Print Media

Does it have a Future?

Jacque Lewis

Business of Entertainment

Joseph Richie

5.11.14

The Business of Print Magazines will be dead by the year 2020. Okay, that might be

stretching it a little, but it’s definitely possible. Especially as magazines continue to cut back on

its number of magazines delivered along with its staff. This is definitely similar to what the

music industry has done due to digital distribution on the internet and it’s something that’s

happening in the near future for the TV and Film industries. Though, the difference between

those three industries and the print industry is that they both have something to fall back on,

content. Does print magazines have content? Of course, there’s plenty of content, but the

medium that it’s being printed on is quickly becoming outdated.

So what’s the best thing to do? Go digital of course, something that’s already happening.

Though with that said, a simple search online reveals many different emotions against this digital

movement cause by the internet several years ago. This paper will go over the cause of print

media’s decline, as well as go over the future of print or rather it even has a future. Either way,

it’s a great time to be a fan of content, though it’s definitely a conflicting time to be the manager

of these operations.

The decline in print media, what’s the cause, was it the internet in general? Google?

Tablets? It’s more so a combination of the three. The Television industry, Film industry, and the

Music industry all suffered from one major thing, loss of consumers, but the consumers didn’t

disappeared in thin air, they just moved on to a different way to receive their content. In

American alone, consumers who own smartphones and tablets spend an average of two hours

and thirty minutes using them every day (CNN). Nearly three hours of using their tablets as well

as working a job for eight hours along with life in general gives the consumer no real reason to

even pick up a magazine. Loss of readers means loss of advertising which unfortunately also

means lots of cutbacks as businesses involved with print media continue to cut back on

operations to create a leaner and meaner machine. Just recently, Johnson Publishing Company

announced that Jet Magazine will be moving toward a more digital focus starting in June

(Vocus.com). Desiree Rogers, chief executive of Johnson Publishing, spoke recently about this

digital movement, “African-Americans skew higher than the rest of the population in getting

their news and information from mobile devices (NY Times).” Though, just not African

Americans, the general public has definitely changed their habits as far as receiving content is

concerned. Let’s look at Newsweek, a publication that’s been around for over 80 years and

counting, going completely digital in 2012 due to decline in readership and circulation (Forbes).

Andrew Sullivan, who writes for the Dish blog which is also published on the Daily Beast, spoke

about how he advised management to make the digital change years ago. “Nobody under 30

reads magazines in print anymore (Dish).” Perhaps he’s right. A revealing chart from Pew

Internet shows that 34 percent of eBook readers are in the 18-29 age bracket, while 17 percent of

eBook readers are 65 and older (Pew Internet). The movement of e-reading is certainly real in

this day and age.

Could it really be a digital movement, could it really be the fact that we’re so busy that

the act of reading a magazine from cover to cover takes too much time. Maybe we just prefer

getting our articles from different channels rather than being stuck with one channel. Google, a

popular search engine, currently has over 11 billion searches a day, with over 187 million unique

visitors coming to the site alone (Expanded Ramblings). After searching, the user is presented

with articles from websites all over the world which makes one wonder if Google is the true

killer of print media as it pertains to newspapers and magazines. The publishing of print

magazines takes months while the publishing of anything digital takes seconds. Could the speed

of delivery be what the consumer wants completely, editor for Top Gear, Charlie Turner

explains, “The Speed of delivery is vital, but so too is the tone of the magazine, which is very

profitable. We have to generate content for the right platform and the skillset of our magazine

creative becomes more and more valuable. They have to be great writers in print, tablet and

online, which gives them much more freedom. For creatives who are passionate about their

subject, it opens doors to many more readers. The potential is huge and very exciting (The

Guardian).” The movement for digital distribution is real, but so it great content which will make

a break a digital magazine in this day and age.

If this movement towards digital distribution doesn’t kill print media, there’s one thing

that’s definitely will, the concept of digital subscription. Just last year alone, newsstand sales

dropped 10 percent, expect that percentage to grow as more digital subscribers sign up (NY

Times). Steven Cohn, editor for the Media Industry Newsletter adds, “They’re relatively small to

the mix, I would expect these numbers to grow steadily, it’s like everything else. You have to

walk before you run. Things will accelerate (NY Times).” Acceleration is inevitable with

Amazon.com, Zinio, and Magzter among others putting up digital newsstands to offer their

consumers. Though Amazon.com and Apple has the slight edge since they push their own

devices that consumers can download from. This definitely means that the fight is harder for

publishers to catch the attention of consumers digitally.

