The World of Magazine Media (And Other Stuff) - June 8, 2021 Issue #2
This week we pivot to...Video? Newsletters? Paywalled newsletters? Subscriptions? Memberships? As the world of #magazinemedia changes and diversifies and expands, I think the real answer is that we are constantly charting multiple new paths simultaneously.
In the past, I've jokingly referred to my home base of single copy sales as the shallow bay by the sea of the magazine business. I think that's apt considering how wide and diverse the magazine world is these days.
#1. Get to know Frederic Filloux and Mondaynote.com.
While this one has nothing to do with magazines, I have to say that I look forward to the writings of Frederic Filoux and Monday Note. As a small child, I was a huge car enthusiast and while that love and obsession has abated as I age, I still pick up car magazines from time to time and am known to look longingly at unusual models and classics.
This article from last week’s Monday Note was of real interest to me as a devout and enthusiastic Apple user. Will Apple ever build an electric car? Will Siri in my car ever be more than a Car Play app?
The Next Gatekeepers of the Automotive Industry | by Frederic Filloux | May, 2021 | Monday Note — mondaynote.com There are many things that we don’t like in consumer electronics right now: low repairability, rapid obsolescence, hazardous upgrades that conflict with the notion of backward compatibility, or apps…
#2. In Which Ad Contrarian Bob Hoffman takes Zuckerberg to the woodshed, but burries the lede - at least for me...
No Sunday is complete without reading the latest from advertising great, Bob Hoffman. This weeks release covers a lot of ground with regards to the Zuckerberg-Trump kerfuffle. But for me, the best part was his discussion of KPIs and how ad execs use them.
I have a similar issue with some clients who look at one set of stats, but ignore the bigger picture. At a certain point, you just have to throw up your hands and allow some people to pacify themselves with whatever statistic they need to make themselves happy.
TRUMP THREATENS ZUCK: "NO SOUP FOR YOU!" This week, Facebook ceo Mark Zuckerberg banned former President Donald Trump for two more years from his charming platform. His rationale was that Trump's praise for the imbeciles who killed five people and injured over 100 federal police officers at the Capitol in January was inconsistent with Facebook's speech standards -- of which there are none, and which they make up as they go along.
#3. If Conde Nast can go back to the office, you can too?
Throughout most of my career, I’ve been a #WFH employee or contract worker. However, for many years I benefited from the communal experience of an office when I traveled each week to a different magazine wholesaler’s warehouse to spend some time working out of what was referred to as the “Rep Room.” That was space the wholesaler maintained for representatives of magazines and distributors to review and adjust the distributions of the magazines they worked for and to prepare for meetings with the wholesalers teams.
Our little piece of the magazine industry also had numerous conferences with opportunities for one on one meetings. And I also managed a few trips each year to NYC to meet with distributors and clients.
That mostly disappeared as the wholesaler community contracted down to just a few companies. Rep Rooms no longer exist. Neither do conventions. Want a one on one meeting? Schedule it yourself. I only leave the home office for the occasionally very small conference, the equally occasional client meeting, or to call on a major retailer like Barnes & Noble.
So this article from @mediaink is quite interesting to me. I’ve never been one to dance to the troubles that Conde Nast has experienced like some pundits and Twitter wags have. I think my experience proves that you don’t have to be chained to a desk in a city center tower to be productive. But it is nice to be able to spend time up close and in person with your colleagues.
Condé Nast plans September return to 1WTC amid rent dispute — nypost.com The publisher of high-end glossies like Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker plans to bring a "majority" of its workers back to its 1 World Trade Center headquarters by September, the company has said.
#4. Outside Magazine's digital membership model is (fill in the blank)
This one is personal. Way back in the day, I left an extraordinarily challenging first job (I worked for the smallest and least respected national magazine distributor) for a job as an “Assistant Director” at Outside Magazine. This was back when the title was still headquartered in Chicago at the corner of Clark & Division and the subsidiary of a larger family owned company.
Fast forward to the 21st century and Outside was recently sold to Pocket Outdoor Media, a media company built on the bones of a wide variety of active sports publications like Ski Magazine and Women's Running.
What’s this article about? There’s a rebranding effort going on here (Very smart!) and the launch of a “Membership Model” (ie: recurring revenue).
Also, I think I’m going to start paying more attention to articles by this author, Sara Fischer. She seems to have excellent sources.
Outside launches membership model - Axios — www.axios.com "We have almost all of them integrated at this point."
#5. In Which Nina Metz of the Chicago Tribune Nails it on Several Levels
For about the past five years, my morning Chicago Tribune has been nothing but a dwindling presence in my life. And it hurts to see this storied paper become nothing but a shell of what it once was when it comes to local and national reporting. In fact, it is so much of a shell, that we have dropped the daily paper in favor of digital access. And where our family once spent some serious time with the paper each morning, seven days a week, we're done with it in a few minutes.
Like so many media institutions that have been beat up by consolidation, market changes, a serious lack of imagination and integrity at the top, the Trib does maintain a stable of top shelf staff that still produces quality work. It's just that the stable is much smaller and harder to find it each day because the reader has to sort through a lot of newswire reporting that Tribune staffers used to produce.
One of those writers, is Nina Metz. Metz covers the TV and film beat and along with reporting also writes an occasional column. This paragraph, where she was discussing sports reporting and the Naomi Osaka issue really stuck with me:
Nailed it! The quickest way to get me to start in with derisive comments during a movie or TV show, is the remarkably inaccurate way that magazine, book or newspaper publishing is portrayed.
But don't just read her column for that, Nina's take on sports reporting and what tennis pro Osaka is experiencing is well worth the read.
Column: Naomi Osaka, sports journalism and portrayals of sports writers on the big and small screen — www.chicagotribune.com Different people have different comfort levels in front of a microphone. Sports movies tend to gloss over this aspect of an athlete's career.
Happy Tuesday everyone. Hope your week is meaningful, productive and enjoyable.