Death of a Magazine Redux

Earlier this week MediaPost noted the almost 20% decrease in newstand sales of Time magazine for the second half 2007 versus the same period in 2006. Adding the bad news, subscription sales also fell 17%. From their article:

In November 2006, Time cut its rate base 18.8% to 3.25 million, so the decline in subscriptions may be due partly to a purge of "junk" circulation, including automatically renewed subscriptions. But it's hard to put a good spin on the steep drop in newsstand sales, which advertisers often view as an indicator of audience engagement. Ironically, the declines follow a major redesign that was intended to make the magazine appeal to a mass audience. Introduced in March 2007, the new look delivers less visual clutter for a cleaner, streamlined appearance. There is lots of clear "white" space, fewer, more eye-catching images, and interesting text formats.

MediaPost go on to note similar declines at Newsweek and US News/Report. On the flip side, The Economist inproved their numbers significantly with total circ up 12%. Time is a long way from closing down, but in my predictions for 2008 I did note that we will see some high profile magazines shut down. I think these numbers reflect wider changes in consumption patterns. (And no its not about people reading less).

Borders' Concept Store Opens

Short of visiting Ann Arbor to look over the store myself the nice people at Ann Arbor News got to preview the store opening yesterday and have written a detailed review. I hope to get out there myself in the next few months in the meantime here are some notable items from the AA News article:

The store, in the Waters Place plaza near Kohl's in Pittsfield Township, is the first of 14 concept stores the struggling retailer will open this year. Borders is striving to restructure and brand itself as a center for "knowledge and entertainment," increase sales and differentiate its 520 U.S. stores from its chief rival, Barnes & Noble
Inc.

The music section has been downsized, and in its place is Borders' digital center. The circular, oversized kiosk features several computer stations where customers can burn music CDs, download music and audiobooks onto MP3 players, create digital photo albums, learn how to self-publish and research family genealogy.

Jones said the amount of floor space dedicated to books has remained consistent in the new store, but the company decreased the number of titles it offers to make better use of space. Now, Borders stacks more books so the cover, rather than the spine, faces the customer. The new Borders also sells some digital cameras, memory cards, and more toys and gift items. Still, the selection doesn't overwhelm the main attraction - books.

There is a video in the article as well.

It might be more interesting to see how this concept store evovles as they get direct feedback from consumers. Borders' deserve credit for expanding the idea of what a bookstore is; how their ideas resonate with book buyers is obviously the point of the concept. My only negative comment is that they get points off for utilizing The Long Pen autographing system: taking autographing to the network level just eliminates all the fun.

Shocking Result: Borders Australia Sale Approved

Despite the suggestion that the consolidation of Borders and Angus & Robertson's would lead to higher prices the Australian Competition Commission will allow the sale of Borders stores to Pacific Equity Partners. The resulting combination will be considerably larger in number of outlets than Dymocks which is the only other national chain.

A&R is likely to reassess their entire chain and perhaps close some of the non-performing stores. They may also look to consolidate more retail traffic by opening larger Border's branded superstores in both urban and suburman locations. Thus far, PEP has not indicated how they will present the two brands (and Whitcouls in New Zealand) but it is probable that PEP will operate two types of stores similar to a B Dalton/B&N arrangement. Many of the existing A&R retail outlets I have been in are somewhat down-market and some look more like discount retailers than full service book retailers. Look for PEP to expand and accelerate the opening of larger Borders stores and consolidate some of the A&R business.

No official word on the price but it is estimated to exceed A$120mm. Whether this is a good number from Border's US perspective remains to be seen given the amount they have invested in the international operations.

Dymocks will also be forced to make some changes; however, their ability to do so across the entire range of stores is complicated due to franchising. With half the chain owner managed Dymocks have traditionally had difficulty (and resistance) pushing out corporate mandated initiatives. Regardless, the existence of a well funded, large and well branded competitor may help galvanize the Dymocks faithful. Dymocks could also embark on their own superstore expansion although where they would get the funding for this is anyone's guess.

