It's Tuesday: 5 Things About the World of Magazines and Media - Issue #23
Happy Tuesday!
Friends. the week is relatively young and nothing is totally baked in. You can still effect a change in the outcome. You can change your own attitude and maybe even the attitude of someone nearby.
Or not.
The snarky cynic in me says that Tuesday is just another day that ends in a “Y”. You see, we’re still in “Pandemic Time” and day after day, time feels somewhat relative. You may be vaccinated (I hope), but Covid is still out there. We’re not in lock down anymore (Thank goodness), but infection rates and death rates are still too high. The economy is opening up, but everything feels broken.
Does time matter? The pandemic seems to have put everything into overdrive.
With that in mind, here’s an ear worm that just won’t leave my head. We’ve already slipped into the future. It wasn’t what we were expecting.
#1. Mr. Magazine on the "True Nature" of Magazines
The True Nature Of Magazines… A Mr. Magazine™ Musing… | Mr. Magazine — mrmagazine.wordpress.com Magazines are experience makers whether they were the ones published in 1938 like Ken above or the ones published in 2021. (Ken's complete first year is part of Mr. Magazine's™magazine collection). The True Nature Of Magazines... Digital delivers content; magazines deliver experiences. In a nutshell, that’s the premise of my blog today. Magazines are more than content provider; they are experience…
What do you think? Is Samir right? Can there be such a thing as a digital “magazine”? If a magazine publishes a print magazine, but also produces unique content on a website, delivers digital newsletters, produces events, has multiple social media accounts that release their own content, and offer a digital magazine, are they still a magazine publisher?
In my (humble) opinion, what is happening these days is that the print magazine is just one of several things a “magazine” publisher offers to its audience (ie: readership, or on contemporary business-speak, customers).
#2. A BoSacks.com reader speaks out and (IMHO) delivers a really cogent discussion of digital media and magazine publishing...
BoSacks Reader Speaks Out: An Industry in need of Self-Reflection — bosacks.com BoSacks Speaks Out: Last week Samir Husni and BoSacks entertained a group of media professionals at a virtual town Hall hosted by The Media & Content Mar...
There’s been a long standing (but very friendly) debate between industry leaders Bo Sacks and Samir Husni about what constitutes a magazine and what the proper position of the digital component in magazine media should be. Last week Samir and Bo renewed their debate at a virtual town hall hosted by The Media and Content Marketing Association.
If you subscribe to Bo’s newsletter (and you should), you know that many of his readers will respond to the articles he highlights. Bo will often chime in and post his own thoughts on an issue. In this newsletter, Leslie Laredo of the Academy of Digital Media responds with what I think is one of the more thoughtful and reasoned responses to the question of "What about digital publishing and magazines?" I urge you to read it.
If you don’t already subscribe to Bo’s newsletter…well, what are you waiting for?
#3. From Fashion Week Daily: Meredith Turns Shape Magazine Into a Bi-Annual
Daily News: Shape Mag Shutters Print, Emily Ratajkowski Opens Up, Stay At Carrie Bradshaw's NYC Pad, Plus! Which Influencer Is Expecting? - Daily Front Row — fashionweekdaily.com Read today’s dose of chic intel right here… SCOOP: Shape magazine to focus on digital Meredith-owned health and lifestyle publication…
In this day and age, is this really all that surprising? Is Shape still a magazine if it's monthly issue disappears because the publisher wants to focus on editorial content that is delivered digitally?
Well, the print part of the magazine is produced bi-annually (Twice a year) so, yes, it's still a magazine because there is continuity and editorial consistency.
Here's some interesting stats about Shape for those of you who like stats:
In the 2nd half 2007 AAM statement, Shape Magazine reported a cover price of $3.99, paid subscriptions of 1.3 million, and paid newsstand circulation of 385K copies.
In the 1st half 2021 statement, Shape reported a cover price of $4.99, 2.39 million paid subs (print and digital), 106K verified subs, and paid newsstand of 25K copies. They missed their quoted rate base of 2.5 million.
If there's a moral in there somewhere, I'll let you decide what it is.
#4. Retail Dive asks, "Is Fun Ever Coming Back to Holiday Shopping?"
Is the fun ever coming back to holiday shopping? | Retail Dive — www.retaildive.com Retail industry news, voices and jobs. Optimized for your mobile phone.
Wait...Holiday shopping was fun?
#5. Pro Tip of the Week: Don't mess with Roxanne Gay. Hearst adjusts freelancer pay to "Net Zero" following Twitter "Blow up"
(Note: Off The Record NYC is paywalled)
roxane gay on Twitter: "Hearst pays Net 75. Every week between when you invoice them and the pay date they email you an early pay offer where they will pay you immediately for a fee. It’s exploitative and unfair to writers who take these crap terms because they need the money they earned faster." — twitter.com “Hearst pays Net 75. Every week between when you invoice them and the pay date they email you an early pay offer where they will pay you immediately for a fee. It’s exploitative and unfair to writers who take these crap terms because they need the money they earned faster.”
Freelancers Notch a Rare Win as Hearst Moves to Net Zero Payments - Off the Record — offtherecord.nyc After a Twitter kerfuffle sparked by author Roxane Gay, the magazine publisher will no longer ask writers to pay a fee for the privilege of prompt payments
Hearst will no longer ask writers to pay a fee for the privilege of prompt payments » Nieman Journalism Lab — www.niemanlab.org Tameez, Hanaa'. "Hearst will no longer ask writers to pay a fee for the privilege of prompt payments." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 8 Nov. 2021. Web. 11 Nov. 2021.
For the record, I've never had a client ask me to take a reduced fee in order to be paid immediately. I have, unfortunately, had clients who stiffed me on fees because they went out of business or just didn't have the money to pay me. In case, the client couldn't pay me because the FBI put her in jail for bank fraud, so there is that.
Make nice with your freelancers. Pay them on time, in full. They're a business. Just like you. That's why you hired them. It wasn't for the cheap labor, was it?
Joe's Pro Tip for freelancers: Don’t let anyone go past 90 days on an invoice. No one.
And this weeks moment of magazine zen is brought to you by...
And this weeks moment of magazine agita is brought to you by...
I hope you enjoyed reading this. If you did, please click like and subscribe. It will be delivered to your in-box once a week. Usually on Tuesdays, but sometimes on Wednesdays. Hey, there’s still a global pandemic going on, the supply chain is a bit messed up and so I get a little busy. Let’s be a little flexible!
Got any questions or comments? Please drop me a line. You can always reach me at joe.berger@newsstandpros.com
That’s it! May your week be filled with strong WiFi signals and very short Zoom meetings.