Mr. Magazine

I am really really tired from all the prophets of doom and gloom from our magazine industry. I just read a report based on a speech by a group magazine president. The president said “magazines have a credibility problem with the advertising community” because of “the poor circulation practices of the past, especially the practice of counting unpaid circulation as paid…” For a second, I thought for once a major publisher is thinking about improving their circulations practices for the sake of …. readers. Well, forgive me for thinking about the readers, a commodity that is becoming largely ignored by the publishers of big magazine companies. “Advertising will remain the primary source of revenue,” the executive is quoted as saying. The only reason magazine publishers want to try to fix the advertising woes is pure and simple: get more advertising. Well, Mr. and Mrs. Publisher, do me a favor and spend $10.00, yes $10.00 and order the book that Roy Reiman, founder of Reiman Publications, wrote about his empire of publishing that did NOT sell a single advertising page. Reiman was able to sell his company for $760 million dollars without selling a single advertising page. Reading his book is a MUST for anyone who really wants to understand the value of the reader. Readers to Reiman are much more than numbers. In fact they are not even numbers. They are human beings, pure and simple. Humans who deserve to be appreciated, catered to and served. Readers who were, are and will never be a commodity. Order Reiman’s I Could Write a Book here. Do it today for your own good and the good of the readers.

You think you know the newsstands, and the folks who frequent them to buy magazines, think twice. What follows are ten true and false statements about magazines and the newsstands. Check if you can tell the true ones from the false:
1. Newsstands buyers are habitual buyers
2. The majority of people who buy magazines on the newsstands do not send in the discounted subscription cards.
3. For a lot of publishers, the newsstands are nothing but a showcase for the advertiser to see the magazine “in their face.”
4. The reason publishers put much more copies than they sell is because they do not want to have empty pockets.
5. Some magazines can make money selling only two copies of every ten they put out.
6. Low cover price does not mean selling more copies.
7. The Magazine Publishers of America uses frequency to define a magazine, thus not everything you buy on the newsstands is a magazine according to their definition.
8. Magazines without advertising can survive and thrive on the newsstands.
9. More than 70% of American magazines are sold by subscription rather than single copy.
10. Cosmopolitan magazine sells more copies per issue on the newsstands than any other magazine.
So what is your score? How many true statements and how many false? If you answered true on each and every one of the above ten statements you’ve passed with flying colors. Believe or not, all the above statements are true and in the following days and weeks I will be writing and expanding on each statement, so stay tuned…

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.