Last week I was over at Reactive (very nice offices in the heart of Sydney in Crown Street also they have very nice pizzas too) anyway this was one of our regular creative gatherings at Creative Social this time we had two dudes Murray Bell from Snakes and Ladders and Pete Murray from Semi Permanent talking which was very interesting especially when Murray started talking about the niche magazine Movement Magazine for those that don't know as their Google search describes are: Movement bodyboard magazines official website. All things bodyboarding. Professional riders, with contests and competitions
As the talk went on and as the audience were mostly all from the digital space the question came up as it always does, 'Is your magazine sales decreasing'? and as always digital folk lick their lips in anticipation on hearing that it's all going rat shit, with cobwebs developing on the printing press.
Well the the response was the opposite in that it has remained steady, sales haven't dropped off even with the access of the web especially for this audience you would have thought sales would drop. Murray said that it's changed but the print option hasn't declined so why hasn't sales dropped? Murray's and the Magazines response was; they made the mag more desirable by increasing the weight of the paper, they hired more top draw photographers and upped their content in quality with more substance ,for instance they did a piece on Hawaii not just the tourist side of things but also the number of homeless people living there. They have now attracted a much broader audience beyond just surf dudes- from film, art and culture demographics. Smart move.
The magazine became more of a 'coffee table' magazine which was much more tactile and that's were digital will always lose out - the fact that you can touch and feel the mag and see the images in their full glory will always be a big pull that's not to say digital doesn't play its part for instance; what about video content, comments, and eComm functionality are all better experiences than just using print, so print isn't dead it's just evolved and the most successful brands are working more hand in hand with digital. As always you've got to know your market, and the team over at Movement Magazine certainly know their audience.
