Today, oddly enough, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA.org) posted this blog discussing the switch over of print magazines to online magazines. Just yesterday, I was discussing this very trend with my project group. We are toying with the idea of recommending to our client that they should part take in this trend and switch their magazine from offline to online. Their subscriptions to the magazine have been steadily declining and we are faced with the question of dropping the magazine, re-vamping it, or simply transfer the magazine to an online platform.
Online magazines have many benefits which include lower costs since there is no printing and shipping involved, and also the ability to reach an international audience. In addition, the subscriptions are usually priced lower, which makes them more appealing to subscribers. More benefits are provided in the article “Magazine Subscriptions: Online vs. Offline” by Arvina Sharma. Although online magazines have all these benefits, you can’t deny there are certain aspects that online magazines cannot provide. You aren’t around your computer all the time and reading an article or looking at pictures for a long period may be uncomfortable for some. However, an offline or print magazine can be read anywhere at anytime in many situations and easily on a nice comfy chair without a screen glaring at you.
But more to the point, as Susan Currie Sivek writes in her article “How Magazines Use Social Media to Boost Pass-Along, Build Voice”, magazines that offline or print magazines don’t necessarily have to switch completely to online. Offline magazines can stay offline but they should invest in online social media and networking sites. Sites like Facebook and accounts for Twitter allow print magazines to harness what their subscribers really want to read, to keep up to date, and stay relevant. These are also great outlets for the magazine’s advertisers to get better coverage as well. In all, I’m not convinced that I want to curl up to my laptop on a rainy day on my comfy couch to read my favourite magazine, but I could be swayed if “the price if right” for the subscription.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment