Background
With challenge comes opportunity and as most marketing trade publications are reporting, there is a lot of opportunity within the magazine industry right now. Both magazine advertising pages and revenues have been trending flat to down over the past few quarters. That trend has continued into 2008, as first quarter ad pages were down 6% from the same time period in 2007.

However, amidst the challenge of declining ad pages and other publishing hurdles, there is a great amount of opportunity that exists for magazine publishers. With the recent growth of digital and consumer- generated media, magazines have been developing several new and exciting ways to distribute content. Some examples include video, social networks and sophisticated mobile applications, while at the same time generating a virtual tidal wave of original content.

Magazine content creation tools have also changed radically. Platforms have been broadened to leverage deeper relationships with advertisers and magazines, thus creating more meaningful connections with its audiences. The Magazine Publishers Association tracks digital initiatives within the industry and has shown that these initiatives and launches increased by 33% in 2007. This trend has continued into 2008 with 65 digital initiatives launched in the first quarter, up 14% from same time period in 2007.

However, the mission of magazine brands still remains the same; to bring world class content to consumers where and when they are most receptive.

Magazine Website Traffic
Consumers have responded to the expansion of magazine digital platforms. Traffic to magazine websites outpaced overall Internet growth according to a study conducted by Nielsen Online and the Magazine Publishers Association. During the fourth quarter of 2007, magazines received an average of 68 million unique visitors per month, an 8.1% increase over the same time period in 2006. The overall U.S. Internet audience rose only 2.4% during this same time. Magazine websites reach almost 42% of the total U.S. online population, with 160 million of those visits happening in Q4’07, equating to an increase of 7% over last year’s reach. Time spent on magazine websites also increased 5.5% to an average of 1.78 billion minutes per month. This equates to an average visit duration of just over four minutes.

Empower believes “passionate media connections” are very much alive and exemplified with the success of these websites since their inception. One key strength of magazines is the ability to deliver focused editorial against a specific demo or audience. The industry also captures consumers at many other points in their lives with other targeted and brand extensions. Magazines have discovered ways to be relevant to its core consumers outside of a printed ad in a title. Most of these extensions are in the form of magazine websites, but other platforms and extensions have grown out of this category growth initiative as well. The following are several examples of how magazines have tapped into readers’ passions to offer several other touchpoints for consumers to interact with brands beyond the pages in the magazine.

Video
Several magazines are turning to the internet as a platform to build their brands by using video content. You Tube has hundreds of millions of visits daily and ten hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute. The site has developed several new partnerships with publishers such as Hearst and Conde Nast. Sample titles include Seventeen, Elle, J-14, and Backpacker among many others.

One of the most successful magazine and digital partnerships to date features Seventeen magazine and myspace.com. Seventeen launched a program titled “Freshman 15” in which 15 college freshman girls blog, video blog and write for the magazine about their intimate experiences going through their first year of higher education. The program allows for girls to talk directly to girls about the complete college experience during freshman year across a variety of media platforms. This program has also allowed Seventeen to build trust with its readers. Due to its success, Seventeen is looking for ways to expand and grow the property moving forward.

In 2007 Meredith launched better.tv as a hub for all of Meredith’s video content, from the magazine, its website and from several local television stations that it owns across the country. It’s a virtual online television station with on-demand content through relevant and targeted channels. Examples of these channels include: Food & Recipes, Home & Garden, Holidays, Better You, Family, Crafts & Projects, Entertainment and a Sponsor channel. Meredith also created parents.tv which is an on-demand cable channel and is also an online destination that draws on the editorial and technical expertise of Parents, Family Circle and American Baby magazines.

As magazines continue to invest in the quality of online video areas, traffic will follow. The early results have been very positive so far. If it is moms or busy females ages 25-54 that you target, Empower recommends that advertisers consider allocating a portion of their magazine or digital spends in these areas. First, it will allow advertisers to get key data and insight into the traffic and time spent with branded content information on these sites, compared to other digital or print platforms. Secondly, Empower believes online video will continue its success and be around for awhile. Now is the time not only to lock in charter advertising opportunities and rates, but also to begin building dialogue with the consumer.

Mobile
Magazine titles are using mobile technology to their advantage, especially if their readers are the consumers who are ready to embrace and utilize these offerings. These programs offer immediate measureable results, something the magazine industry welcomes as it competes with digital marketing for dollars on every media plan. It also provides new insight as to how consumers’ behavior has evolved with the magazine reading experience.

Men’s Health is planning a June/July issue that will test its ability to deliver immediate consumer reactions. Every ad in the issue will be camera-phone-ready. Consumers who use their cell phones to snap pictures of ads will receive promotional bounce-back messages from marketers.

While the concept isn’t new, Men’s Health is improving upon it because special bar codes are not necessary in the ad and the reader does not have to download any new technology to their computer or phone. All they need is a camera-ready cell phone. Readers who photograph the ads with their cell phones will send the images to a service which matches the image against its database and quickly replies with whatever message each marketer has designed. Replies can take a variety of forms, including discounted coupons, price information, ringtones, wallpaper, games and contest entries.

Empower recommends setting advertising budgets aside to test this one-to-one communication. This is the type of technology that could be revolutionary to the magazine industry. Almost all cell phones now include cameras and since there is no technology for the consumer to download, it will only be a matter of time before every major magazine is able to offer advertisers this ability to engage with their consumers.

Zinio
One company showing significant growth as the digital evolution of magazines continues is Zinio. Zinio is the leading global online publishing and distribution services company with divisions focusing on digital magazine and book publishing. This enables consumers, regardless of geographic location, to search, purchase and immediately access digital publications.

Zinio has converted tens of thousands of print books to digital and interactive versions. These interactive versions can be “paged” through like their print versions but with the addition of interactive content on the “pages,” they will allow the reader to follow links from articles to websites. The company has recently teamed up with Barnes & Noble and its website, www.bn.com to sell digital magazine subscriptions alongside the print formats. The deal covers 1,000 magazine titles offering discounts up to 90% off the newsstand price.

Zinio has also conducted research to learn more about the reader of a digital magazine versus its printed reader. The study indicated that repurposing print magazines for the web increases user engagement with and affinity towards the ads. Other research findings include:

• 37% of people who have purchase at least one digital magazine said they were more likely to read an ad in digital format than in print
• Almost half said that they found ads on the screen more appealing in the digital format
• 59% said they found the digital ads easier to engage with
• 84% said the ads were more beneficial because of the ability to click through

It is clear that interactivity is critical to the success of the magazine industry moving forward. Companies such as Zinio are performing well as the concept of digital magazines grows among current, and younger readers. Empower believes that effective ad copy that has the ability to quickly take the reader to a desired landing page or to the advertiser’s website will result in stronger interaction with the advertiser’s brand.

Conclusion
Magazine brands are embracing technology and providing applications to readers whether it is online video, blogs, or camera phone ready ads. To remain relevant, magazine brands must learn from such applications to augment the relationship it has with current and new readers. This will allow magazines to continue to develop and enhance its brand, a necessity to secure its success in the future.

All of this will allow advertisers to partner with a magazine brand to reach the masses, while still developing and maintaining a relationship with the individual who comes to a magazine seeking news, information or entertainment. In our current, on-demand society, magazines are still the ultimate opt-in medium as marketers look to align themselves with on-demand content.