Print is Not Dead in the Magazine Game

bizvoice coverWe don’t share this story because we’ve been in the magazine business for the last 18 years with Indiana’s leading statewide business publication (BizVoice). But it’s nice to see facts like these once again, courtesy of Publishing Executive, reaffirming that print is far from dead.

Subscribers to printed consumer magazines are wealthy, well-educated empty nesters living in single-family homes, a recent U.S. Postal Service study suggests.

Households with incomes above $100,000 receive three times as many periodicals as households earning less than $35,000, says the USPS’s recently released annual Household Diary Study.

Households that receive the most mailed periodicals also tend to have more than one adult, no children, be headed by someone with a postgraduate degree and reside in a single-family house.

Affluent young adults, perhaps the audience most coveted by advertisers, also read printed magazines. Those under 34 with household incomes over $100,000 receive 0.8 periodicals per week, more than the average household and several times more than their less affluent young-adult counterparts.

Harry Potter-esque Video Ads to Wow Magazine Readers

So I guess print is not dead. In fact, it is quite alive, according to the Financial Times. Readers of Entertainment Weekly will soon be privy to moving video-style ads within the pages of the magazine. Hogwarts grads and fans of dragon-related foods may find this exciting as similar concepts have been featured in "Harry Potter" books/films.

When some readers of Entertainment Weekly open their magazines next month, they will discover characters from US television programmes speaking to them from a wafer-thin video screen built into the page.

The marketing experiment – which is being conducted by CBS, the US broadcaster, and Pepsi, the soft drinks maker – recalls the fantasy newspapers of the Harry Potter films and works much like a singing greetings card, with the video starting once a reader turns the appropriate page.

The cost of the full-motion video ad was not disclosed, but it will be far more expensive than traditional print ads, according to executives familiar with the technology, developed by a US company called Americhip.

The willingness to spend on such a promotion highlights the radical means marketers are employing to reach consumers at a time when a growing number of people are using new technologies such as digital video recorders to avoid ads.

“It’s part of the future – a way to engage consumers in new and surprising ways,” said George Schweitzer, president of CBS marketing group. “How do you sample a drink? You give them a taste.”

In the Harry Potter films, the “Daily Prophet” newspaper has pictures that move. The ad in Entertainment Weekly will feature characters from several Monday night offerings on CBS, as well as a video promoting a Pepsi diet cola for men.

The video, which will play on a screen about the size of those found on mobile telephones, will appear in copies of the Time Warner magazine sent to subscribers in the New York and Los Angeles areas.

Media is Struggling, But Likely Right Time for Businesses to Advertise

For media professionals, a The Wall Street Journal’s Media/Marketing page on January 15 was about as uplifting as listening to The Cure while awaiting sentencing, with the jury foreman being a kid you stole lunch money from in 5th grade. Here were the headlines of its top two articles: "Newspapers Move to Outsource Foreign Coverage" and "Magazine Ads Evaporated in 2008, Faster as Months Went On." 

Here were some not-so-fun facts about magazine ads:

  • In 2008, fourth quarter magazine advertising plunged 17% compared to a year earlier
  • 2008 also saw drops in the first three quarters (6.4%, 8.2% and 12.9%, respectively)
  • Automakers bought 24% fewer magazine ad pages during 2008

But let’s also not forget there is an upside to all this; it may be advantageous for your business in terms of magazine advertising. If your competitors are not advertising and you are, you’ll get the most possible bang for your buck. So if you’re waiting to strike while the iron is hot, now is likely the right time.

In fact, this article from Wisconsin-based InBusiness Magazine sums it up quite aptly:

Since 1949, there have been many studies of the effects of advertising spending during recessions, and most studies have come to a similar conclusion: advertisers win business from those who don’t advertise (duh!), and advertiser sales and market share grow at a dramatically faster rate than non-advertisers for the next 3-5 years.

In one study, the advertisers sales growth was 14 times greater than non-advertisers. Holy competitive advantage, Batman!

(Truth be told, Batman has never needed to advertise, as far as we know. Although, come to think of it, he may need to take some serious PR measures following his outburst at a photography director that went public last week.)

Shameless plug:  If you’d like information about advertising in our popular BizVoice magazine (approximately 15,000 subscribers), just e-mail Jim Wagner at jwagner@indianachamber.com.