Magazines are dead.

With our “marketing in the digital age” event coming up, I got to thinking about the flip-side, a more traditional outlet that, like the dinosaurs, is likely soon to be extinct. I’m talking about that glossy, coffee table and travel campaign: The Magazine.

The NY Time’s recent article, “Conde Nast Cuts Focus on 2 Magazines,” is just one is a multitude of articles that points to the media’s slow decent. What happened to the days where magazines were jam-packed of advertisers and weighed as much as a brick? Those days are long gone.  Thanks to a shift and focus on alternative media (aka the Internet), advertisers have slashed, cut and eliminated many of their print advertising budgets.

Magazine sales for the first half of this year alone dropped 6.3%. So what do companies do in such an environment? As all good companies do, they evolve. They have to explore the online landscape to see if their product can breathe new light. They have to create new multi-media programs that allows advertiser’s goals to fall inline with what they have to offer. The outcome: online versions of the magazines online, exclusive online content, online communities centered around the magazine, consumer events and a host of other programs to try and attract advertiser dollars.

I for one, am saddened by the state that magazines find themselves in. Yes, I love the internet and it’s ability to give me rapid info (not have to wait a month for it). But as a lover of the magazine Runner’s World, it is sad for me to see it’s size shrink month to month. So I guess, I would love to hear how other people feel about this? Are there any magazines that you can’t live without? Do you think magazines are doomed to die or do they have some hope yet?

love from abroad,

C-moc