Mr. Magazine

In an age which, six years ago, industry trend-spotters widely believed would be post-print, magazines are not only surviving—they are thriving. They have shown themselves to be flexible, adaptable, and robust. The creativity of publishers in creating multi-media platforms and leveraging them as a driver to print is a testament to that.

Folio magazine’s Tony Silber and Southern Living’s Sid Evans gave a structure to these concepts to the full room of attendees at the opening banquet of Dr. Samir Husni’s Magazine Innovation Center’s ACT 6. There are more titles on the newsstand than there were a decade ago; print advertising retains its credibility and authority with consumers; and magazines are an immersive, personal, and connective medium.

Opportunities are also challenge for publishers, and we can’t ignore that reality. While that Google and Facebook have become primary drivers of audience to publishers websites, they also leverage publisher content and audience, at no cost, to build their own sites and ad revenue; in doing so, they have built their own annual ad revenues to a point which eclipses that of the entire publishing industry.

Yet, as Evans pointed out, a reader who spends four minutes on a website will spend ten times that with a single issue of Southern Living; that four minutes allocated on the webpage could be spent on the cover alone. And as to the Southern Living reader wrote: “Top three books of all time: One: The Bible. Two: To Kill a Mockingbird. Three: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of Southern Living.”—what website can claim to receive a letter like that from a reader?

As we move into the content of the MIC’s ACT 6, we’ll look forward to hearing more about the re-inventions that publishers are implementing for their publications and their businesses in this age which has, in fact, not emerged as post-print after all.

Click below to watch Sid Evan’s opening keynote at the ACT 6 Experience:

And to watch Tony Silber’s opening remarks click below: