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The Internet, rather than stealing readers from the printed page, may turn out to be the best thing to happen to magazines since the printing press, at least according to Nina Link, the new president of the Magazine Publishers of America. She argued in a speech on Mar. 14 to The Breakfast Club, a monthly gathering of New York City professionals, that the Web gives magazines another tool to build strong brands.
More important, she said, many traditional publications are now key players on the Net, leveraging their assets and moving across different platforms. Most are creating new alliances and e-commerce revenue sources. She cited Martha Stewart as an example of creating a brand across various media, but "the content, the attitude, the style, and the voice are all the magazine," said Link.
And Stewart is not alone. Time Inc. has a range of e-commerce projects, Reader's Digest is working with a partner to produce a health-care site, and Hearst has joined with Whirlpool to form a new e-commerce company called Brandwise.com. New publications such as Cosmo Girl! now have simultaneous launches on both the Internet and in print. Meanwhile, several Net companies are creating offline publications such as Yahoo! Internet Life, MXG Fashion, and Slate.
The dot-com world is also developing as a great source of revenue for magazines: Web companies spent $700 million in magazine advertising last year, up 348% from 1998. (Overall ad revenue increased 13% in 1999.) The Net has also spawned a new class of magazines, from veterans like the seven-year-old Wired to new hits like Fast Company, The Industry Standard, and Business 2.0.
TOPS FOR LOYALTY.
Link asserted that consumers connect to magazines more personally than they do to any other medium, pointing to a study from BBDO Worldwide that found 61% of adult consumers have a greater affinity for magazines than for either the Web or TV. And despite the stereotype that kids don't read, magazines are particularly popular among young people. About 80% of youths between 12 and 17 read magazines every week, and "teenage girls are more loyal to their magazines than their favorite TV show," Link said.
The magazine industry chief also cited a study released last week from Erdos & Morgan that showed 74% of those surveyed said they were spending as much or more time with magazines than ever. The study, which has some results posted on the association's Web site, surveyed more than 8,000 consumers with a 56% response rate. Among the findings: 39% of respondents said magazines were most tailored to their needs, 29% said that was true of the Internet, 19% favored cable TV, and 13% elected network TV. Magazines earned the highest scores in terms of people paying attention to advertising and purchasing a product.
ATTENTION GRABBER.
Readers love their magazines, but it's clear that the Internet has become an increasingly potent information source. The study found that 90% of consumers say they are spending as much or more time on the Internet, while 75% said the same for cable TV. Only 62% were watching as much or more network TV news. When asked which media grabbed their "full attention" when in use, 95% said the Internet, 90% said the same for magazines, and 60% said cable or network TV.
Link also acknowledged that the Internet has made it more difficult to keep talent within the magazine industry, as ambitious professionals head to new media. "We're trying to get away from positioning ourselves as dead trees and old media," she said, pointing to the importance of magazine companies using new types of compensation and incentives.
The magazine boom does have one downside: With both circulation and ad sales up, magazines are becoming too big. "When I travel, I find it hard to take Fast Company and stick it in my briefcase," said Link. But forget going online instead. She predicts that in 50 years, humans will still prefer curling up with a paper magazine than with an electronic flat screen.
By Diane Brady in New York
EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT
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