The death of magazines? InfoWorld goes online only

US magazine Infoworld is delivering it’s last print copies and publishing online only. They are ahead of the curve, and it is smart thing to do as the technology magazines are increasingly irrelevant in this age of MacRumors, Engadget and DPReview . I can’t recall the last time I purchased a computer magazine, and why bother when the latest news and all the tips and tricks are online?

InfoWorld saw this coming and embraced the web early – publishing all the print content online up to 6 days before the magazine was delivered, but also creating an expanded web presence. This meant moving to daily (or continuous) writing and publishing cycles, embracing blogs and moving into video, podcasts and slideshows.

So goodbye subscription revenue and print advertising, and hello online advertising. From the article:

“The ad-driven economic model that supported print magazines for years … … is unraveling. ”

“advertisers want more immediate gratification and measureable results than print can afford them..”

Thus the transition from offline to online can work, albeit only in specialised areas for now. It requires a step up in content production (sounds like more rather than less writers and editors are required), a certain critical mass of online advertising (which we are far from here in NZ), and a gradual transition of content. That last point is important – InfoWorld expanded the online content, audience and advertising while shrinking the same for the magazine. The readers are the final arbiters of when the best time to switch is – they will vote with their reading habits and subscriptions.

“Some things shouldn’t change, however: The basic principle of separation of church and state — that advertisers must not influence what editors say, write, or cover — is still sacrosanct.”

hear hear. The writers and editors continue to write and edit, and indeed can influence a larger audience.

Ominously for other trade magazines, from the comments:

“I had the president of one software company and the marketing VP of another tell me last week that they don’t read print trade rags. Instead they register keywords with our favorite search engine and have content delivered to them”

and for those mired in the past:

“It seems to me that print magazines are kept going after they should have been transitioned to the web because ad agencies and advertisers are slow to change their business habits of creating and buying print ads. Not because consumers are still demanding magazines in their mail boxes.”

This is all too true here in NZ – the dollars go to the same old media where they have always gone, and the media industries accordingly don’t react. The best advertising buying by far at the moment in NZ is for online ads, and smart advertisers (AirNZ springs to mind) are enjoying huge bang for the buck.

It is true that, as several commenter’s to the article noted, that reading on the train, exercycle or “in bed while enjoying being offline” means that print will always have a place. We should remember that Radio didn’t kill Newspapers, nor did TV kill Radio and the Internet isn’t going to be doing any wholesale killing either. However TV did kill huge segments of Radio, such as radio plays, and USA household newspaper penetration has fallen from 130% in the 1920’s to just 53% in 2000. Internet publishing is and will have a seismic effect on old media, and we are continuously learning what is affected and how the endgame will look. Exciting times.
Scoopit!