardless of what is happening to their traditional media budgets. I can cite one customer that sustained a 50% budget cut, and left my magazine untouched; we were intimately partnered in far too many shared initiatives that precluded a cut.

Publishers attempt to speak this language, and throw 'partnership' around with abandon; but, in reality, it's business as usual and they've taken no ownership of their customers business. Should they be surprised at the mass exodus of ad dollars? They shouldn't be...

So, where's this leading?

I've foretold the demise of magazines as we know them for the last 4 years. Why? Our business model underpinnings are irreparably broken; there's no fixing it. The 'too bad' part is that consumers still LOVE magazines- they really do- but we as publishers cannot make the candy store work anymore. Cost of reader acquisition is through the roof, ad rates are heavily negotiated, rate increases are tied solely to circulation increases, production costs and distribution costs continually escalate, and when was the last time someone paid for bleed? Add it all up, and we're in the midst of the perfect storm, and publishers have been selling ads.

Now, in the super-heated environment that surrounds us, the burner has really been turned-up, and the the pot has boiled-down and exposed the frailties of the business model. Just selling ads has left them painfully exposed, and now in trouble.

The fix is 1) a philosophical sea-change in how they conduct their business/ad sales, or 2) a shift to digital, and I don't mean a website, as impressions bought at $3.00 cpms is not an acceptable solution for anyone's business. So, I'll give you a hint: in my view, magazines fail for a couple of reasons: escalating costs, and mercurial ad dollar flow. Digital, done innovatively, can field the incremental cost ball and produce meaningful cpms; but why underwrite the business cost structure upfront, and then attempt to sell ads after? Why not take greater ownership of your customer's business and drive sales of goods and services?

Forgive the blatant pitch for investment funds, but there is a better way. Not to be coy, but I have that answer and business model ready to go...now, if I only had the seed capital to make a go of it....

Guess that's what happens when the creativity well is deep, and the pockets are shallow .. .
(Submitted by a Publisher)

BoSacks Readers Speak Out: Newsstands, Editors and Circ

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric."
Bertrand Russell (English Logician and Philosopher 1872-1970)
Re: Bo-Vent - Today, I Only Have Questions
Bob, I have done some work in the UK newsstand market and over 30 years in the North American market. One difference I have always noted, which may be part of the answer to one of your questions; the retailers in the UK care about selling magazines and newspapers. It is their livelihood. If a title is low in stock, they call up and re-order. How many supermarket, drug store, or discount store managers or their employees actually care about the magazine category? How many have any clue about what magazines are selling in their stores and in what quantities? Many category buyers don't even seem to care except when it comes time to place new checkouts and the IPO $$ signs ring in their heads. Yet magazines are always ranked high in profitability among all general merchandise categories. So why is there this disconnect both at the corporate and store levels? Unless this changes, we will never achieve the sames sales levels as our frineds across the pond.
(Submitted by a Single Copy Newsstand Mgr.)


Re: Bo-Vent - Today, I Only Have Questions
While this is only a part of the differences - they do distribute much differently. Most of the magazines distributed in Europe - including the subscription copies - are sent to the newsstand - this is due to the exorbitant EU postage rates.
(Submitted by a Senior Production Consultant)

Re: Bo-Vent - Today, I Only Have Questions
Hey Bo,Don't believe everything or probably anything you read about U.K. circulation. Cant speak for the rest of Europe
At the moment there is not a day goes by without industry closures being announced and staff cutbacks.

Within this economic cycle or credit crunch, call it what you like, the U.K. is probably lagging around 3 months behind the US.
So keep your eyes and ears opened close to the end of the year and see where Europe stands then.

Your paragraph about the business model can be partly explained by the difference in the distribution chain setup, the amount of magazine retailers and of course the amount of available titles. Then honesty creeps into the equation.

Moving on, text messaging is certainly playing a major part plus all the other distractions that we have provided the youth of today with in the name of progress, don't blame them, look to the future Bo in 10 years someone will have created a translator to turn all your writing over the years into text language so the kids can understand what it was you were on about.
(Submitted by a Publisher)

Re: Bo-Vent - Today, I Only Have Questions
The reason subscriptions are more expensive in Europe is that nobody subscribes. People get their magazines from the corner newsagent, shoved through the letter-slot once a week or once a month along with the newspapers; therefore the publishers cannot brag to their advertisers about how many subscribers they have, so there's no reason to sell subs cheaply.
All good newspapers in Europe are national papers, and a lot of papers and magazines have a stronger identity than in this country. The conservative mantra about the press being dominated by liberalism is hogwash; the trouble with most American newspapers is that they don't seem to believe in anything much, while in Britain if you buy the Guardian or the Telegraph you know exactly what you're getting. And looking after a newstand in this country I can tell you that the British mags, even UK editions of USA mags, are aiming higher than armchair pilots who watch too much television.
(Submitted by a Semi-retired writer in Iowa who lived in England for 25 years)

