Magazines aren't dead, but the biz model is

Posted on May 15, 2009 by Dave J.

Rick Short (who will be joining me to talk about blogging at the upcoming BMA conference) asks Are magazines dead?

Maybe not dead yet, but if you read my last post, some trade publications are in a scary place. While they still hold a unique position as a content delivery system, their revenue model is broken. Rick tackles this problem:

“So, let’s rattle the traditional model. The question for advertisers, clients, and media to each ask themselves is, ‘Is what I’m purveying valuable enough to my target audience to get them to pay for it?’ And the very same question (altered slightly) should be asked of our target audience. ‘What content are you willing to purchase?’ After all, shouldn’t the party that derives value do (some of) the paying???”

Not just a good read, an important blog post to ponder. We’re left with two problems:

  • Publications need to crank up the value of their content.
  • Subscribers need to be willing to pay for the value of the content.

Go read Are magazines dead?

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  • Larry Hendrick

    I sure wish I could be there for the panel discussion. It sounds like an interesting group to talk about the subject. Have fun, then report back to us … please.

  • Larry Hendrick

    I sure wish I could be there for the panel discussion. It sounds like an interesting group to talk about the subject. Have fun, then report back to us … please.

  • Anonymous

    Are all magazines in the future going to be subscriber supported? Currently, the entire B2B controlled (free) circulation business model is advertiser-supported with approximately $8 billion annual ad spend in the US. Shifting the economics of the industry onto B2B readers isn’t economically viable in most B2B markets, which is one of the reasons those niche publications exist as ad-driven vehicles in the first place; delivering small, highly specialized and hard to reach target audiences making it efficient for the B2B marketer to reach them. What can and should marketers, agencies and media companies be doing to raise the ROI on advertiser-supported magazines or will B2B marketers stop investing in these vehicles?

  • Anonymous

    Are all magazines in the future going to be subscriber supported? Currently, the entire B2B controlled (free) circulation business model is advertiser-supported with approximately $8 billion annual ad spend in the US. Shifting the economics of the industry onto B2B readers isn’t economically viable in most B2B markets, which is one of the reasons those niche publications exist as ad-driven vehicles in the first place; delivering small, highly specialized and hard to reach target audiences making it efficient for the B2B marketer to reach them. What can and should marketers, agencies and media companies be doing to raise the ROI on advertiser-supported magazines or will B2B marketers stop investing in these vehicles?