Magazine Thinking

I was just reading this piece about rethinking magazines in 2010. I like the premise of Sir Richard Branson’s Project, an iPad-only magazine, but whether it makes money or not isn’t my big issue. Instead, this whole line of thinking got me into magazine thinking, and that, to me, is the win.

Magazine Thinking

I write for Entrepreneur magazine. If you actually look at a magazine, there’s a formula for each of them. There’s a cover feature, a few larger stories, and a whole lot of bits and tidbits. There are columns (that’s what I do for Entrepreneur Magazine), and of course there are ads and all that.

What do you have to think about to make a magazine?

Content – Community – Marketplace

People gather around content. We talk about those things we find interesting. Be it Martha Stewart Living or Cosmopolitan or Sports Illustrated, there’s a bunch of people gathered around content.

The gathering of those people is the community. Smarter people figure out how to empower the community’s ability to talk amongst themselves, independent (but supported by) the content.

It’s not a business if it doesn’t make money. Magazines sell ads. They experiment with other types of monetization options. Subscriptions, for most publications, isn’t exactly a revenue source. It’s a nice to have. That’s why you see “save 71% off the cover price.” They need your name on a list so they can tell advertisers that there are that many people subscribed to the magazine.

There are many other models to integrating a marketplace. We’re developing a few for The Pulse Network right now. You could say that Third Tribe Marketing is a built-in marketplace, because you pay for membership.

But it’s all three. Content. Community. Marketplace. That’s what makes it work.

So What?

The point is this: if you look at this kind of framework for your projects, it becomes clear what kind of magazine you’ve created or not created with your content. It becomes obvious that you do or don’t have a community. Without the first two being fairly solid, there’ll never be a chance at the marketplace.

Going into 2011, that’s something I’m paying very close attention to in my own design. Magazine thinking is how I’ll work on improving the media I create for me, for Human Business Works, for Entrepreneur, and for any of the many other projects I’m running.

What about you?

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http://www.itinerantentrepreneur.com/journal/ Robert Dempsey

Content – Community – Marketplace

Simple and powerful. I’m implementing this same thinking in my projects as well. On my two main blogs I put out content every day, content that helps me to connect with the right people and build the community. I create additional content for that community based on what they tell me they want to know. By doing all that, I also create a marketplace for the products and services that I offer. That last part gives me the ability to really focus on helping people in my community with the content that I create.

So seeing this in a line is doing it a disservice. It should be a circle as it’s all connected with each part feeding into itself.
http://hannahsharvest.com Hannah Marcotti

This tells me clearly something i know and am working on figuring out how to solve. I have content and community is growing, I don’t have much marketplace. Something I’ll be looking at solving this week!

With gratitude for you today Chris. Happy Holidays.
http://www.danieldecker.net Daniel Decker

Great perspective in boiling it down to three words. I’ve long thought that it’s not about creating a platform around an individual (necessarily) but around THE content and finding ways to create engagement with it (which is where the community comes in). If content is good and community is built, everything rises up.

I might add another though… Collaboration (if we’re talking Magazine Thinking).

Most magazines don’t only contain content from one source. They bring the best or trusted resources in the realm of the content they are aligning around. That collaboration, to me, gives varied perspectives, credibility, and value as I can go to one place and find a lot of what I want or perhaps even need.

http://imageperceptions.com Ted Vieira

Good point about collaboration, Daniel.

http://imageperceptions.com Ted Vieira

Great points, Chris. This is exactly the perspective I use with my web design clients. I try to get them to think of their site as their own online magazine they publish.

Use the blog (and pages, but mostly blog) to generate the content and draw their audience in to get the conversations started and create the community. Then in doing those first two things they’ve created an environment of trust and authority to sell their merchandise/services.

The challenge I’ve had is that many of my clients are still in the mindset of just using the site to show how great they are, and then stop there. They might grasp the magazine concept intellectually, but it’s not intuitive and it is a slow change for them. However, I also have many clients that, even if they’re new to this way of thinking, they’re excited about it! I love that!

Thanks Chris.
http://imageperceptions.com Ted Vieira

Great points, Chris. This is exactly the perspective I use with my web design clients. I try to get them to think of their site as their own online magazine they publish.

Use the blog (and pages, but mostly blog) to generate the content and draw their audience in to get the conversations started and create the community. Then in doing those first two things they’ve created an environment of trust and authority to sell their merchandise/services.

The challenge I’ve had is that many of my clients are still in the mindset of just using the site to show how great they are, and then stop there. They might grasp the magazine concept intellectually, but it’s not intuitive and it is a slow change for them. However, I also have many clients that, even if they’re new to this way of thinking, they’re excited about it! I love that!

Thanks Chris.
http://twitter.com/AdamKingStudio Adam King

I’m aiming to improve the ability for people to talk amongst themselves. I believe, after reading this, that is where the weak link exists. The thing is, I want to do that in a way that makes the process almost automatic and natural, if you will.

Can’t wait to see where this all leads.
http://twitter.com/waferboard waferboard

The root of the word magazine is “store house”. It also comes into English in “the magazine of a gun”, which still has that meaning, sort of. Knowing this gives an added dimension to these storehouses of information.
http://www.brianhamlett.com Brian Hamlett

One key differentiator to focus on? Engagement. With true magazines (the physical, not the digital versions) most of the time the engagement stops when you hit the end of the article, or better yet when you hit the end of the magazine. It is left up to the reader to figure out what they want to do next with that “storehouse of information” as waferboard so wonderfully put it.

Do I use it to start some research and planning now? Do I put it away in my ever-growing collection of old mags? Do I use it for kindling for my fireplace?

Your projects of today have the ability to instantaneously (or should) connect, engage, and provide opportunity for feedback to your community. That’s how you quickly scale your community. Let them attract, engage, and grow one another around your brand.

Chris, you talk about this as “platforms.” Sure, plant the community roots, become mayor as you begin to attract residents, but empower them to grow their little neighborhoods. Make content shareable, portable, and highly engaging and see what happens.
http://www.brianhamlett.com Brian Hamlett

One key differentiator to focus on? Engagement. With true magazines (the physical, not the digital versions) most of the time the engagement stops when you hit the end of the article, or better yet when you hit the end of the magazine. It is left up to the reader to figure out what they want to do next with that “storehouse of information” as waferboard so wonderfully put it.

Do I use it to start some research and planning now? Do I put it away in my ever-growing collection of old mags? Do I use it for kindling for my fireplace?

Your projects of today have the ability to instantaneously (or should) connect, engage, and provide opportunity for feedback to your community. That’s how you quickly scale your community. Let them attract, engage, and grow one another around your brand.

Chris, you talk about this as “platforms.” Sure, plant the community roots, become mayor as you begin to attract residents, but empower them to grow their little neighborhoods. Make content shareable, portable, and highly engaging and see what happens.
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http://naijapreneur.com/king-of-your-niche Tito

Thanks for this awesome insight Chris. I am so thrilled at how you broke down the concept into three simple thoughts, makes it more practical and achieve-able .
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http://www.coopersbarnyard.com Frankie Cooper

This concept is new to me I’ve never thought about looking at magazines as a source to get ideas on how to setup my business model. It’s great and I will begin now researching them.
https://www.macrobusinesscapital.com/ small business startup funding

They need your name on a list so they can tell advertisers that there are that many people subscribed to the magazine.
http://www.pacebutler.com/cash-for-cell-phones.cfm cash for cell phones

It becomes obvious that you do or don’t have a community.

Magazine Thinking