The Age

NetGalley and Publisher's Weekly Launch eMarketing Platform

Publishers Weekly officially announced a partnership with Rosetta Solutions, Inc. to implement netGalley, an innovative online application. The platform is designed to help publishers better connect with both traditional and new media communities through electronic distribution and tracking of galleys, press materials, title metadata, and promotional plans. PW will use the netGalley application to capture information at the point of submission of Galleys for their reviews process. One of the key benefits of netGalley to participating publishers will be the ability to upload vital book and promotional information that will enable multiple and varied use by channel partners.

I profiled NetGalley several months ago (link).

The Bulletin: Death of a Magazine

As a newsie, I used to carry the The Bulletin on my route every week. I never understood why it came out on Wednesday; even Women's Weekly came out at the beginning of the week, but therein lay some of the failed logic that evidenced the slow and eventually rapid death of The Bulletin. Most will never have heard of this "newspaper" but it was iconic in Australia. Read as ardently in the clubs of Melbourne as it was on the station in Walla Walla, it represented the voice of Australia - both good and quite bad.

As an isolationist, white Australia and republican voice, the newspaper, established in 1880, tried hard to be confrontational and controversial. At the same time, the "Bushman's Bible” published some of the best Australia had to offer from poets, writers and journalists. They included Henry Lawson (known by every Australian school child), Breaker Morant, Banjo Patterson (Waltzing Matilda) and Miles Franklin (now the name of the leading Australian literary prize).

During the early 20th century the newspaper moderated its' views but even when it was purchased by Sir Frank Packer in 1961, he had to remove the 'Australia for the white man' from the masthead. Packer and his son Kerry built a large, influential media empire that included newspapers, television and eventually gambling. The Bulletin was always a 'trophy' property within the empire ensuring the eventual demise.

Kerry Packer's directive to his serial editorial hires, was to "make 'em talk about it." It wasn't about making money and it wasn't - eventually - about transitioning to the Internet. When any business (in this case a publication) is protected from financial reality, what motivation exists for innovation and logical strategic planning? On the death of his father, James Packer inherited the business in December 2005 and he took the long view that his fortune lay in gambling. He sold the media business to private equity and in their review of operations they shut The Bulletin several weeks ago.

The Bulletin still garner's 50,000+ weekly readers and it is hard to believe someone couldn't make a go of it at this level. The Economist only gets 20,000 in Australia and has launched a (reputed) A$500K marketing program to convert old Bulletin readers. While it is a always sad to see a media 'institution' go under, in this case it was inevitable. There hasn't been too much interest in resurrecting the newspaper from any third party and perhaps the investment required to digitize their content and production processes is too much. The real crime is the loss Australia faces from both the voice of The Bulletin and the potential to farm the content for future generations. Had The Bulletin been owned by a commercial publisher during the mid-1990s then the future may have been quite different.

Random House to Sell Chapters

The WSJ (via Reuters) is reporting that Random House will begin experimenting with the sale of chapters from their web site. The report suggests this is not a wholesale effort merely that they will "test selling individual chapters of a popular book to gauge reader demand." From the Journal:

Random House Publishing Group's experiment appears to be the first time a major consumer publisher has offered a title on a chapter-by-chapter basis. It will sell the six chapters and epilogue of "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" for $2.99 each.

I am pretty sure that's an incorrect statement - for example. No matter, the point is publishers are rapidly experimenting with new ways to reach out to consumers.

Harpercollins Launches Free Content

The NYTimes reports that Harpercollins will begin a marketing experiment by placing the full text of selected new titles on their web site. From the article:

Starting Monday, readers who log on to http://www.harpercollins.com/ will be able to see the entire contents of “The Witch of Portobello” by Mr. Coelho; “Mission: Cook! My Life, My Recipes and Making the Impossible Easy” by Mr. Irvine; “I Dream in Blue: Life, Death and the New York Giants” by Roger Director; “The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President: Who the Candidates Are, Where They Come from and How You Can Choose” by Mark Halperin; and “Warriors: Into the Wild” the first volume in a children’s series by Erin Hunter.

As the article notes, consumers interested in purchasing the titles will be able to do so via existing online retailers. Currently, this is not designed to be a storefront for Harpercollins but does represent a continuation of their web-based marketing and promtion efforts.