It's Tuesday: 5 Things About the World of Magazines and Media - Issue #43
If you spend time on a social media platform, you've no doubt seen a comment like this: "This is the worst timeline." or "Things are terrible and only going to get worse." There's usually a really cool meme or gif to go along with it.
Is the world a more terrible place today than ever before? Is the world in 2022 a worse place than the world in 1939? In 1918? Or 1914? Imagine yourself a Mayan during the time of the conquistadors. Or maybe a resident of Madrid in 1936. Now ask yourself the same question.
Maybe it's a curse of the aging process that we feel the need to announce, rather loudly, unfortunately, that we think the world gets progressively terrible as we get older. That when we were younger, the world was a better place. I’m continually amused by the battles on Twitter over which generation is the worst: The Boomers, or Gen X or Millennials. I think the arguments are stupid but I do feel sympathy for the younger Gen Z kids who are just now feeling the lash of hemorroidic rage from aging Millennials.
I hate to say it Gen Z, but there’s nothing really new or creative about what they’re saying about you. To them your manners are terrible, your streets are unsafe, your music is the worst, your movies, books and TV shows are awful.
When they start shouting that nonsense at you, just remind them that they're your parents. They brought you into the world. So maybe they also share responsibility for the terribleness of it all.
Why is that, I wonder? Why do we see our aging and the passage of time, the changing of the world in such a negative light?
Well there is a certain grimness at the moment. We are either exiting a terrible pandemic or about to come to terms with living permanently with a pandemic. And then there’s this thing about several horrendous wars happening on a few different continents.
This week’s news fits the mood I’ve found myself in as we navigate early Spring and the related holidays of Passover and Easter and Ramadan. There’s some hopeful stuff in there. And there’s sadness too. Is the merger of the NMA and the MPA a positive thing? Or the death rattle of two aged and outmoded institutions? If the ten news orgs ID’d by Editor and Publisher can get things right, why can’t some of our bigger legacy publishers do the same? And what do we do about those news deserts? And the awfulness of social media?
Things to ruminate on. Maybe, if we spend enough time with our thoughts, we’ll come up with some solutions.
Well...let’s dive in and see what happens.
1___Digi Day: Big Gaps Between What Consumers Say They Do Online vs. What They Actually Do
New study reveals large gaps in what consumers think they do online — vs. what they actually do - Digiday — digiday.com
What if more than a third of your company’s first-party research about online behavior turned out to be not accurate?
The consumer insights firm, Disqo, call this gap a "Say-Do Gap". It suggests that people's recall may not be so great and that there's a gap between expressed intent and revealed intent (ie: what you want to do vs. what you actually do).
So in other words, consumer research is essentially a Wednesday.
2___BBC Gardeners World Magazine Gets 1M Pod Downloads
"A new dimension to our brand": How BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine achieved 1M podcast downloads | What’s New in Publishing | Digital Publishing News — whatsnewinpublishing.com
BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine achieved a major milestone last month when its podcast was downloaded more than 1 million times.
I confess that if this article catches on and we start seeing opinion pieces citing the 1M downloads as "Your magazine can do this too!" or "Publishers should pivot to podcasting", I'll scream.
Which won't accomplish much beyond scaring the dog, but still...
This is a great example of a publisher, in a niche, coming up with something that really speaks to and engages their audience. And that is what we're supposed to be doing.
3___Editor and Publisher: 10 News Publishers That Do It Right
10 news publishers that do it right | Editor and Publisher — www.editorandpublisher.com This year's class of 10 News Publishers That Do It Right is an excellent representation of small-town communities to large city properties; monthly, weekly, and daily print properties; and traditional print, digital news, business and alternative publishers — representing the breadth and depth of our industry.
This story is not recent but what I liked about it was that it had nothing to do with large, over-leveraged legacy media companies. I appreciated seeing the smaller city publishers owning or launching local magazines. That fits into my theory that city and state magazines could (and should) become the local investigative reporters of the mid-21st century.
Some of the innovations were heartening: Kansas Publishing Ventures growing circ even with a hard paywall. The same company offering up free listings for retailers during the pandemic so they could let their customers know their new hours. The Las Vegas Review-Journal launching a 7 minute streaming newscast to compete with the local TV news channels.
4___File Under: Encouraging? Sad? Inevitable? News Media Alliance and MPA Propose a Merger
Top American newspaper and magazine trade associations have tentatively agreed to merge - Poynter — www.poynter.org Combinations of news associations have become common over the last decade. But this is a particularly big one, at least symbolically.
MPA Absorbed By A Newspaper Association: Big News, But Not Surprising 04/15/2022 — www.mediapost.com MPA Absorbed By A Newspaper Association: Big News, But Not Surprising - 04/15/2022
The organizations have turned most of their attention over the past few years to lobbying so it makes sense that they should join forces and work towards some common goals. I’ve always felt that magazine, news and book publishers have way more in common than they think and that we’re long overdue for them to work jointly together towards some common goals.
But are we just looking at two legacy print business succumbing to the inevitable “last stand” of what little is left of their trade organizations?
I also wonder if we'll ever see new trade organizations rise up to take the place of what these two orgs once were.
5___File Under: Not Surprising. Time Out London Ends its Print Edition
Time’s up for Time Out as London print edition of magazine to be axed | Time Out | The Guardian Final copies of erstwhile listings and entertainment bible to be printed in June after 54-year run in capital
The end of Time Out magazine is an omen of London's cultural demise - New Statesman — www.newstatesman.com The nightlife that Time Out helped to define has been all but cleared out by property developers and the pandemic.
It's always sad when a legendary publication ends its run. The Time Out brand was well known, got its start in London, expanded out here in the US. I remember being very excited when Time Out Chicago started. But unfortunately, at some point in time, some magazines just don't make sense anymore and the right thing to do is to stop publishing them in print. That hurts. I've been there. It's visceral. But it happens.
The article in the New Statesman by Emma Haslett is an interesting one. Is the loss of a tent pole experience in her professional life the indicator that her city is no longer what it once was and that its culture is over?
See above.
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Have a great week!