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On Audience First & The Characteristics Of A Successful Magazine… An Interview With Mr. Magazine™

February 23, 2015

“We definitely live in a digital age, there is no escaping that. And as I wrote recently in my Mr. Magazine™ Manifesto for 2015, there is no media company today that can exist without being platform agnostic. However, our audience is not necessarily platform agnostic. Some of our audience still want a printed magazine, some want online only and some want a printed newspaper.” Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni

Recently I was interviewed by one of my colleagues, Debora Wenger, a 17-year broadcast news veteran, and associate professor of journalism and director of the undergraduate program at the University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media. She conducted the interview for the benefit of her Journalism 101 students and discussed some of the content of a new book she and I and another colleague have written called Managing Today’s News Media: Audience First. (FYI, the book will be published this summer by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc.”

Within the interview we discuss what it takes to be a successful print magazine in the digital age that we live in today in comparison to the way things used to be in publishing days gone by. The information may surprise you…

So sit back and enjoy the flipside of this Mr. Magazine™ interview as the man usually asking the questions, this time around provides the answers.

You can either click on the video below and watch the interview, or you can read the sound-bites and the complete transcribed interview below.

Now for the sound-bites:

On his passion for magazines: It started as a hobby before it turned into my education and my profession. I was probably nine or ten years old when I bought my very first copy of Superman in Arabic when it first came to Lebanon, my home country. And I fell in love with the art of storytelling; fell in love with holding something in my hands that I could read on my own and at my own pace and didn’t have to depend on my father or my grandfather to tell me about.

On how he believes digital technology has affected magazines: This is going to be very important in how we apply the usage of technology to print because for one thing the technological advances that we have now makes it possible to print the magazine a few hours before it is available to the general public on the newsstands or by mail. So, those deadlines that used to be like two or three weeks ahead of time; now Time magazine can change their cover on Tuesday night before they print on Wednesday and have the magazine on the stands the next day.

On whether all successful magazines need to have a relationship with their readers: When you hear about people falling in love with Time or falling in love with Cosmopolitan or Woman’s World; they’re not necessarily falling in love with the ink on paper, but with the content. Somebody once said that successful magazines are those that are purveyors of meaning. Add to that, say the meaning of life; ‘what is in it for me?’

On whether he believes a magazine provides information that you can’t get anywhere else: Not necessarily that it provides you with information that you can’t get any other place, but rather explains the information in a way that you can’t get any other place, because in this day and age it is so easy for anyone to tell you what’s going on.

On whether magazines have adapted to the social changes of today: Definitely. And we have to remember when television came onto the scene; television became part of the American household in the late 1950s and early 1960s, television fundamentally changed the mission of magazines.

On his opinion of provocative, powerful covers and whether they spark public discussion about important topics: Magazines today are finding themselves playing the role of initiator and a lot of good magazine covers are those that ignite the discussion. Not only start it, but ignite it.

On the role advertising plays in the success of today’s new magazines: The majority of the big established magazines are still making at least 80% of their revenue from advertising, but it’s just the opposite with the new magazines, where they make 80% of their revenue from their customers who buy the magazines.

On why he believes journalism and marketing/communications students should be as passionate as he is about magazines: One simple reason: I tell students all the time that there are three F’s in journalism that all marketing or communications people need to pay attention to, as long as they’re not part of your grades: fun, fame and fortune.

Professor Debora Wenger asks and Mr. Magazine™ answers…

And now the lightly edited transcription of the Mr. Magazine™ interview conducted by Professor Debora Wenger…

Debora Wenger: Tell me a little about your passion for magazines. I know it’s been a part of your life for many, many years.

Samir Husni: It started as a hobby before it turned into my education and my profession. I was probably nine or ten years old when I bought my very first copy of Superman in Arabic when it first came to Lebanon, my home country. And I fell in love with the art of storytelling; fell in love with holding something in my hands that I could read on my own and at my own pace and didn’t have to depend on my father or my grandfather to tell me about. I could use my own tone of voice, flip the pages myself, and it was as though somehow the ink transferred into my blood. And since that day my heart began to pump ink instead of blood. (Laughs)

Debora Wenger: Obviously, you and I talk a lot about the future of journalism in particular, and you’re very passionate about the future of magazines. We live in a digital world right now and obviously digital technology has had an impact on all forms of communication; could you talk a little about how you see digital technology affecting magazines.

Samir Husni: Well, we definitely live in a digital age, there is no escaping that. And as I wrote recently in my Mr. Magazine™ Manifesto for 2015, there is no media company today that can exist without being platform agnostic. However, our audience is not necessarily platform agnostic. Some of our audience still wants a printed magazine, some want online only and some want a printed newspaper; we have to be careful before we make a decision on what we’re going to do to identify our audience. That’s why you and I and another colleague have written the book: Audience First.

This is going to be very important in how we apply the usage of technology to print because for one thing the technological advances that we have now makes it possible to print the magazine a few hours before it is available to the general public on the newsstands or by mail. So, those deadlines that used to be like two or three weeks ahead of time; now Time magazine can change their cover on Tuesday night before they print on Wednesday and have the magazine on the stands the next day.

Technology has helped a lot in terms of the speed of printing. The cost of printing, because of technology, has become so cheap that anybody and their neighbor can now launch a new magazine. The cost of entry into our business has become so small and that’s one reason that we are seeing more magazines being published now more than ever before.

Debora Wenger: In fact, we make the point that you’re talking about in the text book: despite the doom and gloom that you hear about print, the magazine industry is very robust now and has been for many, many years. In the text we talk about a number of characteristics of successful magazines and I’d like to walk through them with you one by one and get your take on whether you believe that these are in fact legitimate characteristics or if there is anything that you would add or take away from this list.

The first one is the relationship between magazines and readers and that all successful magazines actually have a relationship with their readers; what’s your response to that?

Samir Husni: If we go back in history, magazines in the United States and the rest of the world were the very first national medium; they were the very first mass medium worldwide which connected people virtually in California, in Mississippi, in New York; so when you received a copy of your Life magazine or Look or Saturday Evening Post, there was this virtual community, you knew that people in California were reading the exact same thing as here. You have to remember radio was local, newspapers were local; so the only thing that was a national marketing tool was the magazines.

That virtual community continues to exist into today. When you hear about people falling in love with Time or falling in love with Cosmopolitan or Woman’s World; they’re not necessarily falling in love with the ink on paper, but with the content. Somebody once said that successful magazines are those that are purveyors of meaning. Add to that, say the meaning of life; ‘what is in it for me?’ When I pick up a magazine, it’s like an older sister giving me advice, a younger brother terrorizing me or a friend coming to visit; so in fact it’s that sense of virtual community that has helped magazines succeed.

If I look at a magazine as a human being, then I’m spending time with a friend; I’m spending time with a consultant, or a doctor, without actually having to go any other place.

One very successful example that people always give is Cosmopolitan. When Helen Gurley Brown wrote her book about Sex and the Single Girl, she started receiving letters at home and her husband, who was a psychiatrist, asked her: why don’t you do a magazine and answer all these questions? And that’s how Cosmopolitan came about. With the magazine, she began answering the virtual community, instead of each one individually. And of course Cosmopolitan, which will celebrate 50 years in 2015, has become one of the most successful women’s magazines in the United States.

Debora Wenger: And that leads us into what is considered the second characteristic of a successful magazine; that it provides you information you can’t get anywhere else. Do you see that as a fundamental characteristic of successful publications?

Samir Husni: Not necessarily that it provides you with information that you can’t get any other place, but rather explains the information in a way that you can’t get any other place, because in this day and age it is so easy for anyone to tell you what’s going on. What we used to call our friends of journalism: the five W’s and the H; the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How, are easily accessible now via online and social media.

But the ‘what is in it for me’ and specifically for me; the more that I can make the magazine content give me the answer to that simple question, what’s in it for me, the more my relationship with the magazine is going to be successful, because I truly believe in the magazine business, just like in any other successful business, we have to be in the business of addiction. We have to get people addicted to the advice, addicted to the way of explaining how life goes on; how you can lose weight in this way or that way; how you can get to know your husband or wife better; how you can meet your boyfriend or girlfriend and what you can do. The more we create this habitual repetition of the information and the explanation of the information, the more we are creating that relationship that when the magazine comes to your mailbox and you open it up and see the magazine in there, you say: wow, she’s back; she’s here, rather than: oh no, here she comes again.

