According to a press release from the leadership of Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, Meredith Corporation, Time Inc. and Wenner Media, the ads will feature:

headlines such as, “We Surf the Internet. We Swim in Magazines.” And “Will the Internet Kill Magazines? Did Instant Coffee Kill Coffee?” These will be accompanied by iconic images lifted from the pages of America’s best-known magazines. A second phase, which will start appearing in June issues, will embed multiple cover images from widely recognized publications into the ad’s text to convey key phrases.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, magazine publishers are buoyed by a recent bump in print advertising sales and data from Mediamark Research & Intelligence showing a 4.3% increase in magazine readership over the past five years.

The press release states the ads will reach 112 million readers a month, while the WSJ story says the total value of the ads is more than $90 million.

One such ad features Michael Phelps:

Another substitutes popular magazine titles for words:

A YouTube video features the CEOs of the five companies explaining in their own words their rationale for the campaign:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Is this a desperate last gasp? A long-overdue statement of the facts? Or are they missing the point about the future of magazines altogether? (And is it a little odd they’re promoting the virtues of magazines to people who are already reading one?)

In my next post: industry reaction, and my thoughts.

The popular PBS children’s show Reading Rainbow was canceled recently due to a lack of funding. It ended a 26-year run with host LeVar Burton (you may know him as Star Trek’s Geordi LaForge or Roots’ Kunta Kinte) during which the show taught children that reading could be a lot of fun.

A recent AP/Ipsos poll found that in 2007, one in four Americans didn’t even crack a book.

Around the country, newspapers are going under as subscribership drops and advertising revenues dry up.

Is the evidence overwhelming? Is reading…dead? And perhaps a more important question for you, the business leader: Is it worth spending your advertising dollars on print media? In short, yes.

Reading isn’t dead—not even close. Information is as important as ever. Today, the ability to rapidly consume, digest, and act on information is perhaps the most important skill an executive can possess.

Reading Rainbow wasn’t canceled because reading isn’t important. It was canceled because the Dept. of Education wanted to focus their funding on the how of reading—spelling, phonetics, grammar—and not so much on the why. Americans’ reading habits have bounced all over the charts over the years. And while newspapers are going away, real-time information sources on the Internet are exploding.

How do trade publications fit into this mix? For most industries, trade journals are still the top source of industry-specific news. Increasingly, print is being supplemented with the web, which can serve as an online archive for printed journals, a way to expand and enhance printed content, and a convenient way to provide timely, brief news updates.

But in the end, it’s the content that matters, regardless of how it’s delivered to your brain. Trade Press Services can help you position yourself and your company as subject matter experts whatever the media type. Call or e-mail us today to learn more.

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