Can digital magazines replace print?

outandabout

There's a lot of debate in publishing about the benefits of digital magazine over print.

From a publishers point of view digital mags can save money (no printing or postage and distribution costs and cheaper editorial costs) but what about the reader experience on iPhones, Tablets etc?

Snickers Man

The reader's experience is not the primary determinant of the future of publishing; the experience of the paymaster is far more important.

Reducing costs at the supply end doesn't matter a damn if you're not getting money in after delivery.

Who pays the publisher?

In the case of newspapers and magazines, the answer to that question is "the advertiser." The cover price of newspapers accounts for only a fraction of revenue. For many magazines, especially specialist trade magazines, there is no cover price at all. They are provided free of charge to readers who match a certain professional profile.

The rationale behind advertising is that it follows an audience. Simply put, the publisher captures an audience by providing targeted information of use to a particular profile, whether it be a demographic, a hobbyist group or a professional community, and advertisers whose wares are pertinent to that group will pay to have their products or services promoted.

In days gone by, there was no alternative to magazines or newsletters for those who wanted, say, to find tips on how to service their classic car, or what was the latest business software for running your accounts or your customer relations, or what was new in fishing rods.

Therefore there was a reasonably captive market for those publishers who produced magazines aimed at those markets.

Today, there's the Internet. Just about anything you may want to find is accessible via Google and usually for free. Turning to magazines to find out what you need to know is probably a plan B for many people. Consequently, their power to retain an audience is diminishing. Advertisers know that, which is why they are turning away from print in droves.

Google's advertising model, which places what it decides to be relevant ads next to searches points to the future. It's not the complete story; there is much to be teased out and many challenges to overcome. But it's a much more efficient business model than booking an ad in a monthly trade mag which may or may not come out when it's due and may not have the optimal placing next to widely read editorial.

The searchability of the web is also beginning to have an influence on the PR activities of companies who would previously have targeted magazines as a medium through which to publicise their wares. Why go to all the hassle of wining and dining specialist journalists, haggling with publishers about the need to support the medium with advertising when you can simply write your own testimonials or case studies and publish them yourself?

Magazine publishers are now caught between a particularly nasty rock and inhospitable hard place: they all pay lip service to "editorial independence" and separation between advertising and editorial but in practice, there was always the bottom line to think of. Loyal advertisers get favourable treatment; those with short pockets get shunned. Those who don't pay, don't get to play. "Where else can they go?" ask the publishers, putting faith in their own power to attract an audience.

Well, the answer now is simple: to their own websites.