Debora Wenger: (Laughs) I think you have already referenced this to some extent with the story about Cosmopolitan, but the next characteristic that’s mentioned is magazines that are successful have adapted to social change. Certainly, there was a societal shift about the time that Cosmo came out with the statement: it’s OK to talk about sex, and have that topic be a feature in every single magazine. Do you agree that magazines that are successful have adapted to social changes?

Samir Husni: Definitely. And we have to remember when television came onto the scene; television became part of the American household in the late 1950s and early 1960s, television fundamentally changed the mission of magazines. Magazines until that era were the only national medium and the only connectors of that virtual community. So, when television came there was no need for the magazines to be that national, virtual community. When you sat down and watched TV back then, one-third of the country was watching the same thing you were watching.

Connectivity shifted from the virtual printed medium in your hand to the screen of the television in your den. We saw the beginnings of a social movement and a change in the role of American magazines, starting with magazines like Rolling Stone, MS, Playboy, Cosmopolitan and The Advocate; all these magazines had a specialty, a goal in mind that they wanted to relate to a specific community.

We started serving clusters of communities and when social media came onto the scene, where every person and their brother can be their own publisher and have their own blog; magazines starting playing a different role; one that said: OK, I know you have a community, but you need a voice for that community that can reach more people who think like you. And that’s why we’re seeing the power of that social impact. When we put the Boston Bomber on the cover of Rolling Stone; all of a sudden all hell broke loose. Everybody in the country was talking about it. When Time magazine put the mom nursing her three-year-old child on its cover, the whole country was talking about it. Magazines still impact culture, especially with the power of the printed cover. You don’t go looking for it; you’ll see it when you walk inside the grocery store or at the airports; it’s in your face.

Magazines are adapting and editors are getting cleverer in the use of things that they know will ignite social media.

Debora Wenger: Which leads to another one of the characteristics which is they define the major issues of society. They are leaders in setting the agenda for public discourse and they take sometimes controversial and important topics and put them in the public spotlight. And it sounds like that you definitely agree that with a provocative, powerful cover; you can actually spark public discussion about important topics.

Samir Husni: When I wrote my dissertation in 1983 about what makes magazines survive and fail; I wrote that magazines have two roles: they have a commercial role like any other business, if you’re not making money, you’re not going to stay in business, but they also have a social role. Magazines have been the best reflectors of society. They initiate some things, such as when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated or Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Esquire magazine took the lead trying to ban gun advertising and trying to have all the magazines unite in the ban. When the September 11th catastrophe took place, magazines initiated putting the American flag on every cover of the magazines during their October issues.

The role of reflecting society and initiating issues is shifting a little bit; we are becoming more of the initiators because social media is now the bigger reflector of society. Anybody these days now has access to tell you what’s taking place in their lives; that they’re waking up and having a cup of coffee or they are coming to class sleepy.

Magazines today are finding themselves playing the role of initiator and a lot of good magazine covers are those that ignite the discussion. Not only start it, but ignite it. Social media can then pour as much gasoline as it wants onto the fire or they can pour water onto it.

Debora Wenger: So you touched on what is the last characteristic that’s mentioned in the text as being indicators of a successful magazine and that’s the idea that they are adjusting to current economic conditions and limitations; although advertising still plays a significant role, but there’s more than just being funded by advertisers for magazines. What would you say about that?

Samir Husni: That’s a definite. When you look at the magazines that were published, let’s say, in the 1980s, the average cover price of a magazine then was $2.50. The average cover price of a new magazine today is more than $8.00. So, we’re shifting the business model, where it used to be that a big chunk of our money came from advertisers, now we are seeing the customer, the reader is carrying some of that burden.

But the majority of the big established magazines are still making at least 80% of their revenue from advertising, but it’s just the opposite with the new magazines, where they make 80% of their revenue from their customers who buy the magazines.

That’s why you’re also seeing a new shift taking place. Where we used to have a lot of magazines published on a regular frequency, weeklies like TV Guide selling 80 million copies every week, those magazines don’t exist anymore. Now you’d need 100 magazines, if not more, to sell 80 million copies in one week.

What we are seeing is that magazines are becoming more of a coffee table item, glossier and more like what we call book-a-zines. And with very high cover prices: $14.99 is becoming more the norm and they’re published less frequently. You have a lot of new magazines coming to the marketplace now published four to six times per year. In fact, in 2014, I saw more titles being published four times per year than any other frequency.

Nobody can compete with the speed of technology or social media. Any magazine that’s trying to compete with the delivery the same way social media delivers, is going to have the same fate the magazines of 1960s did when they tried to compete with television. No matter how many copies Life magazine increased their circulation by, 7 million or 8 million, or Look, or the Saturday Evening Post; they were never able to reach the 70 million a television channel could reach.

We’ve learned our lesson and we’ve learned that the best way to survive is to create a product, create content that the readers are not only willing to pay for, but can also afford to pay for. That remains the number one cornerstone for survival.

Debora Wenger: Before we wrap up, how about a few words to students about why they should be as passionate about magazines as you are.

Samir Husni: One simple reason: I tell students all the time that there are three F’s in journalism that all marketing or communications people need to pay attention to, as long as they’re not part of your grades: fun, fame and fortune.

Debora Wenger: Thank you.
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The Size, Role & Future of Consumer Magazines: A Blast from Mr. Magazine’s™ Past… Dissertation Entries Part 1.

February 20, 2015

1983

Magazines, both consumer and trade, form the largest mass medium in the United States. In fact, it is almost impossible to know for certain how many different magazines exist at any one time. The Standard Periodical Directory lists 66,681 in the United States and Canada. Ayer’s Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals lists 12,010, excluding several thousand company or regional church magazines. Either of these figures puts the American magazine far ahead of any other mass medium in the country. This includes daily newspapers (approximately 1,750), television stations (850), and radio stations (6400).

A magazine is defined as a printed and bound medium that appears periodically at least four times a year. It is a publication that is intended for and available to the general public by subscription and/or through the newsstands for a stated price and meets the U.S. Postal Service requirements for second class mailing privileges. The role the American magazine plays is by far more complex, yet more flexible, than any other medium. Magazines depend on a mixture of advertising and consumer money to survive. The trend today is to reach an equal split between advertising and circulation revenues, including newsstand sales and subscriptions. Newspapers, radio, and television stations, by contrast, depend almost completely on their advertising revenues.

2015

The above information was written in 1983 and taken from a portion of my dissertation when I was at the University of Missouri-Columbia where I obtained my doctorate in journalism. And while the majority of the material still holds true, things have changed drastically in some areas.

Today some people define magazines differently than the original rendering. In the digital world e-zines and their cyber-content are designated ‘magazines.’ I contend that if it is not ink on paper, it is not a magazine.™ Some things do not change and that statement is one of them. Virtual content on a screen that you cannot physically touch, turn the page and then roll up and place conveniently under your arm for travel is not a magazine, with the last prerequisite being more important to people than one might think. What you see on a screen is digital content, web pages, mobile information, or anything else that it ‘actually’ is, but it is definitely not a magazine.

And while the trend in 1983 was to reach an equal split between advertising and circulation revenues, including newsstand sales and subscriptions; today things are a bit less cut and dried when it comes to advertising dollars and those precious ad pages that magazines have always depended on.

With the advent of digital, many publishers saw the future of magazine media in a land of make-believe, beyond that quasi rainbow of pixels the world had suddenly become so fascinated with. Unfortunately, their abandonment from the always-sturdy decks of print had them jumping ship before they had the complete picture. Sometimes placid waters are turbulent underneath.

But when many boarded digital’s gangplank and strolled lightheartedly onto its bow and began to seek virtual advertising to join their journey, the dollars that had always been there before were nowhere to be seen. Hence, advertisers themselves were in a bit of a quandary. If the publishers weren’t putting the future into and onto print; how could they continue to buy space and peace of mind inside the covers of ink on paper?

