Folio Blogs

279 Magazines Shuttered in the First Half

Vanessa Voltolina — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:39:19 -0400

The first half numbers are in, and according to MediaFinder.com─an online database of U.S. and Canadian magazines—187 new titles have launched thus far in '09. But unfortunately, the frequency of these launches wasn't enough to counteract the number of titles shuttered.

Of the 279 that folded, main category culprits include regional interest magazines, which took a dive and saw 27 titles fold, like Denver Living and Florida InsideOut. However, regional interest publications were also the top category for new launches at 12. Other categories on the decline include construction, lifestyle and business with 18, 14 and 10 folded titles, respectively.

Since the end of March, 77 magazines have launched and 184 have folded, compared
with 110 launches and 95 closings in the first quarter of 2009.

A bright spot, if there is one, is that after the print editions folded, 43 titles continued to live on the Web.

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Targeting the 'Gamma' Woman

Vanessa Voltolina — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:16:35 -0400

Earlier this week, Meredith launched another 360° product designed to provide marketers and advertisers with multimedia to leverage a "Gamma" female audience.

This "product"—essentially a platform of assets pulled together as an integrated buy for advertisers—spawned from a report that the company produced last year revealing the rise of what they dubbed "Gamma Women"—influential and well-connected women who share info. “The reason behind creating this was that as we were out presenting the report, I repeatedly got questions from marketers and advertisers about leveraging gammas. They wanted a database of Gammas,” said Nancy Weber, Meredith Publishing Group's chief marketing officer.

What was noticeably missing, however, among the company's assets available to marketers—which include DivineCaroline.com and MixingBowl.com, Meredith’s New Media Strategies, partnerships with experiential marketer House Party, and targeted product samplings through SheSpeaks, as well as nationally-syndicated Better TV—was a print component.

This was even more glaring since the company had four of the top five magazines showing ad growth in July, with Fitness topping the bunch. With a Gamma-targeted base package starting at around $200,000, I'd expect print to be in the mix.

When asked about this discrepancy, Weber said: “We were launching Mixing Bowl while we were putting this [product] together. Going forward, it will likely be a key component.”

Mixing Bowl is the new print component of Meredith's food-focused community Web site of the same name. The magazine launched last week and will carry an initial circulation of 260,000. And likely, Meredith won't stop at Mixing Bowl. Said Weber: “Every day there are more components.”
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Quincy Jones Wants Vibe Back

Bill Mickey — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:32:44 -0400

Yesterday, the media lit up with news that Vibe, the R&B and hip hop publication, had abruptly shut its doors.

Meanwhile, over at EbonyJet.com, Adrienne Samuels Gibbs reports that Quincy Jones [pictured], a distinguished jazz and pop music producer, artist, and Vibe founder, wants the magazine back. "I'm trying to buy the magazine back now," he told EbonyJet.com.

And it appears he's not too pleased with the way the Wicks Group, a New York-based private equity firm that bought the magazine in 2006, handled the brand. "They just messed my magazine all up, but I'm going to get it back."

Nor is he happy with the state of print: "I'm' a take it online because print and all that stuff is over."

And while magazines from all markets are feeling the same pain, executives attached to the Vibe brand point out that the magazine's demise is particularly painful for ethnic media. "Unfortunately, you'll probably see other ethnic publications with similar fates in this economic environment," said former Vibe president Kenard Gibbs to Samuels Gibbs.

While we were compiling FOLIO:'s report, Len Burnett, who helped launch the magazine and went on to become CEO of Uptown magazine, told us it's a "black eye" for urban media, and he worries how the famously navel-gazing media world will interpret the shut-down. "It's unfortunate, obviously for the magazine and the employees, but also for the urban media space," he said. "A lot of agencies and clients look at it as a reflection of the overall business. Whether we're competitors or not, we're all fighting to keep the sense of urgency top of mind in the clients who, more often than not, don't recognize the diversity of media or the power of it."

