When you come back from the dead...
or an almost death...Issue #130
Over the past few issues of this newsletter, I’ve expressed a lot of opinions. Fortunately, I’ll never be invited to be a member of the punditocracy. But back when my daughters were teenagers, they pretty much cured me of my occasional desire to pontificate on things.
I have to admit, however, that a lot has been going on in this life over the past month or two and when you go through a lot of upheaval…well, you have a lot of feelings. If you know what I mean.
In the past when more of my business was involved on a daily basis with newsstand distribution, I was very aware of the Tattered Cover bookstore chain. As the newsstand business consolidated, distribution consultants like me were always on the prowl for places where we could place copies without having to worry too much about “authorized lists” or being required to pay a “promotional fee” just to put a few copies on a mainline rack.
Tattered was one of those places and as the biggest city in the Rockies, Denver was an important place. It was nice to be able to visit Tattered a few times while in town for conferences or a quick visit. It’s a great bookstore.
So I was pretty surprised when it was announced last year that the company was going into bankruptcy reorganization. How could something like this happen? Was I finally going to move to Denver only to have a great indie chain disappear just as I arrive?
As you’ll see below, maybe not. Fingers crossed.
In other news, I’m on the third reorganization of my office in as many weeks and there are still things I can’t find. Yeah, moving is fun. We’ve also discovered that, for whatever reason, the United States Postal Service does not recognize our new address. Mysteries abound. In case you were wondering: Amazon can find and recognize us. So does Siri, Alexa, Google, UPS, Wayfair, Taskrabbit and several local pizza establishments. That’s not good enough for the USPS.
In better news, now that I have completed training, I am now an official volunteer dog walker at the MaxFund Animal Shelter. I’ll start regular rotations this week. My training dog was a wonderful terrier mix named Duchess. She’s still at the shelter waiting to be adopted.
one__Tattered Cover Bookstore may have as many as eight suitors
According to reports in the Shelf Awareness newsletter and The Denver Post, there are currently eight or more potential buyers for the chain. Bids are due on June 10th and the auction for the company will happen on June 12th.
The bookstore chain’s debts include $1.7million in secured debts which includes a loan from Read Colorado, a company formed by several philanthropists, and another $3.4million in unsecured debts to a variety of suppliers.
Hopefully, whoever buys the company will not sell it off for parts but will actually do the hard work of rebuilding the bookstore brand and drawing readers back into the stores.
two__The ‘Print is Dead’ interview with Willa Bennett of Highsnobiety
It’s pretty unsurprising that someone like me wouldn’t immediately fall in love with the opening paragraph of this piece. It begins:
“In early April, what’s left of the magazine industry gathered at Terminal 5 to see who would win this year’s National Magazine Awards—the ASMEs. Throughout the evening, the usual suspects stepped up to accept their Alexander Calder brass elephants—the ‘Ellies’—on behalf of their teams at The Atlantic, New York, and The New York Times Magazine.”
I mean…
But the important quote comes later in the interview and really sums up both the magazine, Willa’s editorial style, and where the future may be for print publications and their place within the “magazine” world:
“I think that we owe it to the industry to just always be open to what a magazine is. I think a lot about book publishing. I’m very passionate about writing and I would love to write books one day. I haven’t written a book, but what I see from afar is they have found a way to sell physical copies of stories in a way that we maybe haven’t cracked. And I think that’s interesting. Like just what #BookTok has done for authors. Authors are selling more copies than they ever have historically…”
Spot on. It’s so easy these days to fall into endless hand wringing and griping. I like how this new crop of editors and publishers are pushing the boundaries.
three__Spin Magazine is back in print
One of the prized items in my collection of premiere magazine issues is the very first issue of Spin Magazine. I recall being very excited when the magazine was announced back in 1985 and went out to buy that first issue. I don’t think I picked up another issue of the magazine until its final newsstand issue was announced in 2012.
However, I do think it’s a good thing. We need more print even if and when it’s a rebirth or rebranding. Next Management Partners, which has operated the website, digital magazine, records, podcasts and a music technology incubator will do the relaunch with Bob Guiccione, Jr., the original editor as the editor for this first issue.
