At the crossroads? Make the product scarce or diminish its financial value

An interesting interview in Media Guardian this morning with Time Out's Tony Elliot may give a few clues to how the magazine industry is going to tackle the changing media environment.

After toying with the idea back in 1968 when the magazine was founded,he is once again thinking of making the listings magazine free and slimming down its content.

"We are in quite an intensive period of thinking and researching to re-plan for the future. The issue is, if you have got a situation in two to three years where the comprehensive role that we play is online, the question is what shape does the print magazine take? Do we have a smaller magazine that is cheaper? Also we have to look at the free route. I am not sure, but there are people in the building who say 'maybe we should look at free'. There is an audience out there, younger people, who because of online do not expect to pay for things. The downside is that advertisers in general do not like free."

Is this the way to go for the magazine industry?

Last week saw Philip Stone looking at another angle.Pointing out that

For many publishers online growth has slowed to negligible while print’s advertising losses are gaining with each reporting month.

His solution was that publications should in fact hold back from using the web to replicate all their content,use it for breaking news only and only publish online when the reach of the print content has been exhausted.

I can hear the gasps of the media pundits now but multi platform does diminish contents exclusivity so maybe there is case for that argument.Stone was looking at the decision of the Philadelphia Inquirer to follow such a strategy

For if news is really a business, which it is, and for newspapers the bulk of its business revenue comes from the print paper, and since the web model has shown it is not bringing in replacement or more revenue, then does it not make economic sense to complete the circle so to speak and go back to original newspaper-web policy and protect the newspaper’s content?

Roy Greenslade whilst recognising the sentiments accused Stone of

falling into that trap of seeing journalism only in business terms. Unless news can attract advertising, it makes no commercial sense to transmit news. No profit, no news.

Now we get into the depths of what news is about.It is the ability to deliver quality information to the public.However it relies on economic models of profitability and as with any enterprise,no demand equals no profit and no investment.

B2B rules the magazine online sector

Given that magazines are my major topic next year I was interested to read Paul Conley's comment about the B2B sector in magazines.

Paul considers that the web has given an edge to the sector

As the Web has grown, altering forever the business and art of publishing, B2B has sometimes taken the lead.
We are far ahead of our peers in the newspaper, TV and consumer magazine world in some areas. Other times we languish far behind

According to Paul,

In two areas in particular, B2B has shown the way to the future:
1. No other area of journalism does a better job of producing (and selling) data on the Web.
2. No other area of journalism is doing a better job of moving to Web-only -- eliminating inefficient print pubs to cut costs while preserving brands online.

What the media commentators are saying.

In the Independent,Stephen Glover questions the BBC's decision to axe What the papers say.For him it is a

clear an indication as you could have that the Corporation is losing sight of its public service remit

and questions why

it has dumped the programme we can only guess. It certainly wasn't because of low ratings. Despite being buried in a dead slot, What the Papers Say usually attracted around a million viewers, about the same as Newsnight, and more than virtually any programme shown on BBC3 or BBC4

Peter Wilby in the Guardian looks at how the media reports on health stories.

newspapers believe health coverage attracts readers

he says adding

At some level, newspaper reports must influence eating, drinking and buying habits, and affect the wellbeing of readers and their families. Yet the press, sceptical about anything politicians say or do, becomes credulous when faced with medicine.

In the same paper Jeff Jarvis takes a look at the social networking site Facebook saying that it

is standing at a critical juncture. If it turns one way, it could reach its grandest ambition - to be the Google of people. If it turns the other way, it risks becoming the next AOL or Yahoo - the next has-been.

Social networking sites are looked at in the Indy as well which asks

Are ads on children's social networking sites harmless child's play or virtual insanity?blockquote> reporting that

with more than 100 youth-focused virtual worlds now either up and running or about to launch – over half of which are aimed at under-sevens, according to one estimate – regulators and parents are struggling to keep up.

Finally staying with the children's market,Alice Wignall asks in the Guardian

The tweenage mag market is growing ever stronger on a diet of princesses, ponies, pals and puzzles. But how long will parents continue to fund the pre-teen boom?