This weekend I got a reminder from Business Week that my magazine subscription was nearing the end. I got the same exact warning from Business Week competitor Fortune last year, and brace yourself folks, I did not heed the warning. I no longer get Fortune. My life has not changed. Because my life has not suffered materially, I just might not heed Business Week’s advice either.
I am 29, male… I’d surmise I am in the exact demographic that most advertisers are looking for, and in less than a year, my media consumption habit officially changed considerably: I did not renew the last two magazines I subscribed to, and I spend more time than ever surfing the Web (is it really surfing if I don’t have a board?)
The point is: magazines - while they won’t disappear - are not the best place to be investing when the demographics advertisers seek are moving elsewhere.
Yet today, I read that Conde Nast launched Portfolio magazine. I am just not sure. Here’s a bold / not-so-bold prediction, by Christmas 2007, Portfolio will be an online-only publication. The magazines will become a collector’s edition, in the sense that it went out of print quickly. The site is getting good reviews, but does that mean the print edition will survive?
Now, does the same thing apply to Rupert Murdoch FOX Business Channel? I don’t know. I really don’t watch much TV. The TV I do watch, I do because I watch it with my wife. Much the same way that the magazines I now read, I read because my wife bought them. I am certainly not going to suggest that business is not a topic that interests women, that is simply untrue, but I will say this, if a media company wants to invest in TV or magazines, I would launch female oriented topics because that demographic still watches TV and buys magazines, the male demographic by and large has moved on to video games (though a lot of women are gamers, for sure) and online.
But while magazines face an uncertain future, TV won’t go anywhere. Furthermore, TV business channels are easier to break through if you have the resources and the upside considerable. Just look at what Murdoch did with FOX, it’s now a top TV property…
All to say, while old media seems to get the realities of new media, it goes back and doubles down on magazines and TV.
What do you think: will portfolio be successful in print, or will it become an online only publication?
And… what about Murdoch’s Business channel?
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