Just a reminder that there are only 3 days left to register for Web Weekend. Registration closes on November 9, 2007 and only a few spots remain. Don’t miss the chance to take part in two-day online marketing program designed specifically for magazine publishers.
Small Magazines staff: Inquire with Magazines Canada about bursaries.
In case you missed the note in my last newsletter (hint, hint — you should sign-up!), Magazines Canada and Centennial College are putting together a “Web Weekend” on Saturday, November 24 and Sunday, November 25 at Centennial College in downtown Toronto. read more »
A couple of months ago I got to share my feelings about “digital editions” with a room full of unsuspecting publishers at the (first ever) MagNet conference in Toronto. The title of the session was Digital Editions: New Medium for an Old Magazine? and, in preparation for the session, I really had to do some research. The thing is that the session title and description got handed to us presenters (a complaint I heard across the board from other presenters) and we had to do our best. In my case, doing the research helped me to build a more complete argument for why I feel digital editions — in the traditional meaning of the term — just aren’t a good investment for publishers. Here’s why… read more »
(UPDATE: Just a quick clarification that the example below was sent to expired subscribers. So these folks had already received — and not responded to — a renewal series. That’s why I put the response in the 1 - 3% range, vs. what one might expect as part of an actual renewal series.)
Print-based magazines are constantly managing subscriber churn. Every year one group of people lets their subscription lapse, while others either renew or subscribe for the first time. Similar to almost any type of revenue-generating enterprise, the magic is keeping attrition rates low and managing the cost of acquiring new customers or keeping existing ones. E-mail marketing is one way to approach a lapsed campaign at a lower cost than a typical direct mail.
For example:
To me, that seems like a pretty high price to pay. Though the lifetime value of that customer may work in your publication’s favour in the long run, it would certainly be nice to be able to invest less in encouraging that subscriber to come back.
Now, let’s say that your direct mail outperforms the 1% rule and gets up to 2% or 3%, reducing the cost per returned subscriber to just $25 or $16. Well now we’re talking, right? Wrong: what if you could achieve the same results for $25? Not $25 per returned subscriber — but just $25 for the whole campaign! Interested? Keep reading… read more »
As an avid magazine reader, I’m constantly on the lookout for new titles. Need Magazine came across my desk the other day via New Internationalist. Looks interesting — a bit like Yes! magazine but for the global development community — so I’m going to check it out. Once I’ve got the first issue, I’ll post an update.
On Monday night, my partner Melanie took me to see a film that many might call life-changing. Viva Zapatero paints a startling picture of a crippled independent media in modern-day Italy and the implications that has for Italian civil society. It’s a documentary told through the personal experience of political satire artist Sabina Guzzanti that lays naked what is possible today in the current political reality of many countries in this world. Unstopped media consolidation, blatant corruption, backward libel laws and the targeting of journalists with lawsuits, spineless public representatives, and coerced publishers and broadcasters all pave the way for censorship, propaganda, and a complete disintegration of the Italian media environment. Again, this is happening today. read more »
Just in time for your holiday reading pleasure, Magazines Canada has published their latest set of resources for small magazines. These 11 ‘hotsheets’ cover the gamut: Blogs and Small Magazines (by yours truly), Developing Your Niche, Fundraising for Small Magazines, Online Circulation Promotions (by colleague John Spencer), Swaps and Exchanges (by friend Lisa Whittington-Hill of This Magazine), Online Editorial Features, and much more. Other authors include names like: Matt Blackett, Deborah Brewster, and Hal Niedzviecki.
I’ve only managed to skim through these and can already tell that this is an incredible collection of no-cost resources for small publishers. (Have links to other great resources for small publishers? Please post them below.)
Who would think that Martin Newland — after helping to get Canada’s right-wing newspaper off the ground — would be speaking at an event on corporate ownership of Canada’s newspapers. Evidently, he thinks there’s a problem that there are only 4 independent papers in Canada.
Anyway, if you’re in Ottawa today, you may want to check it out. read more »
Probably not, no. However, if it’s incredibly candid and “self-absorbed yet socially aware” it can get written about in a national newspaper. And, what’s even more interesting — “unique” even? — about this campaign: the unusually high response rate after only two weeks (10,000 pieces started landing in people’s mailboxes on the 19th of October).
What was the secret in my opinion: pushing the envelope (literally) with “being yourself.” I’ve been working with the editor of Taddle Creek for over five years now and, if anything, he’s certainly comfortable with being himself. Lisa Whittington-Hill — a circulation specialist and the Publisher of This Magazine — was also involved in developing this campaign; she’s another one that’s pretty comfortable with being “real.” It’s like all those other folks doing DM campaigns — or as Conan likes to say “junk mail campaigns” — were so busy reading The Cluetrain Manifesto that they forgot about trying to figure out who they really were. read more »
Over the last two weeks, I’ve been having a great back-and-forth with the Jon Spencer — the “data geek” of Abacus Circulation — that riffed off a few ideas provided by Steve Izma of Wilfrid Laurier University Press about the delicate balance between putting content online for free and making a living as an author or publisher.
The conversation was prompted by the upcoming New Internationalist annual general meeting (where the cooperative comes together to democratically decide on the themes for the next year’s worth of magazines); there was some indication that the question of “does putting magazine content online for free impact subscriptions?” might be raised. Jon and I both work with the New Internationalist: Jon as a circulation advisor and I as a Web strategist. So, given our different roles — and mutual interest (in seeing New Internationalist succeed) — we tackled that question together. read more »
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