Folio Blogs

An Interview with the Dudes Behind MagCloud

Dylan Stableford — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:04:43 -0400

MagCloud, a print-on-demand service that one of its founders, Derek Powazek, is calling the nothing less than the “future of magazine publishing,” launched in beta recently. I e-mailed Powazek and Andrew Bolwell, the director of corporate ventures for HP Labs, the project’s developer, for a profile on MagCloud ("The Future of Magazine Publishing? It’s Here—Sort Of").

Here’s a lightly edited version of the exchange:

FOLIO:: Is this really the future of magazine publishing?

POWAZEK: If you look at the history of media and technology, gate-kept media almost always falls when an empowering technology comes along. As A.J. Leibling famously said, "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." MagCloud wants to be the people's printing press.

BOLWELL: Not sure if it’s the future, but it’s definitely a future of publishing, where online and print publishing coexist and complement. We believe that publishing is going through a fundamental socio and technologic shift—publishing is being democratized, print is becoming personal, users are demanding choice in what content they consume and how they consume it, and fulfillment is on demand. Digital printing is an enabler for this, and we see MagCloud as an example of a Web service that enables these new publishing models.

FOLIO:: It’s clear that this service could be a benefit for small, indie, niche and/or ‘zine publishers. How can a service like MagCloud be relevant to larger publishers?

POWAZEK: I can think of three ways, right off the top of my head. First, it solves the back-issue problem. With MagCloud, your issues never go out of print, because they're made to order. Second, large publishers all have one thing in common: a ton of content. MagCloud could allow them to remix that content in new and exciting ways—or even enable their readers to do it themselves—and create a custom printed edition. Third, once you remove the barrier that expensive print runs creates, it lowers the threshold for success. Anyone, even a big-time publisher, could create riskier products and see if they find an audience, because creating the magazine itself is free.

And those are just my ideas. I'm quite sure that the best ideas will come out of the MagCloud community. People are already using it to make surprising, wonderful new magazines.

BOLWELL: Large publishers are as challenged as anyone to reach niche segments efficiently, and likewise have no way to do the kind of hyper-targeted publishing that digital print can provide. We hope MagCloud can help in these ways, not just to enable niche publishing to flourish, but to enable traditional publishers to experiment with and find these new opportunities.

FOLIO:: How many magazines are currently for sale on MagCloud?

BOLWELL: There’s about a dozen published at the moment, growing as some of the early private beta publishers get their mags up there.

FOLIO:: What’s the goal? Number of magazines sold? Number of subscriptions sold?

BOLWELL: Our focus at the moment is to seed a new market and ecosystem, so our most immediate goal is to create compelling value for our customers rather than to meet any specific volume targets.

FOLIO:: When will this come out of “beta”?

BOLWELL: MagCloud is in early beta stage and we plan to continue to add features as we learn more about what our users want. At this point we don’t know when we’ll be out of beta, but we hope to be out of beta before gmail :)

FOLIO:: Will the production prices increase then?

BOLWELL: No, that’s not our plan. We plan to continue to focus on making magazine publishing as easy and cost-effective as possible, for anyone with a desire to express themselves in print.

FOLIO:: What are the trim sizes available? Maximum? Minimum? Or is it one set size?

BOLWELL: Currently we support 8.25” x 10.75”. This constraint is key to developing critical mass, as it gives a common target for finishing, design, shipping, etc. However, as we move forward we are very open to expanding finishing options like trim size as we learn more about what our users want.

FOLIO:: What would be the ideal outcome for you for this project?

POWAZEK: I love the Web for the freedom it gives, and I love print for its longevity and beauty. For years, I've been looking for a fertile middle-ground between the two. I think MagCloud could be it. So my ideal outcome would be a new flowering of creative magazine culture, online and off, including new breakout hits that would never have happened without it.

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Cygnus Sale Looming?

