According to Media Daily News, Sept. 13, 2011, sales from newstands of 68 mainstream magazines have dropped by nearly half, from 22,019,953 for a six month period in 2001 to 11,562,028 for a six month period in 2011.
"So what?" you say? "We'll just replace replace them with digital magazines?" you say?
According to the article: "...digital newsstand sales remain fairly low."
Sales of digital from Time Inc. Magazines was a grand total of 600,000 in August. Conde Nast were 105,000 in the preceding six weeks.
There are, of course, subscriptions but you have to think that they undergoing the same pressures and declines.
Even if the math is skewed, even if some figures don't correlate exactingly, the trend is pretty obvious. I assume, as well, that digital is cheaper. I don't know what kind of revenue they can generate from digital ads (obviously if they have a fraction of the paid readers, the rates must be much lower.)
Again, I hear everyone saying, "So What? We'll just get our information free."
Except who is going to pay for the administration of the magazines -- the hiring and paying of writers, artists, editors, cartoonists, etc. etc.?
What news are the aggregators going to aggregate when the source material disappears? Who pays the guy to go across the country to get the real scoop? Across the state? Across the city? Hell, who pays them to go across the street?
Free is not much of a motivator for work. At least not quality work.
I have the same questions for books, and games, and comics, and even -- eventually -- music.
How much of the free that we are getting is already parasitic on ongoing systems? What happens when they disappear? Who produces the material?
Those who wish the downfall of the comic shops or bookstores or record stores, or who mourn them without supporting them, or who just don't give a damn, seem to believe that they'll just get the source material from a different delivery system.
It seems to me that less than a million cheaper digital downloads won't pay for the same material that tens of millions of physical copies used to pay for.
What if the source material can't be produced under a different delivery system?
To me, it isn't about the delivery system -- it's the payment system, and if digital doesn't pay, who produces the material?
People who do it for free, I guess. Or for minimal return.
You get what you pay for.
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13 comments:
Most people can't tell the difference between crap and quality and would rather get crap for free than pay for quality.
I can't remember how many times, when I was working at The Bulletin, I asked people whether they subscribed and they told me, "No, I get the free Bulletin" -- meaning the "shopper" product that was thrown in everybody's driveway once a week and contained a few old wire stories and one or two local ones.
Out of the ashes maybe a communal intellectual community will renew. I would like to see Bend be like Aspen or Santa-Fe with real intellectual centers.
But sadly Bend is ran RE business interest.
In the first paragraph, you say: According to Media Daily News, Sept. 13, 2011, sales from newstands of 68 mainstream magazines HAS dropped by nearly half..." I think you mean HAVE
Thank you. Corrected.
Good news for HBM, Perry is getting clobbered about his Merck lies brought out during the 'debate' with Bachman.
But shit that leaves Romeny, a Morman to rule the rule. What is the USA? Bend Orygun?
Tolerance of news ideas drops by 1/2.
Censorship increases by 100%.
Open and honest debates fall by 1/2.
Boy in Europe today OREO got hit hard for telling Europe to get their econ house in order.
Everyone in EUROPE is biting the bullet and going austerity, and the folks in USA haven't even accepted a nickel drop yet on their welfare check, and 58% of USA gets a check.
Everyone is calling the OREO a hypocrit in Europe, sort of funny to see the left in Europe having totally considered the OREO is bought&paid for by the bankers. In Europe the bankers are going to get tarred and feathered long before this is over, and they too will feel the 'austerity'.
In the USA, the bankers are still snorting coke from $100 bills like it was 1980 yesterday.
Bruce,
There you go again - making a blanket statement about "most people" and, of course, making the statement negative just for good measure. You know, not everyone has the wherewithal to afford what you define as "quality". Heck, they might even have the funds for The Bulletin but, like me, wouldn't give that overly and overtly right-leaning rag even one of their hard-earned nickels. This is commonly called "voting with ones wallet". When everyone in Bend is rich from RE then maybe The Bulletin won't need to declare bankruptcy.
"To me, it isn't about the delivery system -- it's the payment system, and if digital doesn't pay, who produces the material? People who do it for free, I guess. Or for minimal return."
Or people who, like the talking heads on Faux News and the "experts" in the "think tanks," are paid very well for pushing propaganda.
Anybody that buy's the BULL or has ever worked for the BULL is a traitor to the people.
So note good people don't support the BULL.
at least as far as music goes, look at these two links to see what a band makes if you buy a record or cd from them at a show vs. if you stream their songs on Spotify or whatever:
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091311artistmakes#z-g53UDLVN3KQbIcXZKLiQ
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/
pretty depressing.
and the level at which many young (and some old) people don't get it - that you have to support artists or they will not be able to create art anymore - is even moreso.
"Anybody that buy's the BULL or has ever worked for the BULL is a traitor to the people."
That's crazy talk. Ignore the conservative slant, and you still get the local news. You can only really get headlines out of KTVZ, and the Source seems to be an entertainment "nickel" paper these days.
I kind of like the Bulletin. I like to know what's going on in town.
"Anybody that buy's the BULL or has ever worked for the BULL is a traitor to the people."
Duncan says, "That's crazy talk. Ignore the conservative slant, and you still get the local news......."
I agree with Duncan that that's crazy talk (even though it's challenging to ignore the obnoxiously unrelenting and mostly idiotic conservative slant).
However, if I feel the need I can always read The Bulletin for local news without buying it. There are a number of places where people leave their copies after reading them. And a visit to the local library isn't all that difficult.
It's too bad The Bulletin has such a monopoly on the daily print news but that's the price we pay for living in today's one newspaper, one town world.
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