Category Archives: Trends in magazine publishing

Extend your magazine’s brand for more impact

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Brand extension is a key to continued and enhanced success for magazines, according to publishers like Rupert Turnbull of Wired magazine, who asserts that education is the “next big thing” in brand extension. In the last two years, Wired, a popular print magazine, has launched an online magazine, mobile and tablet editions, a podcast, an events business, and a consulting arm. Print is still key for Condé Nast, publisher of Wired magazine. Over the last eight years, Condé Nast has launched some 60 magazines and is ready to launch another four in the next four months.

However, the publishing giant is looking at ways to extend its brands and its leaders see educational strategies like its newly launched College of Fashion and Design or recent London tech conference as key, along with events like Glamour Women of the Year or the Vogue Festival.

In fact, some Christian magazines have been using events and educational strategies successfully for decades. Christian magazines have sponsored weekend writing conferences, correspondence courses, learning tourism, and camps and classes of all kinds. Events have been high on the list for magazines which have sponsored music festivals, conferences, retreats, and contests.

In this day when so many “experts” are talking about the need to go digital, mobile, and interactive, print magazines can trade on their names to extend their brand in other ways. Certainly it is important to see how technology is changing the way your readers prefer to consume your product. But technology is not the only way to get your message out there. Even super-wired magazines like Wired, with online, mobile, and tablet editions, are looking at other low-tech ways of extending their brand and increasing their reach.

What is a magazine? This criteria may surprise you

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At least, that is the assertion of the writer of a Mequoda Group white paper on digital magazine publishing. He (or she) asks why the magazine medium has survived the challenge of radio and television for the reader’s time and attention. Perhaps it’s because of what differentiates a magazine from any other written content, whether books or Web site. He says the reason the magazine medium has survived and will survive is because of the difference in user experience. He says it is these attributes which define the user experience and make it distinct.

1. Magazines are linear, meant to be read from front to back, but not necessarily in their entirety. Hyperlinking is not linear. Any medium which makes it possible for the reader to skip around among hundreds or thousands of articles is not linear.

2. Magazines are finite, unlike Internet Web sites. He says the reader can say “I have finished the magazine. Now I’m looking for the next issue.”

3. Magazines are periodic, whether weekly, monthly, or quarterly. They have an established frequency and do not come out more or less often.

4. Magazines are cohesive, edited, curated, and culled to produce the most interesting and relevant content for the reader. The editorial content is connected and the whole is greater than a sum of its parts

5. Magazines are portable and can be taken to a beach, the toilet, or anywhere else. As tablet computers become more versatile they may serve the function of the paper versions, perhaps even kick starting a resurgence of magazine reading.

6. Magazines are textual. Text is the king and photographs are ancillary, serving only to illustrate the text.

7. Magazines are collectible. People like to own and save magazines. At a magazine Web site, users must be able to download an issue of the magazine, says the Mequoda Group writer. If that’s not possible, it’s not a magazine Web site. In fact, according to an article on Adweek.com, tablet users are creating digital archives of their favorite magazines, spurring a boom in back issue sales.

For more useful information from the Mequoda Group, visit http://www.MequodaFree.com

You can hold posters accountable for what they say on your site

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Posted by Pd: “How can [insert name] say he is a Christian? He is going to hell and is taking anyone stupid enough to believe what he says with him.” Would Pd be expressing himself (or herself) so viciously if his name was attached to his comments? How helpful is this comment, anyway? Those are questions being asked by some editors about the comments attached to the articles they publish on line. While they want to encourage feedback, they feel some comments serve only to infuriate later posters and lead to futile arguments. Is there a way to get posters to stand openly behind the comments they make?

Some publications have discovered a way to do just that. It is now possible to convert your commenting system to Facebook. As a result, readers who wish to comment must do so through their Facebook account. One big advantage to publications is that Facebook requires users to use their real names. Those names show up in the comments section on your Website. This should encourage better quality, more thoughtful comments. It is also easier for Facebook users to share articles and comments with their own contacts. And for those who “live” in Facebook, the system seems natural and comfortable.

The disadvantage, of course, is that your readers must be logged into Facebook in order to make a comment. While this isn’t a problem for those who stay logged in all the time, amazing as it may seem, there are those who rarely use Facebook or (gasp!) don’t even have a Facebook account. Those readers who aren’t on Facebook must either get an account or hold their peace.

The best Christian magazines in America

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Christianity Today leads About.com’s list of the top 10 Christian magazines in America. The list includes both print and online publications with “inspiring stories, Christian world perspectives, helpful, biblical advice for shopping, parenting, cooking, and just about anything related to living your life as a Christian,” says About.com author Mary Fairchild.

Fairchild calls Christianity Today one of the leading Christian magazines in both online and print, with “practical advice on every aspect of Christian life from entertainment to shopping, parenting and marriage resources, help with college and seminary selection, community guides, and sermon aids.” The popular publication covers world, national, church, and ministry news.

Others making the top 10 include:

Relevant Magazine, a bimonthly lifestyle magazine targeting 20-somethings who are passionate about God, spirituality, and the world they live in.

Charisma, a leading magazine for Spirit-filled Christians, offering inspiring articles, columns by well-known pastors and teachers, community forums, and news from a charismatic perspective.

Bible Study Magazine, a new bimonthly print magazine by the publishers of Logos Bible Software, delivering tools and methods for Bible study, as well as insights from respected Bible teachers, professions, historians, and archaeologists.

