More from the Publishing Doomsday Files

Actually, it's good news! The only magazines that are dying, says Gabriel Sherman are stinkers or titles that service ad buyers before readers.

From Slate.com's The Big Money:

"...a closer look at the types of magazines that have closed reveals a more nuanced and, in many respects, hopeful portrait of the magazine business. According to a list compiled by Advertising Age, titles that have shut down in the past year come from the shelter, technology, travel, luxury, and teen categories. The reason for each category's challenges are obvious, from a meltdown in the housing sector to teenagers' wholesale abandonment of print for Facebook and Twitter.

"Yet the general conclusion that many extrapolate from these recent shutdowns is wrong. It's not that magazines are dying; it's that magazines that were created solely for advertising or market-share purposes are. New magazine titles often fail from a combination of bad timing, bad thinking, and a bad choice of brands to extend. Put simply, there are too many mediocre magazines."

"...Largely, these magazines never caught on with readers. And it's not surprising. Magazines are emotional products. They are objects of aspiration, passion, and desire. No one needs to read magazines, but millions of readers still subscribe to their favorite titles because they harbor deep connections to the glossy pages. As one veteran editor once explained to me, the best magazines make you feel like tearing open the plastic wrap the second that they arrive in your mailbox and curling up on the couch with them, ignoring whatever plans you had for the evening.

"Which is why the current downturn can be good for publishers. Magazines still offer an unsurpassed ability to marry literary ambitions with deep reporting, photography, and visual design. In this new media age, people talk about the importance of transforming readers into "communities." Magazines have never had a community problem. Great magazines have built enduring relationships with their readers that Facebook and Tumblr still aspire to. But in a race to grow their businesses, publishers put advertising first and editorial excellence second."

--"The Magazine Isn't Dying," Slate.com

Well said! P.S. Did you know People was a spin-off of Time magazine?

You should know...

The CBC needs financial flexibility, not more money

CBC chief executive Hubert T. Lacroix said Thursday in a speech ... reacting to comments from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on Wednesday that CBC already gets "substantial financing" and should not expect more.

He said the CBC does not want new money, but the flexibility to borrow against future years to weather the current recession.

He pointed out that CBC/Radio-Canada has no access to the capital markets or to commercial borrowing.

"Private broadcasters have the financial flexibility that comes from their sources of capital. In a cyclical downturn, they can effect some changes by smartly managing their balance sheets and lines of credit," he said.

"As a Crown corporation, CBC/Radio-Canada has no access to this type of borrowing so, when we lose a dollar of revenue, we must cut a dollar of expenditure or postpone the expenditure to next year in order to balance our budget."

The CBC gets $1 billion annually from government, but estimates advertising revenue next year will be $60 million or more below budget.

Cuts are looming at the public broadcaster that would hurt its ability to fulfil its mandate, Lacroix said.

Among the measures being considered at CBC to deal with the shortfall:

* Introducing more American programming into television schedules (currently 100 per cent Canadian from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.)
* Downgrading or selling parts or the whole of TV or radio services.
* Increasing advertising on the air.
* Shrinking geographic coverage of the country by consolidating local stations, which would reverse the current investment CBC is making in building regional coverage.
* Selling off assets.

Lacroix pointed out that CBC, unlike any private broadcaster, provides programming in English and French across five time zones and has services in eight aboriginal languages and eight international languages.

Investment in Canadian drama and comedy is up 38 per cent in the last eight years, he said.

"Other conventional broadcasters are facing stagnant or shrinking audiences, yet CBC Television's audience share in prime time has risen to 8.9 per cent this season — an increase of 1.5 points in just two years," Lacroix said.

The CBC gets about $34 from each Canadian taxpayer, he said, compared to $124 to support the public broadcaster in the U.K. and $77 in France. He said it's a modest investment, considering the huge mandate the CBC is required to fill.

Lacroix defended the diversity of platforms, including livestreaming and podcasting, that is delivering CBC to Canadians. He said he wants to maintain some key directions at CBC despite the economic downturn.

"We can't be all things to all people. We simply don't have the resources, nor should we," he said.

"We must focus where we can be most effective: content company, Canadian programming, leader in new media, deeply rooted in the regions."

For more info...

More Media Meltdown

According to Planet Money, if all print were to move online, the industry could only support 20% of its initial workforce. For your reading pleasure, Laura Conaway and David Kestenbaum also make mention of this piece by Michael Hirschorn in The Atlantic, which is getting a lot of attention; it says that the New York Times will survive until May (surprise!).

To download the NPR podcast about how the world (economy) is going to hell in a hand basket, right click here, for the live stream, click here.

In related news, that massive eyesore that is Times Square, is losing one of its most prominent stores, Virgin. This Virgin Megastore location will shut down in April 2009 because it's just not viable to sell CDs anymore. The Times Square location is the most successful music store in the US but Richard Branson is throwing in the towel. Word is that some of the massive space will be sold to Century 21 so that Midtown will be even more zoo-like. Perfect.

Madison Avenue is Recession Proof

Check out this video from NYMag.com