Tracking Consumers : Not Just For the FBI

According to an article on BusinessWeek.com, a new company named Sense Networks is working to track consumer movements through their cell phones. It then groups consumers by ‘tribes’ based upon the places they visit and upon common behaviors.

In the article, the focus is on how this data could be used to create much more targeted advertising campaigns, but upon reading it, I began thinking about how it could be used by magazines, newspapers and books.

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Some Cheese for that Whine… Newspapers (Part 1): Changing Distribution

I recently finished a series of “Some cheese for that whine” on the book industry. Now, it’s time to turn our focus to an arguably more doomed industry: the newspaper industry. There are a lot of major issues facing the news world today, and competing with the internet is among the most demanding.

The image of a young boy with a baseball cap, riding a bike with a satchel of newspapers is a pretty American image – but the movement toward digital media may mean no more newspaper boys, and no more having fido fetch the paper (though who gets to tell them they’re fired?)

Newspapers have been threatened before. They were said to be doomed with the birth of radio… and again with the birth of TV. However, this time is different.

Mag Distributors : Way to go?

Most publishing people are probably aware, by this point, of the grand circus that is magazine distributing these days. Since Anderson News Co. and Source Interlink attempted to charge publishers an additional 7 cent surcharge per copy, there has been a lot of speculation, with Time Inc. going so far as to begin to set up a new network of wholesalers to handle distribution of it’s magazines.

Source then sued Time Inc. and other publishing and distribution companies, alleging the companies are trying to drive it out of business. Now according to Media Week, it appears that Source has signed a new multi-year agreement with Time Inc. that does not include the per copy surcharge. The article does not say if the contract includes some other charge or a charge that is not per-copy based.

The trouble here is with the current business plan for these distributors. They are in a seriously comprimised position – they need to be able to provide their customers with content, and need to receive that content from publishers. Without some serious negotiations, one way or another, these companies are in trouble.

From the other side of the bathtub – An interview with BusinessMedia.co.uk

Yesterday I did an interview for Business Media.co.uk on B2B publishing, how I got here, and where I see the industry going. Check out the post on their website: BusinessMedia.co.uk for the full interview… below is an excerpt.

Basically… people are lazy

Basically, people are lazy. Publishers forget this. Even I did. They want “content” – no matter what the format – delivered to where ever they are already reading things. They don’t want to have to go looking for something to read – they’d rather it be delivered to their doorstep, to their inbox or to their blackberry/iphone etc.

However, as a recent post on MediaPost Magazines mentions,

“I realized that what I like about Time, or any print vehicle for that matter – be it magazine or newspaper or broadsheet or pamphlet – is that I am exposed to tidbits of information and long-form thought pieces that I don’t necessarily want to fetch.”

It is this quality that magazines, newspapers and print producers of every kind need to remember. If they choose their market, they can provide things that that market didn’t know it wanted to read – but that they will find interesting, nonetheless. While, essentially, this is what “cookies” (web sites use cookies to track what you look at to provide you ads you are most likely to be receptive to) do for advertising, nothing currently exists that can bring together different written content and deliver it in an interesting package and deliver it to the consumer – without them having to do a lick of work.

E-Magazines : An interesting Model

Many magazines (and publishing companies) are fighting the move to the web with all they have in them, rather then viewing it as a new tool to use. But not all.

One of the classes I’m taking at Pace University this semester is a marketing class and we are talking about how, since the internet, consumers are expecting more and more personalized products and services. As Kassia Krozser recently posted on Booksquare, “The pain will come for those (textbook industry, anyone?) clinging to old business models.”

What this means is that publishing companies need to look for ways to embrace technology. This, of course, will be different for each of the different ‘types’ of publishing (magazines, books, etc.), but embrace it they must.

Magazines

Take what Mitch Fox is doing at 8020 Media. Essentially, they are creating magazines out of user generated content.

Mygazines.com, Audible Parenting and the dumbest generation ever

Most people in publishing have acknowledged that publishing is in a transition phase right now. With the digital bubble, everyone tried to grab a piece of the pie – but it didn’t always taste very good. Digital content brings with it it’s own problems. For magazines that includes how to make profit on something you’re giving away and how digital advertising will in turn affect print advertising.

Despite the fact that many readers are getting more of their information online these days, many magazines still don’t have a successful website, with an easily navigated digital version of the magazine. (Or easily navigated pages) In comes Mygazines.com. It has done what many mags failed to do – it has designed a simple, easy to use reader that allows members to browse pdfs of many popular magazines. The magazines are uploaded by users, and there is a surprising variety available. While the site will likely fall into trouble soon, since it defies copyright laws, it still shows what is possible and inspires the question: Is the lack of good content or design simply that print people can’t think digital?