Commentary

Real Media Riffs - Wednesday, Jun 11, 2003

Working Hard For The Money: Ask anybody that sells for a magazine. Business is tough. Price pressures are enormous. You have to prove your worth day in day out to media planners who are enamored with TV. You have to compete against other magazines who are constantly looking for an angle against you. So what the PIB numbers released yesterday tell me is that magazines are continuing to mine each potential category to its fullest. Because it is in the end, all about how your magazine can compete for the hot categories. I'm surprised that automotive has been able to continue its torrid magazine pace. And it's a great development that technology has been able to come out of its slumber. Those are two excellent signs for the magazine business and its ability to grow in today's media landscape.

More Numbers: And according to a new report from PriceWaterhouse, things will get even tougher on magazines. The PwC report forecasts that global advertising spending would grow 4.1 percent per year on average in the next five years, rising to $375 billion from $308 billion. But it said that "TV and radio will gain share at the expense of print (media), as advertisers allocate more resources to those media with the largest reach. " That means magazines will need to continue to prove themselves by using new research metrics as well as traditional ones. It's a TV world, folks.

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At The Buzzer: The NHL and the NBA need to work a better deal with their TV partner, ABC. The NBA Finals started so late that people forgot who was playing.

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