$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. "People get a $5.99 magazine for 99 cents it's a good deal". His box of old magazines has everything from The Economist to Vogue, The New Yorker and Good Housekeeping.

2. What if magazine publishers attempted to market old copies of their magazines? Or even gave them away to schools, hospitals, etc. A nine-month old copy of Cosmo, Bon Appetit or Vanity Fair is almost timeless. Let's say newsstand returns were held for nine months and then resold & re-marketed according to the timeliness of the issue.

3. The newsstand for these older issues could be virtual. For example, a nine-month 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 publishers.

4. 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 new.

5. The $780 khakis with elasticized cuffs are from Bottega Veneta. If that's too pricey Mary-Kate is selling $495 light cotton twill pants. While Abercrombie & Fitch sells chinos for $70 and The Gap sells "original khakis" for $44.50; consumers are paying a hefty premium for a status symbol. It is all about who else is wearing the pants and what designer's names attached. It does not matter whether $780 is a fair price for basic pants.

6. The new "Power of Print" 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 strengths.

7. 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 power.

8. 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 brand's 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 team.

9. Why didn't a Cosmo launch Match.com, 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 "skunk works" of highly creative digitally skilled people who know their brands and have tons of ideas to test. Add some top young technical designers/engineers versus traditional magazine creative types and a magazine brand can inexpensively test digital brand extensions.

Steve's new book You Can't Fall Off The Floor - The Insiders' Guide to Re-Inventing 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 & Blacker Solutions, LLC. His web site is blacker-reinventions.com and e-mail address is blackersolutions@aol.com

Read all Steve’s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Steve Blacker - MediaBizBloggers.

Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggers.com
Follow our Twitter updates @MediaBizBlogger