GenDigital

Mags Turn To Free Digital Delivery To Capture College Students

Although magazine readership among college students has remained flat over the past two years, the number of students who actually subscribe to magazines has declined by about 10%. Up until late last year, most magazine publishers could not have cared less about their college aged subscribers, or potential subscribers, regardless of what they may have been quoted in saying elsewhere in the trades. (I made the rounds, several times with the big publishers, who will remain nameless, but you know who they are). But now, with the college student market being the hot demographic of the moment, even magazine publishers are scrambling, and I used that word with a bit of hesitation, since most magazine publishers just aren't that nimble quite frankly, to deliver a free, digital version of their magazine, in hopes (and prayers too, I imagine) that the college kid will love the digital version so much they will convert to being a paid subscriber at a certain point. Strategic marketing, or last ditched effort to appease an audience who, for the most part, prefers to get their news and entertainment information from the Internet or television?

Jane Mag Enlists 29-Year Old Virgin To Fuel PR Engine

I've heard before that any press is good press, but I think this might move into the category of being tasteless and just flat out demeaning. In an ill-conceived effort (my opinion) to generate some buzz (and it already has) Jane Magazine who primarily targets women readers between the ages of 18 and 34, has enlisted the services of 29-year old Sarah DiMuro as she tries to lose her virginity before turning 30 on November 7th. As part of her arrangement with the magazine, Ms. DiMuro will update a blog on the mag's web site. People that visit her blog can send in their own recommendations of potential suitors for Ms. DiMuro as well as vote on a list of submissions received. Call me old fashioned, call me lame or whatever, but I don't think this is the greatest route to gain notoriety for Jane or Ms. DiMuro, who by the way, is a comic by trade. But I guess it really doesn't matter as long as the magazine sells newsstand copies and new subscriptions, right?

Commentary: What's Next For The Teen Magazine Category

The past four months have been anything but normal for the teen magazine category. Two titles have been shelved starting with ELLEgirl and most recently with Teen People. For the most part, print media, as an effective advertising medium to reach teens and young adults, remains generally out of favor, with buyers opting for the Internet and other alternatives such as event marketing and promotions. I've received a fair share of calls and emails from clients and other industry contacts asking my take on all of the recent events and their implications. To tell you the truth, my opinions on the demise of Teen People haven't really changed since my original post on 7/26. The reality is that Teen People lost its one-time unique standing in the celeb space as teens and young adults, mostly young women, turned to magazines with higher frequencies like US Weekly and People for more timely news as well as the plethora of Internet sites devoted to entertainment and gossip news. This, coupled with the fact that many of today's hottest celebs are quite young (Lindsay Lohan is still not of legal drinking age) made it tough for Teen People to have a unique voice. But, even with all of that said, the real question remains, is this just a downward couple of ticks in a cyclical industry or is this a trend here to stay? A contrarian might tell you this is a golden opportunity to launch a new teen magazine. After all, advertisers aren't going to give all of their print money to just Teen Vogue, Seventeen and CosmoGIRL, right? The conservative will tell you to continue spending with the remaining teen books but increase your spending in other channels where the audience is spending more time like the Internet and possibly even mobile phones. My take on it: I believe the teen magazine category is an incredibly tough sell to management, especially if you're part of a bigger magazine conglomerate like Time, Inc or Hearst. Essentially, each magazine has to constantly replenish its subscriber base as tweens become teens who then become young adults. That gets very expensive, very quickly. Alongside the subscriber challenges remain, what I believe to be the even bigger issue: the content. Gen Y, more than any other demographic segment, leverages the user generated and empowering mechanisms of the Internet and mobile entertainment to best suit their individual needs. The only example I could think of would be for Time Inc or some other publisher to launch a teen magazine that is written and edited exclusively by teens themselves. Teen People used to boast of a large trendspotter panel of readers, perhaps they would have been the first to sign up for the new venture? There is a precedent for this, check out Teen Newsweek from Weekly Reader written by teens. Clearly, I don't have all of the answers, only opinions, but I do think there is still place for a great teen mag, key word being great. Niche players like School Sports appears to be doing great and looking to grow big time. It's not like there aren't any opportunities or time left in the day for teens to pick up a magazine. They still go to the doctor's office or dentist's office. They still bring something to read with them when they go to the beach or pool. And believe it or not, some actually read each night before they go to bed, before they check their email one more time, of course.

