Publishing Policy Issues

April 30, 2009 – 9:33 am by Al DiGuido

Folio Magazine’s headline “MPA to meet with Top Administration Officials to discuss issues affecting the Magazine Industry” caught my attention. The piece also mentions that John Kerry has scheduled hearings in Washington this week on the “ailing” newspaper industry – including the troubled Boston Globe. Hearings are supposed to start tomorrow. All of this has me wondering – actually amazed – that senior executives believe that solutions to their specific business problems can be found on Capitol Hill.

I have spent the bulk of my 30-year career around many of the folks that take the Acela Express over to DC. Long before there was an internet …like these folks, I had ink flowing through my veins, having worked for Parade Magazine, CTW Publications, Times Mirror and Ziff Davis Publishing. In fact, I was the publisher of the world’s largest print publication – Computer Shopper magazine (now shuttered) – which at its peak folioed a monthly issue of over 1100 printed pages! All of us, including my colleagues at the MPA and within the publishing arena, saw the internet coming. We read all the research and reports about shifts in consumer information and purchasing consumption patterns. With this research in hand – and an understanding of the paradigm shift – some embraced the new world while others continued to operate in a state of denial. Surely, the interactive channel and this new generation of consumers would never abandon legacy newspapers and magazines as their primary information source.

The cold hard truth of this issue is that all those who misread and/or chose to ignore the storm clouds of change are now dealing with the economic reality of the new marketplace in 2009. Newspaper and magazine subscriber data tells the story clearly. The average age of a print subscriber is getting older. The new generation of consumers has found credible alternative providers of relevant information on the web. The editorial pundits, icons and experts of the past are being forced to do battle with a new crop of user-generated instant content and personalities.

Social Media outlets the likes of You Tube, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and a horde of other positions on the blogosphere are the new congregation pivots in the communications channels. There are a handful of legacy publishing titles and companies who have staked positions on the web and now are in deep diligence on ways to shift dollars and emphasis to the connection being made between interactive content and their subscriber.

The most profound impact of this decade-long shift in media consumption patterns comes through the perfect storm of economic conditions, shrinking advertising budgets and an intense focus on return on investment analytics and accountability. The days of running schedules to gain awareness for products are over. Today marketers are faced with financial ultimatums. Use your dollars in the most cost effective and efficient manner possible to grow sales and profits or be shown the door.

Media companies have not spent nearly the amount of time required to position their outlets as key components in an integrated strategy that drives sales and profits. As such, the marketing community has embraced the interactive world where it seems that ALL is measureable and accountable. As the population of interactive evangelists grows with each passing month, the percentage of dollars allocated in this new channel grows exponentially.

Why travel to Washington, DC? Why hold hearings? Has anyone measured the impact that search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN have made in terms of taking advertising dollars out of our economy? In the pre-Google world, such investigation would happen through consultation with our legacy newspapers and magazines. Today, billions of inquiries no longer reside there and with the shift in traffic and interest, literally billions of ad dollars have been sapped from legacy media – never to return. Is anyone really contemplating the breakup of Google, Yahoo or MSN? Should we forbid the global consumer from utilizing a tool or service that has trumped an entire industry? I think not.

There are no solutions that make any sense coming from Washington, DC. The train left the station a long time ago. It is best that our publishing leaders return to their offices and begin thinking in earnest about ways to catch up to the new world of digital publishing. Time to get their circulation departments focused on attracting new readers who will embrace the new delivery platform. Time to get their editorial teams out of the legacy world and into writing for the new media consumption patterns. It is past time to hire new salespeople who can position the connection being made on the internet between a leading brand, the content and the reader as the most powerful and valuable connection available in the market today.

It’s also time for a bunch of folks to leave. This is not a phase that we are going through. The shift in media consumption and advertising focus is here to stay. If you don’t want to build the new business model in this new world, it’s time to leave. At last check, the folks in Washington have a bunch of stuff on their plates right now. Any thought that an influx of cash or a couple of dozen hearings is going to change the direction of the new world is misguided. Those who haven’t changed had better do so yesterday. Not much time left.