I was recently sent a renewal postcard by New York Magazine and I was faced with a difficult decision. I was not the question you might expect, “Should I renew my subscription or not?” Instead I wondered, “Am I done with magazines forever or do they still serve a purpose in my life?”
I feel like I am the right demographic for New York Magazine. I am young, male and (I like to think) well-informed. More importantly, I live in NYC and enjoy the fine dining and cultural events that New York Magazine extensively reports on. In addition, the articles are generally about topics that are about my city and are therefore relevant to my life.
The decision would seem easy. Clearly, I get a lot out of New York Magazine and frequently read it cover to cover. It’s also the only magazine that I currently receive. But why did I have such a hard time deciding what to do?
The answer is that the way I take media in has changed drastically in the past year or so. I got rid of my cable. I engrossed myself in the Internet. I stopped reading the newspaper. I turned to online news outlets.
In the end, I decided to keep my subscription. I still enjoy the palpable and foldable nature of magazines. But the fact remains that magazines are a luxury. With people pinching pennies, it seems like the magazine industry should up their Internet content and maximize their online potential.
DMNews reporter Lauren Bell touches upon this in a feature article in our February 16 issue entitled “Building b-to-b brands.” Bell notes that media companies are actually turning into technology companies because they now use so many different channels to reach people. I think that this is a great point because as magazine subscriptions decrease, people are going to want the same content delivered in a different way. Today’s tech-savvy population is moving towards a paperless society and magazines are following with all their might.
