I am sure it’s been there for a while but I only noticed the promotion of www.youplay.com on the cover of all Lovatts crossword and puzzle titles yesterday morning. Lovatts are smart to promote an online place – it makes sense. If they can attract customers to their website and appropriately monetise the traffic, this will be a more commercially valuable supply chain than print and retail through newsagencies.
In just about every magazine now publishers are driving eyeballs online yet newsagents seem to remain oblivious to this, believing newspaper and magazine publisher spin that it is business as usual. While between publishers and newsagents it is business as usual, the reality is that there is another supply chain being developed and for newsagents that is not business as usual.
I have always maintained that online magazines are an extension and NOT a replacement for the print medium.
Like all other publishers I have spoken to, without setting ourselves up as crystal-ball gazers, no-one in the industry feels that opening up another medium will severely affect the traditional one.
Just as radio did not suffer when TV was introduced and cinemas survived the video/DVD industry, most of the print medium will only be enhanced by the exciting opportunities provided by the Internet. Exceptions to this might be in the field of publications which existed for advertising alone (used car guides and the like).
Our new website YouPlay.com, which we are operating in conjunction with Southern Cross View, offers our readers the chance to interact with others and soon to play our puzzles with the bells and whistles not available in print.
The only way Australian magazines such as ours are threatened is by the growing burden of irrelevant overseas titles. The sooner newsagents take matters into their own hands and start better managing their portfolio of titles, the more profitable they will become.
I remain committed to our Australian retail sector, without doubt the best in the world.
James Lovatt
Publisher, Lovatts Crosswords
James,
With respect some of what you say is spin. Your online move is imperative. It will have an impact on retail. I am okay with that. Such is the nature of today’s marketplace. I urge you to not engage in the spin of, for example, newspaper publishers. Treat newsagents as partners and let them know in advance what you are doing and why this is important to your company.
I agree with your comments about overseas crossword publications. You have more power over what NDD does than newsagents – I suggest you use your power to demand they cut their portfolio of imported titles in this category.
Mark