Commentary

Combating Magazines' Inferiority Complex: A Call For Creativity

by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, April 14, 2010

Magazines have a problem, but it's not what you might think. Magazines are suffering from an inferiority complex -- but even more so, from a lack of creativity.

I love magazines. I always have, and no element of technology is going to make me change my opinion. I subscribe to and/or purchase about 30 publications, either weekly or monthly. I love the tactile feel of magazines and I love the passive, lean-back, relaxing way they provide me with information without the requirement of a battery or an Internet connection. I love the smell of a newsstand. I love the feel of paper between my fingers. Technology owns me just about everywhere else; all my music is now digital, all my TV is digital. With the iPad I'm certain my book consumption will be going digital. I even recently canceled my subscription to the Sunday New York Times in recognition that I'd be shifting all my newspaper consumption to digital, but magazines will never go away for me.

So why magazine folks have to run ads, in magazines, to try and get me to keep reading magazines?

No -- I'm not making this up. I opened up my latest issue of Entertainment Weekly to find a two-page spread that wreaked of desperation (and poor targeting) by pleading with me from some falsified emotional stance to continue reading magazines. Isn't that like preaching to the converted, at least a little bit? If you feel the need to place a desperate plea for my attention, at least run the spot on the Web, where your converted masses are headed.

Of course, the inferiority complex of magazines compared to digital media is not the point, it's a symptom of the problem. Magazines lack a sense of creativity. Times have indeed changed, but magazines aren't changing with it. Why aren't all magazines printed on recycled paper? Why don't magazines offer extended content online to supplement their print counterparts? Why don't magazines test some form of paid access model, which is where they're headed with the iPad anyway?

Why don't magazines find some way to get rid of the BRC (that silly card that always, yes always, falls out of the magazine and certainly creates more hassle and annoyance than it does subscription conversions)?

Why doesn't the magazine business become more innovative? At the very least, why doesn't the magazine business stop worrying about the future and embrace it a bit, and try to find a way to thrive in a world where not everything will be connected to the Web (Yes, I said it, not everything will be connected to the Web)?

Why doesn't the magazine business find a new way of distributing in product in locations where digital access is an issue? Why don't they start selling magazines like they sell popcorn in the baseball parks -- with strolling vendors? Why not reach people in the places where they're most likely to read magazines - on the train, on the plane, on the bus?

And if you're going to run ads to get me to stay, why not put your money where your true audience might be -- not in your own very own magazines, where the people who've already left are least likely to see you?

Take a cue from the music business: Don't fight technology. Embrace it, but don't abandon your core, which is not going to die, even though it may decrease a bit. Don't fight the future, find a way to work with it. Create your iPad apps and your Kindle apps -- but encourage me to want to use your printed, environmentally friendly versions where I know they'll be most appropriate.

And remind me what it's like to lie in bed, curled up under the covers, with a magazine falling on my chest, as I drift slowly to sleep after a long and arduous day, reading about great people and great ideas. That's how you keep my attention.

Good luck, mags! I'll be rooting for you!

commentary, magazines

8 comments about "Combating Magazines' Inferiority Complex: A Call For Creativity".

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Debi Leibovitz from Repertoire, April 14, 2010 at 1:41 p.m.
Having spent years building my career at Family Circle, Sunset, G&J and American Park Network, magazines are part of my DNA. Even though I left magazines for online media, I still can't wait to get my magazine subscriptions delivered each month. Nothing can replace the thrill of touching those pages and the envy (still!) of seeing those competitive ads.
From where I now sit, in emerging media, the partnership opportunities for magazines are unlimited, as is the potential for new revenue streams.
Publishers and editors can reach out to staffers who have left their ranks for new media. Meet with us, pick our brains, collaborate with us. Most of us, like Cory, want to see your magazines around for a long, long time.
Consider that you have another cheerleader
Reply

Jeanne Kerl from Wildlife Education, April 14, 2010 at 2:11 p.m.

Thanks for an insightful piece. Have you given magazines to your kids or to your nieces & nephews? I work for the Zoobooks family of magazines.

I'll send you free samples if you'd like or become our fan on Facebook.

Corinne Lynch from Media Networks, Inc., April 14, 2010 at 2:29 p.m.

Great commentary! As an employee of Time Inc., I'm not unbiased and love magazines for the very reasons you articulated so well. The distribution of the ads in magazines, while preaching to choir, also is a way to getting the message out quickly and efficiently. I know web ads are also planned.

Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, April 14, 2010 at 3:16 p.m.

All of what you say is so very true. Actually, for newspapers it is also true. There is nothing like seeing the entire page it its entire form and choosing what you want to read in the order in which you read it and pass on the sections.

Rosanne Gain from Gain - Stovall, PR, April 14, 2010 at 7:15 p.m.

Well written, Cory. I agree, magazines have a place in our array of current products that deliver us the news. We must remember that the message hasn't changed but the methods of delivery have expanded exponentially, offering us choice like never before.

Ronald Childs from Flowers Communications Group, April 14, 2010 at 8:19 p.m.

You know, you hit the nail on the head, Cory. In my youth, one of my fondest remembrances is Sunday mornings, when my dad would wake up early, and if we weren't going to church we'd always find he and my mother both seated in the middle of the living room floor with sections of the Sunday newspaper strewn about everywhere. The pages always seemed to be arrayed in a seemingly unending abstract pattern, as each of my parents quietly read his or her favorite news, features or columnists as the sun streamed in from every window and the aroma of fresh coffee filled our small family home. I do the very same thing now, whether it be with newspapers on those sunny mornings, or the half-dozen magazines I tramp around with day-to-day, crammed tightly into my briefcase. As for me and my house, digital is the present and future of publishing, but it will never capture or improve upon this small, private slice of Americana.

Chuan jer Lim from Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte Ltd, April 15, 2010 at 12:24 a.m.

I personally think it's a media preference. I'm like Cory, pretty much a digital person, but when it comes to newspaper and special interest reads, I still prefer the feel of paper in my hand.

But that's me. I'd seen like-minded folks who don't mind to consumer news and such on a pure digital platform.

The question here is not if magazines will die out. the obvious and clear answer is it'll not. there'll always be demand for the hardcopy.

The question here is is there sufficient advertising and circulation to support this business model?

Eneida Orchard from Orchard Business Group, April 15, 2010 at 10:06 a.m.

Thank you Cory. I can remember when USA Today handed out "Free Samples" of their newspaper as people where exiting the train stations. The fact that I remember is because it was "a color masthead" and of course free. Somehow, even at an early age I knew that I was part of something new and exciting. I actually felt like an insider. It left such an impression that years later I published several small local magazines.