Disney Exits Interest in US Weekly, Nets $250 Million

During a conference call with analysts, Disney casually mentioned the planned sale of its 50% interest in Wenner Media-owned US Weekly, the 7th most read magazine among college women. Also, among just college women, ages 18 to 24, along with Teen Vogue, US Weekly is the only other magazine that has continued to grow its readership base by at least 10% over the past two years, and that momentum shows no visible signs of slowing down. In fact, if US Weekly continues on its current growth track, it should move up to fifth spot this fall. Back to Disney. The home of Mickey Mouse and Eva Longoria is about to net the tidy sum of $250 million when the company sells its interest in US Weekly back to Wenner. Disney was brought on as a partner about five years ago when US made the extremely difficult transition from a monthly publication to the considerably more capital intensive weekly publication. Given all of the negative reports that have surfaced around the magazine industry over the past three months (think Teen People, ElleGIRL, etc.), this should give the print world something to be proud of, especially if you're Wenner and just had your entertainment mag valued at $600 million compared to $80 million five years ago.

Gannett Acquires FSU College Paper

I just spent the last fifteen minutes searching for a precedent and did not find one, so for once, this really might something that is 100% unique. Last week, The Tallahassee Democrat, a daily newspaper owned by newspaper giant Gannett, said that it had purchased the The FSView and Florida Flambeau, the official campus newspaper of Florida State University. Unlike the overwhelming majority of campus newspapers the FSView and Florida Flambeau are independent from Florida State University, meaning the school does not help actually fund the paper's operations although it is still considered the "official" student publication. The decision to sell to Gannett, according to the paper's owner, was influenced by "uncertain times for print media." Could this be the start of a new trend, with more college newspapers getting bought by large media conglomerates? I doubt it. Because the FSView and Florida Flambeau was independent from FSU and owned by a private owner, I am sure the amount of red tape to make this happen was significantly less than it would have been if the paper was actually a part of FSU's balance sheet. On the plus side, for aspiring journalists at FSU, this newspaper 2.0 type deal, presents a potentially wildly cool opportunity for them. I would have to think that landing a summer internship at USA Today or one of Gannett's other major market dailies would be significantly easier if you said you were currently employed by a "sister paper." Also on the plus side for Gannett, for the first time, it could understand, from a financial perspective what the notoriously secret world of campus newspapers looks like from a revenue, profit (or loss) and growth perspective.

MTV Continues Acquisition Streak, Buying College Focused Print Firm

Continuing its acquisition streak, MTV announced yesterday that it had acquired Y2M: Youth Media & Marketing Networks, which represents some 450 college newspapers. The financial terms of the deal were not released. Ideally, if executed properly, the deal will provide the mtvU unit with an additional media touch point for college focused advertisers that currently advertise on mtvU owned and operated campus television networks and the mtvU digital platform. Although you don't hear Y2M in the same sentence as other hot college media properties like Facebook or CollegeHumor, at the end of the day, this deal (again, if executed correctly, remember print is not necessarily MTV's core competency) might end up being a sweet little coup for the purveyor of coolness network. Why? Very simply, three in four college students regularly read their campus newspaper. So now MTV can go out to their top 100 advertisers and pitch a national/local integrated play, which can be of particular appeal for certain retailers, financial services companies and entertainment marketers. Buying the relatively under the radar Y2M might end up paying bigger dividends than the other higher profile acquisitions of late by the network like Neopets.