So the trend for the 21st century became innovation and creativity; coming up with new and exciting ways to generate revenue and continue the singular experience that print magazines had and always would offer.

Of course recently there has been a migration back to print from the Land of Oz – or digital – whichever you’d like to call it, a migration and integration. Digital-only sites that have never been print are seeing the value and collectability of the printed word and magazines that had once been print, but folded to create pretty pages on a screen are coming home to ink on paper.

The one thing that hasn’t changed is the role of magazines; they’re still more complex and flexible than any other medium out there. And they were, are, and always will be reflectors of our society by mirroring the issues that are important to us as humans in a way that nothing else can.

Case in point, this week’s covers of The New Yorker (see above) celebrating its 90th anniversary and this Sunday’s covers of The New York Sunday Magazine (see below). You have noticed I said covers and not cover, because both magazines have multiple covers for their issues this week: The New Yorker has nine covers and The New York Times Sunday Magazine has four covers. The covers alone are the best reflectors of our history, present and future.

Compare that to a page on a digital screen and think whether it would have made the same impression? Not hardly. What are the odds that the large mass of people who viewed that cover and bought that magazine from the newsstands, received it in their mail box, or had it arrive with their Sunday paper, would have all been looking at it simultaneously online? And would they have given it more than an exemplary glance before they scrolled on to something else? Highly doubtful. There is power in the printed word.

So, while the numbers may have changed somewhat since 1983, daily newspapers in the United States (1,382 in 2011), radio stations (14,728 full power stations in 2011) and TV stations (1,774 in 2011), the message of magazines and their impact haven’t.

And remember; if it is not ink on paper, it’s not a magazine™…

Watch for more ‘Dissertation Entries’ every Friday on the Mr. Magazine™ blog…
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Crossing Over From The Virtual World Of Digital To The Real World of Print: My Wedding, The Magazine Debuts…

February 20, 2015

I guess the trend of websites and digital entities discovering print is continuing with full force. After Pineapple, Porter, Ponder, Unmapped, Atlas, Sneaker News, all recipes, delish, and many others, mywedding.com is the latest crossover to the real world of print from the virtual world of digital.

The editors of My Wedding, The Magazine write in the first issue, “Welcome to the first print edition of mywedding. A year ago we were just beginning to dream about this day, much like many of you are dreaming about a certain day in your own near future. The past twelve months have led us through a world of growth and change as we’ve navigated new trends and fallen more deeply in love with the art of sharing love stories. All of our careful preparation and planning has brought us to this place: a brand new magazine devoted to authentic, original representations of love and the celebrations that accompany it.”

The premiere issue of My Wedding, The Magazine comes in at a hefty 228 pages and $12.99 cover price.

Welcome to the world of magazines mywedding.com and keep in mind “If it is not ink on paper, it is not a magazine.™”
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No “Fifty Shades Of Grey” For Magazines… A Mr. Magazine™ Musing

February 13, 2015

When it comes to magazines there is no limit to the number of shades one can find. But when it comes to one specific Shade of Grey one can hardly find a magazine or two reflecting on the movie that opens tomorrow across the United States.

The premier installment of the bestselling novel by the same name is scheduled to be released Valentine’s weekend. The movie hasn’t even been shown, yet there are plans in the works for the next two films in the book’s trilogy: Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. Lucky Dakota Johnson (who plays the female main character, Anastasia Steele) and Jamie Dornan (lead male character, Christian Grey); their bank accounts just increased by several zeroes, no doubt.

While the controversy of the book’s plot really comes to light when it’s adapted into a movie; ticket sales have been through the roof for the movie’s debut. And while the hoopla of a good controversy only feeds the desires of most of us to actually go and see what the big deal is all about, the magazine media industry has been a bit more hesitant to dive ink first into this pool of contention.

In the past magazines have always played a great role in reflecting and complementing every other medium, be it a book, a television program or a movie. Magazines are the mirrors of life; they reflect and depict each and every social, moral and news issue in a way nothing else does. The film industry is no exception. From the The Harry Potter series, to the Twilight series, to The Hunger Games and everything before, after and in between; magazines have showcased and related the film’s story, complete with pictures, to a satisfaction that the script sometimes doesn’t even generate with the audience.

However, many times the movies, such as the ones previously mentioned: Twilight and its brethren, are geared toward the younger generation; the much younger generation, as in teenagers. And while that in itself isn’t a bad thing, the premises of some movies are not exactly meant for the teen set. One in particular comes to mind: Fifty Shades of Grey.

How do you get your target audience away from the younger generation when for the most part it’s that generation that will purchase your special issue? In fact, other than Topix Media (which published one magazine when the books came out in 2012 and now published a second title under the Newsweek brand about the movie), Bauer, so far, is the only other publisher who published a title related to the Fifty Shades of Grey movie. The magazine, The Complete Story Of The Making Of Fifty Shades of Grey is published under the brands Life Story and Film Fantasy. Titles under those brands from Bauer were mainly aimed at the teen scene including bands like One Direction and movies like Harry Potter.

So why then are there not at least fifty Fifty Shades of Grey magazines on the nation’s newsstands? The answer is simple, very simple. Such magazines are reflectors of the movies. And magazines reflecting a movie, which is touted to have extreme erotica and bondage-type scenes, have been few and far between, if not non-existent. In a book without pictures one can get away with any topic no matter how obscene or insane the topic is. Create a magazine and you will need pictures. There lies the source of the problem. Add to that all the negative publicity the movie is already generating from domestic violence groups and many pastors who are encouraging people to boycott?

The first magazine dates back to 2012.

In an article published in the largest paper in my home-state Mississippi, The Clarion-Ledger, the headline screams: Mississippi the most eager state to see ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, the irony of that title is brought to the forefront; not only the irony, but also the factual truth of the statement, when the piece reports that The American Family Association, which has its office in Tupelo, Miss. is urging everyone to not see the movie. Ironic in that, according to the article, the Washington Post’s website reported that the film accounted for 60 percent of all Fandango ticket sales this week, especially in the South and Midwest. That makes it the highest-grossing R-rated movie in pre-release sales on the movie ticket website, and the No. 1 state, Mississippi, nearly four times its average for pre-show ticket sales, with the first city in the state to sellout a theater, Tupelo, where the AFA’s office is.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Go figure.

Posted in A Mr. Magazine™ Musing, News and Views | 4 Comments »

Monogamy, Addiction and Storytelling – A Trio That Can’t Be Beat…1,001 Mr. Magazine’s™ Blog Posts Takes A Lesson From 1,001 Nights And Passes It On To Magazines.

February 10, 2015

There was a story written long ago, that I’m sure many of you remember reading or hearing about, called One Thousand and One Nights, often known in English as Arabian Nights. Now I won’t give you a long, drawn-out refresher course in literature; suffice it to say, the premise of the story was the King, Shahryar, is shocked to discover his sister-in-law has been unfaithful to his brother for quite some time and subsequently finds out his own beloved bride isn’t so lily-white either when it comes to the art of fidelity.

Magazines Magazines and More Magazines Worldwide… Monogamy, Addiction and Storytelling.
The King has her executed and becomes bitter toward all women, marrying a succession of virgins, only to execute them one by one due to his mistrust of the fairer sex. Eventually the Vizier, whose duty it is to provide them, cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade, the Vizier’s daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it; she only leaves him longing for more each night, which does wonders for her ability to stay alive.

And hence, Mr. Magazine’s™ narrative begins where Scheherazade’s left off. Magazines could learn a few things from One Thousand and One Nights. When Digital showed her curvaceous pixels onto the magazine scene, publishing kings were definitely affected by the temptations she offered. And while print was certainly more monogamous than Shahryar’s brother’s wife proved to be; publishing kings were merely chomping at the bit to ‘execute’ their ink on paper spouse and marry every digital maiden that happened along, seeing visions of digital empires and fruitful offspring throughout that new kingdom called cyberspace.

