As Traditional Media Erodes, Magazines Thrive

If you take a look at all of the media statistics, something rather interesting jumps out. Consumer magazines are thriving. I don't mean online. I am talking about good old dead tree versions.

According to the Magazine Publishers of America, magazine advertising pages climbed to nearly 250,000 pages last year. While they're down from their 2000 high of 286,000 pages, the trend line has been going up. (Advertising pages tally up the total number of pages in a magazine that have advertising on them. They are a general indicator of the health of the magazine publishing industry.)

What's also notable, however, is that the rising tide is not lifting all boats. Time and Newsweek are both suffering as news really moves to the Web. The Washington Post even said recently that the term newsweekly is really moot in this day and age.

So why is it that consumer magazines continue to thrive? I think there are a few reasons. First, the ads have a lot of value. People like to peruse Vogue and GQ for the latest fashions and the ads are part of the experience. Second, I think it's also because magazines are by their nature vertical and they allow people to dig deeper into the subjects that interest them. Finally, a lot of the content is very visual and it's very difficult to create such an tangible and visually engaging experience online. Their increased use of video, however, could change all of that.

The takeaway here for me is that media is often additive. One format does not always replace another.