Another Teen Mag Goes Away

Although they were around considerably longer and had more than twice the circulation of recently folded ElleGIRL, Time Inc yesterday decided to fold the print version of Teen People. According to the memo released, Time Inc was shutting down Teen People after the September 2006 issue, the August/September issues have been traditionally the strongest in terms of ad pages for all of the teens books. Like ElleGIRL, the memo released yesterday said Teen People will continue to have an online presence. If you've been following some of my magazine related posts over the past few months this announcement shouldn't come as much of surprise. Here were some of the factors that most likely lead to the announcement. First, as I've said before a couple of times, entertainment hungry teens are turning to books like People proper, US Weekly and In Touch to get their read on, otherwise they get their fix at one of the online entertainment sites. From a more practical standpoint, some of the more popular celebs of the moment are barely out of their teen years, think Lindsay, so it is pretty tough to land some exclusive covers when the young stars are gracing the covers of "older" mags like US Weekly, Vanity Fair or even Harper's Bizarre. Lastly, I really think TP, in terms of its content offerings kinda lost its way over the past two years. At the end of the day, it just wasn't as good as it once was four or five years back when a different editorial team was running the show. Now the question is, will it not only survive, but thrive online? My immediate answer right now is probably not, unless they want something to exist on a very small scale, probably something like under 500k uniques a month and generating less than $5.0 million in advertising annually. I don't know how appealing that can be to Time Inc in the long run.

Quince Girl Touts Event Series To Unite Advertisers and Readers

Quince Girl, which targets young Hispanic women who are preparing for their "quinceanera," which is essentially a Hispanic version of an American girl's sweet 16, is bringing together readers and advertisers in a novel approach. The magazine is in the midst of a running an event tour hitting major Hispanic markets like Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and Miami featuring elaborate fashion shows and dances. The first event drew over 5,000 people in Houston. Quince Girl's publishers said the objective is to bring together readers and advertisers during essentially what is a planning period for a "mini-wedding" sans a groom. From what I understand, on most occasions, all family members take part in the planning, which presents a unique opportunity for advertisers to reach not just the Hispanic youth target, but the entire family with messaging as well. Perhaps what's most interesting, is the other comment the Quince Girl publisher made saying "the word Hispanic is virtually meaningless, since Spanish speakers in the United States come from dozens of countries with vastly different cultures." But the quinceanera, he goes on to say, "is one of the few unifying elements in diverse Latina markets." Very interesting stuff...I guarantee, given the buzz around specialized Hispanic media, if this mag takes off, bigger media companies will be knocking the door down to buy them.

Magazine Watch: SchoolSports Evolves Into Rise

For its tenth birthday present niche high school sports mag SchoolSports is renaming itself "Rise." The name change reflects the evolution of high school sports and the high school athlete and I am not just talking about Friday nights in September somewhere in Texas. I only wish I received a portion of the attention many high school jocks receive today. In my local newspapers, on many occasions high school sports gets almost as much coverage as pro and college sports, which puts the newly renamed niche book Rise in an awfully attractive spot. The controlled circ mag distributes just under a million copies in 25 cities. The magazines are sent directly to high schools and students can pick up a copy for free. I am not sure how much they charge for a full color page, but Rise boasts is pretty nice roster of advertisers including Gillette, Sony Pictures and Nike, among others. I think the guys at Rise on are to something. I don't know of any high school athlete, be it a football player or a tennis player that doesn't like seeing his or her name mentioned in a newspaper, let alone a magazine. I have to admit I have yet to pick up a copy, but may be if the guys at Rise are reading this post, perhaps they will be inclined to send me a copy. From an advertising perspective, even without going through the magazine, I would think Rise presents somewhat of a unique opportunity to reach a target segment of the youth market who is active and probably isn't all that shy in letting friends and family know when they get picked up.

Lucky Magazine Introduces Mobile Marketing Program in September Issue

Conde Nast's Lucky Magazine, the 12th most read magazine by college women (8th among seniors), is the latest magazine title to integrate call-to-action mobile elements in its upcoming September issue. I first posted about Maxim magazine, the number two mag among college men, running a similar program about a month a half ago. The Lucky mobile marketing program, entitled "Live Buy It," leverages PayPal's Mobile Text2Buy technology to offer Lucky readers products from 18 marketers and retailers. Like other similar programs, readers simply text in their specific purchases using their mobile phone. Although analysts estimate mobile marketing spending at less than $50 million annually, there is an expectation that the market could grow to nearly $1.5 billion in the next four years. Now that is some serious growth. Not unlike Internet advertising three or four years ago, I believe most marketers will remain on the sidelines until there is substantial positive buzz and some sort of tipping point in the mobile marketing arena is reached. That said, I still think it is extremely positive that traditional media companies like Conde are leading the pack and getting their ad partners on board.