Domino Magazine - Oh Domino, how I miss you! image courtesy of DominoMag.com

In the last couple of years, many magazines seemed at risk or were going completely belly up.  As the economy took a nosedive, retail businesses tightened their belts to stay afloat, nixing anything that didn’t prove an immediate and iron clad ROI. Being a marketer by profession, I can tell you that print advertising  is notorious for having very “soft” response data (i.e. you feel the ad is helping your company but it is very difficult to track results and sales back specifically to the ad.)

With print ads, you have to have a little faith in the process rather than hitching your wagon to a % of direct return on investment. Sometimes it is about awareness you create more than just a one time sales boost, and you do it because you are the leader, THE brand and you have something to say (even when what you might want to say is “We are desperate to make some sales by the end of Q2, Buy this now!!”)  — that is the magic behind the curtain so to speak.

The business model of magazines is an amazing one…I’ll never forget when the concept of “ad supported content” started to gel in my head. What!? I had been so intoxicated with the content of my beloved magazines all these years, it never occurred to me anyone was selling me anything! After the shock of this fact turned to acceptance, I realized something even bigger: It is a push and pull that creates some of the best artwork and writing some of us will ever see up close. It is the job of some just to sell (marketers) and others just to create things of value (magazine writers, designers, art directors, and editors) and the balance between the former doing just enough to fund things and the latter pushing back just enough to maintain integrity of the content is what makes it great. This to me is really quite amazing. After all this push and pull, the countless hours and painful consideration of every detail of a magazine before it hits the newsstands, magazines are almost like commissioned art work, presented flawlessly every single month. And most are available to anyone for under $5.  (Some of this “harmonious tension”  that creates the best advertising is documented beautifully in the film  Art & Copy — if you haven’t seen it, rent it!)

When advertisers have to stop buying space, magazines, these portable works of art for the everyman, can no longer shoulder the high costs of print and production, and the talented folks who breathe life and creativity into our favorite magazines have to stop puffing.  “Magazines will all go online,” they said for a while, thinking of ways to cut rising costs due to crazy fuel and printing prices.

Sassy Magazine - image courtesy of Wikipedia

But an “online magazine” cannot replace my beloved printed works of art. An online magazine can never replace the experience I had as a girl just plastering my walls with every idea, every image that I loved. Creating my own “virtual” world filled with thrilling images of everything that inspired me. Reading a really good magazine is a fulfilling artistic experience. It isn’t just the copy that makes it compelling, it is the whole shebang – the vivid imagery that only looks that way printed on slightly glossy paper, the quietness of the printed word that seems to allow the reader to dictate his or her own pace. The feeling you get when you turn the page and see the most beautiful photograph just sitting there. Oh! It is magical…

You can’t read an online magazine in the bath. And how about vision boards – what would we paste on our vision boards if there were no magazines…can I staple a Kindle or iPad to the wall? Sadly, no…

As a young girl, my mind, my whole personality, was quite literally shaped by magazines like YM, Allure,  and Sassy…Sassy was renegade and revolutionary for teenage girls!!! How many crazy, confident, kick a** women there are in their 30′s right now because of the risks Jane Pratt took with the direction of that magazine – awesome!!! I would almost bathe in the content of all those magazines, cutting out every picture, covering myself with every perfume sample (remember those? lol) What an experience!

Some painful printed casualties of our country’s most recent economic crisis were some really wonderful publications that I loved dearly…my heart died a little when Domino disappeared. I shed a tear at the untimely passing of Blueprint. There were others too…established cornerstones of publication for women, one’s I may have only rarely read in an office waiting room, but that gave me a sense of calm knowing they were there if I ever needed them.

Love your magazines and appreciate the hard work that goes into every single one. Be aware of the revolutionary things happening everyday in our favorite magazines. Love your creative artists, editors, and art directors who fight to share their wild visions, concepts, and ideas with you. I hope magazines will always be around for what they are and how they offer such attainable inspiration to people. As the world progresses, we might very create a different way to deliver magazines (they haven’t successfully yet) let the innovators understand the value to people and make sure that value is preserved.