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work that way for magazine media, or King Shahryar, for that matter; albeit their situations were slightly reversed, with the kings of publishing trusting their new digital brides just a bit too much.

But while Shahryar was always distrustful of women after his brother’s experience, there was one thing for certain, he was still addicted to the opposite sex and kept coming back for more with as many different young ladies as the Vizier could find.

The addiction must be there. Without the desire and magnetic pull urging and demanding the King to try again or in the magazine’s case, the customer’s habitual return to the product, there would never have been a continuing relationship with Scheherazade for him, or a recurrence of connection and relevance with the audience for the magazine.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the customer being obsessed with your product. In fact, it’s encouraged, just in case someone out there was wondering. A printed magazine is one of the most obsessional items around for human beings who enjoy reading. It’s an experience that plays on all the senses on many levels. So don’t kick it to the curb just because it’s the 21st century. In fact, most publishers today are finding print to be the collectable part of their digital/ink on paper duo, with a lot of digital companies conceiving print components just to add that attribute to their brand. You can’t exactly stick a webpage in the bottom drawer of your grandmother’s antique dresser to pull out later when you have the time to savor it. I suppose you could stick your laptop there, but trust me, the experiences are much different. Not to mention, the computer would most likely be dead anyway, depending on how long it took you to get back to it.

Once you’ve established the addiction factor into your kingdom, never forget the allure and deep satisfaction people have for the art of storytelling. After all, it’s what kept Scheherazade alive every night, that ability that she had to keep the King wanting more.

Weaving enchanting stories into the content of your product will continue that all-important addiction and perpetuate audience connection and repetition in a way that nothing else can.

Just remember that the King’s curiosity about the story Scheherazade told always bought her another day of life. Magazines would do well to remember that lesson.

Monogamy, addiction and storytelling – three points of interest in One Thousand and One Nights and three points of interest in Mr. Magazine’s™ 1,001 blog post. And as it was in Scheherazade’s case, there is always hope when you’re willing to innovate, create and motivate your product to be the best it possibly can.

Until 1,002…

Posted in A Mr. Magazine™ Musing, Magazine Power, News and Views | 1 Comment »

On Magazines And Magazine Making… A Mr. Magazine™ Common Sense Musing.

February 6, 2015

It does not take a genius to know that there is no magazine media without magazines and if I may add, there are no magazines without ink on paper. Inherent in the definition of the word magazine since 1731, is the fact that it is a printed bound product made from ink and paper.

Magazines were never referred to as such because of the fact that they are ink on paper publications. The name magazine was a descriptive adjective of a collective printed experience that did not need to be identified by the process of printing or the smell of the ink.

It was not until the dawn of online and digital publishing that we tried to outsmart ourselves and attempt to introduce new definitions of what is and what is not a magazine. We started with replicas and ended with a complete revision of the definition of what a magazine is. In this process of unnecessary change folks started to confuse the definition of a magazine with the many new platforms that started arriving on the scene. And with that confusion we started to move our eye away from the prize, the printed magazine, and began to focus on ways and means to replicate or duplicate what we have in print.

Without magazines there is no magazine media. Yes it is true, that magazines alone may not be the “cup of tea” for some of our audiences, but it should not and must not be true to our publishers and media companies who were/are too quick to jump ship and attempt to change the definition of what a magazine or a magazine company is or is not.

When Coca-Cola introduced the non-caffeinated drink Sprite, it did not change the name of the company. When Apple introduced the Mac, it did not change the name of the company. Magazine companies should and must introduce new products and new platforms to their mix of goodies, but they at the same time, should adhere and respect their history and brand name.

Changing the Coke Company to Coke and Sprite does not only dilute the company as a whole, but also introduces confusion into the marketplace. A magazine company that introduces new magazines, new videos, and new apps is still a magazine company. We should take pride in our history as we introduce new products and invent digital components the same way our predecessors invented printed magazines.

When I went to journalism school I was never taught the art of printing. I was taught the art of journalism. I was in the business of filling the pages with great stories and great content for that very specific product that is called a magazine or a newspaper. Never once did I learn anything about the making of ink or the making of paper.

That same creativity and curiosity must be adhered to when we are inventing new products from our magazine companies to the market place. We should not replicate or duplicate any or all of our products. A new medium requires new ways of presenting and engaging our audience. Digital products require digital thinking and digital creativity. Digital does not mean shoving print onto the screens of our digital devices. It is a completely different experience.

Magazines are not dead or dying. Some have committed suicide and some are attempting to do so. But a lot of others are doing very well, thank you. A whole lot more are arriving at the marketplace worldwide. They are not offering nor do they care to offer excuses of why they are arriving in a printed format. They know they are not publishing a magazine if they are not printed, and their audience knows that too…

No one can or should argue that we do not live in a digital age, but just living in a digital age does not mean we have to ignore the other media out there. Digital watches did not kill analog watches. In f act after a few years of digital watches’ advancement on the marketplace, analog watches made a strong, very strong comeback. Magazines are going to do the same.

As I mentioned in my Mr. Magazine™ Manifesto for 2015, pundits are no longer talking about the death of print, but rather the decline of print… Five years from now they will be talking about the power of print, the power of digital and the power of whatever else is going to be invented.

Magazines survived throughout their almost 300 year history because they were always first to innovate, adapt, adjust and engage with their audience and customers without changing their names from a black and white magazine to a four color magazine to a glossy magazine, etc. If we keep that in mind and continue to innovate in print and in the way we interact with our readers and customers we will be celebrating another 300 great years of magazines and magazine making.

Maria Rodale, CEO of Rodale Inc. said it best, “ We as an industry have undervalued our products and overvalued ourselves.”

Amen to that!

Posted in A Mr. Magazine™ Musing, News and Views | 1 Comment »

Jimon – The Man & His Magazine – A Five Year Anniversary Of High Fashion Photography With An Artful Design – The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Jimon Aframian, Editor-In-Chief, Jimon Magazine

February 4, 2015

“The magazine is an outlet. We all need something to inspire us and if it’s going to inspire other people, so much the better. I get emails from people telling me they cry when they look through the magazine or they tense up. And when I read that I say, wow, it’s not just me. There are other people who appreciate what I’m doing.” Jimon Aframian

From photographing beautiful models for Playboy in Europe to starting up his own sleek, oversized high fashion and art magazine; Jimon Aframian is a visionary who refuses to sell his soul to the minions of celebrity success and popularity.

Jimon – the magazine, is celebrating five years of publishing perspective and while Jimon – the man, said that through those years there were many times he had asked himself why he was still doing the magazine, he always found a reason and the tenacity to go on.

The magazine is filled with different photographers’ muses and displays high fashion in an artful and creative way. When he could have bolstered the magazine’s acclaim and public approval by putting well known notables onto the covers and within the magazine’s pages, Jimon chose to stay true to his vision and the content of the magazine.

And by doing so, the magazine – Jimon is a true extension of the man – Jimon and brings clarity and a maxim of genuineness that cannot be ignored. It is a must-have for your coffee table conversation pieces.

Also a must-have is the limited edition, signed book Jimon is publishing of all 10 issues of the magazine that he has produced over the last five years. But as I said, it’s a limited edition and the copies are numbered. So, get your copy reserved quickly. Mr. Magazine™ is definitely looking forward to his. You can order on Jimon’s Facebook page.

I hope you enjoy this lively celebration of five years in the publishing industry with a man who stubbornly believed in his dream and continues to do so today. It’s a Mr. Magazine™ departure into the world of creative genius with Jimon Aframian, Editor-in-Chief, Jimon magazine…

But first, the sound-bites:

On how he came up with the concept of Jimon magazine: I love photography; so I started working on shooting fashion and soon realized that fashion photography was very different from other types of photography. At some point, I ran into the bureaucracy or maybe I should say the editors’ vision, where my views or my ideas were not really what they had in mind. That kind of set me back a while, but then I said to myself: you know what; maybe I’ll just start my own magazine.

On the biggest challenge he was able to overcome when launching the magazine: I would say the financial part of it. I had no idea; they say ignorance is bliss, well; mine was a perfect case of it. If I’d known at the time what it takes, I probably would have never started it.

