Is paper publishing dead? Canadian media-giant Rogers doesn’t think so. The evidence is easy to see: it just launched a new magazine…of the genus paper and ink, not the electronic variant. What does that tell us? How about that the old-style magazine has lots of life left in it if it has good content and can reach a community with a particular set of interests.
Rogers expects Sportsnet magazine to fill a huge gap in the Canadian market: the Canadian sports marketplace has been under-covered for years. Rogers realizes there is no shortage of Canadian sports fans wanting to get their fix and wanting alternatives to the overwhelmingly American-focus of Sports Illustrated and ESPN magazines. I doubt many Canadian sports fans are Luddites; most are plugged-in and make good use of electronic technology. As Rogers seems to know, many of them, however, also want to hold a magazine in their hands.
The obvious model for Rogers is ESPN, the American all-sports network, which launched its own highly successful – and highly lauded – magazine in March of 1998. In recent years ESPN has expanded its model by embracing sports documentaries. The 30 for 30 series has told some fantastic sports stories, giving its community an additional – and highly substantive – way for people to connect with ESPN’s work. Hopefully Rogers follows that example, too.
The essential point is this: Smart, effectively-branded organizations are ensuring engaging content is at the core of their outreach, and they use it to convey depth and meaning, build audience share, and amass earned revenue. The willingness of a Rogers or ESPN to go down this path is a reflection of how deeply they understand this.
They also understand how people have – in one part of their lives at least – narrow interests. This was a point that Chris Anderson made in 2006 when he introduced us to The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. He argued that people gravitate toward niches. Rogers and ESPN are feeding those narrow interests anyway they can. The magazine is one tool to break through the clutter. The problem for most organizations is that they want to communicate on the cheap: dumping content online, they believe, is adequate, and enables them to avoid paper-print-and-binding costs. Online variants are great, but are only one part of the puzzle. The key is offering multiple points of contact: websites, books, magazines, documentary films – all fully integrated. Explore every channel.
