As Advertising Dollars Drop, It Is Time To Consider New Advertising

Advertising revenues in magazines, mirroring the economy today, have dropped drastically compared to last year’s numbers while circulation also continues to decline. This is putting magazines in a tight situation with less money in their pocket to fund editorial content.

According to a Media Week article, McClatchy advertising sales are down almost 18 percent compared to last year’s sales. A New York Times article also recently published that magazine sales have declined a little over 6 percent. McClatchy has announced that unfortunately it will decrease its staff 10 percent to try to cut costs.

Increasing advertising money will provide better editorial content for readers and therefore increase circulation and advertising money. This is a grim time for magazines and although they are not facing as high a deficit as newspapers, magazines need to re-imagine their advertising technique(s) to include new methods to get advertiser’s messages to the reader.

There are many new marketing ideas that can be used in today’s magazine world. The most technologically savvy step would to make an advertising presence on the internet. This would include more than the typical pop-up/under and banner ads that are used in today’s marketing. The internet is not a new medium, but magazines have been reluctant to consider it a major source for advertising revenue. With print ads dropping, it is time for magazines to make the leap into the internet advertising world. Great examples of magazines that utilize online advertising would be Spin Magazine and Ebony Magazine in addition to many lesser know magazines like MC Magazine.

By creating an online pdf version of their print editions, magazines can include online advertising with their print prices. In addition, as seen in Spin Magazine, advertisers can then create special ads for the online editions. Magazines can create direct links to send readers to websites to buy advertiser’s products. A report from the Magazine Publishers of America says that people are two times more likely to go to a website of a product they liked when seen from a magazine ad. By creating an online edition of a magazine, it will allow more readers easier access to immediately shop for products advertised in the magazine. By intertwining their magazine and internet advertising alone, print magazines can increase their advertising revenues.

Cosmo has also incorporated the internet into their marketing as they have announced they will partner with YouTube to find female musicians. This marketing technique will incorporate all aspects of a magazine. It will increase advertising money, particularly music advertising, while increasing circulation or, at the very least readership and a relationship with viewers. This can also provide increased editorial content for the magazine. This is another way magazines can use the internet to increase their advertising dollars. By cross promoting with other companies they can reach an audience they may never have had or increase their presence within that audience which will bring more advertising money.

As magazines face the realities of our current economy, it is now the time for them to start looking at new ways to increase advertising revenues. As times and technology change, the magazine industry must change too. Magazines no longer paste up physical copies of every page to be produced, replacing that with desktop publication. It is now time that magazines incorporate new advertising techniques into their business model so they can continue to provide readers with material they have been promised and have come to rely on and trust.