It's Tuesday: 5 Things About the World of Magazines & Media - Issue #35
Somehow, I've managed to maintain my career within the magazine industry for my entire professional life. I originally wandered into the business because I couldn't imagine spending another three to five years in academia (Despite loving academia) and the thought of joining my friends in the consumer product world left me physically and psychically ill.
So here I am, watching something I love and still think is incredibly cool transforming and simultaneously wither away all the while adapting, learning and appreciating what appears to be replacing it.
I've got no real issues with the digital world. It's fine. Sometimes it's awesomely cool. But I do think that the pace of technological innovations outstrip the pace of both culture and the law, and we often accept these developments without really thinking about the question:
"Is this good (and safe, and healthy and wise) for all of us?"
Well, is it?
1. Dotdash Meredith to shutter several magazines, lay off 200 employees
Dotdash Meredith lays off 200 workers, including some Des Moines employees — www.kcci.com According to a spokesperson, roughly 3% of workers in Des Moines were laid off.
Dotdash Meredith's move to cut 200 jobs, cease some print publications is about embracing digital future, CEO says — www.desmoinesregister.com Titles like Entertainment Weekly and InStyle will no longer publish print editions. But the CEO says the company will invest $80 million in content.
This was not surprising, but from my perspective a bit sad to see. Years ago in my first incarnation as a consultant I worked on Health Magazine when it was the last, weak cousin owned by the highly leveraged Family Media organization. I believe Meredith was the third or fourth owner of the title.
Meredith was, of course, the second owner of Entertainment Weekly a Time, Inc. title that was launched back in the 1990’s. I collect premiere issues of magazines and the very first issue of EW is in my collection and something that I love to have. Through much the ’90’s and most of the early aughts, EW was a go-to read for me because the magazine seemed to really get pop culture and covered many things that I loved. To see how it’s faded over the years and land at this ultimately sad ending, it kind of hurts.
2 BoSacks Has Some Thoughts About Dotdash Meredith and the "Data Industrial Complex"
BoSacks Speaks Out: Thoughts on Dotdash Meredith and the “Data Industrial Complex” — bosacks.com I've been getting many industry reactions from my subscribers about the Dotdash Meredith news of shutting down venerable and, to my eye, successful print pub...
Much of what Bo and the many industry insiders who wrote to him have to say in this thoughtful essay won’t be new to anyone who still spends most of their time working with actual physical consumer magazines. This is an industry that has been in a decline since the recession of 2008 and has suffered through a giant series of “enthusiasms” since that time as one technological “fix” after another was supposed to “save” it while also replacing it (Remember how we were all going to read our magazines on tablets?).
The world of magazine publishing is a deeply interconnected one. The removal of all of these titles from the marketplace will impact the related industries like printing, paper production, ink production, shipping and even retail magazine sales.
For example: Consider that the removal of InStyle alone will take 1,122,348 sold copies per year out of the newsstand channel. The estimated value of those copies to magazine retailers over the course of one year? $6,722,864. You’re going to have to sell a lot of low efficiency high cover price SIPs to replace that.
Want to get really nervous? If I did the math correctly, the cancellation of these six titles will equal at 92,932,000 copies per year from the world of print magazines.
If you need a shot of something, go right ahead.
3 Waterstones in Talks to Purchase Blackwells in the UK
The Bookseller - News - Waterstones owners 'in exclusive talks' to buy Blackwell's — www.thebookseller.com Waterstones’ owners have reportedly entered into exclusive talks to buy Blackwell’s, after the chain was put up for sale last week for the first time in its 143-year history.
Speaking of consolidation, the most interesting aspect of the proposed purchase of this venerated academic bookseller in the UK is the fact that the proposed buyer is the US based hedge fund, Elliot Advisors.
In case you forgot, Elliot is the company that owns Waterstones bookstores in the UK and Barnes & Noble here in the US.
So maybe, just maybe, bookstores are a good business to be in?
4 US House of Representatives Passes "Shop Safe" Bill to Reduce Fake Online Retail Listings. Tech Platforms Hate It, Of Course
House Passes Bill That Would Require Online Marketplaces To Vet Listings 02/07/2022 — www.mediapost.com House Passes Bill That Would Require Online Marketplaces To Vet Listings - 02/07/2022
There's a lot of back and forth in this article and it seems to me that there is a solution there, somewhere, if perhaps the tech platforms would be a little less defensive about an issue that is real and impacts everyone who does buy stuff online.
5 File Under "Unsurprising": Journalists Give Thumbs Down to Social Media
Journalists Give Thumbs Down to Social Media | Local News Initiative — localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu Journalists say social-media platforms have hurt their industry, contributing to inaccurate and one-sided news accounts by exerting too much control over the mix of news that people see, according to a recent survey.
NWU’s Medill School of Journalism did an on-line survey of journalists and discovered that nearly 8 of 10 respondents said harassment of journalists on social media platforms was a big or moderately big problem.
This is something I’ve witnessed this in real time. It's quite discouraging to see.
Moreover, 9 of 10 respondents said social media delivers a “worse mix of news” to their users. Also, not all that surprising. But it is encouraging to hear real practitioners speak out.
Ultimately, I think the survey and the issues we see with platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Tik Tok is that they are not just platforms and I don’t think they should be allowed to get away with that argument anymore and the public shouldn’t have to live, unwittingly, in a libertarian paradise when it comes to these “platforms.” If there’s editorial content on them, then they’re publishers and should be expected to behave as such.
And Now, For Your Moment of Magazine Zen...
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Have a great week!