• by John Gaffney , July 14, 2002

Acquired Confidence: I’ve been on the publishing side of magazines in a former life, and I know it’s a tough hustle. Which is why I know that the magazine business as a whole is performing at an extremely high level right now, even though ad pages are down year to date. I think you have to take a look at the obstacles magazines have been able to overcome so far this year to really get a handle on how well the business is doing. First, it is dealing with a tech sector disaster. It may yet cost the life of some publications, but every magazine benefited from the boom in technology whether it was an occasional spread from Microsoft or a schedule of back covers from Oracle. This category is on pace to lose almost 6,000 pages over 2001, according to the latest Publisher’s Information Bureau numbers. No typo there. Then you throw in a slide in the finance category. That’s on pace to cost more than 3,000 pages over last year. The Magazine Publisher’s Association likes to talk about “sustained confidence” in print properties. That may be too much to ask right now. It is something to shoot for. Getting media planners and buyers to acquire and then maintain confidence in a print property is more like it. To hang tough in this environment is an achievement. It should inspire confidence, no matter what kind of confidence you want to call it.

Regarding Tech:I was discussing the tech slide with a friend the other day who reminded me that technology is different than other categories because the ads need to stress solutions and hardware, not product content. Couldn’t disagree more. I think if more technology companies spent time figuring out ways that their products really connected with their users, their ads would work better and their sales would follow. All technology has content. All content, if it’s truly effective, finds a way to resonate with users. Most tech ads I’ve seen miss this point entirely.

Just Shoot It: Reebok will stand by Allen Iverson, who will turn himself in this week to the Philly police on assault charges, because it has too many shoes on too many shelves for it not to stand by him. When you take celebrity endorsers too seriously, it becomes a very serious matter when you have to stick with their bad judgment. Believe me, if Reebok could get away from Allen Iverson right now, it would.