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One of our keynote presentations at the virtual FOLIO: Show Virtual last week included a panel of leading executives in the industry, including F+W Media CEO David Nussbaum.

Nussbaum gave one of the most provocative responses during the hour-long discussion, essentially saying that print advertising is an irrevocably declining source of revenue, and that companies that don’t recognize that do so at their own risk.

As it turns out, Nussbaum jotted down some notes to the questions I asked the panelists to consider in advance. Here are Nussbaum’s no More...

When Samir Husni launched the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi in August, he said its mission would be to “amplify the future and power of print and its place in the media realm of the 21st century.” He declared that the American publishing model is dead, but that print is not.

Husni [pictured] was no doubt referring to the emergence of online media and the corresponding decline in print.

But in the Magazine Innovation Center’s inaugural event, the question of the relevance of print was framed in a completely different context: The meeting, held in late September, was a strategic retreat fo More...

I've been reading a lot lately about media companies going "Web first." I suppose it signals a recognition of the real-time value of Internet information, plus the invaluable online network of linkable relevant information, both inbound and outbound, plus the multidirectional conversations and communities the Web enables, plus the measurability of online marketing initiatives.

I suppose it means that staff needs to be redeployed to serve online initiatives and businesses, and not be solely focused on print.

I suppose that being "Web first" these days is better than being "print first."

But in a larger sense, what does "Web first" really mean? Does it mean we're bound to evolve in More...

Heard around the industry in the last few weeks, mostly in quiet conversations, but in increasing frequency: Is the magazine industry, in its troubled state, best served by two or more audit bureaus and two or more major industry associations?

In the case of the audit bureaus, the argument goes that with a declining membership for all audit agencies, there's less need for two or more. In addition, it used to be that ABC served paid consumer magazines and BPA served non-paid b-to-b magazines. But that line has been blurred to the point that the distinction is almost meaningless. Now the key point of differentiation is that ABC has newspapers (good luck with that) and BPA has a significant international portfolio.

Also playing i More...

At the recent Niche Digital event in Minneapolis, keynoter and Network Communications Inc. CEO Dan McCarthy offered a wealth of takeaway quotes. Among them:

■ There are two indisputable realities in the media world these days, and we need to adjust accordingly. First, readers and users of our products are increasingly distracted and have abundant alternative sources of information. And second, advertisers want to spend less money.

■ The world is post-digital. If the IT person or the CIO is driving your Web strategies, you're going for a ride. The truth is that technology just works. We don't care how an iPhone or BlackBerry does what it does, we are not engaged with the technology behind devices, we just assume they wi More...

NEW ORLEANS—The City and Regional Magazine Association’s annual conference concluded here Tuesday. (You can read FOLIO:’s coverage of the show here.)

Some leftover but timely quotes from event:

Author and speaker Orvel Ray Wilson, in a session on guerrilla marketing, quoting David Nour: “In social media, if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Former Hachette Filipacchi CEO Jack Kliger, who spoke in the last session on the second day: “That’s where I always wanted to be—speaking at the last session of a conference More...

BOULDER, Colorado—The IMAG conference—a gathering of some of the best and brightest independent (and independent-minded) magazine publishers—wrapped up earlier this week. Here are some leftover notes, quotes, and erstwhile inspiration from my notebook.

•    In opening remarks, conference chairman Andy Clurman told attendees that the event would be a worry-free zone. “After all,” he said, “you are in Boulder, Colorado, or as we like to say, 25 beautiful square miles surrounded by reality.”

•    Bob Sacks of Precision Media Group gave a great luncheon keynote, but he didn’t necessarily adh More...

At the Independent Magazine Advisory Group’s sixth annual meeting in Boulder, Colorado this week, Bob Sacks, president of Precision Media Group, offered six key properties for what a magazine is.

Tellingly, his were platform-neutral:

1.    It’s metered. It’s paginated. It has a beginning, middle and end.
2.    It’s edited, or curated.
3.    It’s designed.
4.    It’s date-stamped.
5.    It’s permanent. Once created, it can’t be changed.
6.    It’s periodic. It has a calendar or rhythm. It has a series of issues.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The original dek in this story included the phrase &q More...