On the secret to Jimon’s longevity: Ignorance is bliss, but my personality is one where I don’t necessarily give up that easily. As I went along I realized that this game is not a simple one. In other words, you need to build momentum.

On his most pleasant moment during this five year journey: That’s easy. The most pleasant moment for me was in the beginning, after the first and second issue had come out and I would go to the newsstands, anywhere really, in Milan or Paris or London, L.A. or New York and I would see the magazine that I had started sitting next to the magazines that I adored.

On why he decided to do a five year limited edition book of all 10 of the magazines he has published so far: From the beginning when I started doing it, I wanted to have a certain number of copies held back and publish a book. I hadn’t decided if it was going to be done in five or ten years, but at this point I just decided to do it.

On what he has planned for Jimon in the future: There are times when you ask yourself: why are you still doing this? But somehow you find a reason to keep going. And five more years from now, I would be surprised still, because it’s not easy or sustainable, but you do find a way to keep going with it.

On the advice he would give to someone looking to start their own magazine: If you want to start a magazine, a fashion magazine, have some money. You definitely need money. And you need to know every aspect of it yourself, especially if you don’t have any money.

On what keeps him up at night: It’s really not the magazine. (Laughs) I can tell you why it’s not the magazine; if it kept me up at night, I would not be doing it.

And now the lightly edited Mr. Magazine™ conversation with Jimon Aframian, Editor-in-Chief, Jimon magazine…

Samir Husni: Congratulations on reaching this milestone: five years of publishing the magazine Jimon. Could you tell me the story of how you came up with the idea and launched the magazine?

Jimon Aframian: I was a photographer for a number of years and I shot Playboy Europe mainly. And I think it was in 2005 when I decided to do fashion because I figured when I’m 50 or 60 years old, it would not look proper for me to be shooting 18-year-old girls naked, although everyone might think it was cool; I wouldn’t think so. But I figured that I would still want to do fashion.

I love photography; so I started working on shooting fashion and soon realized that fashion photography was very different from other types of photography. It’s not that it’s competitive, it’s more: if you have access, I think. And I really can see that from the photography that’s in the magazines. It doesn’t mean the photography is good, but because you have access a person can pretty much create their own genre. And we see it a lot; it’s very common these days. You can see photographers who decide not to shoot the norm; it’s pretty outside of the box because they’ve done it and have found a following. They get paid for what they’re doing now.

I did some fashion and I was pretty good at doing it in California and I did a lot of fashion photography for different magazines at the time and some for European markets. In Europe things are different obviously, but in L.A. I did pretty well.

At some point, I ran into the bureaucracy or maybe I should say the editors’ vision, where my views or my ideas were not really what they had in mind and they would say that won’t work because they wanted simple stuff that people could relate to or understand. The magazine was a lifestyle magazine that I shot for then. So, I shot for a couple of other magazines, but basically what I had in mind was more of a European style and they just did not go for it.

That kind of set me back a while, but then I said to myself: you know what; maybe I’ll just start my own magazine. So, I did and started contacting new photographers that I knew and they were all interested in working with the magazine and shooting for it.

The toughest part was finding the printer to print the format that I wanted, which was oversized and on a very high quality paper. This is not easily found these days, because a lot of printing companies print digitally. And I needed a company that had a specific printing machine called a Heidelberg; I’m sure you’re familiar with them.

So, I looked around and I found a couple of companies that could basically do what I wanted to do. And that’s pretty much how I got started.

Samir Husni: What was the major stumbling block after you found the right printer, the biggest challenge that you were able to overcome when launching the magazine?

Jimon Aframian: I would say the financial part of it. I had no idea; they say ignorance is bliss, well; mine was a perfect case of it. If I’d known at the time what it takes, I probably would have never started it. And because my background was not in publishing, I was somewhat in the dark. I thought I was going to print a magazine and get advertisers left and right.

Even finding a distributor was very simple because I put a mock-up together and went to a pretty large distributor that carried titles that I adored myself and when they saw my mock-up they said sure, we’ll distribute this. So there was no problem getting a distributor.

Then as soon as the first issue came out I flew to Paris and met with the distributor in Paris and they also picked it up without any problem. I’m sure they had the incentive of not having a lot to do, but still they’re not going to pick something up that is no good. I truly believe that.

Samir Husni: Five years ago your magazine was the exception to the rule. Now we see a host of similar magazines, ones where people are using art/fashion photography to produce magazines. What has kept you going for five years while others after you have already come and gone after one or two issues? What’s the secret of Jiman’s longevity?

Jimon Aframian: I brushed upon this earlier, I think. Ignorance is bliss, but my personality is one where I don’t necessarily give up that easily. As I went along I realized that this game is not a simple one. In other words, you need to build momentum. Just like what you said; a lot of magazines come and go. They do one or two issues because it’s easy.

But to keep doing it over time, it takes a certain personality and the financial part of it is important. I did find some traction in that sense and I did a lot of research. I even went to FIT in New York and did research there because I go every year for fashion week. And I found out how the life of a magazine works. And I looked at other magazines’ histories to see what their progressions were. I found out that some of these magazines were still going strong. Those publications that started in the heyday of fashion magazines were still very popular. There was no internet per se and they struggled for almost ten years before they could really reach a level where they were sustainable.

And then there are the conglomerates. Conglomerates have so many titles they could lose money in. What if they lost money in 50 of them? But they could make money in 200 of their titles. So they distribute them out to keep the name going.

With an independent publisher you have one title and you just somehow have to maintain it the best you can. Everybody thinks that they can start a magazine and make money; I think they’re just hallucinating. (Laughs)

Samir Husni: (Laughs too) So why are you still persevering and publishing the magazine?

Jimon Aframian: It’s art. To me the magazine is really art because I’ve been approached by artists who want to be in it. But maybe I shouldn’t say artists; I have been approached by certain starlets or some of today’s hottest personalities who have had their publicists ask about them appearing on the cover. And I have had to decline and tell them that this is not that type of publication. Just because I believe the magazine is more of an extension of me. I want to make sure that what’s on it and in it is a representation of who I am. Now for example, if I allow Kim Kardashian to be on it or in it that is completely against who I am. And I think she’s been on the cover of enough magazines lately as it is. (Laughs)

Samir Husni: What was the most pleasant moment for you in this five year journey?

Jimon Aframian: That’s easy. The most pleasant moment for me was in the beginning, after the first and second issue had come out and I would go to the newsstands, anywhere really, in Milan or Paris or London, L.A. or New York and I would see the magazine that I had started sitting next to the magazines that I adored. To see my magazine sitting next to them was pretty much all I needed. That was good enough for me. I counted that as done; achieved and ready. (Laughs)

Samir Husni: You have put 10 issues out over the five year period and you just published a collector’s edition with a very limited number of copies signed by you, which contain all 10 copies of the magazine. Why did you decide to do that?

Jimon Aframian: From the beginning I had this plan. You make a number of copies and you distribute them to the newsstands, Barnes & Noble and overseas. And either they send some back to you or they destroy the extras.

But from the beginning when I started doing it, I wanted to have a certain number of copies held back and publish a book. I hadn’t decided if it was going to be done in five or ten years, but at this point I just decided to do it. But I should have kept some more back for a tenth year book too.

Samir Husni: If you and I are having another conversation ten years from now; what do you envision yourself telling me?

Jimon Aframian: There are times when you ask yourself: why are you still doing this? But somehow you find a reason to keep going. And five more years from now, I would be surprised still, because it’s not easy or sustainable, but you do find a way to keep going with it.

But then again, you’re not willing to sell your soul and you could sell your soul easily. And I refuse to do that.

Samir Husni: What advice would you give the new generation of photographers and journalists? What would you tell someone who came to you and said: Jiman, I love what you’ve done with your magazine; what advice can you give me about my own career?

