Mr. Magazine

As reported in Folio earlier today, my plans to create a center devoted to the study of magazines in particular and print in general is one step closer to reality. The Magazine Innovation Center will become a reality on August 15 of this year. I have decided to devote the remaining years of my professional career to study the medium which I cherish and trust that it still has a great future regardless of the doom and gloom that surrounds it in today’s marketplace. The Magazine Innovation Center will have one major goal in mind: Amplify the future and power of print and its place in the media realm of the 21st Century. MIC’s mission and structure is described in the following outline:

Mission
The Magazine Innovation Center (a not for profit organization) is an international collaboration between the best thinkers in publishing, printing, advertising and distribution. MIC seeks to generate focused innovation in magazines and other print media. As an industry, we employ the world’s great minds. The Center will channel their creativity and intellect (away from the grinds of everyday work and challenges) to provide blueprints for productive change.

Goals
MIC will catalyze innovation in order to ensure a thriving future for magazines and the print industry. The Center plans to offer a wide spectrum of perspectives inside and outside of print media.

Open Source Thinking
Each year groups of experts will be brought to the Center to participate in extensive and visionary programs. They will be afforded the time and resources needed to create practical guidelines and directions for the future success of print. Results will be distributed worldwide.

Smart Money
MIC will seek a rapid-start fund of $1 million to address the most pressing issues. A fully funded endowment will be required to maintain MIC over the long-term and to finance continual interchange and development of productive strategies.

Structure
The Center will be under the directorship of Samir A. Husni with a board of directors that will guide, navigate and oversee the work of MIC. These directors will include leaders in the fields of publishing, printing, advertising and distribution; they will be instrumental in helping to identify key issues that affect the growth and health of our industry.
Another group of advisors at MIC will be responsible for seeking out talents who have innovative ideas and spark. These forward-thinking individuals will comprise the proactive energy behind the collaborative efforts of the center.

The support for MIC, since I wrote the first mention about it, has been overwhelming. I welcome your support and I look forward to your involvement. Print is not dead and the MIC will be the candle that lights the way for our future in the midst of the darkness that surrounds us. For more info or to be included on MIC’s e mail list please drop me an e mail at samir.husni@gmail.com

Stay tuned for more information about MIC.

In a survey polling 316 people ranging in age from 12 to 72, The Rosen Group, a New York City based Public Relations firm, found that “the vast majority of adult consumers still consider the print editions of these publications indispensable sources of news and entertainment.” In fact the survey found that

Nearly 80 percent of respondents still subscribe to magazines and the vast majority (83 percent) find that daily newspapers are still relevant.
Despite a pronounced move toward online news consumption, respondents still believe news is fit to print. When asked if newspapers and magazines will exist in 10 years, nearly half of those surveyed (45 percent) said yes, while 40 percent remained uncertain.
“People are looking online for news and lifestyle information, but they are not abandoning their print editions,” said Lori Rosen, founder and president of The Rosen Group. “There is still a certain satisfaction and ease to holding printed text in your hands, and PDAs or PCs will not replace this just yet.” Among the evidence: Even though the public can’t ignore the burgeoning blogosphere, nearly 60 percent of those surveyed agree that the information found on blogs is not credible.

The survey also found that:

* Thirty percent cite Web sites devoted to news as their top source for updates; 66 percent say that they are among their daily news sources.
* Only 18 percent say that a print newspaper is their first stop for news, but 55 percent of respondents still look at newspapers on any given day. Fifty-three percent still subscribe to the print version of a newspaper.
* When it comes to leisure time, print magazines and Web sites tied for first as a leading entertainment source (26 percent). Only seven percent seek out their favorite magazines online.
* Sixty-five percent of respondents find weekly news magazines relevant.

The results of the survey are clear. Print is still an important and major player in the life of people. The key is to provide the relevant content in print. News and ink-on-paper may no longer be the most relevant content for our papers and magazines. However content that takes the “searching surfing” audience and turns it to a “critically thinking” audience is and will continue to be the essence of print and its future.

Studies like the one above conducted by The Rosen Group and the forth coming Magazine Innovation Center, are but the first steps in the journey of the one thousand miles to amplify the future of print. Stay tuned and thanks Lori Rosen for this timely study.

JPG and 8020 media received a new lease on life. Mitch Fox the outgoing President and CEO of the company announced the sale of 8020 Media in a e-mail to all friends of JPG earlier today. Fox said

After a hectic 47 days, hundreds, maybe thousands, of emails and countless hours on the phone and in meetings, I am delighted to report that the assets of 8020 Publishing, LLC have been acquired by 8020 Media, Inc., a new company formed by a group of private investors, represented by Brandon Calder, for the purpose of executing on the unique vision that led to the creation of JPG Magazine, jpgmag.com and everywheremag.com. We are also pleased to announce that Adorama Camera Inc., a renowned leader in photography has reached a multi-year agreement to be JPG’s Premier Community Partner and will also become minority owner of the new company.