Burnett continued, adding that Vibe was a launching ground for African American publishing execs. "There are a lot of African American media executives that came through the doors of Vibe, they've gone on to do tremendous things. So when you lose a magazine like Vibe, it's tough for African Americans to break into the business when there's not a vehicle that's speaking to them. It leaves a big void in the space."
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Jacko Cover Blitz

Vanessa Voltolina — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:19:14 -0400

In the magazine world, unfortunate celebrity deaths usually mean a newsstand score for publishers (re: Paul Newman). And with the sudden death of Michael Jackson last Thursday, music, entertainment, and newsweekly magazines have been scurrying to publish tribute issues.

While some, like Vibe, have released statements on the King of Pop and his global impact (“Jackson was an absurdly talented, amazingly hardworking, troubled man. Which is to say he was built, literally, to be the biggest pop star this world has ever known,” said a statement from Vibe Media Group COO and editor-in-chief of Vibe and The Most!, Danyel Smith), others, like Time and Newsweek, have managed to get their publications out of the gate for today.

Time’s commemorative Jackson issue is retailing for $5.99 and is published in addition to its weekly issue. The last time the magazine published a special edition in between weekly issues was in the days following 9/11, said a company release; this issue sold more than 3.25 million copies in the U.S.

Newsweek published its July 13, 2009 issue early, available on newsstands now, featuring a cover image of Jackson as a child.
Of course, not all commemorative issues are created equal. Periodical distribution tracker and editor of industry newsletter The New Single Copy, John Harrington, wrote in his June 29 newsletter that it’s “unlikely that single copy sales records” for Jackson’s People commemorative issue will come close to the likes of Barack Obama’s election edition (sold 575,000 newsstand copies, nearly five times a typical issue) and the death of Princess Diana (sold over 1.1 million copies domestically).

However, while individual titles may see Jackson ranking below expectation, the bright spot for publishers is a “major increase in newsstand sales” setting records with total sales for the category, including People, Us Weekly, In Touch, Star, Life & Style and OK!, said Harrington.

Due to a quick turnaround time and compelling cover images, Time and Newsweek could see big returns on their Jackson covers. It remains to be seen how upcoming Bauer publications Life & Style Weekly and In Touch, Entertainment Weekly, The National Inquirer, People, Rolling Stone and OK!—and the plethora of other magazines that publish Jackson commemorative issues—will fair.
Click here to see FOLIO:'s roundup of tribute issues from around the world.
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Marie Claire Taps Twitter for More Than Just Traffic Bump

Jason Fell — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:00:14 -0400

The legion of people—and magazines—using Twitter multiplies daily. For example, Marie Claire’s account has more than 13,000 followers who, in May, drove more than 32,000 additional page views to MarieClaire.com.

But we use Twitter for more than just linking to our stories and other news; it’s a powerful social networking tool. From seeking feedback to answering questions to arranging blind dates, tweeting, for us, has evolved into a fun way to communicate with some of our most engaged readers/followers.

Here are five ways we’re using Twitter:

Looking for Fresh Content
Marie Claire regularly connects with Twitter followers for new, reader-generated content. Recently, Marie Claire followers have submitted their worst date stories, participated in a poll about dating in their cities, and emailed us about their favorite bloggers on Twitter for our Blog Crush feature. We've also used Twitter to mine for career and money experts to answer question for our Career & Money Coach blog.

Live Tweeting
We tweeted during each new episode of Marie Claire's reality show, Running in Heels, and will be doing the same during the new season of Project Runway. We also live-tweeted a blind date in April, in which I went on a blind date with another Twitter user, both tweeting the whole evening for a real-time he said/she said. Our followers had a lot of fun reading along and commenting, and many stuck around through the whole five-hour date.

