More min magazine 2008: Feature by John Griffin
Friday, November 7, 2008

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The Best Is Yet to Come

John Q. Griffin is chairman of the Magazine Publishers of America and president of publishing at the National Geographic Society.

There’s no question that a weak economy has made this a very difficult year for those in our business. But, while the present environment puts more pressure on all of us day to day, it hasn’t changed any of the fundamental strengths of magazines.

In a world of unlimited media options, the unique one-to-one relationship magazines create with their readers offers us a tremendous opportunity. Research shows readers spend an hour or more reading a single magazine. They enjoy that time as a quiet space where they can be entertained, inspired and educated.

Magazines offer perspective and insight on important issues. They entertain and motivate. They help readers achieve personal goals, whether it’s building a fence, running a faster 10K or staying current with the latest movies, music and fashion trends. Magazines offer advice on important decisions, be it buying a car, planning a retirement or electing a new president.
The best magazines can also delight and surprise readers with engaging stories they never thought they’d be interested in. Every magazine lover knows the pleasure of becoming transported in the hands of a talented magazine editor.
The credibility and authority of magazines surround readers in an environment of trust. All of our power as an industry flows from that trust:

■ Our ability to attract high-quality paid circulation and audience
■ Our ability to create communities of readers with common interests
■ Our ability to create a positive environment for advertisers
■ Our ability to carry that trust beyond the printed page and create great brands in other media and events.
■ Our opportunity is to continue to expand our brand power on paper, Web pages and television screens, in live events and in other emerging digital media. At the same time we must more effectively measure and communicate our market power.
I see five key areas of opportunity for magazines:

Continue to expand the digital power of our brands.
Magazine Web sites are growing rapidly both in audience and advertising. The Internet is providing us with a way to expand our services to our present customers and to attract new audiences with news, photos, videos, audio and searchable databases. Best of all, the digital world makes our communities more interactive and allows readers to share their photos, videos and opinions on the topics we cover.
According to Nielsen, unique visitors to magazine sites are growing at almost four times the Internet industry average. And the advertising growth of our Web sites has been a tremendous boost to our overall sales and to our ability to offer clients a wide range of marketing options.

Increase advertising sales.
As information becomes free to consumers, magazines must continue to grow ad revenue and market share as we did between 2005 and 2007. Our ad salespeople are creative, but in the future we must become even more creative. We have to find new ways to help marketers interact with our readers on page, through custom content, Web programs, live events and any other way we can bring our brand power to bear.

Introduce a stable, timely and credible audience accumulation measurement system.
Multiple research studies have shown that magazines have the highest level of consumer engagement with advertising and editorial of any media. Just think how different the experiences of reading a magazine and surfing the Internet are. I believe clients and agencies generally believe this, but until now we have not been able to demonstrate how that general strength translates to a particular advertisement or issue. It’s archaic that advertising is still bought and paid for on the basis of distribution. Advertisers want to know how many of their target consumers are engaged with the magazine and with their advertisement. That requires a consumer-based metric, not one based on how magazines are distributed. Magazines need a methodology to deliver timely audience engagement information. The MPA, working with publishing and advertising leaders, is facilitating the creation of such a measurement system. It will help demonstrate the power of magazines to individual advertisers and make it easier for them to compare our results with those of other media.

Promote innovative ways for consumers to sample and buy magazines.
We need to make it easier for consumers to find and try our magazines, so that potential customers can realize the tremendous value we offer. In today’s media-saturated, time-compressed world, this may be our most difficult challenge. The Web is turning out to be an important asset to our business, providing profitable subscription growth through effective email marketing, cross-selling subscriptions on our magazine Web sites and spurring innovative ways of offering magazines to consumers. At retail, recent research tells us that magazines remain the No. 1 item that consumers want to see at checkout.

Think green.
We need to make our industry as environmentally friendly as possible by using paper from sustainable forests or switching to recycled paper, while helping consumers recycle their magazines. The MPA’s “Please Recycle This Magazine” campaign is playing a major role in this effort.
In the retail market, we have already reduced the number of magazines sent to stores by 450 million copies as part of our ongoing campaign to increase the efficiency of retail sales.
As an industry, we need to progress in all these areas. Next year will be a time to focus on our strengths and opportunities, to consolidate recent gains and to sharpen strategies so we can prosper when the economy recovers.
We must be prepared to capitalize on the power of our brands across all platforms and all borders in 2009.

Under Mr. Griffin’s leadership, National Geographic has won the National Magazine Award for general excellence in a publication with over 2 million circulation for the past two years. NGM.com’s Web site won both the Webby Award and the People’s Voice Award for Best Magazine in 2008, and National Geographic magazine won the Ad Sales Team of the Year Award, presented by min, for outstanding media sales performances in 2007.

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