Re: Bo-Vent - Today, I Only Have Questions
OK, now we're up to three. I tell you, these questions are dog whistles for me.
I'd like to point out that there is text messaging in Europe and I recall reading that their wireless systems are more advanced than ours. So maybe it's our educational system or maybe it's the more than 30 years of relentless teacher and higher education bashing by our politicos. wev
Go to B&N or Borders and pick up the English and other foreign magazines. Lay them out next to some of their "sisters" or "brothers" from the big publishers.
There's your answer. Their stuff is good. Good editors. Good writing. Good content.
Our stuff. Looks good, mass produced, designed for the advertiser. Same for our newspapers.
(Submitted by a Vice President, Circulation)

Re: Kohl's, JCPenney Look to Reduce Print Advertising
Bo, while the free standing insert business may be an important revenue source for the struggling newspapers, there is a downside to these inserts as well. I've stopped buying the Providence Journal on Sunday, solely because the volume, weight, and inconvenience of all these extra, and by me unwanted, inserts. If I want something from Best Buy, or Home Depot, my first choice in today's world is via Google, where I have yet to be unable to purchase what I am looking for on line. Last week it was a porch swing; the local garden store had only two models, and was out of stock on the one I wanted. Back home, I found exactly what I wanted for 25% less, and shipping of only $10 from Illinois to the northeast. Why do I need freestanding newspaper inserts, especially when I have to DRIVE to get to the sales these inserts are promoting?
Submitted by a Senior Director of MFG and DST)


Re: Are Editors a Luxury that we can Do Without?
Hey Bo, I got a great idea! Let's get rid of the accountants and MBA's first. They're the ones who started this clusterf*ck in the first place!

And you know what? I've got a really cool 5 point plan to help us implement this new self contained-turnkey strategy that will help us prioritize our markets, increase our margins and make it possible to flip the company in three years while increasing our stock prices 23.267%! Let's meet at 10:00AM in the Grande(tm) Conference room and Charlie will show you the powerpoint.

What's that you say? Crappy content is crappy content? Who cares, we've got a 5 point plan! Each point has 5 sub points! It was written by our new Senior Strategic Coach Advisor! He used to work for Time/Warner but he recently became available to us. He's so cool! And he knows how to contain costs! I'll show you over dinner. We'll charge it to the company.
(Submitted by a VP of Circulation)

Re: Are Editors a Luxury that we can Do Without?
bob, everyone except God needs an editor . . .
(Submitted by a Senior Publisher)

RE: Is this the dumbest generation EVER?
I don't buy into the overly simplistic and self-congratulatory notion of all younger people are idiots compared to ourselves. I have teenagers at home. Some of the classes they and their friends have taken and will take in high school are: calculus; advanced calculus; post modernist literature (including reading maybe five novels in one semester); advanced placement
American history, including the need to marshal extensive outside reading to support daily written compositions; levels of French and Spanish that require semi-fluent levels of conversation during classes; physics, chemistry, and biology; environmental sciences; "advanced" humanities, which is a synthesis of literature, art, sociology, psychology, and a number of other studies; and all that is on top of most of them working *and* playing
sports *and* taking part in other extra curricular activities. They regularly discuss and debate current events and, unlike many of their elders, at least try to do something about them. And this is the generation that people, who find it fashionable to be unable to do something as simple
as following directions to set the time on a VCR or DVD player, dismiss as being intellectually unworthy?
(Submitted by a Writer)

RE: Where Publishers Are Thriving
Fascinating article on German publishing. It reminded me of a comment I heard a few years ago from a senior American publishing executive: "No German magazine publisher has ever successfully expanded into the U.S." As far as I know, he's right. It's a slightly different publishing environment . . . but different enough, apparently.
(Submitted by a Senior Publisher and BoSacks Cub Reporter)

RE: How Can We Cure the Ill's of the Single Copy Sales
It was fascinating in an aggravating sort of way to read Professor Husni's presumptuous thoughts on single copy sales. I have to say: circulation departments deserve a lot more credit than he's giving them, and I'll bet most publishers aren't quite as dumb as the article implies either. Professional circulators analyze reader acquisition costs in excruciating detail, with mountains of real-world data. No one can tell why a publisher picked a price, set a rate base, or chose a sales channel by looking at magazines on a newsstand . . . especially in today's incredibly complex and competitive marketplace. Since publications with good strategies will prosper and magazines with bad strategies won't, Husni's opinions are pretty much beside the point. The market will trump uninformed punditry every time.
(Submitted by a Senior Publisher and BoSacks Cub Reporter)


Re: Discovering Real Magazine Profit in Sustainability
While in substantial agreement with your part of this piece I do have one or two beefs with the EPA precepts, which I found fuzzy and incomplete.

1. environmental protection does not preclude economic development.

A major omission was made in failing to include the qualifier "necessarily," as in "environmental protection does not necessarily preclude economic development." When applied ideologically, religiously (as many greens do), or bureaucratically it can not only preclude development but cause regression in the standard of living.

2. economic development must be ecologically viable now and in the long run.

This makes sense. Of course, the rub is in how "ecologically viable" is defined but that's a much longer story. See point 1 comments for the short version.

The biggest flaw in the EPA precepts is their failure to complete the thought and add:

3. environmental protection must be economically viable now and in the long run.

This is the key to making sustainability work. It is prosperity that enables environmentalism. If people did not understand the story of the Chinese economy before the Olympics, one look at Beijing's air should tell the tale. If you don't have a job and can't feed your family you don't really care if the river is dirty or the air is gray. The needs of people must be met first.
(Submitted by a printer)