It’s not such a big surprise that print publications are hurting more than ever given the current economic weather.
For a while the print industry was doing an okay job of rolling with the punches being delivered by online media, but with the decline of our economy it would seem that print is on the ground for the final knock out. Magazine and newspaper publishers are the first to admit that this is the worst decline in advertising they have ever seen, and some have already sacrificed their ego and thrown in the towel.
The Magazine Publishers of America, the industry’s lobbying organization, canceled its annual meeting scheduled for October ‘09. MPA officials said the decision to cancel the conference was due to the difficult economic times. Fair enough, but isn’t now the time to collaborate and create a survival plan? The grim reality is that this is not just about the economy; print media will not see a sudden improvement when the Dow finally heads upward again. This is about online media chopping at the knees of print media for years. More and more companies are spending their ad dollars online, and we are now reaching a point of critical mass.
Magazines are growing thinner by the month (both in pages and in staff) and publishers have been forced to cut under-performing titles. NYTimes.com has a great “Mostly Gloom for Glossies” tracker that shows the percentage up or down of advertising revenue (note that such a tracker is only possible online, not in print.) Interestingly, Star magazine is up by 21% and TV Guide is up by 458%. Other magazines are not so lucky, with Fortune down 22% and Spin Magazine down by 78%. It will be a tough road ahead for many print publications and many more will be taken off life support before the end of 2009. Already we’ve seen the closure of half a dozen major magazines: Domino, PC Magazine, Country Home, Teen People, Cosmo Girl, FHM, and Stuff.
Last week Denver’s Rocky Mountain News became the first major newspaper to fold in recent years, and several others have filed for bankruptcy protection (Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, et. al.) while others have threatened to close their doors if substantial cuts are not made or if a buyer is not found (San Francisco Chronicle, Tucson Citizen, et. al.)
Law of Nature
Many print publications have been able to survive, just by a thread, thanks to their online component, but the idea of bolstering ad revenue by charging readers to view content online doesn’t seem likely. “Consumers won’t pay; it’s just that simple,” said MSNBC.com President Charlie Tillinghast. “They’ll read amateur blogs and everything else first before they pay for general news and information. Those are the physics of our business.” People are used to getting their news for free and you can’t change that now or they’ll just go elsewhere. Between blogs, free news, and syndicated websites, the user has all the news they want at their fingertips.
The only online news sources that can get away with charging readers for access to their online content are the Wall Street Journal, Business Times, trade journals, or research/stats-based websites needed for business or educational purposes. Aside from the WSJ, the only other newspaper that has successfully been able to charge users for access to their site is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which has been doing so for $4.95 per month since 1998. While most newspapers have lost circulation, their publisher, Walter E. Hussman Jr. claims the Democrat-Gazette has remained steady. They are truly one out of a million and should consider themselves lucky to have set this system up in 1998; their readers have already been trained that they’ll have to pay for their local news if the print publication folds.
One thing is for sure, the demand for news has never been higher. Traffic to newspaper websites was up 12% in 2008. MSNBC alone saw 45 million unique visitors in January 2009; that is amazing traffic that many advertisers would be interested in purchasing. Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson sad the problem is that while Google is great at getting people to content, it does nothing to distinguish quality. “And if you are going to get people to pay for content, you have to encourage them to make qualitative decisions about that content,” he said on PBS’s “Charlie Rose.”
My Predictions… and Some Advice
Is it too late to save print? Yes and no.
Smart newspaper publishers know the end is near and will invest as much money as possible in building their online component to compliment their print publication. In coming months and years we’ll see many major newspapers stop their presses, but the brands themselves can survive if they successfully carve out an online presence and adapt to an advertising-only revenue model.
As for magazines, I believe we’ll see a thinning of the herd over the next couple of years but that they’ll be a little more resilient than newspapers. I am one of many that enjoy the physical experience of holding the glossy publication and turning each page and will continue to subscribe. Magazines hold two major advantages over newspapers. The first is that they generally cover a specific niche, while every newspaper in the country covers and syndicates the same major stories – the sole exception being local news – giving newspapers a massive redundancy factor. The second advantage is that while magazines may publish time-sensitive information, there is perhaps a week-long shelflife to that information, versus news stories which become outdated the moment they’re published in print. I can log on to any of a thousand websites to read about breaking story and watch the site be updated every 5 minutes as information rolls in, yet by the time I read the same story in my morning paper it’s already 6 hours old. Newspapers simply can’t keep up with the times, literally.
Magazines may have it a little easier than newspapers, but easy is a relative term. All publications will need to downsize, restructure their departments, and find a sustainable future in leveraging online media.
It is time to adapt. Print publishers must start transitioning to an online presence, or they will not be long of this world.
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I found this topic very interesting. I too am one to say I would much rather use a tangible product such as magazine, music etc. versus a digital good. I am hoping to see how this whole situation turns out I wish the best for the magazine and newspaper industry.