Jimon Aframian: Going back to when you asked me about my most pleasant moment; there was another moment that I was really pleased by, which was when the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena invited me to come and speak to their graduating class. They have asked me twice so far. I haven’t been able to go because I have been so busy, but they would invite me to come and talk to their graduating class. They had seen the magazine and they couldn’t believe that it was being produced in L.A. They contacted me and wanted to me to talk to their graduating class in photography. And I was very pleased by that. To me that said that I was doing something right. I might have done a lot of things wrong (Laughs), but I had done something right for sure.

And going back to your question: I would have told each of the students to have a portfolio and find out what they want to do. A lot of people don’t really know what they want. They have no idea what’s out there, but that’s a good thing in this case, because if they did know, they might run away, especially in fashion photography.

The problem is the digital camera because everybody thinks they’re a photographer when they have a camera in their hand. And that’s not the case. A photographer needs to know how to frame something, even if it’s a teapot. And most people don’t know that. And you go to school and you can’t learn that. It’s inherent. It’s something that’s inside you. A person can learn a lot by going to school; you can expose your talent by going to school, but if you don’t know how to do it, it would be really hard on the photographer. You’d probably become a mediocre photographer at best. I would also tell them to keep shooting every day.

Now what would I tell somebody who wants to start a magazine? Or someone who wants to be a fashion photographer?

Samir Husni: How about both? You answered for the photography aspect, but what about starting a magazine?

Jimon Aframian: If you want to start a magazine, a fashion magazine, have some money. You definitely need money. And you need to know every aspect of it yourself, especially if you don’t have any money. If you don’t have money and you’re determined to go and start a magazine, then you need too many people working for you. You have to hire an art director, an editor, a copy editor, a graphic designer, and these people will want money. And if you don’t have the money, it becomes almost impossible. So, you really do need to know a lot yourself.

Besides that, find a niche. You have to have a niche. It could be anything. I went for art and high fashion. And then just do it. Put a mock-up together and go out and do it.

There were stages before I started the magazine… you’re familiar with the magazine called Stern from Germany?

Samir Husni: Yes, I am.

Jimon Aframian: They would show one photographer’s work in each issue, for example. My original thinking was to do something similar to that, but I slept on it for a couple of years and I decided that might be a bit monotonous for me and not work. And that’s why I changed my idea to making a more collaborative effort with five or six photographers in each issue and a few artists.

So, they need to find some sort of theme and let it evolve, because it will evolve. A lot of people will send them a lot of things, but they need to listen and take note of things around them. Some things work and some do not.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Jimon Aframian: It’s really not the magazine. (Laughs) I can tell you why it’s not the magazine; if it kept me up at night, I would not be doing it. The magazine, like everything else in life, can be tough. I don’t have children, but I see my brothers and sisters children, and with having kids, there are tough moments, but also a lot of good moments.

So, the magazine is like that. It has a lot of good moments and it brings a lot of good to my life. It’s definitely not the magazine that keeps me up at night.

The magazine is an outlet. We all need something to inspire us and if it’s going to inspire other people, so much the better. I get emails from people telling me they cry when they look through the magazine or they tense up. And when I read that I say, wow, it’s not just me. There are other people who appreciate what I’m doing. And you’re not an artist until other people admire your work. If you’re the only one admiring your own work, you’re a hobbyist, not an artist.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

Posted in A Launch Story..., News and Views, The Mr. Magazine™ Interview | Leave a Comment »

Magazine Power In One, Two, Three Mr. Magazine™ Musings…

January 27, 2015

The Power of the Black Cover

I picked up three magazines recently that I love to follow and read on a regular basis: Essence, The Advocate and Oklahoma Today. The content of these magazines is always stellar and the designs stunning, but my attention this time around was seized by more than the usual attributes these great titles bring to the table. This time I noticed that the covers were all done in black; spectacularly simplistic black.

In addition to the striking approach in design of these covers, the magazines all shared another common denominator that couldn’t be denied: a relevant and important message to their readers.

For Essence and Oklahoma Today, the message is delivered via special issues, while The Advocate dons its black tails for its February/March edition, but whether special or frequency, the impact and power of the print covers is unmistakable. All three grab the customer from the confines of the newsstand, wrestle him or her down, and show the reader the necessity of buying that issue. The dynamic consequences of covers in print emerge in the manifestation of commanded respect of the magazine and its vital information and a deep and abiding satisfaction for the reader. The special message the cover announces not only resonates with the audience, but with media as a whole and does it unlike any other platform out there.

Long live the power of the magazine cover!

“Make It” a Magazine, Please

It seems lately there is a common thread weaving its way through some of the titles of new magazines. And with this thread, I may have discovered the secret to the successful naming of a multitude of newborn ink on paper. If so, the ramifications could impact the entire publishing industry. And maybe even Mr. Magazine™ might try his hand at putting out a new title; maybe.

It would appear that two words are all it takes to conceptualize a new magazine in today’s media world “Make It.”

Make It Over
Make It Vintage
Make It Patchwork
Make It Organized…just to name a few of the more recent titles.

The secret formula works like this: Verb+Subject+whatever-your-mind-can-conjure-up. Here are some ideas I’ve been playing with:

Make It Real
Make It Big
Make It Print
Make It Necessary
Make It Relevant
Make It Audience First…OK – it’s apparent Mr. Magazine™ should quickly add the ™ mark to those titles before some folks snatch them for their own use.

Now, I’m not saying the “Make It” trend is a bad thing, just an idea that has suddenly become like a revolving door with many different scenarios parading in and out of it. Remember the phrase discretion is the better part of valor?

Make It Carefully, please!

Will Facebook have an 80th Birthday?

Longevity is something we’re all looking for; longevity plus good health. How many of us do not want to last for 100 years as long as we can stay in fantastic health?

Magazines are no exception. And there are some out there who have the staying power and stamina of a redwood. Here are some celebratory anniversary issues:

Alternative Press – 30th anniversary
Big City Rhythm & Blues – 20th anniversary
Country Woman – 45th anniversary
Easy Riders – 500th issue
Savannah – 25th anniversary
Interview – 45th anniversary
The Backwoodsman – 35th anniversary
Yankee Magazine – 80th anniversary

In media, magazines definitely have proven themselves when it comes to their staying power; the above titles are testament to that. No other medium can tout an 80th anniversary anything that I know of. No television show, radio program or website, for that matter. Trying to imagine the Internet having anything that remotely outlasts the latest edition of Good Housekeeping is very difficult.

Will Facebook have an 80th anniversary? Or Snapchat? Or Instagram? Or any other platform’s contribution to media? Mr. Magazine™ is going out on a limb here and saying: highly doubtful.

So, let’s celebrate the durability and endurance of these wonderfully-aged titles, because while they do have a few years on them, their content and designs are timeless.

Until the next Mr. Magazine™ Musing…

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The Buzz Factor: Mr. Magazine™ Monday Morning

January 26, 2015

The current issue of Mr. Magazine™ Monday Morning is out. This week’s content includes my interviews with Buzz Kanter, publisher of TAM Communications, Ryan Waterfield, co-founder of BigLife magazine, and Tim Kidwell, editor of Drone360 magazine.

The issue also includes my commentary from Jan. 2013 about magazines and music and where the M is where the similarities end.

To read this issue click here, and to receive Mr. Magazine™ Monday Morning free every week click here.

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The Buzz Factor: A Man Who Knows His Niche & Strongly Believes In Print. The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Buzz Kanter – Publisher, TAM Communications

January 26, 2015

“We keep hearing: print is dead, print is dead. Well, no, print is not dead. What’s happening is it’s shifting and the people who are on the internet, it’s in their best interests to promote the internet over print and they’re saying it as loud as they can.” Buzz Kanter

Buzz Kanter is a third generation print publisher (TAM Communications) and a man who knows his own mind when it comes to the things he believes we can do as an industry to grow our audience and breathe new life back into the print component of magazine media. His grandfather founded Classics Illustrated (comics) in the 1940s. His father worked for him and then left and grew what evolved into Penny Press/Dell puzzle magazines. Buzz worked for him for years and then started TAM Communications (as the thesis for his MBA in 1989). He now runs TAM Communications and its stable of magazines. Along with the reborn RoadBike to Motorcycle Rides & Culture, his list of niche magazines is impressive:

• American Iron Magazine
• American Iron Garage
• Motorcycle Bagger
• Motorcycle magazine
• Classic American Iron forum

With a redesign that lead to over 40% growth in readership and an increase in his magazine frequency to seven times per year instead of just six, his former RoadBike magazine was reborn into Motorcycle Rides & Culture about a year ago. And the response from readers has been phenomenal as the numbers prove.

