Mr. Magazine

What does it take to rejuvenate the newsstands in American and add a glimpse of hope to our industry? The answer is very simple. Treat the newsstand buyer with some respect. Last week I was attending a magazine conference and I heard an editor of a major magazine referring to the customers who buy his magazine on the newsstand as “not very smart and I do not think they deserve to read the magazine.” His reasoning was why should they spend $4.95 on the magazine at the newsstands when they can get 12 issues for less than $15. The sad part is that most of the magazine publishers and the organizations that support them are the ones that continue to insult the readers and accuse them of not being “very smart.” I remember the days when I was a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, my magazine teacher Dr. William H. Taft used to show us Cosmopolitan magazine’s subscription price that was five cents more than the newsstand cover price. Dr. Taft told us that the reason Cosmo sold as many copies on the newsstands as it used to sell was very simple: “They did not want you to subscribe.” It was true with Family Circle and Woman’s Day too. Now all three have joined the “subscription discounters” and joined the majority of magazines in “alienating the newsstand buyer,” and “blaming the newsstands for their woes.” Cosmo still leads the newsstands sales on an issue by issue basis. The reason is in its content: more of the readers prefer the privacy of the newsstands than the publicity of the mailbox to get Cosmo. So here are seven common sense approachs to recreate the buzz on the newsstands:
1. Be a newsstand only magazine. No subscriptions.
2. Charge more for your subscription than the price of the magazine multiplied by the number of issues offered.
3. Charge the same price for your newsstand issue, as you are willing to offer it by subscription. If you are willing to sell your magazine for 35 cents by subscription that should be your newsstand price and not $4.95.
4. Stop selling your magazine on the newsstands if you are not willing to reduce your newsstand price or increase your subscription price.
5. Keep in mind the big increase in postage that is heading your way. Now is the time for some major decision making… continuing to bury your head in the sands and pretending that all is fine is not going to help any. Remember how our friends the Chinese define insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results every time.
6. It is time for the MPA and the rest of the magazine publishers of America to start focusing on the millions of customers (readers) all across the country rather than the 50 or so customers (advertisers) who reside within the city limits of NYC. There is more, much more to the magazine business than NYC.
7. Stop blaming the distributors and the retailers; it is time to examine the publishers pricing method and to DO something about it. Now. As in Today.