Jason Fell — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:47:25 -0400

Rumors have been swirling about the potential sale of Cygnus Business Media since co-CEOs Tony O’Brien and Carr Davis [pictured], in an interview with FOLIO: last month, indicated that the company is exploring a sale.
According to three sources contacted by FOLIO:, the Cygnus corporate management team was in New York for about a week recently, most likely meeting with prospective buyers. Now, sources say a buyer has stepped up and that (as early as today) Cygnus is moving toward the due diligence phase of negotiations.
Is the buyer from private equity or another publisher? So far, I haven’t been able to substantiate the rumors.
A Cygnus spokesperson declined to comment other than to point out that Davis already has said that the company has been approached with inquiries and is exploring “a process.” Cygnus went on the block in 2006 but subsequently pulled off the market that year.
It will be interesting to see how this turns out—and what sort of return owner ABRY Partners will see.
Check back to foliomag.com for more on this developing story.
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The Jackass Journo at the Junket

Dylan Stableford — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:14:39 -0400

As a human, I try to adhere to that old golden rule, “do unto others.” It’s served me pretty well so far but apparently there are some of our journalistic brethren who don’t hold to that tenet. I was on a culinary press junket to one of the major Deep South cities recently and it was truly a magnificent time: great food, great experiences, excellent lodging—plus, I got the rare chance to hobnob with other journalists from around the country and, in this case, the world.

As these outings generally go, everything was handled for us: it didn’t cost the journalists anything and it certainly didn’t cost our publications anything. Our accommodations weren’t at some hotel out by the airport—we were put up in THE top luxury hotel in this particular destination.

But as I mingled with my cohorts, I started hearing some very disturbing stories from the trip. Specifically, some of the other members of the press were getting pretty prickly with our hosts and sponsors as well as with other journalists.

One journo decided that the hotel’s food and beverage manager was also a part-time cobbler. When her sandal strap snapped, she decided it was up to this hapless yet helpful fellow to get it fixed. Which he did.

Then there was an author who complained—rather loudly, I might add—that the light switch in her hotel suite was too far away from her bed. I suggested she use the broom she rode in on to shorten the gap, a suggestion the other writers appreciated. This same writer arrived at all the events late and rushed through meals to get to other appointments thus making our various hosts have to work doubletime to accommodate her needs specifically while still entertaining the larger group.

Since I felt fortunate to be included with these prestigious writers, I was somewhat dumbfounded by their actions. But I’ve come to learn that this is not an unusual occurrence; my fellow junket junkies had their own tales of woe about traveling with other writers. (Many, as you would probably guess, involve way too many comped drinks, unseemly bartenders and exploits not appropriate for family-friendly business blog!)

Granted, we work in an industry where we often have to “invent” our own fringe benefits. Early in my career I took advantage of business trips to Toronto, San Francisco, San Antonio and more by visiting friends or relatives. However, acting as if you’re owed something just because you chose to show up is beyond the pale.

Thankfully, not everyone on my trip behaved badly. But if you’re a lousy guest—no matter who you write for—don’t be surprised when you’re not invited back.

On a final note, I should let my fellow magazine pros know that the writer who behaved the worst was a newspaper journalist! Go figure!

If anybody else has had nightmare experiences with fellow members of the press while traveling on various junkets, drop them in the comments section below.

I’m sure readers of this blog would love to hear about them ... I know I would!
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Ex-Wired Editor: 'Whoever Has the Smartest Customers Wins'

Joanna Pettas — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:43:42 -0400

Kevin Kelly, editor of Wired magazine in its early and truly great years, wrote a book with a chapter I highly recommend to everyone in media. It's called, "Relationship Tech, Start With Technology End With Trust."
Kelly, being a "content should be free" Internet kind of guy, has posted the entire contents of this book for free on the Web. I recommend reading it. So many of the issues we face in media are touched by his vision.
The next time you have a dialogue with a client, consider this from Kelly's book:
"Expertise now resides in fanatical customers. The world’s best experts on your product or service don’t work for your company. They are your customers, or a hobby tribe."
"Companies need user groups almost as much as users need them. User groups are better than advertising when customers are happy and worse than cancer when they are not. Used properly, aficionados can make or break products."
Good products and services are cocreated: The desires of customers grow out of what is possible, and what is possible is made real by companies following new customer desires. Because creation in a network is a cocreation, a prosumptive act, a multifaceted relationship must exist between the cocreators.
"Whoever has the smartest customers wins."
Read all of Chapter 9 here ...
Read the entire book, free, here ...
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Another Threat for B-to-B Publishers: Newspaper Beat Reporters

Joanna Pettas — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:57:13 -0400

I've been writing for a long time about the new competitors that traditional b-to-b publishers are finding on the Web.

Whether we're talking about Web-only publishers, editors who strike out on their own, sources who become publishers, or marketers who become journalists, the days in which the only competition that a typical, monthly b-to-b magazine faced was another monthly magazine are long gone.

And now we can add one more to the list of Web-based competitors—newspaper beat reporters.

