What Action Sports Magazines Must Do To Survive
josh hunter
- August 28 2009
- 1,901 views
- 19 comments
The August issue of TransWorld Business features an insightful article written by Vans VP Of Marketing/ SIMA President Doug Palladini titled “Reports Of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated.” In the article Palladini, who is a former magazine publisher himself, explores the question of whether or not “print is dead.” He concludes that print is still alive—in some cases even well—but that the survival of niche publications hinges on four all-important factors. He calls it a four-step recovery plan.
The article has spurred an onslaught of inquires, comments, and debate from all corners of TransWorld Business‘ readership. Below are a few talking points from Palladini’s piece that seem to be drumming up the most conversation. If you’re not already a TransWorld Business Subscriber, then you can read a digital copy of the entire article right now along with the rest of the August issue. Or, make sure must-read articles like this are delivered to you each month with a TransWorld Business VIP Membership.
Reports Of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated: Why Action Sports Magazines Still Matter And What They Must Do To Survive
By Doug Palladini
I love magazines. I guess I always have. Back then it was running to the mailbox to see if my new issue of Action Now had arrived. Now, it’s dropping 20s at every airport newsstand I see. It’s that heavy cover stock gloss of The Skateboard Mag. The eight-color drops throughout Wired. It’s the hours of knowledge and entertainment for $3.99. It’s ripping out photos of Joe Strummer to tape on my office door. I can’t do that on a Web site.
Yet techno-nerding has steadily encroached on my magazine time of late. It’s the heart-palpating response to Apple’s iPhone 3G’s drop that forced me into a line at the mall along with the other junkies on release day. It’s laughing along with my digital new friend Shaq’s Tweets as he struggles to lose weight for his upcoming debut with the Cavs. And oh, the apps, hundreds and hundreds of apps. As a result, I’ve seen my quality magazine reading time drop consistently, replaced by the cheap info-porn always at my fingertips.
I’m apparently not the only one ruminating over this modern media conundrum. A man much smarter than I named Michael Hirschorn wrote a piece in the July/August 2009 issue of The Atlantic Monthly that perfectly synthesized how I was feeling about the plight of magazines and their mortal battle against technology. Entitled “The Newsweekly’s Last Stand,” Hirschorn sows a sordid tale of real-world publishing debauchery that leaves previously untouchable giants such as Newsweek and Time teetering on the brink of insolvency and, much worse, irrelevancy. Hirschorn cites as the antidote The Economist’s business model, in which “quality wins out,” not breaking news so much as distilling it, analyzing it, with revenues and circulation on the rise against the tide as a result.
By now you might be wondering why I, you, or anyone else should care. Selfishly, I invested almost twelve years of my young life into action-sports publishing and remain emotionally connected to the business. But take me out of it. Magazines have been at the cultural epicenter of action sports since before there was such a thing [ ... ] While some may argue that the vultures are already circling, I would venture to suggest that the intrinsic, core value of action-sports magazines remains intact. All of us jaded industry types may no longer remember the pure stoke of the new TransWorld SKATEboarding or Snowboarder dropped on the kitchen counter, but it’s still there. Anyone who thinks a cover shot is any less important to an athlete or brand than it was ten years ago just needs to ask. It’s not. And to their credit, magazines have not gone Luddite on us. Most have invested in their Web presence and their understanding of emerging technology with dedicated staffing and other resources generating high-quality content.
Action-sports magazines can and should be a vital part of any brand marketing plan, required reading for any enthusiast, and living organs pumping blood into the future of each sport’s cultural being. But the days of brands placing ads and waiting for the phone to ring are long gone. Blowing twenty subscription cards into every copy as your circulation growth plan is old. For 2010 and beyond, magazines need therapy. They need to lay themselves out on the counselor’s couch and get in touch with their inner reasons for being.