Answering Reader Questions
Getting on Twitter has allowed us to provide almost immediate answers to reader questions and concerns. We check our replies daily, along with any mentions of the magazine and site by Twitter users that don't necessarily know we're on Twitter yet, and we answer their questions, from queries about specific issues ("who designed the jacket Christina Aguilera wore on your cover last year?") to readers' problems that our content can answer ("so stressed—anyone have stress busting or work/life balance tips?") We also make sure that we follow back and talk to those Tweeters that reply to us and retweet us often so that the conversation isn't one-sided.

Developing Relationships with Other Sites & Bloggers
In addition to developing relationships with our readers and Twitter followers, we also keep up with the tweets of sites and bloggers whose readers overlap with ours (like @TheFrisky, @LemondropTweets, and @YourTango). Replying to and retweeting each other opens up the conversation to a larger group of Tweeters and helps all of us to further establish our presence and value on Twitter.

Offering Discounts, Coupons and Freebies
We love being able to share deals with our followers—we tweet all of our shopping discounts on our Diary of Fashionista blog, update followers on our daily giveaways, and retweet other great deals and sales that we hear about. We also recently tweeted about a one-day subscription sale on all Hearst magazines. It was retweeted 42 times and we got great feedback from our followers—many not only subscribed to Marie Claire, but to a handful of the other magazines as well!
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Did Shaq Find Out He Got Traded via Twitter?

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:33:03 -0400

Shaquille O’Neal, the 7-foot-1, 325-pound, 37-year-old Phoenix Suns center, was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers late yesterday, uniting him with Lebron James, the NBA’s reigning MVP.
O’Neal, one of the most followed celebrities on Twitter (current follower count: 1.4 million), responded via tweets early this morning that he was unaware of the trade, which promptly send Twitterville and those who monitor it into a (sorry) twizzy.
Here’s a recap via TechCrunch:
Look at Shaq’s last few tweets. Several minutes ago he tweeted out “I didn’t hear dat yet” in response to this tweet , “is it true u a CLEVELAND CAVALIER.” A few minutes later someone sent Shaq the following tweet, “U CLEVELAND BOUND…shaq found out he was traded thru twitter! lmao….hahahaaaaaa” Shaq’s response? “I kno right.”
Sure, this makes for a funny anecdote to add to Twitter’s growing lore, but let’s take a Shaq-sized (foot size=23) step back here.
Do you really think the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers did not discuss the finalizing of this trade—rumored for over a week—with O’Neal? After all, Cleveland is giving up two players, a second round draft choice and $500,000 in cash for a year’s worth O’Neal’s services (his contract is up after next season)—not to mention they’re paying his $21,000,000 annual salary. You really think Shaq wasn’t consulted on this deal?
This brings to mind a prescient coverline I saw recently (via PC Mag’s digital edition): Will Celebrities Kill Twitter?
It’s a question worth asking. While Twitter’s surge is no doubt more than in part due to celebrities embracing the social medium, they can also accelerate the rate of Twitter fatigue.
I will say this. Shaq is one of the few Twitter celebrities I follow who consistently responds to his followers, and embraces the quasi-personal connection that makes Twitter cool.
If celebrities do kill Twitter, Shaq won’t be the one holding the smoking gun.
Check Ashton and Oprah for that.
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Black Man’s Head Photoshopped onto City Guide’s Cover

Jason Fell — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:23:34 -0400

We don’t write about city travel guides very often. In this case, though, I couldn’t resist.

The Canadian city of Toronto recently debuted its Spring/Summer 2009 “Fun Guide” featuring a smiling, ethnically diverse family on the cover. The problem? The face of the African-Canadian father was digitally imposed onto the face of the man in the original photo.

[Click here to see the comparison.]

A city of Toronto spokesperson told Canada’s National Post the original photo was doctored to better “depict the diversity of Toronto and its residents.”

I’m all for representing a city’s diversity, but imposing the head of a man of one race onto the shoulders of another man, is unacceptable. Not to mention this cover looks like a gag.

“Is that a joke?” asked one creative director I shared this story with. “That’s just horrible.”

