Posted by chicagomedia.org on September 12, 2008 at 10:30:36:
Words on printed page still connect--publishers bank on it
The words are the same, but those of you holding a newspaper as you read this column are having a different experience than those of you reading it on a computer screen.
Consumers are trading print for pixels, scattering the ad money spent to reach them across their ever-expanding digital marketplace for information and entertainment. Yet the printed word is not an endangered species.
There will be survivors because, despite the undeniable thrill and usefulness of instant information from a variety of sources all at once, often for free, there is something to be said for the allure of attractive, well-tended hard copy.
"It's an emotional connection. It's a passionate connection. People do like to hold it, feel it, touch it," said Jason Binn, chief executive and founder of Niche Media, which is adding property to the shrinking media landscape with the introduction next week of Michigan Avenue, a Chicago-centric magazine catering to well-to-do readers and the marketers that dote on them.
For all the info you might get everywhere else, you may like the newspaper because you do the crossword puzzle with your coffee, or because you can fold it under your arm as you get on the "L." Maybe it's because you can crumple it up when you're done. But in the perishability of daily news is the medium's vulnerability.
Magazines, some magazines at least, may be another matter.
Newsmagazines have an even greater challenge than newspapers to endure and remain relevant. But the high-end glossies trading in content with a more advanced expiration date enjoy an advantage in that jewelry, fashion, car, real estate and vacation ads look better on their heavy paper stock.
Why do you suppose The Wall Street Journal launched a lifestyle magazine on Saturday?
"Print offers a completely unique environment that is going to sustain and grow and improve," said David Granger, editor of Esquire, which is looking beyond the 75th anniversary it's about to mark. "The print experience is unique and it's profound. ... [But] we're fighting for readers' time with every other entertainment."
Michigan Avenue's debut--with DeKalb's pride, Cindy Crawford, on its cover as "our hometown supermodel"--is slick and heavy, substantial in size at more than 350 pages if not generally in substance. A multipage ad spread for an area casino might be mistaken for a story, except perhaps for its length.
Mostly, it's a collection of brief, beautifully illustrated diversions largely about, for and sometimes by Chicago's upper crust. A reader with everything can idly daydream about having even more, at least until jolted awake by the disconnect of a cluttered ad for ecologically sound trash bags.
"It's a sensual experience and that's how we choose what goes in it, things that deliver that kind of emotional reaction," said Susanna Homan, the part-time Chicago Sun-Times night-life columnist who is the new magazine's editor. "It's meant to be entertaining and interesting and something you luxuriate in on a Sunday afternoon."
Some of the writers, pros such as Bill Zehme, have been paid. Others, such as Oprah Winfrey, whose favorite places are showcased, volunteered because someone knew someone who was able to compel them, according to Homan.
Binn points to the magazine as just one of the ways to reach out to Michigan Avenue's audience, which has been culled from wealthy ZIP codes, credit and real estate info, a formula Niche Media Holdings (whose chairman, Brian Greenspun, is on the board of Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.) has developed over the years. There are also branded events.
"The recipe is the same in every city, but it's catering to the local community," Binn said.
Esquire's Granger said he has watched how his twin daughters, now 19, have experienced media.
"They're distracted and their energy is diffuse when they're online or on their phones or almost anything else," he said. "But when their magazines come--and their magazines are Vogue and W and People, things like that--it's a defined experience ... that someone else has curated for them, and they fight for their magazines. They just love that experience."
(ROSENTHAL/trib)