Motorcycle Rides & Culture shares long-form articles and more exciting art and graphics that appeal to the thinking rider looking for more. And, based on the more than 40% growth in readership in the first year, the “Buzz Kanter” formula appears to be working.

I spoke with Buzz recently and we talked about the industry and the practice of discounting subscription prices to gain more readers, which he believes is not the answer. We talked about enthusiast magazines, such as his and their past, and we talked about the future and how print isn’t dead, no matter what the internet phantoms shout.

So, I hope you enjoy this very special conversation with a man who has a straightforward and clear focus on the future of print media. Sit back, relax and enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Buzz Kanter, Publisher, TAM Communications.

But first, the sound-bites:

On why he thinks his formula is working: I can’t speak for news magazines because I think that’s a whole different issue. But I can speak for special interest and enthusiast publications and I believe there is still plenty of room for them in print.

On whether he believes it’s the system that’s broken and not ink on paper: I don’t think it’s black and white. There are a lot of different elements involved. We keep hearing: print is dead, print is dead. Well, no, print is not dead. What’s happening is it’s shifting and the people who are on the internet, it’s in their best interests to promote the internet over print and they’re saying it as loud as they can.

On how he responds to someone shouting: print is dead: The easy thing to do is create shock value and tell them: no, print is not dead, I’m still in business and we’re doing OK, we’re paying our bills and we’re growing our product.

On the specifics of the Buzz formula: The “Buzz” formula? (Laughs) My feeling is if a print magazine is just a print version of a digital website; why bother?

On his future publishing plans: For Motorcycle Rides & Culture we went from 6 issues last year to 7 issues this year. If our growth continues and we get the support from our readers and advertisers, then we’ll continue to increase frequency.

On the outcome of the digital piracy of his magazines: I think the company was called Issuu. Someone pointed out that my magazines were being offered free to whoever signed up with Issuu, without permission from us and they were current issues, not any they pulled out from the past. We go there once a month or so and check and the onus is on us. We’re not finding our magazines, but we’re finding enormous numbers of magazines out there.

On a major stumbling block he anticipates facing: I would say the biggest challenge we have is uncertainty of the future. And if I had a really good answer for that, I’d be calling you from my yacht in the Bahamas right now. (Laughs)

On his most pleasant moment in publishing: It’s very rewarding to produce a product that you’re proud of and that brings value to your audience. And I hope that doesn’t sound cliché.

On facts he’d like to add: I certainly hope that magazine publishers stop doing foolish things that impact the industry. I think some of them are drawn on us and I think some of them are drawn to us and by us.

On what keeps him up at night: As a third generation publisher, I question if there is going to be a viable industry for my children to become a 4th generation publisher. And if so, what’s it going to look like?

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ conversation with Buzz Kanter, Publisher, TAM Communications…

Samir Husni: You’re a third generation print person. Why do you think you’re bucking the trends, doing better and enhancing your print product, while others are declining?

Buzz Kanter: I can’t speak for news magazines because I think that’s a whole different issue. But I can speak for special interest and enthusiast publications and I believe there is still plenty of room for them in print.

The problems are pretty widespread and they cross a lot of different areas. The three main revenue streams are single copy, subscriptions and advertising. And all three of them are under attack. Some of the attacks we’re bringing on ourselves and some of them the market is bringing to us. With single copy, the biggest challenge is that the wholesale system is badly flawed and for the most part the magazine wholesalers that are controlling it, and the national distributors that are banking it, are trying to apply the same solutions that haven’t worked for decades. Isn’t that the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

I hate to say it, but what’s happening is the wholesalers are asking the publishers to subsidize their inefficiencies, rather than finding better ways or smarter solutions. They’re saying that this is the best that they can do and if you want them to carry your product, you’re going to have to pay them more money.

So, the single copy is a distribution issue; it’s not a demand issue or a product issue, it’s predominantly a financial distribution challenge. The wholesalers are basically cannibalizing each other and expecting someone else to subsidize them and make them whole. And it’s a very, very dangerous game because they’re getting farther and farther extended to where the publishers are saying, “You know what, it’s more economical to put an even cheaper price on subscriptions than to deal with the single copy system.”

Samir Husni: Do you believe then that it’s the system that’s broken and not the ink on paper product itself?

Buzz Kanter: I don’t think it’s black and white. There are a lot of different elements involved. We keep hearing: print is dead, print is dead. Well, no, print is not dead. What’s happening is it’s shifting and the people who are on the internet, it’s in their best interests to promote the internet over print and they’re saying it as loud as they can.

What I find is that people don’t have as much free time or better stated they’re finding ways to use whatever free time they might have. How often have you been out in public and seen people standing at a bus stop or sitting in a restaurant looking at their cell phones? That used to be free time, where they would socialize, converse, think or observe, but now if people have a minute to spare, they pull out their cell phones and go on Facebook or check the stock market, read the latest news or whatever it is they’re doing with their cell phones.

What’s happening is these portable devices are vacuuming up all the spare time. And if that’s the case and it becomes a habit, and it is, I think; then how do you find time to sit down with a print magazine or a book? And I think that’s the issue.

Samir Husni: And we, as the magazine industry, are also to blame because we jumped onto that bandwagon wholeheartedly.

Buzz Kanter: Yes.

Samir Husni: Every time someone tells you either print is in decline or print is dead and you’re living the print process, producing a magazine and increasing circulation; how do you respond to that? What is the reality check?

Buzz Kanter: I guess it depends on what kind of mood I’m in at the time and who the person is I’m talking to. But the easy thing to do is create shock value and tell them: no, print is not dead, I’m still in business and we’re doing OK, we’re paying our bills and we’re growing our product.

What’s happening is most people are parodying what they hear, not necessarily what they’ve thought through carefully. And I think that’s not unusual. Print is not dead; there are still an awful lot of people reading newspapers and buying books and magazines. Go to an airport and look at how many people are on their tablets versus those actually reading magazines and books. Then what happens when you’re in the airplane and you don’t have Wi-Fi? Some people are reading off of Kindles and Nooks or whatever.

So, is print dead? No. Will it become more and more unusual with each generation? Yes, I think so. As the portable devices become better and easier to use, I think they will cut into it, as they already have.

It’s interesting; I talked to some of our advertisers and a number of them a couple of years ago would say, we’re cutting back our print advertising and going to the internet. We’d ask: what will you do on the internet? And they’d say, I don’t know, we’ve just been told we have to be there. We’d ask: how are you going to market there? And they’d respond, I don’t know, but I’m told I have to have a website. I’m told I have to have an internet presence. We’d ask: how are people going to find you? And they’d say, I don’t know. It didn’t matter what our ad department said, these people had to be on the internet and they had a limited ad budget which they’d pulled from print and went to online. Well, once that happened, everyone said print is dead because the advertisers were leaving. Many of the advertisers were leaving, but they didn’t know why or how.

And in the last year they’re starting to come back. They’re saying they tried the internet and it didn’t work. They got lost in the huge volume of data out there. Many of them are now coming back and saying, “Your magazine is focused and aimed at my audience, people who use my products and services.” And many of them are now coming back and pulling their dollars out of the internet because they found it was just overwhelming, whereas we can give them a targeted audience.

Samir Husni: You have a specific niche. Your magazines target a very definitive audience. Your magazine has increased readership, advertising and frequency to 7 times a year; what’s your secret? What’s the “Buzz” formula that’s making this happen?

Buzz Kanter: The “Buzz” formula? (Laughs) My feeling is if a print magazine is just a print version of a digital website; why bother? We can’t do it as well as the websites. I’m seeing a lot of enthusiast publications forcing over a print version of its website. Heavy on the graphics, lots of pictures, lots of charts and graphs, pulled quotes, little factoids and not much meat or substance. And my feeling is the people who pick up the magazine want some substance, they want a good read. If there is an article about something they’re interested in; the reason they bought the magazine in the first place, they don’t want to read five paragraphs and see three photographs like you would on a website.

