You're Not in the Magazine Business

I've talked with a few publishers who have actually said, "We put out a magazine, that's it!" Many more have held similar sentiments but haven't communicated it so concisely.

Here's the thing: YOU'RE NOT IN THE MAGAZINE BUSINESS

You tell stories that are relevant to your community. You educate advertisers on the best way to get their message out to their customers, often packaging those messages along with your stories. Historically, this happened in print in something we call a magazine.

Some of this is clearly changing as tablets grow in popularity but more of this is changing on the advertiser side of the house - print is still the superior experience for readers in most cases. So, your business is your BRAND and your brand will either dominate the evolving media landscape or it will succumb to it.

Doing Digital Right Can't Wait for Local Magazines

This is a bit of a continuation of our Digital = Surviving post and part of our Time-is-of-the-Essence theme. Exploring digital really can't wait, with so many new digital media companies vying for local dollars carving out a digital niche and growing the market there before competitors get a strong foothold and start chipping away at print advertiser dollars is important.