Old guard mags take shot at ‘fleeting’ Internet
(1998 just called. It wants its headline back.)
<BEGIN RANT>
It’s OK for magazines to feel good about themselves. It’s OK, especially as the rebounding economy casts glimmers of hope on magazines’ financials, to tout the benefits of the printed product to advertisers and readers. But the upcoming advertising campaign being launched by five old school magazine companies (and appropriately skewed by PaidContent.org’s Rafat Ali) not only hails print, but takes pains to rail on the Internet. I guess the Internet versions of these magazines didn’t have a say in the final creative. Plenty of people still like leafing (surfing?) through a print magazine, and some actually find them easier for serious reading, but taking shots at the Internet?…
The campaign exemplifies the very worst of the media old guard and its steadfast and quixotic resistance to change: change to the technology, the format, and the business model. A slight, and likely fleeting, uptick in print ad revenues does not mean the revolution has failed, but could point to the possible long-term viability of a multi-channel strategy. Perhaps print will continue to live on, and perhaps even attract new users, but it’s certain that the Internet will continue to grow as a medium of delivery (I challenge the consortium to bring forth one media expert, other than some shyster at the agency that built the campaign, who would disagree) and a much better approach would have been to focus on the strength of their individual brands and on the entire package, on the promise of print as one viable and attractive delivery choice for the consumer, if not the only choice. To use the campaign to take pot shots at the Internet not only undermines their existing web presences, but makes the consortium heads look foolishly outmoded and out of touch. Again.
<END RANT>