Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Old man in smoking jacket looks to save jazz mag by outsourcing
Is nothing sacred? American Media, the publisher of National Enquirer and 15 other titles including Men's Fitness (not Men's Health, please note, but the original knock off that Dennis Publishing licensed for the UK) is about to take over running all of Playboy magazine except the editorial.
It is not clear whether this means the "really good" articles (like this, and this ...) that everyone (used to) buy the magazine for, or just the pictorial elements.
Next question: What Would Hustler Do? [WARNING: DISAPPOINTING LINK]
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It is not clear whether this means the "really good" articles (like this, and this ...) that everyone (used to) buy the magazine for, or just the pictorial elements.
Next question: What Would Hustler Do? [WARNING: DISAPPOINTING LINK]
Labels: print magazines
US magazines could play digital shop – if they can find the till
The New York Observer has reported an idea from the USA that goes some way towards some of what I might have been suggesting in the previous post.
If I understand the plan correctly, a bunch of American magazine publishers are talking about banding together to create a virtual "shop" where their magazines can be bought in multiple formats:
On the other hand, I'm not sure that the publishers have quite got hold of the right end of the stick:
Some of this seems to be reinventing the wheel (aka the iTunes store/Amazon marketplace/smartphone apps stores) and some seems to be ignoring the psychology of purchasing. It could be another Brill-iant idea.
Or the talking could just stop once they've seen what happened to Menzies digital download centres.
THIS JUST IN
John Federico of TechStartups.com reported this last week: The Maggwire Model: iTunes for Magazines
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If I understand the plan correctly, a bunch of American magazine publishers are talking about banding together to create a virtual "shop" where their magazines can be bought in multiple formats:
The company will prepare magazines that can work across multiple digital platforms, whether the iPhone, the BlackBerry or countless other digital devices. The company will not develop an e-book, but create something that people familiar with the plans compare to iTunes—a store where you can buy new and distinct iterations of The New Yorker or Time. Print magazines will also be for sale.
(I love the throwaway nature of that last sentence.)
On the other hand, I'm not sure that the publishers have quite got hold of the right end of the stick:
“It’s pretty complicated stuff,” said a source. “The really, really hard part is that you’ve got so many different kinds of devices running on different operating systems. And how do you handle that? The consortium provides one point of contact for the consumer. When you come to the main store, you can get the content any way you want.”
(Again, love that "source".)
Some of this seems to be reinventing the wheel (aka the iTunes store/Amazon marketplace/smartphone apps stores) and some seems to be ignoring the psychology of purchasing. It could be another Brill-iant idea.
Or the talking could just stop once they've seen what happened to Menzies digital download centres.
THIS JUST IN
John Federico of TechStartups.com reported this last week: The Maggwire Model: iTunes for Magazines
Labels: digital magazines, distribution, iTunes iPhone, political economy
Amazon, John Lewis and the magazine business model
Consider the following, taken from a feature about online shopping by David Teather in yesterday's Guardian:
So here it is.
Print magazines represent the bricks-and-mortar retailer, the keeper of the brand name. The online sites of those magazines represent the retail website, where people visit to do their research. If they like what they find they may then visit the material artefact (the print magazine).
Hmm, doesn't look quite so good out of my head and into type but there's something there. It's not a Murdochian (senior or junior) re-education programme, quite.
If it is true that people will visit a retail website before they make the further, and far more complicated and time-consuming, effort to visit the physical shop, then why should it not be possible, given the appropriate incentives and enticements, to do the same with a magazine in online and print forms?
The biggest question is why – if it is true – people do this? Why not just buy online if you can? Does John Lewis keep some things back for the shop only? Maybe they like visiting the shop? Maybe it becomes part of a larger "emotional" experience?
If we can find some answers to that (and I bet someone has them) perhaps we can forge some new hypotheses. We should certainly remember that print-on-paper has some advantages and pleasures to offer that online will never replicate, and play those up (yes, haptics again, but also lovely big pictures rich in detail, intricate graphics, ultimate put-down-ability).
Or perhaps I'm just suggesting the freemium business model, with online as the free product and print as the premium product.