And, the best part: the original photo is a stock image. The family is “not known” to be Toronto residents.
[Editor's note: This post reminds me of an old Onion headline—"Black Guy Photoshopped In"—but, unfortunately for the city of Toronto, this time it's not a joke.]
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Newsweek's Newsweekopedia vs. Times' Topics

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:37:27 -0400

With its recent redesign (which I like), Newsweek.com cloned one of the lesser known but truly incredible parts of the New York Times Web site: an encyclopedia-like organization of its archives—including in most cases, an introductory overview—called “Topics,” that can be found at the easy-to-remember URL, http://topics.nytimes.com. Newsweek calls its clone Newsweekopedia but uses the Times-like URL: http://topics.newsweek.com.

That’s where all similarities end.

Newsweek broke rule #1 of building an encyclopedic resource—or anything that is "-opedia"-ish—they didn’t seed it properly. In fact, they barely seeded it at all. Compare, for example, the letter “H” on http://topics.nytimes.com to the letter “H” on http://topics.newsweek.com. The image above doesn’t do justice to the 1,000-plus entries on the Times site, but since Newsweekopedia has only one entry, I think you get the point.

Newsweek also broke cardinal rule #1 of anything you do on the Web: Don’t claim to be something that is drop-dead simple to disprove—like, say, that you have an “unmatched knowledge resource.”

My geek friends have a word for something like this: FAIL. (But please, keep trying.)
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GQ Censored by Hudson News—Again

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:55:33 -0400

Hudson News is at it again.
The company, which operates more than 500 newsstands in major cities, airports and train stations—including New York’s Grand Central Terminal—is treating GQ’s July issue, which features a nude Sacha Baron Cohen (as his flamboyantly gay Brüno character) on its cover “like pornography,” according to the New York Times’ Media Decoder blog.
The newsstand took the liberty of covering up the bottom half of the July cover with a black “blinder.”
While it might seem somewhat surprising, given the influx of nudity on covers recently (see Samir Husni’s helpful roundup), it really shouldn’t be. Hudson News, a notoriously conservative chain, has done this sort of thing before—and often.
Last December, GQ’s much talked-about January 2009 cover—featuring Jennifer Aniston wearing nothing more than a tie and a smile—was covered up by Hudson News in Grand Central. (The newsstand placed a piece of paper across the issue in its window display, but copies inside remained uncovered.)
In June 2006, Hudson News censored the first of five consecutive issues of FHM, including a cover featuring Brooke Hogan—Hulk Hogan’s then underage daughter—which prompted liquor advertisers to pull out of the magazine.
If the retailer was hoping to draw attention away from magazines baring all on covers (and putting it in the window isn't exactly a sign they want to), censoring them, as one might expect, tends to have the opposite effect. The first FHM cover covered up by Hudson News sold over 400,000 copies on newsstands, well above its 350,000 average. And GQ's Aniston cover sold some 370,000 copies—up 90 percent over its January 2008 cover, making it the single best-selling GQ issue in over 10 years.
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If Obama Won Presidency Without Building Own Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Why Should You?

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:41:40 -0400

A couple years ago, when YouTube and Facebook were leading the buzz-y social media charge (not Twitter), plenty of magazine publishers, envious of their size, traffic and influence, would talk at length during publishing conferences about their plans to create Facebooks and YouTubes for their own verticals. (For some background, see this FOLIO: 40 profile.)

And while some still are, many—particularly those overseeing general interest titles—have given up that dream of building their own platforms from scratch.

I recently spoke with Rex Hammock—Hammock Publishing CEO, noted blogger and something of a serially early adopter of social media tools—for an upcoming FOLIO: case study on custom publishing, and the subject came up once again.

Hammock helped create a “pre-conference” community for the Society of National Association Publications (“SNAP”—now called Association Media & Publishing).