The first print edition since its departure in 2012 is due out in August and the company is betting 50,000 copies in outlets like B&N, Whole Foods, Books A Million and some airport outlets. This will not be cheap distribution. In contrast, in an AAM report filed in the first half of 2011, that incarnation of Spin sold 25,000 copies on the newsstand and had 433,000 paid subscribers.
For the record, I will buy this issue in August and I do hope there are many more whether or not I pick up more copies.
four__About that “lifetime” subscription to Rolling Stone…
This is something of a nothingburger story, but then, it’s not. Readers who signed up for a “lifetime” subscription to Rolling Stone magazine back in the early to mid-aughts recently got an email from the current owner, Penske Media informing them that they would no longer get the print edition mailed to them. Instead, they’d get a digital version and some access to the catalog.
The Slate story by writer Scott Nover tracked down several “lifetime” subscribers including Mr. Magazine, himeself, Samir Husni. It is inconvenient to have something that you thought was really yours for life, taken away.
But as someone who has worked on the other side of the circulation aisle, and worked with publishers who inherited the previous owner’s bad idea, or bad deal…I’m afraid I’m going to have to (Yes, I’m really going to say this), agree with Penske Media on this one.
Even in the early aughts, this was a crappy deal for Wenner Media. Did they really pull in enough “lifetime” subscribers to attract that much more advertising dollars to cover the cost of the print and postage? (I'‘d love to be proven wrong!) And, if you were a lifetime subscriber, did the offer from Wenner say that the deal was transferable?
Penske acquired a majority stake in Rolling Stone in 2017 and bought the entire publication in 2019. I do wonder why they waited this long to end these subs. To be fair, I wonder if it all could have been handled in some other way.
five__WaPo has plans to increase subscription revenue
It’s no secret that both local and national news is struggling and competing for the public’s attention. I continue to argue that a big part of the problem is that reading news sources by traditional vendors (like newspapers) is nothing but a frustrating experience plagued with pop-ups and lengthy video ads when all you want to watch is a one minute video. If you still get an occasional print copy, how often is it mis-delivered?
So to see the Post make this rather public pivot is interesting and timely. From my perspective, I find it interesting because I just completed a review for another (mostly) online news org that offered a mix of digital, print and newsletter content. Our recommendation was something similar. Break up the subscription tiers to something more streamlined and easy to understand, offer corporations and orgs their own pricing structure, and develop a method to collect some sort of revenue from occasional readers.
The Post is too important to the national news cycle to depend solely on the good graces of a wealthy owner. My hope is that this reorganization will actually work.
Your moment of magazine zen…
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Want to find me on the social sites?
My Instagram link is here.
I’ve been known to put on a suit and tie and comb my hair. Here’s my LinkedIn profile if you want to see me looking all professional.
BlueSky is kind of reminding me of an early, slightly less vulgar Twitter. There looks to be a lot of good authors and indie writers there. If you’re there and want to look me up, here’s where you might find me.
And…Just as I was about to slide out the door to hop on my bike and do outdoorsy Denver stuff, our AI Sign Off editor hit me with this…
Subject: Maintaining Momentum as We Approach Peak Season
Hey Team,
As we hurtle towards the summer months, it's natural to experience a dip in bandwidth. However, here at the It's Tuesday newsletter, we need to ensure we maintain optimal velocity. Remember, the magazine world is a dynamic ecosystem, with constant content churn. We must stay ahead of the curve and in order for that to happen, we need all hands on deck, firing on all cylinders throughout all of the core business hours (Note: Your contract states that’s between the hours of 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM).
While after-hours availability is crucial for achieving maximum synergy, we recognize the importance of mental fuel. That's why we've invested in energizing breakroom resources to optimize your cognitive performance. Think of it as a strategic pit stop – grab a slice of the team-building pizza, refuel with some high-octane coffee, and then let's circle back and dive right in!
Let's leverage this momentum and collectively shoot for the moon! Remember, we're all in the same boat, so grab an oar and let's disrupt the status quo!
Onwards and upwards!
Your Favorite AI Sign-Off Editor
