Magazines and newspapers are struggling to keep up with the constantly growing and evolving landscape of the internet. They need to be innovative, and they need to get people’s attention. Very recently, Paper magazine attempted this in a desperately not-so-subtle way; placing a nude Kim Kardashian on their cover above the title, “Break The Internet” (papermag.com, 2014).
Why do magazines need to make statements like this? It wasn’t so long ago that physical magazines were the go-to for accessible and easily digestible news and features for all ages. The most obvious reason, in a digital age, is that the internet and the comment it hosts is free.
The Daily Mail’s website, MailOnline, is astronomically popular, with ABC figures from September 2013 reporting that it tops 150million monthly users (theguardian.com, 2013). The content MailOnline posts is not unique and it is available elsewhere, but it is constant, and it is free.
MailOnline’s huge library of news articles and features acts as a hub for every person, every time. One way that magazines can regain readership and consumers is by employing a technique a narrowcasting — instead of filling their pages with as much variety as possible, publishers can narrow their scope and make their content more tailored to specific themes (Leander Reeves, 2014).
This is a technique some websites have employed: by users creating preferences, they can have their preferred topics of interests filtered through to them, meaning they don’t have to wade through the rest. Reuters Insider, for example, has, since 2009, been a paid-for service that allows users to have their own personalised video that compiles all kinds of stories catered to their preferences (blogs.reuters.com, 2009).
Will users see this personalisation and customisation as enough of a justification to pay for the content they view on the web? Some sites prove they will, like The Times’ own website (thetimes.co.uk, 2014). The Times has introduced paywalls so that only registered users and subscribers to their publication can view their stories online — blurring the lines between the accessibility of physical and online content. This paid-for content doesn’t seem to be dampening readership figures though, as NRS statistics show that the number of overall monthly readers rise by 10% when PC, tablet, and mobile users are included in the value (nrs.co.uk, 2014).
This proves that, if a publisher or a company can establish enough loyalty from their content, they can still hold on to a paid readership even though their users could quite easily go elsewhere, without having to pay for the privilege. Not all magazines and newspapers need to break the internet.
422 words
Bibliography:
blogs.reuters.com (2014). Available at: http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2009/03/04/forget-broadcasting-the-future-is-narrowcasting/ [Accessed 24 November 2014]
Leander Reeves (2014). Magazines and newspapers in the digital age [Lecture] Oxford Brookes University, Leander Reeves, 18 November 2014. [Accessed 24 November 2014]
nrs.co.uk (2014). Available at: http://www.nrs.co.uk/latest-results/titles-at-a-glance/quick-view/ [Accessed 24 November 2014]
papermag.com (2014). Available at: http://www.papermag.com [Accessed 24 November 2014]
theguardian.com (2013). Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/14/mail-online-monthly-browsers-top-150m [Accessed 24 November 2014]
thetimes.co.uk (2014). Available at: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4276763.ece [Accessed 24 November 2014]
Why do magazines need to make statements like this? It wasn’t so long ago that physical magazines were the go-to for accessible and easily digestible news and features for all ages. The most obvious reason, in a digital age, is that the internet and the comment it hosts is free.
The Daily Mail’s website, MailOnline, is astronomically popular, with ABC figures from September 2013 reporting that it tops 150million monthly users (theguardian.com, 2013). The content MailOnline posts is not unique and it is available elsewhere, but it is constant, and it is free.
MailOnline’s huge library of news articles and features acts as a hub for every person, every time. One way that magazines can regain readership and consumers is by employing a technique a narrowcasting — instead of filling their pages with as much variety as possible, publishers can narrow their scope and make their content more tailored to specific themes (Leander Reeves, 2014).
This is a technique some websites have employed: by users creating preferences, they can have their preferred topics of interests filtered through to them, meaning they don’t have to wade through the rest. Reuters Insider, for example, has, since 2009, been a paid-for service that allows users to have their own personalised video that compiles all kinds of stories catered to their preferences (blogs.reuters.com, 2009).
Will users see this personalisation and customisation as enough of a justification to pay for the content they view on the web? Some sites prove they will, like The Times’ own website (thetimes.co.uk, 2014). The Times has introduced paywalls so that only registered users and subscribers to their publication can view their stories online — blurring the lines between the accessibility of physical and online content. This paid-for content doesn’t seem to be dampening readership figures though, as NRS statistics show that the number of overall monthly readers rise by 10% when PC, tablet, and mobile users are included in the value (nrs.co.uk, 2014).
This proves that, if a publisher or a company can establish enough loyalty from their content, they can still hold on to a paid readership even though their users could quite easily go elsewhere, without having to pay for the privilege. Not all magazines and newspapers need to break the internet.
422 words
Bibliography:
blogs.reuters.com (2014). Available at: http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2009/03/04/forget-broadcasting-the-future-is-narrowcasting/ [Accessed 24 November 2014]
Leander Reeves (2014). Magazines and newspapers in the digital age [Lecture] Oxford Brookes University, Leander Reeves, 18 November 2014. [Accessed 24 November 2014]
nrs.co.uk (2014). Available at: http://www.nrs.co.uk/latest-results/titles-at-a-glance/quick-view/ [Accessed 24 November 2014]
papermag.com (2014). Available at: http://www.papermag.com [Accessed 24 November 2014]
theguardian.com (2013). Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/14/mail-online-monthly-browsers-top-150m [Accessed 24 November 2014]
thetimes.co.uk (2014). Available at: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4276763.ece [Accessed 24 November 2014]