The announcement yesterday from Pacific Magazines that the current issue of Famous magazine is the last print edition from the publisher is not unexpected. The falling circulation numbers coupled with the toughest ad market in years meant tough decisions were ahead.
While it is easy for some to say what should or should not have been done about famous or any other of the print publication closures this year, the reality is we are in unchartered territory as we confront better disruption from mobile and online in terms of how we access content, how advertisers can promote their wares and whether people will pay any more for what they used to pay for.
Looking specifically at Famous, anyone interested in celeb gossip from the US will be easily satisfied with TMZ or myriad other similar websites and apps.
This competition is not confided to celebrity news. Every magazine is being confronted with online competition. The only ay to compete with that is to not compete, to change, dramatically, what you print. Achieving that requires a complete reconfiguration of a publisher’s business.
The newsagent reality is that we are confronting the same challenges. Well, old school newsagents are at least – those with businesses relying on magazine, newspaper, lottery and stationery generated traffic. If they are your core, most important, categories, your model needs to change for your business to avoid closure.
My hope is that announcements such as that from Fairfax last week and that from Pacific yesterday encourage newsagents to act. While actions should have started years ago, it is not too late to act if you are fast.