It's Tuesday: What Do You Have Confidence In? - Issue #55
Well? I have to ask. What do you feel confident about?
The timeline we inhabit is an odd one. On the one hand, we cherish our independence. On the other, we've become dependent on things like our tech and that seems to have removed us more then ever before from the natural world. This tech is supposed to make our lives simpler, better, more efficient. But when it stops working...wow, we really are stuck.
Our tech is supposed to be seamless. Is it seamless when we have to do all the work? The tech we get (smart phones, computers, tablets, smart TVs, smart home appliances), are very cool to look at, but they seem to have a shorter than ever shelf life. When they don't work as advertised? Again...wow, we're really stuck.
So in the end, how is all of this better? Do we have confidence in this world and time we've created?
And what about our world of work? Do you have confidence in the marketplace? Are the rules leveling the playing field? Or helping your larger and better financed competition?
Do you have confidence in the folk in the C-Suite? If you're in the C-Suite, do you have confidence in the people who work under you? What about your competitors? Are you sure they're playing fair?
Yeah, this could all make you a bit confused. In the first article below, you'll see what brought these questions to mind.
So...what are you confident in? Drop me a note and let me know.
1___Gallup Poll: Media Confidence Ratings at Record Low
Media Confidence Ratings at Record Lows — news.gallup.com Americans' confidence in two facets of the news media -- newspapers and television news -- has fallen to record low points.
The first thought I had when I found this article was: "How is any of this surprising?"
Since as far back as I can remember, politicians have been lambasting local and national media as partisan and favoring one party or the other. They've attacked all of our institutions and rarely if ever offered up a workable alternative. At the same time, local and national media have been in a defensive crouch profusely apologizing for all of their supposed sins and unforced errors.
All the while, our local and national media have been snatched up by conglomerates that are located far and away from the localities they're supposed to serve.
So in this time of decline for local newspapers and consolidation of TV and radio stations, you have to wonder why would the public trust what the "news media" tells them?
2___Mr. Magazine's Launch Monitor for Q2
A Draught In The Land Of New Magazines: Only 12 New Titles Arrived At The Nation’s Newsstands in Q 2, 2022. | Mr. Magazine™ Launch Monitor — launchmonitor.wordpress.com Indeed a major draught. Only 12 magazines (two are relaunched and two are from the UK but with an American bipad). That is a drop of 16 titles from the first quarter of 2022, bringing the total of magazine launches in the first half of 2022 to 40. The marketplace has been bombarded with book-a-zines…
Dr. Samir Husni, aka Mr. Magazine, continues to count the number of consumer publications launched into the US market. Husni only counts titles that have a print version and can be found on the newsstand. This quarter? He only found 12 which signifies a pretty significant drought.
Does this suggest the last gasp of the American newsstand? Maybe. Maybe not.
As Dr. Husni points out, one issue impacting US newsstands is the plethora of book a zines - what used be called special issues or one shots. Many large scale publishers (DotDash Meredith, Hearst, Condé Nast and others) now have these types of magazines on constant release. They do, in fact, choke the newsstand, make a lot of money for the retailer, but probably not so much for wholesalers or distributors. They also make it nearly impossible for a new publisher to break onto a check out position.
3___Twilight of the Libraries: What Gets Lost When Books Go Off-Site and Online
Twilight of the Libraries: What Gets Lost When Books Go Off-Site and Online | The Walrus — thewalrus.ca Libraries can't escape the push for digitization, but we still need actual books on shelves
I continue to review articles discussing libraries because like a commercial bookstore, they’re a “walled garden” where the public goes to get a book or magazine or newspaper. In this article from English Professor Andrew Stauffer, I discovered something I didn’t know. That many academic (and most likely many community) libraries are looking to downsize their print book collection and move to digitization of general publications.
While Stauffer seems to accept that this may be coming, it doesn’t sound, in some cases, like the best possible solution.
4___Vinton, IA Library loses it's staff to town politics
This library director resigned after continuous dramatics over featured books : NPR — www.npr.org Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Janette McMahon about why she resigned from her position as director of a public library in Vinton, Iowa.
Library Reopens After Attacks on Its ‘Liberal Agenda’ Force Mass Resignation — www.thedailybeast.com The chair of the Vinton Public Library’s board said staffers endured “discrimination, harassment, microaggressions, [and] derogatory names.”
Neither of these articles mention magazines but I have been following what's going on with libraries and book banning for some time because what happens in the book world can impact what happens in the magazine world. We're all cousins, right?
5___Retail Dive: 7 experiential concepts (And an idea I have)
Retail Dive Trendline on The latest in experiential retail — www.retaildive.com Retail industry news, voices and jobs. Optimized for your mobile phone.
*note: Sign up is required to access this article
As the newsstand side of this business is based in physical retail, I find Retail Dive an invaluable source of information. I'd also suggest checking out the sister publication Supply Chain Dive.
This article is an update from its original posting back in 2021. Essentially we're looking at "store within a store" concepts, which I guess is cool, but is hardly original. In times of consolidation within a market, cooperation can stave off extinction.
Which makes me wonder, could a bookstore chain like Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, or smaller chains like Joseph Beth or Tattered Cover partner with a supermarket or discount retailer to take over what's left of their "Reading Centers" and expand them, freshen them, enliven them? What do you think?
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