Why Would Anyone Launch a Print Magazine Today?
Vanessa Voltolina and Matt Kinsman – Foliomag.com “This is the craziest time ever to launch a magazine, except for all the other times,” wrote Rex Hammock, founder and CEO of custom publisher Hammock, Inc., in a recent post on Foliomag.com. Hammock succinctly captured the prospects facing print publishers. On one hand, print advertising is down (ad pages in consumer magazines fell 9.5 percent to 164,125 in the first nine month of 2009 according to MPA’s Publishers Information Bureau, while Macy’s reportedly cut its entire print budget for the first half of 2009). Advertisers are clamoring for “measured media” (even if many are more concerned with a stripped down, commoditized buy than understanding the results). The newsstand, with 70 percent of copies unsold, is obviously broken. Postage and distribution costs are becoming insurmountable for many small and mid-sized publishers (especially those that don’t qualify for cost savings programs like co-mailing). Reader habits are shifting a
