PC Magazine made news last week when parent company Ziff Davis Media announced that print editions would end early next year after a 27-year run. The reality is that the vast majority of revenues and profits derived from PC Magazine come from the online arm. Is this a taste of what might happen to countless magazines and newspapers in the future as higher costs and smaller circulation bases make print products unprofitable?
As much as we like to hold on to traditions, unprofitable traditions are not of much value. In the case of print media, it is possible that the print product can only be sustained if it is reinvented in some way. In the case of newspapers, a greater focus on local news or other local content seems to be the point of difference on which they can stand. Niche magazines are likely to survive longer as they have always had smaller, but highly interested, audiences. As costs rise and customers hold purse strings tight, nothing should be off the table when evaluating profitability of various forms of product distribution. It could include the tough choice Ziff Davis made after nearly three decades of a print version of PC Magazine.
Link: The New York Times – “PC Magazine, A Flagship for Ziff Davis, Will Cease Printing a Paper Version”
I don’t think that print will ever completely diminish from our existence. I do, however, believe that in the times to come the majority of magazine, newspapers, books, etc. will become digital. We are already headed in that direction.
For instance, I read the Tennessean everyday… online. I get sales calls from them every week trying to convince me to sign-up to receive the hard copy of the paper. I have the same situation with one of my favorite magazines. My subscription just recently ran out and I didn’t renew it. I received countless items in the mail encouraging me to sign up for another year at a lower cost. I disregarded all of the mail. I read the articles online now. The reality is that I have my laptop in hand at all times. Why have any access material that you don’t need when all of the information you want is at your fingertips???
It makes sense for PC Magazine to go online, because it’s all about PC games, most of those being played online. I could actually seeing Ziff Davis being completely online since that company mainly runs magazines for the video game industry.
But for print media to decease…many newspapers are all ready doing that. Like New York Times and other big named ones. You can view a little bit of the article, but to get the full thing, you have to buy that issue online. I think going digital is a good thing. It costs lots to ship the media everywhere in the US, why not save money and just have it coming from one source: the internet.