Thinking About Magazines

April 22, 2008 · Comments

Here are the top 10 magazines in the US, according to the Magazine Publishers of America. Take a look at their subscription rates:

AARP Magazine – 24,204,313
AARP Bulletin – 23,567,607
Reader’s Digest – 9,684,759
Better Homes & Gardens – 7,681,722
National Geographic – 5,051,999
Good Housekeeping – 4,686,152
Family Circle – 3,967,065
Woman’s Day – 3,924,195
Ladies’ Home Journal – 3,918,472
AAA Westways – 3,764,966

Is there an active community online or off, for each of these magazines? Are you seeking to reach them with what you’re doing? These are the TOP TEN magazine properties in the US. To reach into them is to find the heart and soul of the mainstream and share what’s possible.

Look at the online presence for National Geographic, whose mission is to inspire people to care about the planet. I can spend money, read lots of things, spend more money, read more things, look at things. But I can’t talk to other community subscribers. I can’t put my videos up on the NGS site.

AARP has over 24 million subscribers. Can we be helpful to them? Is there a way to bridge that world to what we’re doing over here in our little fishbowl?

While we’re talking about how cool FriendFeed is, and how much we want big businesses to join the conversation, I want us (and by “us,” I mean anyone contemplating their social media expertise) to think about the Top 10 magazines and what we might do with these people to help them engage.

What’s your take?

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  • Part of the challenge will be overcoming the inertia that is already in place at these magazines. They may want to do more, but not know how. They may know what they want to do, but not know who to turn to. They may know where to get help, but may not be excited about retooling their online strategies.

    I would really like to hear your thoughts on how magazines, not just the Top 10, can best harness the tools that are out there. If you were launching a magazine, how would you build your online presence? What tools would you use, and how would you integrate them from the beginning, so that they are part of the foundation on which a community can develop and thrive?
  • FAST COMPANY has always been a great leader in developing on online experience and a print magazine.

    Here in Australia the magazine 'Better Homes and Garden's' went from being a tired remnant of the 1970's to a revived house hold name by developing a television program with the same name that rejuvinated the print magazine.

    The Magazine NYLON GUYS would seem to be ripe for an online presence, so much of their content is 'what's cool on the streets' - social networking would allow fashiopn to spread and interesting material to be highlighted.
  • Chris,

    Since we're unlikely to change how they (the mags) want to operate, I think that list can best be looked at in terms of how we can engage the readers elsewhere. For instance, though 75% of U.S. adults use the Internet (and I'll bet a lot of the readers above are in the other 25%), only 29% of Americans read even one blog. Nevermind all the other social media options!

    So what can be done to encourage late adopters (and if 71% of U.S. adults don't read blogs, then even middle-adopters need encouragement) to see social media in a different light?

    This is something I struggle with a lot, as my blog is aimed at small- to mid-sized-business owners, many of whom are those later adopters.

    It's a tough nut to crack.

    Regards,

    Kelly
  • It comes down to whether these companies can actually see the business value to social media.

    Why should National Geographic care if I can upload my own video? They spend millions of dollars a year to send the best photographers and videographers all over the world to capture the images that they say reflect our planet.

    How is my amateur video going to benefit their advertisers and help them sell magazines(which is really what all print media cares most about)? How are my photo, video and text submissions going to contribute to their bottom line?

    I'm not saying that there ISN'T value in these big magazines adopting social media. Maybe they need to see it as a way to increase their reader base, tap into an audience that is ready to be an active participant, instead of a passive reader. More subscribers equals more sales equals happy advertisers equals success.

    It's a challenge, for sure.
  • This may not answer your question but looking at the list brought one thing to mind. The majority of those like AARP and National Geographic are actually part of a value added package for being a member of something. When I was a Boy Scout the same kind of held true for Boy's Life magazine. I've seen too many magazine go under because of poor ad revenue and being free at the same time. The National Association of Photoshop Professionals also has similiar deal with their magazine, Photoshop User magazine.

    Maybe the trick is not trying to go build an "online community" per se (Although NAPP does this pretty well) it's making the readers feel they are more than people being marketed too. If one has a National Geographic subscription not only do they receive a well crafted, artful and professional magazine once a month but they also have access to other deals and are considered a member of the society.

    Something to think about as I haven't ever thrown away old National Geographics or Photoshop User magazines.
  • They are going to start building online communities. Look at a lot of the New York Times local sites, they have communities powered by white label social networks.

    Tons of companies are joining this space. It just takes time to develop it.
  • This is great out of the box thinking. I like the way you are pushing at the walls and saying "what next?"

