I’ll be on the Mediaweek TV program on the Sky News Business Channel today at 2:30 with james manning, Editor of Mediaweek magazines and Eugene Varricchio, Group General Manager – Retail & Distribution, ACP magazines. It should be a broad discussion including magazines, magazine distribution and the role of newsagents.
Mark, I watched this interview, and I was very impressed by your concluding statement (“I think the threat’s real… I think the decline will be at the tail, and not at the top end, and I think the role of magazines will change over time”).
Do you think the change may be that instead of people reading magazines, that magazines will end up reading people ???
what exactly do you mean by this statement ‘that magazines will end up reading people”?”
I am a simple person so I struggle to understand this style of comment
Anon, I was not sure eaither what was meant either. In making the comment on TV yesterday, I was meaning that how we access the content of magazines will change. Today, we buy a magazine which aggregates content. In the future, we will but stories as we buy songs. No more aggregated but per item.
Magazines reading people, like the US auto magazines that have handy “How to’s” that demonstrate how to valve lap, dial in a cam, insert pistons etc – more valuable to the reader opposed to advertisements.
These magazines also have a lot of advertisments, if publishers would focus on improved content for the reader, rather than advertisers for revenue, a better product promoting more sales would result.
A by-product would also be the publisher charging more for advertising due to increased circulation.