The delivery of content in print should be more in depth, exciting and interesting for them to sit down for a half hour or an hour to read the article in a magazine. The internet is fabulous for quick information. Does it come in blue? Can I get one overnighted to me? Those types of things are great for the internet. But I personally don’t want to sit down and read a 3,000 word article online. I want to read that in print.

So what we did with our magazine called RoadBike; originally, it was a pretty good general interest magazine about motorcycles, but it couldn’t get traction. Rather than fold it, which we were considering, I said that I wanted to publish a long-form journalism magazine with terrific art and give the articles and the photography all the space they need, rather than try and squeeze it down and condense it like a website. I said let’s try it. If it works great; if not, we can always pull the plug if we have to. Something I was hoping not to have to do.

We renamed it Motorcycle Rides & Culture. Now, I suspected those were good search engine optimization words. (Laughs) But meanwhile, it also tells the reader what the magazine is in print. And instead of putting in 30 short articles in one magazine, we cut it down to 8 or 10 longer articles, with lots of great photos, information, and emotional content and knowing it’s in print and the people who still buy print, we threw in certain cultural things. We have some artists every issue who are involved in the motorcycle world. They might be a painter or a sculptor or a photographer; we do unusual cultural pieces involving motorcycles, beyond the Hollywood bikers and outlaw stuff.

And it seems to have resonated. We’re up 46% year over year. Our newsstand and subscriptions are climbing. I just received a report recently from Wal-Mart, which is the largest seller of magazines in America. And even though we did 6 issues last year; annually we were the 6th bestselling motorcycle magazine in there, outselling several of them that come out monthly, twice the frequency of ours. On an annualized basis, we’re outselling them.

Samir Husni: What’s the plan for the future? Anything up and coming you’d like to share with us?

Buzz Kanter: For Motorcycle Rides & Culture we went from 6 issues last year to 7 issues this year. If our growth continues and we get the support from our readers and advertisers, then we’ll continue to increase frequency. My feeling is we’re going to move this gradually. If we make a misstep, we want to have time to fix it.

I wish I had a crystal ball, I really do. If I knew where the media industry would be in 3 or 4 years, I’d be way ahead of the curve. But at this point I’m producing a product that we’re all proud of and that the consumers are responding to and we’ll continue to do that. We just have to stay flexible.

One thing we will not do and I’m seeing more and more of this, is the aggressive discounting of subscriptions. Many, many years ago I learned a lesson when I was watching some competitive titles, one was called Cycle and the other was Cycle World, and this was back in the 70s, and then ended up being owned by the same publishing company. And both of them were in a war to build subscriptions. It was a race in pricing and they were getting cheaper and cheaper. Then, as I said, they ended up with the same publisher and then the ad market dropped down. So they had this massive subscription liability with no ad revenue and no sub-revenue. One ended up inhaling the other one and they merged together. It took them years to get financially stable again.

My feeling is I never want to sacrifice the future of the magazine by using aggressive subscription discounts. If the advertising declines, then you’re left holding the bag. I think it’s a very dangerous place to be.

One of the things that we try to do is instead of making money on the newsstands; we try to make money on subscriptions and advertising. Even if it’s a break-even or a small profit, and that way we’re less susceptible to market shifts that could be fatal.

Samir Husni: If my memory serves me right, you tweeted once, and linked me and others to the Tweet, about a certain entity lifting your magazine and putting it onto a digital device without your permission. How did that turn out?

Buzz Kanter: I think the company was called Issuu. Someone pointed out that my magazines were being offered free to whoever signed up with Issuu, without permission from us and they were current issues, not any they pulled out from the past. So we contacted them. We had our intellectual property lawyers contact them and tell them to cease and desist. And they wrote back basically saying they were just a platform and not a policing agency and if we didn’t want our product on their platform, it was our responsibility to identify them and bring it to their attention and they would remove them. They said they were a type of YouTube for magazines, where YouTube isn’t responsible for whatever postings are there.

We go there once a month or so and check and the onus is on us. We’re not finding our magazines, but we’re finding enormous numbers of magazines out there.

Samir Husni: So, who’s posting those magazines; who is putting them on the platform?

Buzz Kanter: I couldn’t say, but many of them seem to be coming from overseas and it’s similar to YouTube. And I don’t know what the motivation is. I could understand if a publisher needed to bolster the circulation numbers or get more responses for advertisers, they could use that as a marketing tool. But I don’t know why someone would do it to my magazines without our permission or knowledge.

Samir Husni: Besides that major problem with the digital devices accessing your property without permission; what is the biggest stumbling block you can see or envision facing TAM and your publications and how do you plan to overcome it?

Buzz Kanter: That’s a good question. I would say the biggest challenge we have is uncertainty of the future. And if I had a really good answer for that, I’d be calling you from my yacht in the Bahamas right now. (Laughs)

As you know, I’m a third generation print publisher. I remember my grandfather’s biggest challenge was movies and black and white TV. They were told that TV sets in the house were going to kill magazines. And yet magazines survived.

My father’s business was Penny Press. His biggest challenge was cable. And they said that magazines weren’t going to survive cable television. And yet he survived the naysayers.

Now my generation has been told the internet is going to kill magazines. And while it’s definitely having its effect on magazines, it’s certainly not killing them. As long as there is a demand for quality print publications, there will be clever publishers who will figure out ways to financially succeed in delivering that content. The challenge is identifying the efficient ways to do that and then growing them. A lot of people are trying a lot of things now, some are putting them online and some aren’t. We have to keep our eyes opened and be flexible because the rules are changing.

Samir Husni: And to go in the opposite direction; what has been the most pleasant moment in your publishing experience so far?

Buzz Kanter: Other than talking to you today?

Samir Husni: (Laughs) Yes, other than that.

Buzz Kanter: It’s very rewarding to produce a product that you’re proud of and that brings value to your audience. And I hope that doesn’t sound cliché. I started my first motorcycle magazine in 1989 and it was out of a spare bedroom in my house. It was basically a classified ad magazine for old motorcycles and parts. This was before the internet, before Craig’s List or eBay or anything, and I launched it because I was rebuilding and riding old motorcycles and I couldn’t find a source for parts and information. In my youth, back in ’89, I started this magazine. It never really amounted to much, but it gave me a platform to then grow my business into enthusiast’s books.

To this day I have people say: wow, Old Bike Journal, yes I love it. I bought a bike here, the parts there. It’s very rewarding to hear how it helped people with similar interests to mine. I still get a kick out of meeting readers who say they read something in my magazine or they thank me and tell me how something in it helped them. It just made my passions that much stronger and better.

As a publisher of an enthusiast magazine, it’s wonderful to get feedback from people saying that what we do makes a difference.

Samir Husni: Anything you’d like to add?

Buzz Kanter: I certainly hope that magazine publishers stop doing foolish things that impact the industry. I think some of them are drawn on us and I think some of them are drawn to us and by us. These deeply discounted subscription deals are silly. Flooding product into the newsstand racks that has little chance of selling is silly. Too many publishers’ long-term strategies are I can hold my breath longer than my competitor. And I think that’s both dangerous and foolish.

Samir Husni: I agree, but sometimes you feel as though you’re a profit in the wilderness.

Buzz Kanter: I’m used to people telling me that I’m nuts or that it makes sense, but it’ll never happen. I spoke on a PBAA panel years ago and I said the future of our industry is to sell more copies of fewer magazines and that we’re pushing too much product through a system that can’t handle it. And everyone basically told me I was nuts.

Years later I gave basically the same presentation and everyone told me I was brilliant. But nothing has really happened. How can we justify distributing product that doesn’t meet some minimum criteria of sales efficiency or profitability.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Buzz Kanter: Really good television shows? (Laughs) As a third generation publisher, I question if there is going to be a viable industry for my children to become a 4th generation publisher. And if so, what’s it going to look like?

Samir Husni: Thank you.

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