In this difficult economic climate, business transactions take patience, finesse, intelligence and imagination, and we were lucky enough to find all these qualities in the unique group that brought this deal together. Above all, the new owners are able to see the immense promise that these properties hold to re-invent the media model and truly put the voice of the medium in the hands of its community.

Fox’s role at the company is also changing. He wrote,

My role, too, is changing, as I am handing the reins of the company over to my colleague, Mr. Seth Familian, who will become President and CEO of 8020 Media, Inc. As the key driver behind our digital innovation for the past year, Seth has proven to be an exceptionally capable new media leader.

For those who have missed the saga of JPG and 8020 Media click here, here and here to refresh your memory. To read my interview with Mitch Fox click here.

What is wrong with this picture? Earlier this month I received the following press release from the folks at Hallmark magazine:

Hallmark Magazine’s February/March ’09 issue, on newsstands beginning today, is up 53% in paging and 37% in revenue when compared with the same 2008 issue. Those numbers are not typos. In this economy, when many publishers are managing layoffs, cutbacks and advertising discounts, Hallmark Magazine’s Carol Campbell Boggs continues to leverage the power of the Hallmark halo to tremendous effect.

New advertisers in the February/March issue include: Pfizer, Sony, Novartis and PBS with new business from P&G, GSK and Hormel. The issue also represents the first with the rate base increase to 800,000 — a 100% increase since the magazine’s fall 2006 launch. This sustained growth is certainly cause for celebration within Hallmark; it’s also a marked success in the publishing industry during a time of major transition.

And, as indicated in the 2008 year-end PIB report, Hallmark Magazine is one of the few to finish the year ahead – and one of only a handful of magazines enjoying double-digit growth!

Today I received the news that Hallmark magazine is no longer going to be published. Folio magazine quoted Hallmark president and CEO Donald J. Hall Jr., saying that

“the decision to stop publishing the magazine was reached after a “comprehensive analysis” of the overall magazine industry.

“Despite favorable consumer acceptance of the publication, we cannot justify continued investment in the magazine at a time when we must focus our efforts and resources only on those projects that will lead to long-term profitable revenue growth for the company,” he said.

The magazine’s 28 employees have been laid off, the company said. In addition, 10 Kansas City, Missouri-based positions in the company’s creative division will be eliminated.

How on earth can you justify a magazine that is growing both in advertising and circulation is being shuttered? Very simple, it means that the magazine was not making any money from circulation and at the same time it brings to question the revenues coming from advertising. Is it heavy discounts or give-a-ways? Who knows? One thing I know for sure is that the American publishing model is DEAD. It is time to reinvent the publishing model. It is time to charge the readers the price of the magazines. It is time for innovation in print and in the American publishing model. Stop giving away your pages and your content on a silver platter with no real price. Now is the time for change. A change that will not take us from print to the web, but rather a change that will create a new publishing model incorporating both print and the web. A model that uses content and the concept of selling content as its basic corner stone. We MUST stopping giving our content and our pages for free or close to free. It is a shame (I can’t think of any other word) when a successful (or so we were told a few weeks ago) magazine like Hallmark is forced to shut down. We need to search for a cure for the ills of our industry. Every venue is sick. An over the counter medicine is not going to be enough. Our illnesses are grave, but they are not terminal if we innovate. We have to invent new medicines to cure the ills of our industry, all venues of our industry. The publishing model, the distribution model, the pricing model and the staffing model. We have to innovate and to create new ways of doing publishing. If we claim to be creative people (journalists, marketers, analysts, designers) now is the time to put our money where our mouth is.

In the next few days, I will be taking the first humble step toward the formation of a new center dealing with magazine and print innovation. The center will be called Magazine Innovation Center (MIC) and will focus on amplifying the future of print. I will need all the help that I can get from all the folks in our industry, here and abroad. We need to innovate. We need to create and be creative. Stay tuned for more details later.

It has been over five years since I first suggested the crazy idea of charging people for the content that we create. I wrote a book called “Selling Content” to illustrate that very point. I have written articles and blogs preaching the importance of charging for our content if we are to survive. In most cases it fell on deaf ears or on those who were quick to tell me why it will never work. Moving from a business that count customers to a business that find customers who count should be the essence of our new publishing model.
Well, tomorrow, TIME magazine runs a cover story on How to Save Your Newspaper by Walter Isaacson. The article by Isaacson states that the way magazines and newspapers are dispensing their content for free makes no sense. He says, “This is not a business model that makes sense.” I say, Amen. Read the entire article by Walter Isaacson here. The irony of course, is that I am doing the opposite of what Mr. Isaacson and I are preaching: letting you read the article for free.