Subject: Davis: Why Publishers Persist With High Circ Levels

From: "Circulation Management" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:14:57 -0400

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Your Circulation News >> Wednesday, April 18, 2007

IN THIS ISSUE

NEWS
Publishers Still Supporting High Circ Levels
Digging for Gold in a Silver Mine

BRIEFS
Google to Buy DoubleClick
TV Guide's Online Video Guide
Viral Media at Work
DMEF Honors a Consumer Marketer

TRENDS
Second Life

MEETINGS & EVENTS

CM ANNOUNCEMENTS

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NEWS

Publishers Still Supporting High Circ Levels

By Baird Davis

The consumer magazine industry's high wire fascination with the precarious task of supporting lofty circulation levels continued in the second half of 2006. The industry's aggregate paid and verified circulation fell a minuscule .4 percent, from 283 to 282 million. Without TV Guide's 4 million circ decline, consumer magazine circulation would have risen one percent.

In the face of stiff Internet competition and an apparent decline in magazine readership, it seems irrational that publishers would persist in supporting lofty circ levels. A look at the influence of current market trends helps illuminate some of the reasons for this behavior.

[MORE]

Digging for Gold in a Silver Mine

By Barbara Love

"Email marketing should work," points out Michael Sheehy, circulation director, Wenner Media. "It's cheap and targeted and easy. Heck, it's even profitable. What it isn't is BIG. Deliverability is atrocious and response is tiny. In recognition of this we mostly set email marketing on autopilot. We tamper with vendors, techniques, and offers only a few times a year when we have credible new theories to challenge our controls.

"When I 'm not putting on airs, I quote Elton John: 'It's like digging for gold in a silver mine.' We have limited testing budgets and management resources. We need to apply them in proportion to potential return. Email is a nice little source that has yet to show scaleable upside."

BRIEFS

Google to Buy DoubleClick

Google has reached an agreement with private equity firm Hellman & Friedman to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash. This is the largest acquisition yet made by the company.

The addition of DoubleClick's ad-serving technology should help Google expand beyond its present search and text-based online ads into the realm of display advertising. DoubleClick has already announced plans to create an online advertising exchange that would let marketers bid for ad space on Web sites.

[MORE]

TV Guide's Online Video Guide

Gemstar-TV Guide has launched the beta version of its long-awaited online video guide on TVGuide.com. The product is designed to "provide users with a meaningful way to channel-surf Internet content, giving them one-click access to their favorite shows and videos," according to the official statement.

The online guide aggregates professional and independent video content from more than 55 Web sites, including broadcast and cable network-affiliated sites. It can be searched by title, show name, description or keyword. Users can browse by top videos, top TV shows, top celebrities, network or genre.

[MORE]

Viral Media at Work

Journalism student Andrea Feczko reported on the New York University news blog last week that Rolling Stone plans to launch a social networking site. The story was picked up by K.C. Jones and carried in an InformationWeek newsletter on April 16.

The Wenner Media announcement was attributed to Keith Blanchard, executive director for online media in a speech he made at NYU. Blanchard disclosed plans for a social network that will allow readers to create profiles and post their "best of" lists and make available archived issues of the magazine.

[MORE]

DMEF Honors a Consumer Marketer

The Direct Marketing Education Foundation has announced the recipients of its Rising Stars Award, which honors direct marketers who demonstrate superior leadership abilities. The recipients include three vendor companies and one consumer marketer.

Kimberly Miller, Time consumer marketing, Real Simple and InStyle, received the award not only for her direct marketing expertise and acumen, but also for her commitment to the training and development of staff.

[MORE]

TRENDS

A Second Life

For anyone who has not yet heard of Second Life, the social networking site turned virtual world where users create assets to buy and sell, here is a brief run-down on the first social networking site with a built in money-making model. Except that in this case, most of the money is made not by advertisers, but by the users themselves.

Second Life, which was created by Linden Labs, a division of Linden Research, was clocked at the end of February as having 3.3 million registered users, with an additional 230,000 registered users per week.

[MORE]

MEETINGS & EVENTS

Webinars
April 25, Folio's Smaller Publisher's Workshop, 2 PM EDT Register here

April
April 12, PBAA's NYC Member Meeting: Consumers, Publishers, and Low-Priced Magazines Trends, Successes, Issues, Copacabana, New York, NY. http://www.pbaa.net

April 13, Quantum Media/Harvard Business School Club of New York's Media Guru Breakfast With Tom Rogers, President and CEO of TiVo, The Harvard Club, New York, NY www.quantummedia.net

April 18, FMA Seminar and Luncheon, The Princeton Club New York, New York, NY http://www.fmanational.org/

April 23-24, DMA Creative Direct Marketing Strategies Seminar, Allerton Crowne Plaza, Chicago, IL. http://www.dmacreativedmstrategies.com

April 30-May 2, 16th Annual National Conference on Operations and Fulfillment
(NCOF), Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, Schaumburg, IL. http://www.ncof.com/

May
May 1, MPA's Meet the Innovators Luncheon with Jim Brock: Tracking, Protecting, and Monetizing Your Content Across the Web, The Harmonie Club, New York, NY. http://www.magazine.org

May 1, 42nd Annual National Magazine Awards, Frederick P. Rose Hall, New York, NY. http://www.asme.magazine.org

May 6, ABM Spring Meeting 2007, Naples, FL. http://www.americanbusinessmedia.com
May 8, PBAA Member Meeting– Meet the Retailer: Borders Group, Ann Arbor, MI.
http://www.pbaa.net

May 11, MPA's Hispanic Magazine Summit, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY. http://www.magazine.org

June
June 4-6, CIRCULATION MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE & EXPO, New York Hilton, New York, NY. Contact: [email-masked]; 203-854-6730.

June 19-21, DM Days NY Conference & Expo, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York, NY. http://www.dmdays.com

June 20-21, DMA Creative Direct Marketing Strategies Seminar, DMA Seminar Center, New York, NY. http://www.dmacreativedmstrategies.com

June 27-29, PBAA 21st Annual Convention, Loews Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. http://www.pbaa.net
[MORE]

Contact us
Red 7 Media, Inc.
10 Norden Place
Norwalk, CT 06855
Tel. (203) 854-6730
Fax: (203) 854-6735

Editors:
Kristina Joukhadar, Managing Editor
Chandra Johnson-Greene, Associate Editor

Advertising Inquiries:
Tony Silber, Publisher
Gina Gavish, Advertising Director
John Ellertson, National Accounts Manager
Karen Putrimas, Sr. Sales Manager, Directory Group

Exhibit & Sponsorship Inquiries:
Kelly Koenig, Dir. Exhibit & Sponsorship

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