A company that’s making it even harder for publishers for grab the consumer’s attention

is Next Issue Media, LLC. This company is a joint venture between News Corp, Meredith, Time,

Inc, Hearst, and Conde Nast. The company runs a website call NextIssue.com, which offers over

a 100 magazines digitally for $9.99 or $14.99 respectively. The consumer has the power to

download as many magazines as they want on their tablet. Even major magazines like Time,

Sports Illustrated and People are included with the $14.99 monthly price tag. It’s to be seen as

Netflix for Magazines. Even though Next Issue has the licensing rights with all of the publishers

on its website, this also mean that each publisher as a whole will be getting a smaller share of the

pie. Though a little money is better than no money, if NextIssue.com catches fire like Spotify

and Netflix, than the end of print media for magazines will be over much sooner than later.

Why? The music industry still have concerts and live performances to fall back on. The film

industry still have the novelty of the movie theater to fall back on. The novelty of picking up a

magazine in print form may not be enough to stop its demise. As of last year, there’s only over a

100,000 subscribers for Nextissue.com (Forbes).This number is small when compared to Netflix

and Hulu, rather this is enough for the company to stay in business in the near future after

licensing out all the magazines in its library will largely depend on Next Issue’s growth this year.

Next Issue’s CEO, Morgan Guenther mentions that “pretty good business” for their platform will

be between 250,000 to 400,000 subscribers, though his target is 1 million subscribers by the end

of the year (Forbes). We’ll see how that works out, since the popularity of Next Issue will be a

game changer for magazine publishers everywhere.

The all-you-can-eat subscription model is the way to go as technology continues to

dictate how we educate and entertain ourselves. The growth in the sales of tablets have showed

no signs of slowing down, so starting up a new publication without a strong digital leg would be

foolish in this day and age. Just like the film, television, and music industries, prepare for more

independent publishers to join in on this digital age. The playing field is now leveled, now watch

as more independent publishers began publishing their offerings with their own apps that they

developed along with their own original content as we began to see Time Magazine on the same

digital shelf as a blog or a website ran by someone completely new to the game of publishing.

Digital distribution will be the future, while print media will slowly began to fade away

to the memories of the past. Print will most likely still exist in one form or another, but will most

likely be seen as a way to publish a magazine in a special edition fashion. The battle for the

consumer’s time will become even more difficult as they’re face with an endless amount of

digital offerings that will probably end up being more distracting than convenient. The music

industry did it, the film and television industries will do it, so expect it on a major scale for the

print industry. The consolidation will began to move in a rapid pace as more magazines publish

their final issues and more merges become a reality. The road in survivor mode won’t be easy as

more talented writers and editors are forced into an early retirement due to the importance of

cutting costs. Though what’s great about this is that it leaves room for the entrepreneurs of the

future to creation publications that will run circles around the Time Magazines and Newsweek’s

of yesteryear.

This paper went into the decline of print media, along with the future of digital media.

We discuss different magazines that are going either closing down completely or moving toward

a digital only format. Times are changing and just doesn’t make sense for any magazine to make

print its main offering to consumers. The magazine equivalent to Netflix is finally here as we see

more consumers sign up for all-you-eat subscriptions rather than digital subscriptions

individually, though it’s moving in a slow pace right now, the CEO feels the future it’s right

targeting 1 million subscribers by the end of the year. It’s unfortunate that there will be many

layoffs in the future as publishers began to adapt for the future by consolidating their companies,

stopping iconic magazines, and switching famous magazines to a digital only format. Though

this also mean there will be a new wave of digital entrepreneurs who will gladly take the baton

from the companies of yesteryear. The future is bright indeed, and the best has yet to come. The

new “Print” industry will be something to truly look forward to as technology continues to

amaze us all.

Works Cited

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Newsweek?” Forbes. 20 October 2012. Web 12 May 2014.

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