Take a look at Pharmalot, a Newark Star-Ledger reporter's blog about the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Or even better, take a look at this article about Pharmalot on the Beat Blogging site, where you'll find that Pharmalot is successful "when measured by any metric—Web traffic, content and financially," according to the blogger's boss.

The reporter behind Pharmalot is Ed Silverman, who has covered pharmaceuticals for 12 years for the local newspaper (northern New Jersey is filled with pharmaceutical firms). The basic concept behind Pharmalot is that in the course of working his beat, Ed was already accumulating enough news to compete with any national publication in the space. So by moving to a blog platform, he was able to expand both his coverage and reach nationally.

Now Pharmalot isn't a business threat to existing b-to-b publishers. At least not yet. A quick look through the site indicates that the ad staff at the newspaper hasn't learned to sell high-cost ads targeting readers from the pharmaceutical industry. Rather the ads are the same low-cost run-of-site nonsense that you'll find anywhere else on a newspaper site. But it probably won't be long before someone there finds out that targeted b-to-b ads are worth more than branding buttons from Ford and WaMu.

More importantly, it won't be long before other newspapers realize there's potential (and some easy money) in duplicating the Pharmalot model. There are thousands of business reporters covering hundreds of beats at newspapers across the country. And odds are there's at least one who would pose a competitive threat to any b-to-b publication you could name.

So if you're an editor or executive at a traditional, print-based publishing company, it's time to ask yourself three questions:
1. Who are the best newspaper reporters covering the beat that my magazine/Web site covers? (If you have the budget, it may be time to hire away anyone who poses a serious threat.)

2. Are any of those newspaper reporters capable of launching a Web-based, national version of what they already do locally? (Ignore the print-based legacy reporters. But keep your eye on anyone who appears Web-savvy.)

3. How is it possible for a daily newspaper reporter to create an all-new product based on what he learns from working his beat when the staff at my monthly magazine says they're too busy to write daily stories for the Web? (It's probably well past the time to dump some staffers and move to a Web-first workflow.)
For more b-to-b publishing insights, check out Paul Conley's blog here ...
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The Fine Line Between Clever and Stupid

Joanna Pettas — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:43:30 -0400

I bought this magazine a few months ago at the Barnes & Noble in Clarendon, Virginia, intending to write about the Australian business quarterly. Oh, I might have made one of my typical snotty comments—something along the lines of how fast can Fast be if it only publishes four times annually—but I thought the design was pretty strong. Then I noticed that this actual issue dates from nearly a year before I bought it, making it a bit musty to write about. I hadn’t credited the persistent rumors that Australia dumps its out-of-date publications on the U.S. market. Now I have no doubt.
The cover is still worth a post, though because it falls into a small but venerable tradition in publishing—the Trompe-l'oeili cover. This cover is meant to look as if it’s being ripped from a plain brown wrapper—the inside reveals nothing nearly racy enough to justify one, but the image is simple and effective.
Do Trompe-l’oeili covers actually fool anyone—or are they just examples of designers walking the fine line between clever and stupid? I think my own humble addition to the genera from a jillion years ago was effective because the free weekly newspaper I worked for often looked as beat up as my phony (at least the top-most copies) by the time it was delivered. (OK, at least I saw one woman at Olsson’s flipping through them trying to find a good one.) But, tricky or not, these 2D covers often offer a graphic impact that distinguishes them from neighboring publications on the rack. I’ll post any other examples in a later post that anyone cares to send in.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Buy Jandos' new book!]
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New York Editor on Founder's Passing: 'American Journalism Wouldn't Be What It is Today'

Dylan Stableford — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:01:35 -0400

SEE RELATED: Magazine Pioneer Dies
Clay Felker, the founding editor of New York magazine, died today at his home in New York City. He was 82. New York's editor-in-chief Adam Moss sent over this statement:
American journalism would not be what it is today without Clay Felker, and neither would New York City. Those of us lucky enough to work in the house that he built are reminded everyday of the depth of his genius. He created a kind of magazine that had never been seen before, told a kind of story that had never been told. Nobody I have ever met in this business was as passionate a champion of talent, as relentlessly curious, or as successful in getting the world inside his head onto the magazine page. He changed the way we look at this city, and, in that sense, the way we live in it. All of us who practice journalism today carry Clay’s legacy into everything we do, and we will never do it even half as well.
New York contributing editor Kurt Andersen’s appreciation of Felker and his legacy is online here.