They need a Four-Step Recovery Program …
1. Focus on quality:
Attention all action-sports publishing parent corporations: SAVING MONEY ON YOUR TITLES BY REDUCING PAPER STOCK WEIGHT IS SUICIDAL! [...] If there is one benefit magazines have against tech’s rising tide, it’s the tactile, visual power of printed paper. If we’re going to keep killing trees to print these things, I’d suggest we make every piece of paper count.
2. Focus on exclusive content and authoritative themes:
[...] Magazines need to reacquaint themselves with the bully pulpits they occupy and put the power of the pen to better use. Stick your neck out and take a few chances here and there. And, for God’s sake, don’t let another issue go out the door with a theme that exists only because it’s what you did last year. It’s what readers and advertisers find memorable that will fire subscriptions and media dollars.
3. Focus on subscribers:
Media retail is consolidating just as much as every other industry. Last year, 43 percent of the books sold in the U.S. went through aAmazon.com, for example. [...] Specialty newsstands are getting smaller or going away. The cash cow that used to be the newsstand is gone. And I say good riddance. [...] Let those willing to invest in a year’s worth of issues know you care. [...] Open a meaningful dialog with your subscribers. Ask them what they think once in a while.
4. Focus on complete brand partnerships, not ad sales:
In these crazy times, action-sports brands need marketing partners, not places to advertise. Places to advertise are a pox on marketing, a never-ending series of pitches none of us really listen to. But marketing partners are different. They actually know what we do for a living and how our company makes money. Marketing partners are …
To read this in its entirety, pick up the digital version of the August Issue of TransWorld Business, or sign up for a TransWorld Business VIP Membership.
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August 28th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Does focussing on brand partnerships include altering cover images to include said brands logo into some part of the image where it wasn't before?
August 28th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
see here for example… http://followingthedie.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/t...
August 28th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Very interesting to hear Doug's take on this issue, which is an important one for sure. I agree, sure kids are early adopters to technology, but it will be decades—if ever—before all media transitions to digital formats, and there'll always be people who prefer print. Case closed. Sure things are changing and media companies are challenged to adapt top their audiences needs, but change is the only constant right? People who walk around poo-poo'ing print are either short-sighted, misinformed, or both. I've ben waiting for this article to be posted since I got the last issue because I figured there'd be some lively discussion…I'd like to hear what other marketing managers, directors, and executives think about this.
August 28th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Well, Hot Diggity Dog!
August 28th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I was wondering if they'd post this. Talk about opening up a can of worms. Pretty interesting perspective though; a former publisher that currently runs Vans marketing and SIMA. I'm surprised the comments are turned on…they've been turning them off quite a bit lately.
August 28th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
I read this entire article and I'm particularly glad he brought up #3. With ad dollars down it seems like media companies are spending most of their time focusing on advertisers. It seems like the audience gets forgotten sometimes. Without an authentic audience who trusts the title and has a real connection with it, there is no value to any brand. Hopefully publishers will have the balls to maintain quality and deliver content that is critical to their audiences.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
so does this make photoshopping logos on to presumed editorial images ok?
August 28th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Fore, did you see this?http://www.nypost.com/seven/08262009/business/how...
If I were you I'd be looking here: http://www.malakye.com/
August 28th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Nice work, especially the focus on exclusive content and authoritative themes.
Media regurgitation is a trend I hope goes away very soon. If a story has been covered already in three other outlets, don't cover it again unless you're really bringing something new to the table.
August 29th, 2009 at 12:31 am
"Most have invested in their Web presence and their understanding of emerging technology with dedicated staffing and other resources generating high-quality content."
If by invested you mean, required edit staff to also produce web content and hired some kid straight out of college to manage it then, sure. And as long as "high-quality" content is defined as crap you wouldn't print with the occasional entertaining video thrown in then yeah, the action sports mags are KILLING it on the web.
At some point there needs to be a separation between the two and I feel like magazines should concentrate on their print and leave the web alone all together if they want to make good magazines. Gotta pitty the ad sales staff trying to get people to advertise in both mediums.