    I am going to be doing some thinking about this for myself. As an inspirational and motivational writer, a good many of those catagories are exactly my niche. Thank you for giving me something to think about.
  • Meg
    Baby boomers (at the upper end) and women -- that's what I see. Which means content-focused, user-focused, and community-centric.

    More yoga/powerwalk than bootcamp. More Boost than RedBull.

    Good questions, Chris, and a big challenge to the audiences social media is aiming at right now. Sure, the MySpace generation has SOME disposable income, but who really holds the pursestrings?
  • I read the readers digest and the national geographic. While they are online and connect their articles to online content they should do more interactive stuff.
  • > It just takes time to develop it.

    yep. many of these companies are still just coming to terms with the web, social media is a newer nut to crack, but they will eventually OR their web competition will launch print counterparts, or buy theirs.
  • Perhaps the lack of social media features is simply due to lack of demand. I may be stereotyping a bit here, but do you suppose the majority of subscribers to AARP, Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle etc. are even heavy internet users? Social media is hard enough to pull off well when you have a savvy and receptive audience. Trying to drum up participation among an "old media" readership may not yield a lot of rewards, financial or otherwise.
  • Good question Chris. There are audiences in these magazines you mention that may be looking for a way to socialize with peers around the country and the world. I think about AARP specifically in this as I watch my parents prepare for retirement and talk about doing things.

    Good brain fodder this morning, thanks!

    Regards,
    Rick
  • Very interesting stats. We believe there's a business opportunity in helping Baby Boomers take advantage of digital media for a very specific purpose. From there we may be able to lead them into online communities.

    Most of the members of my generation and the slightly older Baby Boomers (I'm 53) use the Net for little more than email and simple browsing. Most are "technology challenged" and don't find much practical value in sitting in front of a computer for a few hours a day.

    Our idea for RememberGranny.com is to help Boomers understand the opportunity they have to leave a rich digital legacy for future generations. For example, most Boomers have no idea what Flickr is, let alone Twitter. We see ourselves as Internet guides, much like a travel guide who escorts groups around exotic locations and helps them make the most of their time.

    Our challenge is figuring out how to reach the Boomers. They're not online. But, as your stats show, they do receive AARP's magazine! I'm one of those 24,204,313 subscibers. This list helps us prioritize where we'll focus efforts to get editorial coverage and, perhaps, where we'll spend some advertising dollars.
  • Also at play here is "time" and "attention" with the audiences that would engage online. Never in mankinds history has a large organization been able to engage in such an intimate level of conversation with their audiences. These magazines operate in the way many current businesses do: control the message to control the brand experience. You can't control the message anymore, at best all you (corporation) can do is manage it.

    This is a massive shift. There are no rule books on how the psychology & culture of an organization engages in a conversation with a massive audience through multiple new channel choices. Yikes!! Naturally they want to move cautiously, this is a paradigm shift (to use that overused 90's buzzword) or major proportions.

    Excellent blog and writing by the way. thanks.
  • EXCELLENT question Chris. I love how you think.

    I would like to point out that Good Housekeeping has a robust mobile site (m.goodhousekeeping.com). Many of the Hearst publications do. I commend them on moving ahead into technology. They do a really great job of adapting their magazines to mobile. Maybe they will be one of the first to dive into social networking for their readers.
  • I think it falls into supply and demand.

    Some magazines do have that sought after digital presence. They have it because the demand is there. The AARP crowd aren't. Hell, I don't even think the AAA crowd cares right now.

    Give it time, though. And as the 30 and early 40 somethings rise in age, the magazines will adopt to the change and create an online presence.

    Think of it like this. Let's say I have a hot dog stand that sells dogs outside of bars on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. Business is going well. Over the last month or so, people keep asking for hamburgers... now, I start selling hamburgers.

    Why not just start selling hamburgers and hot dogs right away? Because all I knew was hot dogs and nobody seemed to care until a month ago about hamburgers. Why try to make something ahead of the curb when it's not clear anyone wants it?

    I now have a hankering to rent Field of Dreams.
  • Leif Hansen
    Here's a little video response mashup of this page, http://tinyurl.com/68ljph

    Thanks for keeping us thinking Chris (and perhaps helping you in your consulting with with these kinds of businesses...wink wink.)
    -Leif
    http://www.SparkSocialMedia.com
  • Most people value quality over participation (though they'd like both). When choosing a Web site to watch video, consumers are 14x more likely to say they value high quality video than the ability to upload their own video.

    Jupiter's data on this (subscription required):
    http://www.jupiterresearch.com/quantify/pages/V...

    Beyond that, it's a demographic thing. Those magazines skew heavily toward older readers, who are much less likely to upload videos or even post comments than younger users.

    According to a recent Jupiter survey, consumers 55+ are half as likely to post comments on Web sites than those 18-24.