CNN, IHT, the New York Times and the AP have also posted obituaries.
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So, You've Been 'Optimized' Off the Schedule

Joanna Pettas — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:35:10 -0400

Has this happened to you?
A digital ad agency representing a Fortune 500 corporation sends you an RFP for a two week online campaign. You respond professionally and promptly. Like a shock, word comes back, they are in! The news travels through your organization like wild fire, "We just broke into a Fortune 500 Corporation's digital ad budget!" As dozens of congratulatory e-mails surge through your company the future looks bright. The media runs. The media stops running. There is no follow up RFP. You can't get the media buyer on the phone and she does not respond to your emails. When you finally hear back, the response is one sentence apologizing for the delay in getting back and a mention that your media will not be considered for the future of the campaign. Ouch! What happened?

Here is how someone at the digital agency described the same process:

"We had a three month campaign to buy media for. In the first two weeks we ran three different versions of the creative in several size configurations. We ran ads in a wide range of websites to test the response.

We ran the two week test, then optimized the buy.

Of the three creative treatments, the one offering a free download performed best. Of the three ad sizes the leader board size performed best. We tried 30 different websites and found that eleven performed best so we continued with them and dropped the rest."

Don’t be discouraged by this process. On the surface it may look like media evaluation is out of your control. Not true. While results rule the day, PEOPLE still evaluate the results. Your job is to help your buyer understand why a response from your unique visitor is more valuable, or at least different, from any other. When your respond to an online RFP make sure the buyer understands what kind of response they can expect from your media AND why that response is important for the campaign. Do this at the time of the sale, not later. Selling media is still selling. To be successful, you need to sell the unique value of your visitor and his or her response BEFORE it runs.
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Harper's Bazaar Loves Advertisers So Much, It Devotes 40 Editorial Pages to Them

Dylan Stableford — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:03:33 -0400

The July issue of Harper’s Bazaar, a magazine, like many fashion titles, straddles the increasingly blurry border between appeasing advertisers and upholding editorial ethics, devotes 40 editorial pages to four women: Gwyneth Paltrow, Elizabeth Hurley, Carolyn Murphy and Hilary Rhoda. They are also the collective faces of Sensuous, a new Estée Lauder fragrance.
“Like many magazines, we often feature celebrities to coincide with their beauty and fashion launches,” Alexandra Carlin, the director of public relations for Hearst Magazines, said in a statement sent to the New York Times. (A recent issue of Nylon, the paper points out, features Chloë Sevigny and two models—the faces in a campaign for Chloé perfume—on its cover. An ad for the fragrance ran on the back cover of the same issue.)
More troubling, though, is the signal something like this sends to other advertisers:
Kim-Van Dang, a former beauty director at In Style and Good Housekeeping magazines, predicted that other companies will brandish Bazaar, demanding similar editorial attention.
“Advertisers have something to show now and say, ‘Why am I not getting this treatment?’ ” Ms. Dang said. She recently started a marketing firm, KVD NYC, and has consulted for Lauder. “In the current economy, I think advertisers have more muscle.”
Then again, we’ve seen this kind of thing from Harper’s Bazaar before.
In December, Harper’s Bazaar partnered with Swarovski to embed a special edition of its December issue cover with Swarovski crystal elements. Some 258 amber-colored elements were hand-affixed to 5,000 copies by Swarovski to the word “Fabulous” in the main cover line.
And it’s not just fashion advertisers who are putting pressure on publishers to bling, err, bend the rules. At a magazine conference in April, Steve Sturm, group VP of strategic research and planning at Toyota Motor North America, said magazines need to realize that their readers don’t care as much about editorial ethics and the concept of a church-state line as publishers—if at all. “[The line] has been self-governed and self-policed—you’ve put the handcuffs on yourselves,” Sturm said. “The federal government, the state government, they haven’t told you to do it. You put up all these roadblocks” that other media don’t have. A younger generation of potential readers, he said, “don’t play by the same rules you play by.”
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Latin Finance Magazine Rides Controversy to Coup

Joanna Pettas — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:59:42 -0400

Last week, FOLIO: pointed out that Blood-Horse, a niche horseracing magazine, forfeited a major traffic-generating opportunity by waiting too long to post its exclusive photo of Big Brown’s loose shoe.
Earlier in the week, at the Circulation Management Conference and Expo, LatinFinance magazine’s marketing manager Kathy Andrew told a story that’s worth holding up as a counter example.
During the magazine’s Fifth Finance Summit in Argentina this month, a keynote speaker—president of the country’s Central Bank—delivered controversial remarks on the state of political affairs in the country. Within an hour, the LatinFinance marketing team had excerpted his comments in a press release and sent the release out to all the major newswires and local reporters.
As a result, LatinFinance.com saw a 265 percent increase in Web traffic on the day of the event and has since seen an average of 30,000 more page views than normal per week. (The move also helped bring in $7,000 in walk-in attendance revenue as well as 90 more free, qualified attendees.)
Being opportunistic online, particularly when you are smaller publisher, can pay. Big.
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Is Martha Cooked?