Kyria.com, a monthly digital publication produced by Christianity Today, is designed to strengthen and equip Christian women to fulfill God’s calling on their lives.

World Magazine, a biweekly publication committed to reporting the news from a biblical worldview, with emphasis on stories that are often under-reported or even misreported by the national media.

CCM Magazine, formerly in print and now available only on-line, covers the contemporary Christian music world. There is a free weekly e-mail newsletter and a site with music, reviews, forums, tour and concert information, special artist features, and shopping.

Christian Living, an inspirational magazine featuring human interest stories, ministry spotlights, education, health, home, fashion, food, finance, and business. Founded in 2004 with a primary audience in Metro Atlanta, it has quickly grown to nationwide prominence.

Guideposts, a monthly magazine which has been delivering inspiration and guidance to Christian readers for more than 60 years. Their mission is to “help people from all walks of life achieve their maximum personal and spiritual potential.”

Christian History & Biography,  which offers in-depth, informative articles, graphics, illustrations, timelines and maps to help trace the roots of Christianity and to chronicle the people and events that have shaped the journey of Christianity through the ages.

China: Still waiting for the green light on Christian magazines

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“We sell these in our church!” The enthusiastic response of the bubbly young Chinese woman when asked where she had gotten the Christian t-shirt she sported. She spent over two hours in the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association booth at the Beijing Book Fair, looking at books and talking with the Americans manning the booth. The incident took place over 10 years ago and only a few hours after an encounter with another Christian young woman who, frightened as a young rabbit on the side of a freeway, refused to even set foot in the booth. Standing in the hallway she faced straight ahead as her eyes flicked to the left, where shelves of Bibles and Bible reference materials were displayed. “Especially those,” she said.

Trying to get a handle on…fill in the blank…in China? It’s like trying to grab a hold of a greased pig. You think you have the right foreleg in your grasp and suddenly it’s gone.  “You can say anything about China and it will be true somewhere in China, ” goes the saying. The other side of the coin is that whatever you claim about China will also be false somewhere in China. Nevertheless, there is evidence that despite reports of persecution of Christians in various places, Christian literature is making an inroad in China.

In a January article in Christianity Today titled “Discipling the Dragon: Christian Publishing Finds Success in China” author John W. Kennedy cites “a surge across China in the availability of popular Christian titles by authors Rick Warren, Gary Chapman, and Beth Moore, as well as classic titles by C.S. Lewis and others.”  He says that although statistics on Christian book sales are unreliable, it is evident that more books are available from more sources, recently including on-line booksellers.

Kennedy’s very useful article on Christian publishing did not mention magazines, which are still strictly controlled by the government. Nevertheless, with the growth of huge networks of house churches, the number of Christian magazines, while published “under the radar” is mushrooming. Compared to the densely printed—white space is a waste—black and white approach to underground publishing in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the communist years, some of these Chinese underground publications are peacocks, colorfully illustrated, slick publications. When will Christian magazines be legally available in the same venues as Christian books? When that day comes, watch out! Aspiring Christian magazine publishers are waiting in the wings.

“Discipling the Dragon: Christian Publishing Finds Success in China”   http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/january/publishing-success-china.htm

More good news for magazines

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Magazines in the U.S. are experiencing a resurgence, according to the Evangelical Press Association, quoting a report from Mediafinder.com, a magazine database. Launches of new magazine titles grew in 2011, as did total advertising revenue, notes Doug Trouten, EPA director.

Launches of new magazines grew by nearly 24 percent last year, while the number of magazines going out of business dropped by nearly 14 percent. This is good news for a magazine industry whose demise was widely predicted during the worst years of the recession. Advertising revenues, which fell off sharply in the last few years, turned the corner and began growing again, increasing 2 percent, while ad pages dropped 1 percent.

These statistics cover all publications, and may not reflect reality in the Christian magazine publishing world, which is still struggling to regain its footing after dropping at least a dozen established national publications representing hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

According to Mediafinder.com, the largest single category of new titles were food-related, followed by regional magazines. However, regional magazines was the category with the largest number of closures last year, followed by bridal magazines.

What is a magazine?

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Everyone knows what a magazine is. Or, do we? It used to be easy to recognize a magazine. It was a printed and bound sheaf of pages that was published periodically, whether weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Then came the Internet. Wow! That solved the printing and distribution problem. Just take the magazine and put all the content up there for everyone (or no one) to read. Wait a minute. Is it a Web site now or a magazine?

What distinguishes a Web site from an e-zine, or, for that matter, from a print magazine with a presence on the Internet? Can someone who is publishing only on the World Wide Web call themselves a magazine? How do they know they aren’t simply another Web site or even just a blog? Traditionally, a magazine has been categorized as a periodical. If we keep that category as a defining characteristic, then the question is whether the “magazine” on the Web is published on a regular periodical schedule or whether information is entered haphazardly.

I asked Idelette Vicker, editor of the beautiful “She Loves Magazine” on the Internet, how she distinguishes the site from a Web site or a blog. She responded: “To me, a Web site is more static with basic information about a business, church, or product.  You can order a product, get contact information, reserve a stay for your pet at a kennel, etc. Blog content is more personal. A magazine is creating content around the issues of the day or questions of the heart, just as a print publication might do.”

You might ask why defining what a magazine is matters. It matters to me because our name is Magazine Training International and our mission is to provide training and resources for Christian magazine publishers. So, we have to know what a magazine is and who we are supposed to be training in what kind of skills. We’ve just added digital publishing to our training program. But if Web sites can also be magazines, how far do we go in changing who we are and what we do?