FOLIO: Personalities -- The Blog People Page

As we all wait for the economy to turn, and as we see signs that that’s happening, virtually all of what used to be called the magazine industry is wondering about what, exactly, is emerging in the place of a healthy magazine industry.

There’s a crisis of identity in this business right now more than I’ve even seen. If you look around at the leading companies, and the industry associations, there’s an unprecedented level of flux and confusion. The big consumer-magazine companies have been playing musical CEOs for months.

Yes, they’re motivated by the economic down More...

After reading the story of how Advantage Business Media got scammed by a telemarketing firm on its qualification efforts, here are some observations:

• BPA was right two years ago to require that calls be recorded. It stands to reason that these violations would never have been discovered had the calls not been a required part of the audit record.

• BPA proved its value here, for sure. The audit bureau, faced with a perceived decline in importance as print magazines become less important in the media-company revenue mix More...

M&A activity is one of the most direct signs of the health of any industry, including media. Why? Because unless it’s a distress situation, if someone’s selling it means they’ve done well. And if someone’s buying, it means they’re bullish about the future.

So all of a sudden, there are some interesting deals occurring in b-to-b media that tell us something about its current state and its future outlook. This month alone produced two of the biggest non-distressed transactions in a long time. First, Access Intelligence sold off several pieces, including Chemical Week, SRI Consulting, the market info and price-discover More...

I found this summary by Quad/Graphics of the state of the printing industry to be both sobering and possessing of a businesslike optimism. It comes as part of an SEC filing made on March 5 in connection with Quad's attempt to go public and possible acquisition of World Color later this year.

Print Industry Trends

Demand for printed products has generally correlated with real gross domestic product growth, as economic activity and advertising spending are key drivers of demand for print More...

Last week, I attended the Fulfillment Management Association’s annual President’s Panel, which features the leaders of the major fulfillment houses talking about the business. It’s always a great and informative session.

I was particularly struck by comments from Ray Butkus, CEO of ARGI. Media companies are in crisis, Butkus acknowledges, and because of that, their supplier partners are as well. But the crisis, he said, has nothing to do with readership and circulation. Online or off, the readership is there. “The crisis has to do with the ability to make money off [readership and circulati More...

EARLIER: The Value of Online Content: Practically Nothing

I used to scoff at what newspapers paid freelance writers for stories. Then I heard about Demand Media.

In the magazine industry, somewhere around $1 per word has been the going rate for most magazines for at least 20 years. Write a 1,500-word story, get paid $1,500. Large consumer magazines pay significantly better, going as high as $4 per word for the large magazines. There’s been no increase in fees in 20 years, but you can make a living.

Newspapers tra More...

Trade magazines can be a barometer of the health of an industry. Journalistically, they cover the health, troubles and trends in an industry. As businesses, they sell advertising to an industry’s suppliers. In a complex symbiotic relationship, trade magazines rely on suppliers to an industry for their own health, while suppliers rely on the business health of the readers of a trade magazine.

When all is in harmony, it’s a virtuous circle. Businesses thrive as the industry’s trade press provides rich information that fuels still more success. This creates demand and interest among still more suppliers, who grow as they find n More...

The corporate culture at Cygnus Business Media is toxic. So, perhaps, is Advanstar’s. And Nielsen Business Media’s. The Prism part of Penton Media used to be.

These places and many others have become nasty cauldrons of resentment. It gets expressed every time FOLIO: writes a story about them—expressed in the hundreds of comments from past and present employees.

I’m not blaming the employees. The reasons for their unhappiness are obvious. These companies have been through too many cycles of change in ownership, changes in management, downsizings, layoffs, salary cuts, loss of talent, loss of spirit, loss of camara More...

My friend Ted Bahr, CEO of BZ Media, blogged on this page recently that he’s retained his belief in the power of print media in b-to-b communications. Not only does he believe in its continuing power (a lot of us believe in that), he fights to assert its primacy.

“More and more marketers start conversations by letting you know that they’re not doing print as a matter of fact,” Ted wrote. “Many of my competitors and fellow high-tech publishers have given up, letting the river flow, and you can see the results in the steadily eroding group of high-tech titles still in print. I can’t More...

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...