They'll Be Burning This Issue of Monocle All Across Silicon Valley

What?!? Old media isn't a waste of time? It can still be profitable? The all-new-media-all-the-time crowd is going to fall off their skateboards when they see this issue of Monocle – assuming they see this issue of Monocle. The cover story announces "Newspapers booming, book sales up, record shops opening: Monocle charts the media trend that's e-free, profitable, and going global," and "confirmation that old-school media models are fit and healthy, and how the American media stuffed itself."

Well, the American media stuffed itself by listening to a bunch of trend-following lemmings who didn't take the time to figure out why people actually read magazines, consume long-form journalism, pay for content, expect quality.

It is appropriate that this story is appearing in Monocle, a magazine (and company) that truly thinks differently and has been successful by stressing quality and content.

Magazine Person of the Year: Tyler Brûlé

I don't know how to pronounce his last name, but Monocle founder Tyler Brûlé is right on the money when it comes to building a global magazine brand. I've enjoyed his Financial Times columns for years (just one of the many pleasures of the weekend edition of the FT), and though I've never read his earlier periodical claim to fame -- Wallpaper -- I've been very impressed with his current hit, Monocle.

In the UK's Independent newspaper, Brûlé is feted with a nice article pointing out the success of Monocle in print, in podcasts, and now in retail. Laughed at by many for his ambitious plans for this hybrid global monthly (10 times annually) magazine covering business, culture, and design, Brûlé can enjoy its success. The magazine currently has a circulation of about 150,000, and subscriptions are low (12,000) but growing -- and subscribers pay more than the cover price.

But here's what I really like about the Independent article:

Then there is the magazine itself, the very core of the business and a wonder to touch as well as to behold thanks to its five different paper stocks. Worth every penny, says Brûlé. “Media owners around the world are scratching their heads, asking why magazines and newspapers aren’t selling anymore. Why? Because you’ve downgraded the experience. When you are competing against digital, which can zoom in and animate, then your print experience needs to be tactile and exciting and, for magazines, a bit collectable.”

Exactly. He understands that reading a print magazine is an experience. It can compete very well with online media products if its creators know what magazines can do best and they don't try to do what online does better. Print magazines can do long, richly illustrated articles better than the Web, and when they do a high-quality tactile presentation (as does Monocle) -- it's great.

I've said it before on this blog, but what use is the internet if not for repeating oneself: Magazines need to be upgrading their experience for the reader, not cutting paper quality, trim size, and frequency. Give people something better to pay for, and they will.

Today, I almost bought a magazine at Borders because a friend and former colleague writes for it. Standing there in the store, I paged through the magazine, looking for bylined articles by my friend. I found many, but I didn't find any article longer than a page -- and most were sidebar-length. I didn't buy it. The magazine seems to be trying to compete with the web by being short and sweet, but that's a competition it can't win. If I want 400-word synopses of someone or something, I'll get that from the web at no cost. But I look to magazines to give me 4,000 words or more on a topic, with reporters on the ground, aided by photographers and illustrators and professional editing.

Monocle knows that. So hats off to Tyler Brûlé. However the hell you pronounce his last name.

The Latest Shopping Spree, Part II

My latest trip to the bookstore, just a couple hours ago this afternoon, ended with me walking out with two magazines:

Monocle (June 2009): Another giant issue (more than 200 pages, I think, counting the inserts) from Financial Times columnist Tyler Brûlé. We get the only magazine that includes Lebanon's elections, Sarkozy, manga, an aviation survey, a look at Mongolia's capital, Obama's White House designing, and a report on the Karachi, Pakistan, police forces. I have no idea if this magazine is a resounding financial success, but I hope it is. It is a big part of my evolving view that these globally-fucused, hefty hefts are the successful magazines of the future, like my new best friend forever, Winq. I'll write more on this theory in the future.

Smithsonian (June 2009): What made me pick up this issue? I've always been impressed by this fine magazine, and I buy several issues of it every year. My mother used to bring home stacks of them from the publishing company where she worked. But my partner's a Frank Lloyd Wright fan, and they've got an article on Wright, so ... magazine purchased.

And then there are the magazines I almost bought, even carrying them with me until I decided for certain that I didn't want to spend money on them:

Deathray (June/July 2009): In my continuing effort to find a science fiction media magazine to replace the hole in my heart left by the print cessation (er, hiatus) of Starlog, I have been trying to choose between SFX, Deathray, and SciFi Now. Problem is, all three oversized British mags are so bleeping similar that one is left walking away from all of them. I had a Deathray in my hands, but before I went to the checkout counter, I realized I hadn't read the April/May issue (had barely opened it), so why spring for an entirely new issue?

Discover (July/August 2009): A decade or two ago, my sister gave me a copy of an annual Best Science Writing of the Year anthology, and I loved it. I learned in the books' introduction that Discover magazine was one of the founders of a new type of popular science writing -- intelligent, accessible to the non-expert, and high-quality. I've read it off and on over the years, even subscribing once or twice. But I have to admit I hate-hate-hated the redesign instituted a few years ago when Bob Guccione Jr. took over the mag (and that's not a knock on Guccione; I see him as someone who's done a hell of a lot of things I wish I'd had the money to do in the magazine industry; I have a premiere issue of Spin magazine just a foot away from my keyboard as I write this, as a matter of fact, and I thought it was great when I heard a rumor that he was interested in reviving Omni as a quarterly, because it fed my own interest in restarting a late science/SF magazine). Anyway, this magazine just didn't make the final should-I-or-shouldn't-I decision as I was toting up the damage from my magazine grazing (particularly in light of my subscription to the weekly New Scientist), so back to the newsstand it went.

Maybe I should write one of these posts on the mags I'm buying used on eBay???

My previous shopping spree