Today I learned that another magazine I read is ceasing publication. This isn’t really a surprise to me. In fact, I’m surprised that they have hung on this long. They were an advertiser-supported magazine and their number of ads has been a bit sparse as of late. From my perspective, their content focus and target market were never clearly defined, which makes it hard to attract and retain advertisers.
Interestingly they didn’t blame the economy, the rising cost of paper, or the upcoming postage increase. (Postage and paper costs are huge expenses for magazine publishers.) However, I have to believe that since their next issue would have been under the new, higher postage rates, that it must have been a factor.
What they did cite as justification was a change of advertiser preference from print ads to on-line ads. Yet a perusal of their website failed to turn up a requisite amount of online ads to support this assertion. I surmise that the truth is that their costs simply grew too much to be covered by the amount of advertising that they retained.
Having now slashed their costs by shuttering the print magazine, they are left with a website and e-newsletter. They will have less revenue, but substantially lower expenses. However, neither their website or newsletter are functioning at the same caliber as their print magazine.
I am not mourning the loss of this magazine, however. Although I paged through it, I seldom read it (hence my claim that they lacked focus).
Besides, I’ve a backlog of other magazines to read anyway — so this actually helps me out!
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Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.