I asked him if there were any risks for an association publisher trying to pull off a social media initiative. His response was worth posting in its entirety:
As with doing anything, from holding a meeting to publishing a magazine, there are risks with a company or an association initiating a social media initiative. And I don't mean the kind of risks most marketers, publishers and editors fear regarding people saying negative things or acting in an inappropriate ways. Those are easily managed risks. The more serious risks are getting lost in the objectives of what you're trying to accomplish by focusing too much in the early stages on the technology or tactics of social media and not focusing on the strategy and business-specific goals you want from the initiative. I apologize to my friends in IT, but the easiest way to doom anything related to social media is to start off talking about technology and features and platforms. I tell clients, "If Obama won the presidency using Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, then why do you need to build a platform from scratch?" If an IT person is in the room, they always have a reason that has something to do with integration into a legacy CRM or something. If you start out with "integration with your legacy CRM" as a social media goal, there's a high degree of risk that you'll fail. And there's a 100 percent chance you'll not have anything to show for six months to a year.
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Four Simple Steps for Online Publishers (and Magazines) to Increase Revenue

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:55:11 -0400

ROI is the number one concern on advertisers’ minds. Ad dollars reveal precisely that priority. According to the IAB, performance-based media accounted for 57 percent of Internet advertising revenues in 2008 and is expected to increase significantly this year.

Not surprisingly, demand for greater ROI has resulted in a fall of eCPMs. Pubmatic’s AdPrice Index Quarterly Report shows that eCPMs experienced a 27 percent drop in third quarter of 2008 (from Q1). Performance pricing models offer publishers an easy way to alleviate the strain of price erosion and maximize their online advertising revenue by tapping into the enormous advertiser demand for increased efficiency and transparency.

With the following four steps, online publishers can leverage current market opportunities and seamlessly incorporate performance marketing alongside existing CPM/CPC advertising.

1.    Monetize inventory within the existing site framework.

Redesigning a site to incorporate a new advertising pricing model is unnecessary, not to mention costly and time consuming. Publishers can easily integrate performance advertising into an existing site in two ways:

a)    Monetize the registration path.

Through co-registration advertising, user data is collected during a site’s registration process and, with the user’s consent, passed on to an advertiser. The user signs up for the advertiser’s offer simply by ticking a checkbox. Due to its immediacy and contextual relevance, co-registration campaigns deliver high response rates and are in high demand. It’s a win-win-win situation for advertisers, publishers and consumers. Advertisers benefit from high conversion rates; publishers benefit from advertiser demand for quality leads, increased eCPMs and additional ad revenue; consumers benefit from a more relevant online experience.

b)    Implement performance display banners in standard IAB sizes.
By rotating performance banners alongside CPM inventory, publishers have new ways to monetize existing inventory. According to IDC, lead generation is one of the fastest growing segments in online advertising with 71 percent year-to-year growth. Because CPL banners are available in standard IAB sizes, you can take advantage of this additional revenue and incorporate CPL banners into your existing inventory seamlessly. (No matter which way you choose to integrate performance advertising into your site, make sure you command a fair price by leveraging the strength and specificity of your site’s demographics, and strategically offering premium and custom fields for capturing lead information.)

2.    Avoid the exclusivity trap.
Sometimes, networks and vendors offer to implement performance-based advertising on a publisher’s Web site in exchange for exclusive representation of that site. These exclusive relationships should be avoided. By relying on only one partner, publishers limit the number of advertisers they can work with (a critical mistake in this economy) and lose control over the quality and relevancy of their content. Content attracts audiences; audiences attract advertisers. Allowing exclusive access has the potential to undermine the quality of a site’s content which, in turn, can cause a decrease in perceived value by advertisers. Instead, look for openness and transparency when evaluating partnerships.

3.    Automate campaign management.

To boost revenue and lower costs, operational efficiency is critical. Save technical resources for billable and highly specialized work. Media operations teams should be able to handle implementation, delivery, and optimization on all types of campaigns, regardless of pricing model.
4.    Connect with new advertisers.

