Thursday, April 06, 2006

Where Are All the Magazines Going?


Magazine publishers everywhere need to start making some decisions. As they watch their newspaper bretheren suffer from people's addiction to Internet news, and their own circulations remaining stagnat it might be time for magazines to start looking elsewhere to reach their readers. Though magazine circulations have not been decreaseing as rapidly as newspaper readersghip, because magazines allows for the information to be consumed at the reader's leisure, publishers are still begining to steer their investments onto the Internet.

One publisher that is aggresively pursuing to increase their presence on the Internet is Condé Nast, the nation's second largest magazine publisher. This move by such a large publishing house shows that that the world of magazines is finally begining to realize that, as it has been with other media, the Internet is becoming an insepreable sidekick.

However, Conde Nast's strategy has been to differentiate the brand of the magazine from their Internet destinations. For example Conde Nast' combines the contentof W and Vogue magazines in its style.com, while including information available exclusively on the site. Differentiating the web offerings from the magazine brands, according to Steven Newhouse, chairman of Advance.net the company responsible for the Conde Nast websites, allows for Conde Nast to "gain a broader audience and more loyalty from your subscribers if you extend the experience into the Web." This allows "the company to cast a wider net for readers beyond those already buying the magazines. Moreover, having sites unattached to a magazine brand allowed the sites to be more playful."

The reason that the Internet offers so many oppportunities for magazine publishers to reach readers is because ot the added content the Internet offers. Magazines that relocate to Internet can also include added material to their stories, includinge video and audio components. For example, Vanity Fair released a video on its website for a recent photo shoot. Another feature that is attracting magazines to the Internet is the interactivity. For instance, the Web allows for readers research products and connect with other readers who might have the same interests.

These opportunities presenting themselves to magazine publishers to enhance the magazine reader's experience will completely begin to change how and where magazines are read. And since Conde Nast is the second largest publisher in the U.S. it will not be suprising to see other publishers begin to follow suit.

Article:
As Magazine Readers Increasingly Turn to the Web, So Does Conde Nast

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