Are magazines doomed, too?

WHETHER or not magazines are going to be in trouble in the future is clearly of immediate importance. However a recent post by Jeff Jarvis claiming they are in trouble makes several contentious points.

it’s harder to create a blockbuster and consumer magazines depend on the blockbuster economy

This is the first flaw in the argument. Chris Anderson's theory of the Long Tail puts a very convincing argument that magazines, by default, do not rely on the blockbuster economy of lowest common denominator and actually can benefit from niche markets.

That is not to say that there are not constraints in terms of mass production and costs. However free titles are proving more and more that a clearly defined notion of a niche reader is what advertisers want - and magazines more than ever appeal to this economic theory.

Large publishing houses are also realising that their push to diversify can complement their print products. If they can achieve community, this is the most important part. That would lead us to believe Jeff's original thesis:

They have the unique value of slickness and focus that their publishers always brag about. And, I reasoned, magazines already were communities and so they should be perfectly positioned for the community-based internet. Magazines are collections of people who are interested in the same stuff. The challenge for an editor is to figure out ways to enable them to share with each other, to become a platform for that community.

So to conclude, Jeff says: "The death of Portfolio doesn’t yet presage the doom of magazines. It marks the doom of magazine launches."

But I can't agree with that either. What about Love? Quite apart from saying that there won't be launches, I would argue there will be a higher turn over of launches. As communities move and shift online, socially and in print - then their sister products (and that is what every media product is right now) will have to merge and shift with it. And larger publishing houses will be constantly merging and developing to make sure their titles are in touch with readers to be ' the collection of people' they need to reach.