Newsweek Magazine is on sale now. Not just the newsstand copies but the whole darn thing — publication, trademarks, staff et al. The Washington Post Company, which has owned the title since 1961, admits that the venerable newsweekly has been losing money since 2007; time to move on.
The plight of Newsweek underscores the dilemma facing publishers everywhere: in an era where news itself is free, nearly instantaneous and universally distributed via the wah-wah-wah, can print-based publishers add enough value (both in perception and reality) that consumers will continue to plunk down hard-earned currency for extended analysis and informed commentary?
We think they will, but oh boy, the quality of the content has never been so important. Please note, we don’t necessarily mean intellectually rigorous (although that’d be nice). Sometimes we’re talking about “quality” as applied to quirky trivia, celebrityhood and many of those other facile but fascinating reports. Consumers don’t gobble up magazine articles about Brangelina because they’re so well written — other imperatives are at play (and it would take a whole Dr Phil programme to figure out what those are and how they can be cured).
Newsweek, like its longtime competitor Time Magazine, is all about contextualising the news — explaining WHY something is important, not just that it is so. Any billionaire who picks up the right to publish the esteemed news magazine will need to understand that if the outflow of cash is to be staunched.v
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While some newspapers globally are agonising over the killing fields of the internet and whether paywalls can solve the problem of fiscal death by click, others have joined magazines in a whole new approach to the digital dilemma: add online readers into your total circulation base and charge advertisers for all of them.
America’s Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has just modified its definition of a digital magazine in the U.S. and Canada to accommodate new reading devices such as the Apple iPad.
The new standards state that a replica digital edition must include a print edition’s full editorial content and advertising, but it no longer needs to be presented in a layout identical to the print version. Replica digital editions will continue to be included in a magazine’s circulation guarantee, or rate base.
Predictably, Wired magazine was the first publication to seek review of its iPad version, which will qualify as a digital replica edition under the bureau’s new guidelines. GQ has offered an ABC approved replica app for the iPhone and iPod Touch since December 2009.
Last week the ABC board gave its initial approval to the creation of new U.S. reports that better reflect a publication’s total audience across a range of products. As a result, publishers may begin reporting such items as:
- E-reader distribution averages
- Mobile app purchases
- Total paid and verified circulation emanating from multiple products, including branded print editions associated with the flagship publications.
- A new “Publishing Plan” executive summary box on the first page, noting frequency, delivery platforms, and distribution methods across a publisher’s various print and electronic editions.
- Continued use of Audience-FAX, the 2007 initiative that allows U.S. publications to report print and online readership figures, as well as Web site and audience data from comScore, Nielsen Online, Omniture, or other sources audited by ABC Interactive.
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Posted by: Michael Carney Tags: condé nast magazines, gq, iPhone, iPod Touch, itunes, mags, modern bride, rupert murdoch, si newhouse, steve jobs, wall street journal
That little problem that Rupert Murdoch has — the one about the Internet tearing his business plan to shreds?
Perhaps he should have a chat to Steve Jobs about selling newspapers through iTunes.
Clearly Si Newhouse (publisher of Condé Nast magazines) has been having a word or two with the reality-distortion-meister. Lo and behold, hot on the heels of the closure of Condé Nast titles Gourmet and Modern Bride comes the news that GQ is going mobile from its November “Men of the Year” issue.
Condé Nast has announced it has developed a mobile app that offers users an exact replica of its print mags in online form, starting with GQ. The free app is made for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and issues of GQ will be available for $2.99 in the iTunes App Store on the same release date as the print issue. Ads will appear as they do in the print version, but will also offer more interactivity as video, e-commerce and linking capability are all enabled as part of the new app.
Okay, it may be a challenge fitting the Wall Street Journal layout onto the iPhone screen, but hey — Mr Murdoch was never one to take the easy road.
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