Point of View – ‘Magazines in the departure lounge?’

Tim Forrest, head of communications planning at OMD UK, comments on Greg Grimmer’s Greg Grimmer – Magazines in the departure lounge? article, which was published yesterday… 

“I agree wholeheartedly with Greg’s holiday sentiment. More so, as top of the request list when visiting my family in France is for as many issues of weekend Qualities as I can get away with (tactics for avoiding excess baggage charges would make another whole reply), along side Dr Who magazine, Horse & Hound and any current Fashion title issues.

Greg’s opine has triggered several connected thoughts on this subject.

First, the PPA has featured many ‘Tomorrow’s World’ scenarios that involve modified paper and internet activating content.

Second, and borrowing an opinion expressed by Toby Roberts on his dazzleships blog that magazines can potentially offer a wider variety of subjects than the internet content we consume – editors edit for a wide group of people and interests. The individual edits for one. This has been called the ‘echo chamber’ whereby the universal library that is the web can actually restrict ones exposure to information.

Third, in a conversation with Ben Hamersley of Wired, he was very clear that despite its future facing and technological remit it is foremost a paper magazine. I can’t do justice to his many and strident thoughts on this subject but you could do worse than ask him for comment yourselves.

And fourth, while we may mourn the passing of Face, Arena et al, it sounds not the death knell of magazines but signals the principles of Darwin at work in a healthy media eco-system. From many an exchange with Colin Robinson of the PPA and attending their excellent annual shindig, I have learnt that people spend more now than ever on mags (Expenditure on consumer magazines has increased in real terms (i.e. at constant prices*) by almost 88% over the past 2 decades – increasing from just over £1 billion in 1990 to almost £2 billion in 2007 (Source: AA/WARC 2008)) and that 85% of UK adults read consumer magazines as well as 15-24 year olds are the age group most likely to be reached by magazines, with 4 out of 5 young adults part of the average issue readership for at least one NRS listed magazine (NRS, January-December 2008).

So, with all of that in mind and, at Greg’s prompting, don’t you think we should be looking at how to implant digital bookmarks and navigations into the wonderful world of print to encourage an effective and profitable co-existence.

In the wider world of planning my thinking has for a while been turning from how it’s not one thing instead of another but how one thing leads to another – ask yourself in thinking about how people are influenced by the media they consume; ‘so, what happens next?’.”