Arena closure-wrong sector or wrong market

Yesterday's news of the demise of Arena magazine has the commentators saying is this going to be the first of many.

The magazine industry in some ways thinks that it is partially immune to the media downturn.Think of a magazine as a sort of comfort food that will keep people's dreams alive and allow some escape in bad times.

However the sector despite keeping readers will lose that segment of revenue that is critical,advertising.

For Arena it will shut after 22 years after yesterday's announcement by the Bauer group

As Paid Content reports

Arena’s UK circulation for H208 actually increased 16.4 percent year on year to 29,374, according to ABC, but 11,800 of that was “controlled free distribution,” giving it a paid-for circ of just 17,071. And that really is meagre compared to its rivals and even Bauer’s other big men’s titles: FHM sold an average of 272,545 month, while Zoo sells 145,555 a week on average.

Now the bets are on for the next men's magazine to fall.The sector is seen as a declining one after the heyday of Zoo and FHM and is up against changing social perceptions as well as declining revenues.

For a good analysis of the problem at Arena it is worth reading Brian Schofield's piece on media Guardian.He is a contributing editor to Arena and

can easily pinpoint the decision that set in motion the unstoppable slide to doom: the first decision to run an exposed breast.

ie the decision to chase those titles mentioned above.

Don't give up on the media just yet

There is more contemplating of the future of journalism today both in the dead tree business and the super information highway.

Tim Bradshaw,the FT's digital correspondent reports that

A slowdown in online advertising, for years the fastest-growing part of traditional media businesses, is forcing newspaper and magazine owners to experiment with ways to shore up website revenues

But there are some encoraging signs for those that want to innovate to survive

Many are diversifying out of advertising into revenue-sharing partnerships with e-commerce sites, such as travel or dating. But some are also experimenting with techniques and technologies, with increased targeting of advertising to readers widely seen as the best way to raise yields.

The Guardian has recognised the potential of this in their targeting of foreign nationals who log onto its website.

Now he reports

the Independent, The Telegraph, Johnston Press and Bauer UK (which owns consumer magazines such as FHM and Empire) have all enlisted a small company called Adgent 007, which has sales teams in the US, Europe and Asia to explain the advantages of a UK title or site to advertisers and media buyers. Through these local relationships, Adgent claims to improve rates by 10-20 times.

Meanwhile Rachael Gallagher at Press Gazette reports that

The death of traditional media has been exaggerated, according to global leader for entertainment and media practice at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong.
Speaking at the World Association of Newspapers readership conference, Marcel Fenez said that although digital advertising will continue to soar over the next five years it will still only globally represent 10 per cent of total advertising for newspapers by 2012.

Ian Burrel in the Indy looks at another economic model

Having run the London bureau of Newsweek magazine for 12 years, McGuire rejects the apparent consensus among modern news organisations that the public has lost its appetite for in-depth journalism. So while the rest of the world speeds up towards immediate online publication, Stryker wants to slow down the pace and publish every three months, in print. While others offer bite-sized news, he wants 6,000-word articles.

McGuire plans to launch a journal which will

cost £8 per issue and pays writers the (quite unheard of) rate of £1.50 a word. "

This is the argument that has yet to be proved.Are the public willing to pay a premium for quality journalism?

How magazines need to innovate

Press Gazette reports the comments of Mike Soutar, publisher of the mens' freebie magazine Shortlist.

He advocates that the magazine sector needs to increase frequency of publishing in order to innovate.

On top of that he sees magazines entering the ultra local market and becoming more specialised as well as using distribution routes that avoid the supermarkets.