Who do you trust?
It's always been a matter of trust - Issue #91
Author and former Stanford professor Ted Gioia publishes a thoughtful newsletter guide to music, books and culture on Substack. I decided to subscribe to it partly because it reminded me of some of my favorite columns Stephen King used to write for EW Magazine during its glory days in the aughts. I truly miss that magazine.
Another reason I started to subscribe to his newsletter is that in this age of niche everything, I noticed that I was inadvertently walling off my reading and news consumption to very specific sources. That’s a trap I’d like to avoid. I’d rather be guided to to places both new and familiar. I think an expert can do that better than an algorithm. And if not, at least they’re more interesting.
In a recent post, “The Scarcest Thing in the World” Ted talks about the lack of trust in so much of our everyday lives. He managed to tie it into the uneasiness some of us may have about the rise of AI. I found this a fascinating topic.
Tell me: Do you trust your news sources as much as you used to? The networks? The cable networks? Legacy news sites? Digital sites? How about scientists? The big corporations you turn to for food, clothing, travel or the internet? Do you trust them? Do you trust their CEOs? How about the CEO of the company you work for? Are they concerned about your work experience? Is your workload commensurate with your pay? Are they concerned for the welfare of your fellow workers? Your freelancers and permalancers? What about religious leaders? Do you trust them? With your children?
And now we have AI and it’s assorted chat bots. Here in the world of magazine media we’ve see some reporters and opinion makers suggest to us that this will be our manna from heaven. Or, as some others write, it could be the end of everything. Neither tablets, digital replicas, events, video, social media or recurring subscriptions have “saved” us. They didn’t murder us either. So I can see how this “tool” could look like just the thing.
But is it?
Why are you asking me?
If magazines have anything, it’s the trust of the audience. Magazines with successful audiences die all the time, but it’s usually not because the audience walked away. It’s usually because the financial model stopped working. Now, break that audience trust? You may find yourself having a bit of a problem meeting those quarterly projections your new PE overlords dropped into your lap.
So what’s the solution to trusting AI? As Gioia points out:
“It’s no secret how you construct one. You emphasize transparency and straight talk. You don’t manipulate people—which is the defining vice of our age. Instead you respect their rights, which also come with responsibilities. Above all, you strive for honesty.”
Let’s not fudge this up. Ok?
I chose this one for the vinyl and the mullets. I mean, who doesn’t love a good ‘80’s mullet?
one__Internova launches a luxury travel magazine
This free publication is produced by the high end Internova Travel Group. It will be mailed to 100,000 affluent readers and the top clients of their luxury travel edition.
Each volume will be printed on archival-quality, eco-certified paper with a keepsake aesthetic. "We wanted a name, look and feel that encompassed more than just travel,"
Yet another example of a brand turning to the magazine model not as a source of revenue, but as a way to enhance their brand and add value to their customer’s experience. The magazine is essentially another marketing tool, not the actual brand.
When I consider the arc of my magazine media career, I now find myself in this position every now and again. There is a magazine, they need my services, but the magazine is just one piece, not the piece of who they are anymore.
two__LA Magazine’s new owners shake things up
Just before the new year, Los Angeles Mag, Orange Coast Magazine and Pasadena Magazine were sold by Hour Media to LA lawyers and business leaders Ben Meiselas and Mark Geragos and their new media company Engine Vision Media.
Not surprisingly, a few weeks ago the new owners brought in a few of their own people and showed veteran editor Maer Roshan the door.
This story is not surprising - new owners often want to create their own teams. What was interesting to me was the background of Roshan as well as some of the new hires. Also, check out the variance in traffic between Los Angeles and their competitors. It shows how much ground the magazine needs to make if it wants to be more competitive in the local market.
three__Speaking of travel mags, Zara is teaming up with Wallpaper…
In keeping with the theme of item one, this was a fun find. I remember being very obsessed with the early versions of Wallpaper Mag. Zara’s parent company, Inditex has teamed up with them to create five photography books that can be packaged together to resemble a coffee table book.
From the fashionnetwork.com article:
The curated content is similar to that of magazines or specialised publications and features photographs by Salva Lopez, Luis Diaz, Pia Riverola, Den Niwa, Kent Andreasen and Sophie Green. It also includes essays by Wallpaper editors Simon Mills and Pei-Ru Keh, along with Celeste Chipperfield, Jens H Jensen and Mazi Odu.
Here’s another case where print has been turned into a luxury add-on, brand extension for a high end retailer.
four__B&N Rutgers University Bookstore trying to unionize
Barnes and Noble Education stores are separate from the national bookstore chain of the same name. The company was spun off in 2015. According to the Bloomberg News article, the company operates more than 750 physical bookstores and this would be the first bookstore in the company to attempt to unionize.
Employees say they began discussing unionization late last year in a group chat, and seek to win improvements in their pay, job security and work hours, which they call erratic and insufficient. To prepare their coworkers for any potential anti-union campaign by the company, they’ve been studying anti-union tactics and literature from other major retailers in recent years.
This is all part of a growing trend in bricks and mortar retail where we see low paid retail workers organizing for union representation.
five__In case you didn’t note, the other Barnes & Noble opened three stores last week
While driving around a week or so ago with some visiting family members, we passed the husk of our recently closed local B&N. The discussion turned to how terrible it is for bookstores and how terrible Amazon is and…
Of course, the problems the US book and magazine industry has experienced are much more complicated than “the internet” or “Amazon” but that is what people who don’t work in the business think. Thanks reporters.
But the largest bookstore chain in the US is planning on opening 30 new stores this year and last week, according to book industry newsletter, Shelf Awareness, they opened three new stores in Philadelphia; Danbury, CT; and Wareham, MA.
Of note, all three stores were opening in markets that had previously had a B&N store somewhere nearby.
This week for your moment of “Magazine Zen”
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you did so, please give it a boost by clicking “Like” and then subscribing. You’ll get a brand new release in your email in-box every Tuesday (Or sometimes Wednesday if things get a little hectic around here).
And now, let’s check in on that stressed out magazine ‘re-branding’ consulting team that our stressed out magazine marketing team brought in before the PE buyout to do a once over on their brand. How’s that going? Are they getting along with the new private equity owners? What’s that whole new deck going to look like?
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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That’s all I’ve got for you this week. May your workload be manageable and may you have many chances to get outside and enjoy some nice weather.