    Jupiter's data on this (subscription required):
    http://www.jupiterresearch.com/quantify/pages/V...

    If media targeted at older consumers aggressively embraced social and participatory tools, they could change behavior a bit, no doubt. But you need to start from how behaviors vary by demographics to understand the environment you'd be introducing those tools.

    Thanks for raising the topic.
  • This is so funny to me because just yesterday I was thinking about magazines and how I used to read them and how I no longer read them. And I was wondering about the future of magazines. And I think that those that don't adapt will die out within a generation or two at the most.
  • I've been thunking on this, stewing almost...magazines are far from dead. I don't think they will die. The nature of the "good" or product brings inherent value given it is tactile and associates a different "experience" than being online does. Sitting quietly at lunch reading a mag. Less eye strain and easier reading. Magazines will change, must change, must integrate new mediums, but they will do better than newspapers, which will die as dailies. eventually. I spend hours a week online, but I also read Fast Company, The Economist, Business 2.0 regularly. Especially on a plane with a good cup of tea and a chocolate bar...
  • Where to begin? How about that the first two in the list are not paid subscription so the numbers are deceiving. Reader's Digest has *halved* it's circ. in the last 10 years so, truly, it's a dying magazine. The other *women's* magazines have also halved their circ. in the last 10 years. Dying with the current generation. NG is interesting 'cuz it has a very successful TV and video and online venture but could be better. AAA is also a free sub. Long story short: wrong list of magazines. Come up with a better list of active magazines and then I'll tell you how they will survive online. Others are replacing them. Nature of the best in the magazine world: I do not read what my parents read.
  • I am staggered at the "Fat Cat" syndrome. Meaning, these companies are resisting what will not only help them evolve, but also survive against online magazines that had no equity yet are seen as THE AUTHORITY of a a niche. If they fail to evolve they may die.

    Look at the numbers. US Newspaper circulation is down 8 million people over 17 years...at the same time, the total population of households in the US has doubled. This is an industry in trouble.

    The only way I see helping them is to find only the ones who have an interest in making a radical transparent paradigm shift. If they don't get that....move along, there's nothing to see there, please keep moving.
  • I am staggered at the "Fat Cat" syndrome. Meaning, these companies are resisting what will not only help them evolve, but also survive against online magazines that have no equity yet credited by Google and their fans as THE AUTHORITY of a a niche.

    If they fail to evolve they may die.

    Look at the numbers. US Newspaper circulation is down 8 million people over 17 years...at the same time, the total population of households in the US has doubled. This is an industry in trouble.

    The only way I see helping them is to find only the ones who have an interest in making a radical transparent paradigm shift. If they don't get that....move along, there's nothing to see there, please keep moving.
  • as someone who has worked in publishing on the marketing end of things I would say that publishing is hurting and it isn't go to be fixed. The big fish will sell advertising on networks and the content will not be rewarded. The identities of these magazine's are going to become an archive that will become a museum. Bigger named identities will survive and will be bought as charity projects for web portals, and will only find a commercial audience with regular video broadcasts and other hot content. It is silly to talk about turning Woman’s Day or RedBook into a popular blog when we have web identities that are very marketable like Susan Reynolds. As for AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARP it will survive because it is an organization that represents an age group that decides elections.
  • This question is right up my alley. I have really considered whether or not to approach magazines like this with my software, which does what you say - it lets the community not only upload audio and video and post text, it actually helps them easily create multimedia so they have something to upload.

    The real trick, as others have said, is that the audience who is still receiving these magazines aren't that multimedia or social media savvy. Most probably don't go to their magazine's site. Even if they allowed User Generated Content, most users wouldn't know how to create it in order to participate.

    Since the behemoths of the print world are slow to join the social media world, first THEY would need to be taught what it is before they could offer it attractively enough to entice their readers to participate. I think the real key to getting social media and internet novices into the online world is by planting someone within their existing community to take them by the hand and show them what to do and explain why they should bother doing it.
  • To the question, what is the economic motivation? Traffic. If I post a video of mine to National Geographic's website, you can bet money I am going to promote the heck out of that within my community for the association and glamor of my content being there among those professionals. And who would not want traffic.

    Then there is the G2 value - market intelligence. Why rely on one editor to determine the next hot column or article? Why not tap into 16 million readers and amateur naturalists?

    I suspect this is just a matter of time. The print will always have a place in the definition of a timeless brand. With the growth of online magazines and newspapers are discovering they can publish so much more than "what fits" in the constrained print environment. Now, with the rise in social media, they will catch on to the "We Are Smarter Than Me" potential and add a whole new dimension to their brand - and history.

    Good question Chris - thanks for the effort!
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