By Anne Carlantone
I have always loved magazines. It started in childhood when I would look through my grandparents’ collection of what I think may have been every National Geographic issue ever printed. It progressed to when I discovered my older sister’s copies of Seventeen and Glamour and has grown from there to include everything from news magazines to home magazines to (yes, I’ll admit it) entertainment/tabloid magazines.
That’s why it was interesting to me to read the announcement last week from five major magazine publishers that they have united to launch an ad campaign that will promote the continued “vitality” of magazines as a medium in which to advertise, and, basically to communicate that people are still reading them.
Personally, I have never felt that magazines would go away. True, they have been dropping like flies (this article puts the death toll at a total of 1,466 nationwide from 2007 to 2009), but the publishers’ campaign also points to statistics showing that magazine readership has actually risen over the last five years, and this includes a growing number of 18- to 34-year-olds (whom everyone seems to assume are internet-only when it comes to information). I think what we can tell from all of these stats is that while hard-copy magazines may now face much more competition for our attention, they definitely still have their place.
Why? I think it’s because, like me, a lot of people just simply like magazines. Magazines are pretty and glossy. They appeal to several senses – the visual appeal of the photo layouts, the sound and feel of the flipping pages, even the smells of the perfume ad inserts. Magazines are a source of affordable, instant, curl-up-on-the-couch “me time,” (as many of my fellow moms will agree), and best of all, they are a pleasant escape from the computer, Blackberry and TV screens we’re tethered to all day. And let’s face it — no one is going to browse the online version of People on the beach!
As PR people, we can definitely see the reaction that a nice magazine placement still elicits from a client. While online placements are fantastic and very important, there’s still a special “something” about a great photo or mention of your product or service on the pages of a popular glossy magazine. So while we do spend a lot of time staying on top of, and, talking about the latest developments in digital media, this blog post is a tribute to the continued importance of “traditional” media. There’s a place for it all in a well-rounded PR program!