$780 Khakis vs. 99 cent Magazines - "The Power of Print"? - Steve Blacker - MediaBizBloggers

1 A newsstand on Broadway and 56th street has a box filled with magazines and a sign that simply states old magazines 99 Cents The owner told me that he sells many old magazines quotPeople get a 599 magazine for 99 cents it39s a good dealquot His box of old magazines has everything from The Economist to Vogue The New Yorker and Good Housekeeping2 What if magazine publishers attempted to market old copies of their magazines Or even gave them away to schools hospitals etc A ninemonth old copy of Cosmo Bon Appetit or Vanity Fair is almost timeless Let39s say newsstand returns were held for nine months and then resold ampamp remarketed according to the timeliness of the issue3 The newsstand for these older issues could be virtual For example a ninemonth old copy of The New Yorker containing a great profile short stories etc would be promoted online The interested buyer would be directed to one or two major resale centers in different cities The resale centers would carry a wide array of back issues and be operated by a consortium of major publishers4 The above is just another type of brand extension The same way Broadway shows sell discounted tickets at Times Square and hotels offer rooms at major price reductions via Priceline magazines need to think of new ways to get more copies sold and read Even if the resale centers broke even the additional copies sold and read would increase the syndicated readership numbers and help magazines sell more advertising Sometimes what is old has even greater appeal than what is new5 The 780 khakis with elasticized cuffs are from Bottega Veneta If that39s too pricey MaryKate is selling 495 light cotton twill pants While Abercrombie ampamp Fitch sells chinos for 70 and The Gap sells quotoriginal khakisquot for 4450 consumers are paying a hefty premium for a status symbol It is all about who else is wearing the pants and what designer39s names attached It does not matter whether 780 is a fair price for basic pants6 The new quotPower of Printquot ad campaign is a noble effort but it fails to get across one key point Magazines are without question the strongest media brands in the world The relationship a subscriber or frequent newsstand buyer has with ELLE INSTYLE Good Housekeeping etc is akin to a club membership Magazines should stop attempting to compete with the Internet Instead they need to better explain their own unique strengths7 For example the portability that a magazine offers a very personalized one on one relationship And while one can have a TV set on and not be watching a magazine reader is totally involved and immersed with the medium TV commercials can now easily be eliminated as viewers fast forward A magazine ad can never be missed And while the Internet has become the new classified auction center magazine ads have far greater visual impact staying power and brand imaging power8 What has hurt magazines the most is not the Internet but magazine companies not yet being able to successfully extend their brands digitally to match the impact of their brand39s print product Rather than looking at print and digital as two different silos or businesses magazine companies need to focus on one brand with many extensions produced by one team9 Why didn39t a Cosmo launch Matchcom or Entertainment Weekly Rotten Tomatoes or Lucky come up with a Daily Candy The reason is that publishers are too focused on their old business models and not willing to invest enough in the near term future Publishers need to create quotskunk worksquot of highly creative digitally skilled people who know their brands and have tons of ideas to test Add some top young technical designersengineers versus traditional magazine creative types and a magazine brand can inexpensively test digital brand extensionsSteve39s new book You Can39t Fall Off The Floor The Insiders39 Guide to ReInventing Yourself and Your Career chronicles his 50 year career working for over 25 different companies with 189 lessons learned and insider tips from Gayle King Cathie Black Chuck Townsend and 28 others Blacker is still going strong today as a partner in Frankfurt ampamp Blacker Solutions LLC His web site is blackerreinventionscom and email address is blackersolutionsaolcomRead all Steveamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Steve Blacker MediaBizBloggersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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$780 Khakis vs. 99 cent Magazines - "The Power of Print"? - Steve Blacker - MediaBizBloggers

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