The timing of a nuclear meltdown on wall street and uncertainty as advertisers try to find a strategy online could not be worse for magazines:
Ad spending across the major U.S. media fell at its steepest rate since the industry’s last recession in 2001, according to new data released this morning by ad tracking service TNS Media Intelligence.– Report Here.
Maybe instead of a slow painful decline we can quickly hit the bottom and start implementing strategies for a recovery and rethink the priorities of printed magazines.
Here’s a strategy:
Time magazine has more than 3 million readers in print and currently does 82 million page views online, and president and worldwide publisher Ed McCarrick thinks the brand can “easily do 200 million page views” online in the near future. “We must be constantly innovative to earn audience back each day,” said McCarrick, who delivered the opening keynote at the FOLIO: Show here today.
Online advertising revenue currently accounts for about 10 percent of overall revenue at Time and is projected to grow by 57 percent in 2008 and another 35 percent to 40 percent in 2009, according McCarrick.
While McCarrick thinks online will eventually account for 30 percent to 35 percent of overall revenue, “offline revenue is still the big engine.” Still, one medium is leveraged with another. “We’re putting together a multifaceted approach and it’s no longer clean in terms of one media being separate from another.”– Story Here.
Here’s a rethinking of priorities:
From an interview with John P. Loughlin, executive VP and general manager for Hearst Magazines (here); listen to his mantra people:
“Clearly, the challenge given the current economy is convincing consumers that magazines as an impulse purchase are worth every penny. For publishers, it’s a double whammy. Publishers are under enormous cost pressures at the same time that unit sales are down, but it’s critical that we not react by diminishing the quality of the physical product or magazines’ content value proposition for the consumer.”
and
“The challenge for our magazine editors, and for all of us involved in maximizing our magazine sales, is to provide and convey that compelling value proposition to the consumer.”
and
“Which comes back once again to my point that magazines must provide even higher perceived value to the consumer, maybe even more so during this economic turbulence.”
Here’s web marketing guru Seth Godin on selling products to consumers:
Godin’s overarching theme is simple: Companies can no longer rely on mass-media advertising to sell average products to average consumers. Instead, they must create remarkable products and services and let consumers do the marketing themselves to generate a buzz. In the “new marketing” landscape that Godin chronicles, the balance of power has shifted from companies to consumers, thanks to TiVo, spam filters, blogs, and YouTube (GOOG). — Interview here.
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Maybe we should pay attention to Seth Godin’s advice. Ten years ago (aprox.) he released a very contemporary approach to marketing – Permission Marketing- which we are NOT following as photographers. Here is a wikepedia definition of Permission Marketing:
Permission marketing is a term used in e-marketing. Marketers will ask permission before they send advertisements to prospective customers. It is used by some Internet marketers, email marketers, and telephone marketers. It requires that people first “opt-in”, rather than allowing people to “opt-out” only after the advertisements have been sent.
I think we should pay attention to Seth Godin’s most recent advice…
Thanks Rob… This is a good wake up call!
yes value – it makes totally sense from a business point of view and value is a business and marketing term. But could someone translate what it means from a creative and art production point of view.
It sounds so simple and easy but I think it can come down to many differnt ways and strategies – differnt for each magazine.
May you live in interesting times.
The reliance on web-based ad revenue for future personal and professional income is a scary thought. I don’t know where the data quoted in this blog posting comes from, but I have seen a lot of very different data that suggests that a) ad revenue will save us all from hunger and foreclosures or b) that it is already in decline as advertisers fail to see a tangible return. Option b) seems more realistic.
So where does that leave us? Still needing to find a way to get paid as photographers while also finding a way for readers/viewers to pay, directly or indirectly, for content. Maybe we should raise taxes by $0.01 on the dollar to allow some of the lowest paid workers on the planet (teachers, photojournalists) to do the critically important job that they do without needing to consider becoming yet another wedding photographer (or whatever the teacher equivalent is).
[…] crisis, media interesting post about recovery media strategies here by Rob Haggart. « […]
Innovation doesn’t equal quality. These days, it usually means “let’s do a top ten list”.
Many magazine publishers just don’t have any respect for their viewers. I believe (in many cases) they’ve made the decision that “good enough is good enough”, and the reader is too dumb to notice.
Of course, if that was the correct approach, THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER wouldn’t be going out of business too.
David Hobby of Strobist fame, has a very successful site that generates a lot of interest and income (so I’ve been told by friends of his.)
John Harrington blog has advertising and a large following.
For the photographer who wants to concentrate on photography and not “selling” lectures, gear, classes, software, books, etc, etc…what is the answer?
http://www.josefhoflehner.com/
Josef Hoflehner, is an Austrian photographer who publishes his images under the Most| Press imprint. His son designs the books, he sells them direct through his site or through Amazon. His prints are represented by several galleries and he has created a nice following for people who enjoy his images. (I own one print and most of his books)
I prefer Josef’s approach to that of “be a star to other photographers” approach that seems to be in fashion right now. It just seems to me to be more substantial than reviewing equipment, or being a PR person for a camera company or having your name on testimonials about gear.
Just a thought about another approach to generating income.
I have saved more ads from magazines that I have by-passed online. I never pay attention to them. To me both have a place. I love reading magazines,looking at a book’s fine reproduction and collecting some issues that from time to time I look back on.
I might be dumb on this but how does National Geographic do it? I grew up with them and still continue to be a loyal fan and by the way, get very inspired by some of the beautifully done ads they run, photography of course included.
Now is def. the time to keep on trucking and pushing through the ruble. When times get tough you have to be smart with spending and decreasing the value of your product will not solve that problem. Continue to put out quality work and products so when there is a positive blip in the economy your loyal readers will come back.
Speaking of extra revenue streams, what happened to Andrew H.’s blog?
I don’t think anybody knows yet what the role of print publications will become as the world becomes increasingly “wired” (and wireless.) It’s clear that magazine that only replicate what can easily be found on the Web have either already died or are on a death watch.
Prior to TV, radio was filled with sit coms, soap operas, and variety shows. TV came along and did these better so radio turned mostly to news, music, talk and call-in shows. TV also caused movies to move towards things that TV couldn’t do, like wide screen Cinemascope and colorful epics like Ben Hur.
The areas where print might still viable is the “impulse buy” with the gossipy celebrity cover or the “How To Make Your Man Beg You For More” teasers, and the magazines where visual quality is important like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ and National Geographic. But how many high quality publications can continue to attract a large enough audience to be produced in a profitable manner?
Unfortunately, the experience of online music has shown that consumers value low-cost and convenience over technical quality.
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