But it's important to think about that relationship, and worth trying to find models elsewhere that can be adapted to the particular circumstances of magazines.
The likes of Amazon and Asos are facing increasing competition from the high-street brands, many of which are beginning to take online retailing more seriously. When John Lewis launched its website in 2001, the aim was to eventually generate the sales of a medium-sized store – about £100m. Last year they reached £327m, outstripping its most successful department store and accounting for about 13% of the John Lewis division of the group. Online sales continue to grow at about 30% a year.When I read it a little bell went off and I thought, "What if you could forge a hypothesis for magazines based on that?"
Robin Terrell, managing director of John Lewis Direct, says the site has become increasingly important as around half of all shopping visits start with the website, as customers research prices and range. "The website now represents the brand. People are researching more and more online before visiting the shop and we have really been working to join up the customer experience."
So here it is.
Print magazines represent the bricks-and-mortar retailer, the keeper of the brand name. The online sites of those magazines represent the retail website, where people visit to do their research. If they like what they find they may then visit the material artefact (the print magazine).
Hmm, doesn't look quite so good out of my head and into type but there's something there. It's not a Murdochian (senior or junior) re-education programme, quite.
If it is true that people will visit a retail website before they make the further, and far more complicated and time-consuming, effort to visit the physical shop, then why should it not be possible, given the appropriate incentives and enticements, to do the same with a magazine in online and print forms?
The biggest question is why – if it is true – people do this? Why not just buy online if you can? Does John Lewis keep some things back for the shop only? Maybe they like visiting the shop? Maybe it becomes part of a larger "emotional" experience?
If we can find some answers to that (and I bet someone has them) perhaps we can forge some new hypotheses. We should certainly remember that print-on-paper has some advantages and pleasures to offer that online will never replicate, and play those up (yes, haptics again, but also lovely big pictures rich in detail, intricate graphics, ultimate put-down-ability).
Or perhaps I'm just suggesting the freemium business model, with online as the free product and print as the premium product.
But it's important to think about that relationship, and worth trying to find models elsewhere that can be adapted to the particular circumstances of magazines.
Labels: amazon, Chris Anderson, digital magazines, Free, haptics, political economy, print magazines
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Newspaper news + magazine aesthetic = i
Andrew Losowsky was kind enough to leave a short but thoughtful comment on my last post.
He has done a beautiful analysis of Portugese newspaper i on his own site and it is well worth a look to see what can be achieved on a daily.
If only the South Wales Evening Post (Swansea) or South Wales Echo (Cardiff) looked as interesting as this:
[Photo from Magtastic Blogsplosion]
He has done a beautiful analysis of Portugese newspaper i on his own site and it is well worth a look to see what can be achieved on a daily.
If only the South Wales Evening Post (Swansea) or South Wales Echo (Cardiff) looked as interesting as this:
[Photo from Magtastic Blogsplosion]
The ultimate capitulation of newspapers to the unquestionably superior magazine form
Trust Dave Eggers to do something different.
The Heartbreaking Genius has transformed his cultural magazine McSweeney's into a broadsheet format for a special San Francisco edition.
You can read all about it in the Nieman Labs blog
The Heartbreaking Genius has transformed his cultural magazine McSweeney's into a broadsheet format for a special San Francisco edition.
You can read all about it in the Nieman Labs blog
Dave Eggers: Image via Wikipedia
Labels: magazine craft, magazines, newspaper magazines
Monetising digital content 2: Phone app for Distill
Look at this will ya!
Creative Review likes it too.
UPDATE: But can you imagine what the rights clearance documentation looks like?
Creative Review likes it too.
UPDATE: But can you imagine what the rights clearance documentation looks like?
Labels: digital magazines, iPhone, political economy, web 2.0
Monday, November 16, 2009
Monetising digital content
While I'm on this theme (digital content, what it implies and ways of making money therefrom), John Naughton has added to the debate about What Rupert Will Do. His PaidContent article summarises a lot of the debate so far and adds some typically insightful comments.