Dylan Stableford — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:53:09 -0400

I've been saving this picture of Martha and Snoop in the Late Show with David Letterman green room posted on Stewart's blog on my desktop for months now, hoping I'd have a reason to post it. I didn't think I'd be defending her company in doing so, but here goes.
When Susan Lyne, the chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia who steered the brand while its namesake served five months in jail for lying to federal investigators about the sale of ImClone stock, announced she was stepping down a few weeks ago, I poked around and heard more speculation that she'll eventually land at Time Inc. (as a FOLIO: source first floated back in November). But I was hesitant to call it more than what it was: an executive deciding to make a change.
James Ledbetter, a reporter for Slate, however, thinks that Lyne's exodus means the walls are crumbling around Stewart's well-decorated empire.
His main point, summed up nicely in the article’s subhead: “The hard truth is that demand for Martha Stewart in all forms—magazines, books, TV shows, Web sites and merchandise—has passed its peak.”
I can’t really speak for the books, TV shows or merchandise—which seems to be where Ledbetter is hinging the bulk of his argument—but the magazine part of Martha’s business, if not thriving, seems to be surviving the advertising downturn. According to the company’s SEC filings, publishing revenues in the first quarter increased slightly (to $40.8 million from $40.6 million in 2007) following double digit publishing and Internet revenue gains during the fourth quarter.
“Can anyone save this sad mess?” Ledbetter asks, using the loosest definition of “sad mess” I’ve ever seen (the company, after all, turned a profit in 2007). Well, how about Martha? The conditions of her conviction, as Ledbetter points out, would allow her to become CEO in 2011—the “year she will turn 70,” Ledbetter says.
Fifty, 60, 70. There’s something timeless about Stewart’s appeal. She’s like gentle waves lapping against the shore. A self-made brand who’s seems as comfortable sipping wine with Rupert Murdoch as eating a bacon cheeseburger and pounding cans of Budweiser, as she did once on Conan O’Brien, pre-stock scandal. Or, as hanging with Snoop.
You can’t say the same for Rachael Ray, whose perkiness, as evidenced by those annoying Dunkin Donuts commercials, may have a shorter shelf life than previously thought. something just seems forced there.
Martha's a natural at any age.
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The Mother of All Online Magazine Games

Dylan Stableford — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:33:57 -0400

A typically brief and unscientific survey of magazine sites reveals a range of approaches to online games, from "blah" to spectacular.

Mimicking the success of big game sites like Pogo, many women's magazine sites include a set of generic, "casual" games—casino games, solitaire, crosswords, word scrambles, Sudoku, etc. These games are easily licensed from a number of providers. Ladies Home Journal (9.5 million monthly page views) and Reader's Digest (7 million monthly page views) use games as a lure to get visitors to register.

Hearst has taken the concept to the next level, partnering with a game developer Arkadium to create games inspired by their magazines' content. In some cases, the games are not that far removed from their generic versions—Cosmopolitan (35 million monthly page views) has Make-up Mah Jonngg and Strip Poker. Other games are a lot more elaborate. Cosmo's "Boy Toy" is an application where the player guides a virtual boyfriend to fetch cocktails—and avoid a "skanky ex-girlfriend."

The mother of all magazine site interactive applications is National Geographic's award-winning Your Shot, an ingenious combination of user-generated content, photo contest and online games. At Your Shot, visitors can upload photos, compete to have their photos featured in the magazine, and transform photos into online jigsaw puzzles. According to news reports, Your Shot alone drives upwards of 14 million page views per month.

The lesson here is (to paraphrase a publisher I had lunch with last month), "If you act generic, you are generic." Good magazine sites start with the basic idea ("online games drive traffic") and then build on it in a way that fits and reinforces their brands (in Cosmo's case, sex and boyfriend advice; Nat. Geo., photography). Doing that effectively can drive outsized results.
[IMAGE: Rockstar Games; Grand Theft Auto IV]
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UPDATE: Indie Magazine Asks Readers for $20,000 by July 1

Jason Fell — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:24:45 -0400

UPDATE: It appears the magazine got the cash it needed.

