Things Placed In Front of The Magazine Rack: The (Post) Valentine's Day Edition
According to an article that appeared in Business Insider this week, print magazines are dying because people in check out lanes are spending all of their time looking at their smart phones and not looking at all of the magazines, iced tea, pop, candy, cookies and wiffle bats in the check out racks.
I don't think that any reasonable person who spends time living in the 21st century would argue that many people spend much of their spare time checking things out on their smart phones. And anyone who spends time considering the impact of mobile technology on single copy sales is aware that people waiting in a checkout line may prefer to look at their smart phones rather than at the merchandise they could pick up.
But while it's nice to speculate that smart phone technology is distracting people from spending money in the checkout, if you're going to make a grand generalization like that, you may want to back that up with something that is generally called a "study."
If I were the publisher of a major checkout publication and worried that people weren't looking at my carefully posed models or beautifully laid out food designs, I'd consider trying out some of the new virtual reality designs on my cover. Entice people with attractive offers and QR codes.
Of course, we can generalize that there may be other reasons that single copy sales were down this year.
Here's one:
Dear AMI, Happy Valentine's Day. Love, Hallmark and the plush toy industry.
There's bound to be a great backstory to this and as soon as I can get it, I will update here.
Note: Please keep sending your photos. It's been enormous fun seeing views from other parts of the country. Of course, if you come across an interesting and creative display that works, I would be more than happy to post and celebrate that. Innovative titles and merchandising are the lifeblood of our business. Pending another round of interesting "Things Placed in Front Of" photos, next week we'll return to some scheduled discussions of "Disruptive Technology" and editing (Yes, this blog in particular).