I especially like his characterisation of "content" as "information goods" and his rudimentary but robust analysis of pricing for print.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Food for digital thought
Adam Bowie has published a long blog post reporting on proceedings at the Radio Academy (9.11.09) and although it's about radio in the digital age, obviously, if you can remove your silo-ed blinkers and think of it as being about media in the digital age and if you can link it to the formula in my last post and then if you can project it into magazine form, you will find it extraordinarily interesting. Guaranteed.
Labels: digital magazines, media management, political economy, web 2.0
Thursday, November 12, 2009
How to make money with an online magazine
The following block quote is taken from a comment on the piece Cory Doctorow wrote for Technology Guardian, about Rupert Murdoch's plans to block online access to his newspapers (sorry, the newspapers he has some vague connection with that are run according to the whims of their editors and over which he has no influence). chrsoz, the comment's author, addresses a number of points that Murdoch seems to have overlooked, then adds:
chrsoz's Guardian user profile
And none of this starts to touch on the fact that most traditional media co web sites are dull one-dimensional experiences (article + advertising - any decent community engagement (inc useless closed comment systems, ahem) = yawn), that really just mimic the newspaper in an online environment, without bringing any significant additional value to the party. So unless Rupe (and others) sorts this rather fundamental issue out then he's doomed anyway (if managing the digital business transition doesn't kill them first; maybe ereaders will save the day). Better get good at creating compelling and valuable consumer internet experiences, and not just being all about publishing articles online (otherwise they'll just get displaced by a new generation of way more innovative media companies who can fuse content + community + services + utility + monetisation).I have written about magazines and newspapers simply reproducing their print content online (see Writing for Journalists, over to the right) rather than creating digitally native material, but chrsoz summarises the principle behind successful online publishing beautifully in his last sentence:
content + community + services + utility + monetisationNext time I give my "launching a magazine" lecture, I shall make sure to use this simple-looking formula. Of course achieving it is not simple at all ... and therefore it could make the basis for another book. Thanks indeed chrsoz.
chrsoz's Guardian user profile
Labels: digital revenue, magazines, online, political economy, Value theory, web 2.0
Baron von Tollbooth: Murdoch, Google and money
Cory Doctorow's article in today's Technology Guardian is a lovely piece of writing, even though it's about a newspaper proprietor whose company gave up trying to publish magazines after realising they just couldn't hack it.
It's all speculation and opinion, of course, just adding to the virtual Niagara of comment about Rupert Murdoch's various pronouncements on paywalls, denying search and the legality (or not) of "fair use".
But there is one paragraph that has a definite ring of truth about it:
UPDATE FROM THE COMMENTS ON DOCTOROW'S ARTICLE: DEFINITE MAGAZINE APPLICATION
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It's all speculation and opinion, of course, just adding to the virtual Niagara of comment about Rupert Murdoch's various pronouncements on paywalls, denying search and the legality (or not) of "fair use".
But there is one paragraph that has a definite ring of truth about it:
Rupert isn't a technophobic loon who will send his media empire to the bottom of the ocean while waging war on search engines. Instead, he's an out-of-touch moustache-twirler who's set his sights on remaking the web as a toll booth (with him in the collector's seat), and his plan hinges on a touchingly naive approach to geopolitics.The idea of being a toll collector must be appealing to a businessman who staked his empire on being able to collect tolls (Sky).
UPDATE FROM THE COMMENTS ON DOCTOROW'S ARTICLE: DEFINITE MAGAZINE APPLICATION
And none of this starts to touch on the fact that most traditional media co web sites are dull one-dimensional experiences (article + advertising - any decent community engagement (inc useless closed comment systems, ahem) = yawn), that really just mimic the newspaper in an online environment, without bringing any significant additional value to the party. So unless Rupe (and others) sorts this rather fundamental issue out then he's doomed anyway (if managing the digital business transition doesn't kill them first; maybe ereaders will save the day). Better get good at creating compelling and valuable consumer internet experiences, and not just being all about publishing articles online (otherwise they'll just get displaced by a new generation of way more innovative media companies who can fuse content + community + services + utility + monetisation).
Labels: digital revenue, news international, political economy
