When ad revenues sharply decline what do you do with your magazine? Make it more focused on the reader to increase circulation, word of mouth, demand and thereby ramp up revenue? Of course not. You do what everyone else in traditional media does today and change the product to better suit an advertiser’s message while hoping the consumer doesn’t feel used in the process.
Living is going where the remaining ad spending is for publications and will be adding new features to court those accounts like a health and beauty column, a fashion department and of course, an occasional travel piece for better ad proximity to editorial content.
Pages in Living are down over 35% this year so why not? Will the reader notice or care?
Does this remind you of any other facet of media lately? It reminds me of an episode of “30 Rock” which really brought home the product ramifications of catering to advertisers rather than viewers.
The real solution for traditional media’s dilemma might just be to go where the consumers are and give them what they want when, where, and how they want to consume it. Rather than spending billions trying to push an audience to our house, how about we take our brilliantly targeted content to them in their environment in a form that is most usable to them?!
I know, this is the same message you’ve heard from Snafu Solutions for years, but when MARTHA STEWART gets dragged into the fray, it’s time to act or in the very near future her magazine may be adding a stock tips feature. Brought to us by Citi.