The final step is to connect with new advertisers. Demand for performance media is well established. However, finding advertisers should be a concerted push/pull effort:

•    Push: Have your sales team sell performance advertising to new and existing clients along with CPM and CPC advertisements.
•    Pull: Get listed on open and transparent directories so that advertisers who are looking for performance media opportunities can find you easily.

As pressure to provide stronger ROI increases, publishers are challenged to go beyond traditional CPM/CPC pricing structures. By following these four steps, publishers can easily incorporate performance advertising into their existing sites and start to see increased revenue and better user experiences.
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Doubles, Anyone? Men’s Fitness Uses Nadal Photo from New York Cover Shoot for its Own

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:26:25 -0400

When my June/July issue of Men’s Fitness landed in my mailbox, tennis star Rafael Nadal’s shirtless torso looked familiar—and it wasn't because I was looking at my own torso in the mirror, that’s for damn sure. Had it not been for the green Nike polo shirt around his neck, I would’ve never remembered that a similar photo was used on the cover of the 2008 fall fashion issue of New York magazine.

The photos, taken by Nigel Parry, are fantastic, and work remarkably well for both magazines. The New York cover shows Nadal at his pouty and petulant best, giving the camera—and thus, the reader—a wicked come hither look that likely sent the magazine flying off the racks across the country (especially in Chelsea and West Hollywood).

The Men’s Fitness cover photo—from the same shoot but used inside the New York issue in black and white—is also strikingly appropriate. Here, Nadal has the same intense gaze, but unlike the New York cover, this photo highlights the tennis pro’s physique, especially his six pack. No doubt this is a totally appropriate photo for the article it was touting—MF’s 25 Fittest Guys in the World. (Not surprisingly, Nadal was no. 1.)

Still, it’s a little odd to see a big national magazine like Men’s Fitness reuse an image for a cover.

When I asked Men’s Fitness editor-in-chief Roy S. Johnson about this choice, this was his response: “When we selected Rafael Nadal as our Fittest Guy in the World, he was excited about the honor but unable to offer time for a photo shoot,” Johnson explained to me in an email. “He told us of the shoot he did for New York magazine and directed us to the photographer. We liked the shoot (and we researched others) because it was the only one we found in which he was shirtless, which is occasionally how we show our cover subjects. Of course we were aware that the shoot had been originally done for New York, so we made sure not to select the exact same shot they used. Finally, as widely read as New York magazine is, our guess is that few of our readers had seen it.”

Johnson added that he had not received a single e-mail mentioning the Men’s Fitness cover’s similarity to the New York cover … other than mine. Leave it to a magazine editor to be a thorn in the side of another magazine editor!

Introducing the … Bloomberg Markets Cover Curse?

Of course, Nadal—the world’s no. 1-ranked tennis player—would figure to be a popular cover choice for those magazines that cover tennis, fitness and/or the four cities in which the Grand Slams take place (hence, New York’s pre-U.S. Open cover last year). Based on a quick scan of the local newsstand, Nadal appears on at least four covers, including Men’s Fitness, Men's Journal and this weekend’s ill-timed New York Times Magazine.

But, given Nadal’s recent collapse at the French Open (he lost in the fourth round to a relative unknown, ending his streak of consecutive French Open wins at four) and his withdrawal from Wimbledon on Friday (sorry, New York Times Magazine!) it would seem that Bloomberg Markets' odd decision to put the Majorcan matador on its June cover backfired just a bit.
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Reader's Digest Memo: Actually, We're Not Shifting in Conservative Direction

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:43:35 -0400

Earlier today, the New York Times published a story about the Reader's Digest Association, suggesting the publishers of its flagship magazine were "pushing it in a decidedly conservative direction."

Our story, also posted today, focused on the business decision by RDA to slash its rate base by 2.5 million copies and reduce its monthly frequency by two issues. We spoke with RDA Community president Eva Dillon, who told us "there is no big shift that we’ve done or plan to do editorially."

Executives at RDA insist that the Times' writer, Stephanie Clifford, got it wrong, so much so that Dillon sent an employee-wide e-mail today shooting down the Times' assertions.

