Re: Future of magazines

**l*@juno.com**

 Here's why I think the internet magazine model will not work in the
current atmosphere, except for small entrepreneurs (because they don't
have such high expenses) and for those who are using it as an adjunct to
promote their regular business (on-line purchases of plants, selling
magazine subscriptions, clothes, etc,) all of which would also appear as
free promotional print literature (catalogs, direct mail).

The internet was founded as a place to obtain FREE information. Young
people, especially those who grew up with it, believe that everything
offered there should be free. Why buy an encyclopedia when there is
Wikipedia? Much of the "information" exchanged today (unlike when
everything on the internet came from academia) is unvetted, but many of
the people using it do not have the critical thinking skills necessary to
even ask the questions, "Is this information accurate? Is the source
reliable?" Or, they simply don't care.

That's why I used the analogy of typesetting. It used to be a
highly-appreciated art (designing type) and a highly-respected craft
(setting type). Desktop publishing changed everything, including
acceptable levels of quality.

It would take a major, worldwide social upheaval to change people's
expectations that things on the internet should be free.

Meanwhile, magazine publishers are paying an editor, possibly a
copyeditor and fact checker, an art person, and a resource follow-up
person, as well as a writer and photographer to produce a four-page
(sometimes less) article. They CAN'T compete on the internet playing
field. But you also get what you pay for. 

What's left? Magazine, newspaper, and book publishers have to change
reader's expectations and they can't do it publishing large portions of
their pub on-line for free. They have to sell quality, and differentiate
what they offer in a way that people are willing to pay for it. Sell the
article authors :-); sell the tactile experience; sell portability;
encourage reader's clubs; reach out to MG and gardening clubs. Some big
pubs have a rule of not sponsoring anything that isn't their own. Maybe
it's time to change that.

There is at least one stand-alone model that makes money on the internet
and that is instructional webcasts. Meredith and others already have the
infrastructure, the money, and the resources to produce them. Why not
think about including the price of a subscription to the paper magazine
in the webcast and have advertiser/sponsors, as well? The acceptable
price ranges for these webcasts seems to be $295 - $700, depending
whether you get full transcripts and cds, etc., or just listen-in.

Regards,
Lois
Visit: http://loisdevries.blogspot.com

On Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:39:55 -0500 "Jane Milliman"
<jane@janemilliman.com> writes:
>With my business it's always 
> been
> very clear to me what I should do, or at least try, and now, while I 
> know
> it's change or die, I don't know how to change.
> Jane
> --
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