No magazines have to die!

Seems like each week, there is yet another death notice published in the trades about the demise of another print publication. As someone who has spent the bulk of his career in print publishing; these notices are a constant reminder of an industry in need of much more than bailout to survive – total makeover is required. My publishing career began in the trade arena for titles like Training magazine and American Building Supplies. I moved on to build a print magazine division for Children’s Television Workshop (working for Nina Link then; now President of MPA) and then to Parade Magazine. My longest publishing stint was some 13 years working for Ziff Davis as Associate Publisher of PC Magazine and then Publisher of the worlds largest monthly print publication; Computer Shopper Magazine. As I have said many times before…I do believe that I have ink flowing through my veins.

The publishing industry should have seen what we did many years ago….the rise of the internet. I remember speeches that I gave at publishing gatherings warning folks nearly 10 years ago that this day would come. Their print readers were getting older and the new breed of subscriber and newsstand customer was looking much more to the internet as their primary source of information. I remember several times nearly being booed off the stage for having the audacity to declare that print publications would ever be in the crisis that we are facing today. In all this wreckage there is no hubris or gloating…no ‘told you so’….more an urge to correct the business model before it’s too late. Those publishing execs who are still in a state of denial about the future of the print publishing business need to retire to other career tracks. What is needed is a bold new initiative…a remaking of the publishing business.

Digital publishing is the answer to the demise of printed publications. The stodgy and legacy print folks…(printers, circulators, paper manufacturers, postal service) will continue to get on their soapbox and proclaim that it has been tried before…that digital publications “don’t work.” Frankly that’s the talk that folks who are trying to protect their butt say all the time. The real answer is that these people are afraid to embrace new thinking and put in the elbow grease required to get the digital model to work. They would rather calculate the months remaining until retirement than forge new ground and rebuild the publishing model. They would rather read more death notices and lay off more folks. They would rather think that trips to Washington to beg for “bailout’’ money is the strategy to save their venerable publications. Flawed thinking to the extreme.

Consumers have embraced the internet and interactive content at a faster rate than any other communications medium in our existence. There is no debate here. While there may be some tough board meeting and shareholder discussions ahead…there is no time to sit around believing the legacy business model will return. Today is the day to get the courage and look at the data and put your people to work on convincing readers and advertisers that digital publishing is the communications medium of 2009 and beyond.

Here is my plan to save magazines:

1. Examine your current print subscriber file – how many email addresses do you have for your print subscribers? If it is small….start today – append your postal file with email addresses. Your goal is to have 100% of your postal subscribers matched with their email addresses.
2. Work with Zeta Interactive on converting your print publication to a digital replica. This doesn’t cost a lot of money or time to do…and it is a mandatory step.
3. Take a look at your P&L and look at costs relating to editorial creation with an eye toward reducing your overall edit expense. There are many ways in which social media, user generated content, etc…can supplement more costly home grown edit.
4. Get your circulation department focused on creating promotions that drive new subscribers to subscribe to the Digital version of your product….you have boatloads of circ and promo dollars…start directing them away from print packages to digital publication promos
5. Get your marketing department ramped up to create promotional efforts that drive your current subscribers into the digital version with added content, video and sweepstakes if needed…Zeta can help here as well.
6. Through the Zeta Interactive Next Page digital publishing solution….the level of analytics available to you will be incredible. Never before has a publisher had the depth of knowledge about how a reader consumes content and advertising in a real time basis. This knowledge can drive editorial decisions and can provide your sales team with tremendous power in quantifying to advertisers the power of your brand and content with its subscribers.
7. Sales team…make the hard decision. Do you have a team that can sell this value of the relationship between your content and audience in the digital world..? If not…Fire them..and get the HR department focused on finding you people who can truly sell interactive advertising.My sense is that many of these teams merchandise the interactive assets in print packages, giving away your valuable interactive relationship with readers. That thinking needs to go bye bye.
8. Selling the power of digital advertising isn’t order taking. Publishers need to be focused , energized and passionate about the power of their brands and content relationship with digital subscribers. This is a much more intense and awake publishing industry. The idea that you print something and it has a shelf life is over. Real time timelines and demands…Real time publishing.
9. Will it be easy to recoup the advertising rates and revenues once enjoyed by the print publishing world? NO. The publishing industry has a wealth of very smart people. It’s time we directed their efforts into understanding and leveraging the new publishing medium. In time…as we get more passionate about the reporting and analytics available in this new digital publishing platform…we will be able to regain the value lost in circulation and advertising revenue.

If you do nothing…if we do nothing…

If we don’t embrace the digital publishing revolution…then there will be many more death notices.

There will be many more board meetings where angry investor groups demand answers and the heads of those who are too fearful or stuck in the old thinking to make the changes…required to build new business models.

We are a country whose legacy is a pioneering spirit. Not sure where all of that courage and spirit has gone. Time to get off our collective butts and put our backs into making the digital publishing business work. I am tired of watching good magazines die. All of us at Zeta Interactive are here to help save magazines, catalogs and direct mail….Check us out…

Al D

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