It's Tuesday: 5 Things About the World of Magazines and Media - Issue #37
“Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 18th century poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a tale of morality and a sailor’s accountability for his actions. Despite reading a decent amount of Shakespeare in high school and college and even taking a course in Medieval English Literature, I always found the poem to be something of a hard slog.
But lately, after being caught out in a few torrential downpours, and reading some concerning articles about midwestern water tables, I've found myself thinking about the poem that temporarily derailed me from the Dean's List.
What are your responsibilities as a person, a member of a family, friend group, community, city, state, or country? What are your job responsibilities? If you own a company what do you owe your community? Your employees? Customers? Stock holders?
Life is complicated. There are a lot of things demanding our time, attention, energy.
Here in the third decade of the 21st century, many Americans find that living up to their responsibilities to their families, communities and careers in the shadow of late stage capitalism and moribund public infrastructure is not simple. It often seems as though the whole concept of "responsibility to" and “accountability” is for “thee, not me.”
Personally, I got some issues with that. In the 18th century, Coleridge's mariner couldn't escape his consequences for his actions.
So if you’re planning on diving into anything this week, make sure the water is deep and there are no obstructions. Also: Never shoot the albatross. That’s just not cool.
1. Boxing Ourselves: The Struggle for Paper
Boxing Ourselves in to an Ongoing Struggle — www.linkedin.com It’s the question of the moment for our industry. Why are we in the midst of an ongoing paper shortage? The situation is complex and requires us to look in a few different directions across this global economy.
David Pilcher is a Senior Vice President at Freeport Press in Ohio. As such, he's an expert on everything that the print world has endured during the pandemic: paper shortages, staffing shortages, the crash of many long term supposedly durable magazine and newspaper publishers.
In this article he identifies three main causes of the current paper shortage: Growth of DTC sales requiring cardboard shipping boxes, the conversion of paper mills from paper to cardboard, and the resulting low inventory of paper.
The way out is not something that will happen overnight.
2. Who stole my New York Magazine?
Who Stole Kareem Rahma’s Copy of New York Magazine? — www.curbed.com The South Williamsburg resident and comedian returned home one night and found his copy of New York Magazine missing from the mailroom. He put up a sign asking for it back and a neighbor-to-neighbor sign war ensued.
Talk about timely. Just when I needed a laugh, this showed up in my feed. Even better, I got a new Instagram feed to follow (see below).
Even better than that, after reading the entire article, I think I'm cured of the desire to ever throw caution to the wind and move to New York City.
3. Meanwhile, in the ongoing debate about "Publisher" or "Platform"...
Publisher Or Platform? How About Just Being A Responsible Corporate Citizen? 02/08/2022 — www.mediapost.com Publisher Or Platform? How About Just Being A Responsible Corporate Citizen? - 02/08/2022
Here's an interesting take on the issue from MediaPosts' Joe Mandese.
Where do I land? That's easy (At least for me). There's content on that there site, eh? You hired at least a few people who monitor that content? There may even be people who are being paid to put some content up on that the site?
Well then, you're a publisher. You are responsible. You should be held accountable for ever the content that gets put up on your site: Written, spoken, illustrated, photographed, video'd. Whatever. You own the site, you are responsible.
The fact that there are owners who think that they are not is (To me, anyway) kind of offensive.
4. It's Time for The National Magazine Awards
All the Stories Nominated for the 2022 National Magazine Awards — longreads.com Consider this your reading list for the next few weeks.
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGAZINE EDITORS ANNOUNCES FINALISTS FOR 2022 NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARDS — asme.memberclicks.net NEW YORK (February 24, 2022)—The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) today announced via Twittercast the finalists for the 2022 National Magazine Awards. The 57th annual awards honor magazines and websites for editorial excellence in categories ranging from Reporting and Photography to Podcasting and Video. ASME will announce the winners of the National Magazine Awards on Tuesday, April 5, at Brooklyn Steel, a music venue in Williamsburg, New York. The finalists and winners of the ASME Award for Fiction, the ASME Awards for Photography and Illustration, and the ASME NEXT Awards for Journalists Under 30 will also be honored.
In this time of growing verticals, mergers, monopolies and the death of longstanding publications, it's easy to be cynical and chalk these magazine awards up to nothing but the "usual suspects."
I try to avoid that because in an industry that has a shrinking base of professional organizations, we really need the ASME and we need them to remain strong.
Plus, I do remember how excited I was back at the start of my career when the magazine I was working for was nominated - and won.
5. Axios: Digital Giants Eye Magazines to Spur Growth
Digital giants eye magazines to spur growth - Axios — www.axios.com Recent deals show how much modern media companies have become reliant on print magazine brands to grow their empires.
This article by Axios Media Reporter Sara Fischer has been out for a week, but a re-read dealt me a little bit of hope and a little bit "time to deal with some realities".
Of note was a quote from veteran and highly admired former editor and founder of the "Air Mail" newsletter, Graydon Carter: "The internet eliminates the biggest, messiest part of the magazine production business."
Oh Graydon, you're not publishing print in 2022. You don't know the half of it!
And now, for your moment of magazine "Zen"...
Go ahead, tell me you don't want to be in that kitchen.
That's it. That's all I have for you so early into the week. If you enjoyed this newsletter, please give it a boost by clicking “Like” and then subscribe. You’ll get a brand new release in your email in-box every Tuesday.
If you’ve got a question or comment, please drop me a line. You can always reach me at joe.berger@newsstandpros.com.
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Better get back at it, friends. If you've got a Zoom meeting before noon, please make sure that you put on pants and run your fingers through your hair. Oh, and if you had a donut with powdered sugar, well, you know what to do. Trust me!
Have a great week!