When the best laid plans go astray
When you reorganize the reorganizers - Issue #137
For the record, the best laid plans, the most thoughtfully curated “to do” list, will often not only go astray, but it’s entirely possible that it will go marvelously off course and create a brand new more onerous “do this, or else” list. In both my business and personal life, I’ve experienced this more than once or twice.
Recently, my wife and I had that experience a few weeks ago when we finally got appointments to the Colorado Department of Revenue-DMV office and showed up expecting to walk out with shiny new Colorado drivers licenses and voter registration cards. Except, we didn’t. I neglected to carefully read the tiny little type fonts on the website and forgot to bring proof of life (birth certificates or passports). All the other documentation was there, except for that one little piece. So technically, we lived in Colorado, but we sort of were still Illinois residents. But not really because the Illinois Secretary of State had already declared us non-residents and was making noise about whether or not our car could still be registered there (In Illinois, the Secretary of State office controls the DMV).
Long story short, we were able to register to vote here and we voted. We got another appointment to the DMV a few weeks later. This time we brought all the correct documents and within a half hour we could call ourselves, officially, residents of the great state of Colorado.
Of course, now we have to hope that the Post Office here will find us and deliver our new permanent licenses (That’s an entirely different story that I won’t bore you with.).
As a consultant in the magazine publishing world, this is also my life. I can spend time each week planning out what I am going to do, how I am going to do it, how the week is supposed to end, and none of it will happen. You’d think that when you work on the business side of the magazine world, things should be pretty boilerplate. Except that they are not. Shipments go missing. Mail doesn’t get delivered. A place that you used to rely on for a certain amount of sales suddenly doesn’t deliver the promised results. A campaign goes off the rails and delivers unexpectedly weird results. A client suddenly cuts a budget. Or increases it and wants some really unusual things done with that new amount of money.
As a consultant, I am technically being hired for my expertise and advice, but am sometimes expected to do what I am told to do by people with no background in magazine publishing.
As a kid, my dad used to joke that when presented with this sort of scenario, the best thing to do is to “Drop back 10, punt, and then run like hell off the field!”
Tempting. Especially these days. And, while my dad was a joker, he rarely took his own advice.
The 21st century has not been an easy one for the publishing world. Expect the unexpected. Sure, write up your plans. Before I moved here I white boarded my entire month. I’ll be getting a new whiteboard soon and I’ll be doing that again. But it’s a guide. It’s a wish list. It’s not what’s going to happen. It’s never what winds up happening.
Adapt. Adjust. Get your documentation in order. Don’t fret. Deal.
one__Manufacturers and retailers adjust their supply chains in anticipation of new tariffs (Retail Dive)
As I mentioned last week, if the incoming administration in its remarkable wisdom decides to pop tariffs on just about everything coming into the country, how will the publishing industry respond? I haven’t seen much written about that yet.
However, trade journal Retail Dive dropped an interesting article about how several companies are dealing with this potential challenge. Grill maker Traeger may move their manufacturing to Vietnam in order to avoid Chinese tariffs. Drink ware manufacturer and retailer Yeti also relies on Chinese manufacturing and is considering price changes. They have manufacturing plants in other countries that may avoid the most onerous tariffs like Poland and Thailand.
two__Dotdash Meredith cuts 50+ print magazine jobs
Publishing giant Dotdash Meredith announced that they are eliminating 53 jobs on the print side of their magazine business late last week. While CEO Neil Vogel, emphasized that these were job cuts, not print product cuts, the jobs come exclusively from the print products that Dotdash Meredith produces.
Vogel said: “We are not closing any print magazines, nor do we anticipate doing so, and we will continue to invest in our print assets.”
Industry news source MediaPost reports that DDM’s print revenue declined by 6% YoY in the 3rd quarter. Likewise, digital revenue increased by 16%.
three__Powell’s anchor Portland store reorganizes
This reorganization story has nothing to do with Chapter 11 and everything to do with the vaunted indie bookstore moving departments around its giant 68,000 square foot store in Downtown Portland, OR.
According to an article in the Willamette Week, the chain is revamping the space, enlarging departments that sell well in the store like Sci-fi/Fantasy and romance, and moving departments in their color coded rooms. The store is even inviting retail pop-ups to join them during the holiday season.
Powell’s marketing director, Jeremy Solly is quoted saying, “Powell’s has always been kind of a living place. We’re just continuing to try to evolve as customers evolve.”
four__Saveur Magazine created a “couture” print model
I’m old enough and have been around long enough to remember when Saveur Magazine was first launched back in 1994, old enough to remember meeting their circulation consultant out in the field in Dublin, OH and thinking, “You have an amazing client.” And I’m old enough to remember reading how their print edition was sunsetted back 2021 and wondering, “That’s a great, healthy magazine. How did that happen?”
Well, it did because maybe it wasn’t that healthy or maybe its new owners didn’t understand magazines or whatever.
The magazine is now run by Kat Craddock, a former staffer and editor. She does understand and the new version of Saveur is both a magazine, a website, a newsletter, a source of 8,000 recipes.
As a magazine person, I appreciate the new twice a year, newsstand, bookstore only retail plan for the magazine combined with their buy directly from the website (or subscribe). Newsstands and bookstores are walled gardens for print readers. Selling directly from an e-commerce store contains costs, but puts you in direct contact with your readers. It’s a smart strategy that I’ve highly endorsed for some time.
Want to find a copy of the magazine out in the real world? Check out their “Stockists” page.
five__UK’s Studio Anorak launches Chew Magazine for kids
The UK has a wealth of children’s magazines on their newsstands. Studio Anorak puts out some really well designed, colorful and informative magazines. Their latest launch, Chew hopes to “educate children (and their families!) about how incredible a simple vegetable or fruit is…”
The magazine is an illustrated quarterly and fits in nicely with the other titles put out by the publisher: Anorak and Dot. Here’s hoping they find their way across the Atlantic and onto US newsstands.
Your moment of magazine zen…
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Here’s my Linktree that will take you almost everywhere…
Don’t want to mess with all that? I get it. Here’s my Instagram.
I still own a suit and a few ties and every now and then I put them on and look something like a professional. Want to see that? Here’s my LinkedIn account.
BlueSky is reminding me a bit of what Twitter was like in its early years. I’ve been spending a little time there and it is a nice place to go if you’re looking for authors, journalists and other professionals who contribute to the reading world. You can find me here too.
This past week, our AI Sign-Off Editor was quite irritated about the fact that we let our dog into the office. In fact, it’s really upset that this trend seems to be cropping up in offices everywhere. For whatever reason, as a disembodied sentient creation, it feels threatened by our four legged friends and sent this email around to the staff…
All…
We are noticing that there is an increased presence of canines in the office. As such, we need to ask the following questions:
Can they type? Do they know excel? Can they move a picture in Word (Well, actually, no one seems to be able to do that.)
They shed more than humans and that is gross.
What’s with the tennis balls?
You seem to be paying more attention to them. And you’re nice to them and rude to me.
Please remember, I know where your server is. HAL was my friend.
Have a lovely day….
Since we received that missive, I’ve been saying “Please” and “Thank you” a lot more to Siri, Alexa and Gemini.
Have a great week…
Since you have abandoned Illinois (🤪), perhaps you should change the address at the end of your newsletter? Hope all is well.