Here's the memo, via ex-Portfolio writer Jeff Bercovici's Daily Finance blog:

June 19,2009
TO: RDA EMPLOYEES
From: Eva Dillon,
President, Reader's Digest Community

In today's New York Times there is an article about Reader's Digest. The article in part suggests that the brand has decided to shift direction editorially. I want to assure you that that is not what is or has been planned, and that the strategy to embrace our core values can be misinterpreted.

To clarify, neither the magazine nor the company is going in any direction other than what we are doing now. Reader's Digest has always been about the values of home, family, community, optimism and country, and certainly our values today are more than ever in step with America, especially during these recessionary times as people focus on the "back to basics" of family and home. What we did with the relaunch and redesign of the magazine and websites was to go back to the roots that made this company great by embracing and catering to our specific and unique audience -- and do that very well, which resulted in an ASME Award for General Excellence, the first ASME in 20 years.

In a challenging time for our industry, we are excited about the plan we've developed (outlined in my earlier memo yesterday afternoon) to take a leadership role and transform our business model to respond to changed consumer media habits by leveraging our unique global assets and addressing this new generation of media.

Please let me, or any other Executive Committee member, know if you have any questions.

Eva Dillon
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The Future of Media, One Panel Discussion at a Time

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:57:46 -0400

A recent series of panels attempted to answer the question plaguing newspaper, magazine and book publishers: How do we engage readers online, and create sustainable revenue models from this digital relationship? While the panelists had many examples of the first part of that equation—engaging an online audience—there were scant details on how to monetize these Web strategies.

In the past few weeks, I attended three: Future of Celebrity Media, featuring panelists Martha Stewart, Bonnie Fuller, Mark Golinand others; Jumping Off a Cliff: How Publishers Can Succeed Online featuring Chris Anderson; and the Future of Media, featuring Craig Newmark, Nick Denton and Jack Dorsey, among others.

Between them, the traditional media of magazines, books and newspapers were well covered, as was the world of online media.

Everyone talks about capturing attention online, of engaging with the audience, of leveraging online tools to reshape what media is—but let’s face it—the one element of engagement with the audience that is severely lacking is this one:

How to extract revenue from the relationship between media and its audience.

What the sessions did was give a fascinating perspective on how the power is shifting from media brands to communication channels. That the Wall Street Journal would be lost online, without Google; that journalists would be out of the conversation, without Twitter; that People magazine is competing with newer upstarts that have a fraction of People’s overhead.
I left these sessions with the following conclusion:

This is the most exciting time to be in media and publishing that I can imagine.

There were plenty of high-minded quotes like this one:

"Trust is the key factor for the survival of news media and journalism.” —Craig Newmark, Future of Media panel

Which is nice conversation, but offers no answers. An inherent problem with trust is that the moment you monetize it, that trust is in jeopardy.

The panelists shared honest perspectives that indicated just how much their world is changing, and how difficult simple answers are. As newspapers try to find massive audiences online, journalists are left in interesting conundrums:

"Newspapers mistake their most popular content with their most important content." —WSJ's Allan Murray, Future of Media panel

“There is a community trying to reach out to them, so how does CNN work to connect to the community? It's not just about content, it’s about community.” —CNN's Dave Levin, Future of Celebrity Media panel

“The magazine is a catered affair—the menu has been selected for you. The Web is a buffet—you can feed any size appetite that you have.” -People.com's Mark Golin, Future of Celebrity Media panel

Amidst a revolutionary increase in the amount of content being created and shared from anyone with a Web connection, opportunities still remain:

"The value of producing something original has gone up dramatically." —Gawker Media's Nick Denton, Future of Media panel

“My Twitter followers are not my core audience. This is a tool to become friends with a new audience." —Martha Stewart, Future of Celebrity Media panel

“Media companies need to realize the Web is not a place to broadcast, it is a place to listen.” —David Carr, Future of Celebrity Media panel
All-in-all, these are some of the concepts I walked away with:
• Broadcast media is dead. Media is not longer a one way relationship, with content creators reaching out to fans. As traditional media companies evolve, as journalists rethink their roles, and as new ventures take hold—a common thread will be a close relationship with those they serve.