Arthur magazine is almost dead.

When logging onto the self-proclaimed “transgenerational global counterculture” music magazine’s Web site today I was redirected to a page asking for a monetary donation. Arthur, according to the page, “will die” if it doesn’t raise $20,000 by July 1.

In a note posted online, Arthur editor/owner Jay Babcock indicated that after buying out his ex-partner and relaunching the magazine about a year ago, he “maxed out” his personal and business credit cards. Like other struggling publishers, Babcock attributes Arthur’s financial woes to lower than expected ad revenues and increased production and distribution costs.

“We have worked very hard with very little resources: some of us could afford to work pro bono, others could afford to work at well below market, still others couldn’t afford to work for Arthur but did it anyway,” Babcock wrote. “Still, we have bills to pay, and debt to service. Starting up again costs money. And my credit cards are now maxed out.”

Launched in 2002, Arthur is a free bi-monthly magazine distributed in various places like record shops, used bookstores, coffeehouses and art galleries. As of this afternoon, they apparently had collected $15,600.

Arthur isn’t the first to extend a hand to readers to help pay the bills. Following last July’s shape-based postal rate restructuring, The Nation, a political weekly with a circulation of 181,070, saw its rates go up 18 to 20 percent—and turned to subscriber donations to remain in business.

It’s a shame, and disheartening, that Arthur, like many well-respected magazines, finds itself in this predicament. While I’m not intimately familiar with the magazine’s specific financial details I can only assume that it would have been beneficial to give itself more than about a week to raise $20,000.

I guess time will tell if Arthur survives. The clock is ticking.
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Are Free Magazines the Future of Publishing?

Dylan Stableford — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:58:38 -0400

CHICAGO—During a session at this week’s CM Show, Jennifer Armor, audit manager at Verified Audit Circulation, argued that free magazines are the future of the business.

She riffed off a quote from Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson: “From the consumer’s perspective there is a huge difference between cheap and free. Give a product away and it can go viral. Charge a single cent for it and you’re already in an entirely different business.”

Armour thinks this idea can, and will, eventually extend to the magazine industry. (Broadcast radio and TV have been offering it since their inception, after all, and the music industry is moving in the same direction, she noted.)

Because of the increasing price of paper and postage, Armour said, the cost of acquiring and keeping paid circ is becoming too high compared to the revenue it generates, and therefore, consumer publications will eventually move to a controlled circ model. Only magazines with premium content that can’t be found elsewhere will be able charge their readers.

True, other types of media are free or becoming free, and it is becoming quite expensive to run a paid title. But the idea that consumer magazines will be corralled into a free model due to spiraling costs is unlikely.

Advertisers are still grappling with accepting that public-place copies of paid titles are valuable because the publishing industry’s audience measurement system isn’t as finite as TV or radio. To them, there’s no real way to measure how many eyes have viewed the copies. Circulators know differently, of course, but the debate rages on. And until that issue—and a few others—have been hashed out, Armour’s view of the future is out of reach.
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Just What, Exactly, Is 'King'? Content, Commerce or Audience?

Bill Mickey — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:19:46 -0400

CHICAGO—Maybe it's our compulsion to solve the chicken-or-the-egg riddle, or perhaps just stab a stake in the ground, but at the 2008 CM Show here this week, there was quite a bit of effort to establish just what exactly is "king."

Don Pazour, CEO of b-to-b publisher Access Intelligence, proclaimed in his opening keynote "audience is king," essentially relegating content and commerce as servants to the ultimate goal-attracting a high-quality audience. Growing audience, said Pazour, means you're growing the company, and "if you're not growing, you're dying."

It was a particularly apt statement, given the context and audience of the event, of course, and one that struck a chord with attendees

Yet by lunchtime, where the second of the show's three keynotes was featured, content, one of the more traditional recipients of kingly status, was crowned. "What I always felt was the core of the success of the Industry Standard was it was editorially-driven, which is why I was the number-two person in the company," said Jonathon Weber, former editor-in-chief of the Internet economy bible the Industry Standard, which now exists in a Web-only format.
Weber has subsequently parlayed that content-focused approach into his two-year-old venture, NewWest.net—a media company consisting of a network of regional Web sites, a print magazine and events focused on business and life in the Rocky Mountain West.

According to Weber, the site's content has been the essential driver of traffic, and subsequently, audience development.
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