The Worst is Yet to Come

"2009 will be the cataclysmic year for sure," says Michela O'Connor Abrams, president and publisher of Dwell magazine in San Francisco.
After a year of drastic economic downturn that upended the already panicking magazine industry, the coming months will prove who stays and who goes in the already excruciating competition of magazine publishing.
It began with the lay offs, then quickly progressed to the downsizing and folding of several notable titles. CosmoGIRL, started in 1999 by the now editor of Seventeen (which is also struggling to stay afloat), will cease production at the end of the year. S.I. Newhouse decided to cut Men's Vogue back to a twice-a-year supplement to Vogue. In fact, Condé Nast -- famous for its glamorous personality and liberal expense accounts-- has been forced to scale back in more ways than one in response to the economy. Its employee holiday luncheon at NYC's Four Seasons Hotel was canceled, and rumors have been floating around that car service to shuttle the employees to and from work will be reined in as well.
Even the Vanity Fair Oscar party, the most extravagant and top tier of Oscar bashes, will be significantly downsized. "The party will be a much more intimate affair than in years past; we're going to scale back the guest list considerably," said editor Graydon Carter in an official press realease. "We'll celebrate Hollywood's big night the way we did when we first threw the party 15 years ago -- it will be a cozier, more understated event." Only the most A-list of the A-list stars will be invited…sorry, Tara Reid.
While the surreal office environment at Condé Nast gets a jolt of reality, one wonders if maybe the magazine industry had gotten a little too comfy with the clothing allowances and three martini lunches. Now that they've been brought back down to earth, it's the perfect moment for a little reflection on the next steps. It appears that one of the greatest challenges facing magazine publishing is how to reconcile the classic, glossy comfort of a print edition with the pressing need to go online. With advertisers surely hurting in this economy as much as the magazines themselves, it might be a more economical option to buy cheaper online ads. If only magazines could figure out a truly effective online advertising strategy.
While some magazines attempt to use the internet to draw in a larger audience, others are going up-market to grab the attentions of recession-proof millionaires and billionaires who didn't lose their shirts in investment banks. In the November 30 issue of The New York Times business section, reporter Stephanie Clifford wrote of magazines flaunting their luxury merchandise in a time of financial crisis. In fashion magazines, a new term has been coined -- Recessionista -- to describe the girl who stays chic and on-trend in the face of unemployment and a worthless stock portfolio. Instead of those $500 Jimmy Choos this holiday season, why not buy the comparable $300 version from Stuart Weitzman? Perhaps, to some, that really is a sacrifice.
If Michela O'Connor Abrams is right, and things just get exponentially worse, it might be for the best. The glut of magazines will be streamlined to halt some of the paper waste brought on by a men's, teen, and home version of so many major titles. And publishers might stop dragging their feet in creating an online business plan. Of course, none of that bodes well for those of us looking for jobs in magazine publishing.