E-Media Tidbits

Mannobhai, via Flickr (CC license) Will magazines be able to keep up with people's growing expectations of timeliness?

The controversy over the Jan. 6 Parade magazine cover interview with Benazir Bhutto, who had been assassinated 10 days earlier, raged on within E-Media Tidbits last week after Amy Gahran'sJan 8. post. Several of the comments agreed with Gahran that "the outdated Parade cover probably undermined the credibility of every newspaper that distributed it."

On Sunday, Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote: "Post editors placed a note to readers on Sunday's Page 1, but it was small, below the fold, had no headline and mentioned other issues before the Bhutto interview." She added, "The note should have been eye-catching and prominent, with a headline and an image of the Parade cover -- and should have run both Saturday and Sunday."

Howell noted that Post readers, such as David Green of Purcellville, Va., told her that the notice was "not exactly prominent... It was a shame that the WP could not have drawn attention to this explanation in a more prominent manner than the sorry second item 'Oh by the way...' buried at the bottom of Page 1."

Magazines struggle to be timely because of publishing schedules that are anything but 24/7. When I worked for Tennis magazine (then published by the New York Times Co.) in the mid-'80s, my colleagues used to unaffectionately call me "the newspaper guy" because I could turn over a magazine-quality story faster than they were in the habit of doing. I didn't stay long -- nor did I remain long in print when USA Today started its Web site in 1995. I guess I wasn't a "newspaper guy," either, when it came to timeliness and velocity in the industry.

So what's a "magazine guy" (or gal) to do? Well, the Magazine Publishers of America, the trade association for the consumer magazine industry, reports that magazine publishers pursued 33.5 percent more online initiatives in 2007 compared to a year ago. These included online video, social network tools, user-generated content and integrated marketing initiatives. MPA members include Businessweek, Forbes Media, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Playboy, Time, Wired, and other publishers.

On Jan 9, ClickZ quoted Howard Polskin, MPA's senior vice president/communications as saying: "[Magazines] are using whatever platform they can to touch their... and I'm not going to use the word 'readers'... to touch their users 24-7... The people that used to consume magazine content used to be readers and now there is the subtle shift that it's more important to call them users."

Will Parade magazine adopt online initiatives in 2008? A quick check of Parade's site indicates that they they have some work to do.