Independent Digital Media, a division of IPMG, the owner of the NDD magazine distribution business, is set to launch TheKnot, an online wedding ‘magazine’ in October this year.
This move challenges the capital intensive print wedding magazines (some of which NDD distributes) with a more timely, more easily searched and lower cost to distribute product. The Australian has more on this story. Also, check out the US website on which the local version is based.
Expect more announcements like this, especially in directory like categories, as weddings is.
This is a smart move by the IPMG business and while they will probably say that it will not impact print wedding magazines, it will if successful. It is also a move from which we can learn. Some magazine categories will disappear. IPMG is building a future planning for that, forcing change even. If newsagents act as usual when faced with major changes, we will complain about the IPMG move and expect someone else to develop our future for us.
As I said, I think this is a smart move. Kudos to IPMG for making the move. We need to take notice.
One question Mark. how many magazines that say they are moving online survive the trip. My guess is not many. If they are not buying it at the shop they have next to no chance of surviving on the net. The reason being that know one knows for sure how there sales stack up because no reliable sales figures are available. Meanwhile newsagents are swamped with mags that we have not the room to to display. If they want the space, that has a price. I now convert heaps of prime space to the distributor who offers extra margin to move their product. It’s time for newsagents to force the change.
Paul, because the barrier to entry is lower I expect there will be more failures. That said, there are some spectacular successes for titles with an online only existence. dennis Publishing in the UK is very successful in this area.
In terms of being swamped, With Gotch and Network especially you can control this better now. The way to fix NDD is to either close the account or blog about oversupply.
Seems NDD has lost yet another title?
Received a new title today from Network – turns out it’s new to them and was NDD’s.
Anyone know what’s going on there?
Mark, thank you for your comments relatiing to Independent Digital Media’s new launch, “The Knot”. While we are excited by the website’s potential in this category, we are as excited by the print & merchandise potential under this brand. The Knot has successfully grown their brand in the US across multiple channels. We intend to do the same in Aust; from which the very important newsagency channel will benefit as we grow the brand. Dave Burkett – IPMG
oxygen has moved to ndc as well
Barnett’s also seem to have moved to G&G.