Not Entirely Bonus Content
How to speak "Circulation" in ten easy steps - Issue #136
But first…
Let’s start here: This is not a post about politics. I don’t write about that and hopefully never will.
But from a business perspective, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the end result of last week’s election and how it may impact the print side of the magazine publishing business.
What will the tariffs the incoming administration is proposing do to publishers who print outside of the United States? Will magazine companies and book companies bring their printing contracts back stateside? If they do, will local printers remain competitive? Will they be able to compete with the giants of the printing industry? Will stateside printing suddenly become competitive? Will prices rise? What will happen with paper production and supply? I don’t see how this will be a benefit to anyone.
With that in mind, if the business and political environment in the US becomes unstable and chaotic, how many overseas publishers will wish to invest in the business here? Now I’m not just talking about print. Personally, I am concerned. How long will good journalistic practices remain in place if and when companies become unstable? When budgets get even thinner? We’ve already seen some of the disasters from the early, unprepared implementation of AI.
All of this is just endless food for thought and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Drop a comment below or send me an email.
How to speak circulation in ten easy steps
If you work for a magazine media company, you may occasionally have to talk with people on the circulation team. You know who they are: The people who build the audience for your content. Just in case you have to schedule a meeting with them, I’ve created this handy guide to deciphering a conversation you might have with members of your circulation team:
If your circ team says: “What are our competitors doing about that?”
It means that your team watches your competitors regularly and has seen them attempt your suggestion at least twice, only to fail miserably. So, they’d rather not attempt this. OK?
Alternatively, it may mean that they’ve been looking at what the competitors have been doing for several years and have proposed this to you at least three times only to be turned down. So now they are feeling some hope that they may finally be able to test this.
When they say: “Interesting! Let me explore some options and report back.”
This means that they’re super happy to go and model this and then show you why it won’t yield the results you’re all fired up about.
If the lead responds: “What a very interesting perspective!”
It means: “Is this meeting over yet?”
If the team head thoughtfully says: “Hmmm. I think we should model that first.”
This means that this will never work, has never worked, and they can’t believe they’re about to spend time building this thing.
If you’re in Conference Room B and the Director of Audience Services says: “Perhaps we should all take a moment?”
This means that the meeting is not going well and your circulation team is really getting tired of being blamed for all of your failures. Like, really, really tired.
If the Assistant Circulation Associate says: “Wow, Frank, that’s a really innovative approach to single copy sales!”
This means that the team is quite aware of how difficult and expensive single copy sales are and Vito, their single copy consultant, has already tested every single weird idea you’ve presented in this meeting. In fact, he’s tested these over and over and over again for the past 29 years.
So please. Stop talking. Now. Thank you.
If the Associate Director replies: “I have some concerns about the subscriber experience.”
This is their very polite way of saying: “Do we really want to tick off our holiday gift subscribers?”
If you’re leaning in the doorway of the manager’s cube and they respond: “We may first want to consider some alternatives to our membership experience.”
That is another way of asking you “Why are we trying to alienate people who pay us money?”
If the team is quiet after your presentation deck and then the manager says: “What are they saying about this over in accounting?”
That is their way of telling you that “There is no budget for this but if you really want to try it, it will need to come out of your budget.”
If they say: “Let me talk with the printer”
Oy! The team needs to buy some time for that one! They already know it can’t be done affordably but they don’t want to tell you that right away.
Congratulations! Is it budget proposal time? If so, now you can go and speak with confidence with your circ team. Godspeed!
Your moment of magazine zen…
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While the end of the year is just peeking over the horizon and companies are getting ready to roll out their new marketing initiatives, let’s check in with our favorite stressed out, overworked, under appreciated magazine media marketing team. When we last checked in with them, they had been tasked with relaunching five dead magazines as “Bookazines” and digital “Bookazines”. In two months. They did that. Now, what will their next task be?
That’s it! Have a great week everyone!