Re: Speaking of magazines

**S* A* H* <S*@meredith.com>**

Lois¹s comments are exactly the conversation that I was trying to start last
summer when I referenced the Futurist article about writers. Try as I might,
I have no reasonable idea what the future of the media will look like, in
say, five years. (I don¹t know what our products will look like in 5 years,
and I would feel much more secure if I did.) I just can¹t cobble together a
vision that includes interesting publications AND compensation that makes a
living for lots of people. That¹s why I think it¹s important  to think about
a new paradigm for sustainable content creation?a paradigm that includes
getting paid enough to keep doing it.
I agree that regional publishing is going to remain strong, and yes, Lois,
your hint was made several years ago by me and other editors. The ?big
publishing¹ business model doesn¹t appear to have figured out to make that
approach profitable. As was noted by someone last week, the cost of ink on
paper and the postage to mail it are prohibitively high. And Doug, your note
about bloggers going to print is good news, but a lot of the cost of
publishing is not the writers or photographers?there are still a lot of
production, marketing, and sales costs that make magazine publishing an
expensive proposition. The newsstand distribution  ?situation¹ is incredibly
expensive, convoluted, confusing, and organizationally antiquated.
I don¹t think magazines will ever go away, nor will books. I think how we
create them, value them, talk about them, distribute them, etc., will
change. Just can¹t quite figure out the best possible world for both the
creators and consumers.

BTW?did anyone see this news item about more adults reading fiction books?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/books/12reading.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=reading
%20books&st=cse

Susan Appleget Hurst
Sr. Assoc. Editor, Garden
Better Homes & Gardens

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