August 29th, 2009 at 2:53 am
Magazines have always been my favorite, too — especially BMX and skateboarding mags.
Here's my take: http://roychristopher.com/the-end-of-print
August 31st, 2009 at 5:18 pm
What is likely the number one consumer complaint about magazines (or was, until the recession hit?) "Ah, the magazine is just full of ads - I can't even find the stories any longer…" Which is, a businessman might argue, exactly the point. What needs to be done is for magazine publishers and sales staff to concentrate on the hard metrics - the eyeballs - of who is reading their magazine and how they are interacting with it. I know far more about, say, Quiksilver's diamond dobby boardshort cloth from looking at the ads in SURFER than I would ever know from clicking on some kind of ad on surfline or surfermag.com because I never do. In fact, though I often look at action sports magazine websites - I could not tell you a single advertiser. The Surfer reader (as an example) has to get through multiple double page spreads etc at the front of the book to get to the well (trade-speak for where the stories are). And, since many of the ads are as dynamically produced as, say, a photo essay, the branding is impossible to ignore. Then there is 'pass around rate' the number of times your bros read the magazine while sitting on the toilet.). So before we all go crazy on the ROI of Facebook, Twitter, banner web advertising etc, maybe we should look at the superior metrics that magazineadvertising can deliver. Or, at least have a conversation comparing the different mediums that is comparing apples to apples.
had heard some time ago that Surfer's Journal was so successful that they could afford to
August 31st, 2009 at 7:44 pm
check this out…
http://www.magazine.org/advertising/sales_edge/se...
August 31st, 2009 at 7:56 pm
"If by invested you mean, required edit staff to also produce web content and hired some kid straight out of college to manage it then, sure. And as long as "high-quality" content is defined as crap you wouldn't print with the occasional entertaining video thrown in then yeah, the action sports mags are KILLING it on the web."
Awesome.
There's an article in Wired this month (and online) about the Flip video cameras and reference to the crapification (they use the word) and "good enough" technologies.
Differentiation will come (and it's starting to already) when good-enough won't be enough.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:44 am
(sorry about that previous post, part of it was cut off) - I once heard the Surfer's Journal actually restricted the number of adverts in each issue, which justified its cover price but also meant that it is a magazine 'about the lifestyle' and not just making money. Looks to me like it's still doing well, and I have heard positive comments about Frequency and The Ski Journal, as well…
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:02 am
If it weren't for magazines I wouldn't want to make the trip to the mailbox. I love opening it up and getting something cool instead of bills. I like to look at a mags online site, but for me it will never replace something I can hold. I keep all of my action sports magazines in my office closet. I like to look back in them. I'm just old school I guess. I still like to go out and buy cd's instead of downloading music.
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:28 pm
I've always thought the whole "print's gonna DIE!" shtick was a sales pitch for Internet product. It entirely ignores the history of media.
I reckon Doug's right when he says quality will win, but it may not be quality of the physical product — rather, that of the people working on it. There's heaps of stuff magazines can do that they haven't already. And the entire demographic picture of "action sports" is changing. In 20 years, for instance, surfing won't look the way it does today, and as a result, neither will SURFING.
The daily media flood provides little in the way of memorable moments — indeed, one of its functions is to wipe the memory of the events of the previous day. It's anti-memory. Good print product IS the memory.
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:27 pm
he doesn't really think someone is smarter than him does he?
September 17th, 2009 at 3:03 am
It’s not a secret that generation X, Y, and Z is more digitally minded than past generations. Apple has developed products that are not only iconic to these generations, but also vital to their existence. The iPhone and iPod Touch is changing the way media is distributed and utilized. The industry must develop digital solutions that are conscious, authentic, entertaining, educating, and of course profitable without comprising the user experience.
Again, thank you Doug for inspiring us to look deeper into the future of magazines and not the death of them.
-JS
More thoughts on the issue:
http://fathom3.blogspot.com/2009/09/open-letter-t...