Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
Consumers are turning away from searchable sites and moving toward what Anderson calls “semiclosed platforms,” devices that deliver a certain type of content over the Internet through specially designed software packages—read that as the iPad and all that apps that come with it.
http://beta.wfs.org/content/future-m...lude-magazines |
That'll work for several years. And then the current crowd will shift interests: College students will graduate, professionals will get married and change reading habits, homeowners will move to a different part of the country and be dealing with different local politics.
When they do, they won't be handing off their old zines to their former roommate, won't be selling them at a yard sale, won't be offering them to the local doctor's office for the waiting room.
Most of those people will continue to buy magazine apps related to their new interests--but some won't, either because they aren't available, or because they just shifted away from the media. And when, in three or four years, they're ready to reconsider magazine subscriptions, they won't know where to look for the titles that match their interests.
My daughter's 15. She doesn't buy magazines. And if they shift almost entirely to digital platforms, she won't know they exist to buy in 5 years.
Lack of paper = lack of advertising to new readers. Lock-in content = lack of advertising to new readers.
They're transitioning fine because currently, readers know how magazines work and which ones they like, and are willing to shift to digital. What they need to figure out is how today's junior high students are going to know which titles they like in ten years.