• Print revenue is supporting online strategies. One comment at the Future of Celebrity Media panel was that the kids of those in attendance think it’s laughable to read a newspaper. This started an interesting back-and-forth until someone mentioned how pathetic we were sitting here talking about our kids.

In either case, there was confidence when talking about audience engagement, and moments of silence when talking about sizable online revenue. For many of the panelists, print revenue was keeping their online products afloat, giving a false sense of confidence as to whether digital strategies can really support their business in the future.

• Media companies need to rethink their roles and make hard choices. Many traditional media companies seemed to be riding out the digital revolution, waiting for things to get “back to normal.” Now it is apparent that won’t happen, and they are only now realizing that their audience no longer needs them as they once did. Power has diluted. The risk is not slow growth—the risk is becoming irrelevant.

• There is a huge opportunity for journalists. The opportunity might not have as much financial value as it once did—but in terms of pure reporting—of serving the public and reaching niche audiences—the tools and reach are now available to all.

This reminds me of the current state of education: college courses are now available for free online from the likes of MIT, Harvard or Stanford; the knowledge is free, but the diploma costs $200,000.

•The advertising model is not dead, but it is fragmented. With so many ways to reach an audience, advertisers are understandably unimpressed by some ad strategies, such as run of site banner ads. The examples of what is working—from the likes of Gawker—is custom ad campaigns with a bold mixture of content and sponsor message.

One thing is certain: The the Web is being taken very seriously by upstarts and traditional media power-players alike. There is little doubt that the future of media lies in the digital realm—the real question is—which businesses will find audience and business growth—and which will continue to find diminishing returns on their efforts.
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'Live-Tweeting' Iran Drives Million Page Views a Day for Atlantic.com

Matt Kinsman — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:33:48 -0400

While the Iranian government has barred established media organizations from the country, it's having less success with onsite, organic reporting being transmitted online (despite attempts to slow connection speeds and government-sanctioned hackers trashing Web sites and threatening posters).
Many media outlets are turning to Twitter for coverage, including the Atlantic, which has averaged more than one million page views each day this week thanks in large part to its continuous "Live-Tweeting the Revolution" on Atlantic.com writer Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish blog.
On Monday, the site hit 1.2 million page views, its largest since the November 2008 presidential election, according to an Atlantic spokesperson.

To compile the tweets, one of Sullivan's assistants is using an RSS reader to search through more than 1,000 blogs for Iran coverage. Another assistant reads through all of the various tweets coming out of Iran and compiles them in the "Live-Tweeting The Revolution" post. Meanwhile, Sullivan looks through his Daily Dish inbox, which gets between 400 and 500 messages a day. Those readers tip him off to breaking news and interesting commentary. Farsi-speaking readers are translating or summarizing stories and sending them to Sullivan, who links to them and asks readers to translate.

Some sample Tweets:
"My mother just spoke to relatives in Shahrak-e-Gharb, who live in apartments (luckily). Hundreds of homes, the street ruined."

"According to hospital doctors in Iran the attacks on civilians are from the chest up. they are taking and burrying the bodies b4 family sees"

"New Worst Offender @Persian_Guy sending false RTs from reputable users and misinformation. Ignore."
The tweets can be maddeningly cryptic (a Twitter neophyte, I'm embarrassed to say I automatically clicked on the first few posts that caught my eye, thinking it would take me to more in-depth coverage), they often get repetitive and there's obviously no way to check the veracity of the post or who it's coming from (the tweets out of Iran seem to be drawing a growing number of government plants). However, it offers a visceral, first person account to one of the biggest stories of the year.

It also puts the Atlantic, one of the longest-running stewards of long-form print journalism, among the media outlets at the forefront, covering this story in real time.

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