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death of print

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death of print

InfoWorld making 37 percent profit margin one year after ditching print

International Data Group, the tech publisher, was losing money every time it printed signature title InfoWorld. After kicking the paper habit, the title is now making $1.6 million per month in revenue, and approximately $592,000 net profit, the Times reports:
In 2002, 86 percent of the revenue from IDG's publications came from print and 14 percent online. These days, 52 percent of the revenue is from online ads, while 48 percent is from the print side.
Sure, it serves a technology niche with a well-connected audience and advertisers inclined to turn to the Web. But where technology publishing goes, general interest content is sure to follow, goes the thinking. Only one hole in that theory: CNET.

1:00 PM on Mon May 5 2008
By Jackson West
274 views, 1 comment

Latest by OaklandTechie: CNET is such a failure... I can't think of another company that had such an early advantage and blew it. Oh wait yes I can -- Yahooooooooooew. more »

death of print

Forbes reporter leaves to join VC firm

In the newsrooms of Silicon Valley, they call it "going native." In New York, media is a semirespectable profession, and the skyscraper snobs of the world's leading infotainment conglomerates assume that those who drop out for lesser arts like PR just couldn't cut it. Not so here. Erika Brown, who covered venture capital for Forbes, is leaving the magazine to join Matrix Partners as the VC firm's director of marketing and business development. (Biz dev? I can't picture Brown, a snappy dresser, in blue shirts and pleated khakis.) Did Brown parlay her contacts from reporting into a new job? It's hard to imagine she didn't. And one can hardly blame her. The death of magazines may or may not be imminent. But serving time in a distant bureau of a magazine which is mostly diffident about the Valley is a career killer. Brown's note to friends: More »

10:20 AM on Fri May 2 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,554 views, 9 comments

Latest by eric starkman: Owen,FYI: Erika Brown worked in PR before going into journalism. I will let your readers decide whether her career has been on an upward or downward trajectory. more »

Slow-motion newspaper-industry death continues Newspaper readership, long resilient, is now clearly dropping. Paid circulation from September 2007 to March 2008 dropped 3.6 percent from the similar period a year ago; Sunday circulation dropped 4.6 percent. [Reuters]

2 comments

death of print

PlanetOut sells print business to gay TV service

Bill Gates's money hasn't been enough to staunch the bleeding at PlanetOut. The San Francisco-based gay-media company is finalizing a deal to sell its magazine and book publishing business to the Here Network, a gay and lesbian video-on-demand service. The company publishes leading gay-interest mags The Advocate and Out. Subscribers were up but ad pages down in 2007. A decline in advertising from pharmaceutical companies hurt The Advocate. PlanetOut will keep its online properties such as Gay.com, and promises to promote Here movies as part of the deal.

10:20 AM on Fri Apr 11 2008
By Jackson West
459 views, 4 comments

Latest by BartKela: Isn't Out magazine a freebie now? I thought I saw a short stack by the front door of the Good Vibrations store on Valencia today, but I didn't look closely. more »

death of print

San Francisco Chronicle, you're doing it wrong: It's business in the front, party in the back

As commenter WhatBubble pointed out, when it comes to mullets, it's supposed to be business in the front, party in the back. The San Francisco Chronicle got a trim in February, and some days now runs the sports section and business section together — but got it backwards, with the sports party in the front, and the exploits of captains of industry relegated to the rear. The New York Times has also combined the two sections in the weekday edition, but properly puts business up front. But hey, for those who like their business in the back, the Chronicle has you pegged.

5:00 PM on Tue Apr 8 2008
By Jackson West
271 views, 5 comments

Latest by Arnaud H: Says who? C'mon, don't tell me you also read Friday's NASDAQ closing prices in the Saturday edition. more »

death of print

Amazon.com puts the screws to small publishers

Remember how print-on-demand technologies were going to liberate anyone to publish books? Still true, as long as you don't want to sell your wares on Amazon.com. For access to the online bookseller which controls 15 percent of the U.S. market, you'll have to use BookSurge, an Amazon subsidiary. That's according to a number of print-on-demand authors and publishers who've been contacted by Amazon and told to either switch to BookSurge or see the "buy" button disappear from their books' listings. The books will still be listed, but customers will have to order through resellers, and the titles won't qualify for Amazon's free shipping offers. More »

4:20 PM on Fri Mar 28 2008
By Jackson West
788 views, 2 comments

Latest by Dweezil: @michaellamb: Anything they can do to hurt Lulu is a plus in my book. The world needs more horrible Livejournal community college dropouts writing about vampires and elves and inner-dragons like I need a long-term sexual relationship with Jason Calacanis. more »

death of print

Newsweek paid Steven Levy six figures to jump to Wired

Such is the plight of the dying magazine business: Newsweek paid what's rumored to be a high-six-figures ransom not to keep Steven Levy, its star tech writer, but to unburden itself of him just so he could join Wired. The Washington Post-owned weekly is offering editorial staff generous buyouts, up to two years' salaries, to reduce its headcount. Levy smartly leapt at the offer, knowing he could easily get a job elsewhere. Something seems backwards in this labor market: Don't acquirers normally pay a premium for control?

1:40 PM on Fri Mar 21 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,120 views, 8 comments

Latest by james2die4: Maybe he will find his MacBook Air over at Wired where he left it after his interview? more »

death of print

Mercury News editor leaves troubled newspaper for slightly less troubled one

San Jose Mercury News business and technology reporter Vindu Goel is returning to the New York Times, where he once interned as a young cub reporter, to be the new deputy technology editor. The Michigan and Harvard alum likes fine wine and long walks in the woods. The Times is hoping to boost its technology coverage, while the Merc loses yet another veteran from a once-esteemed tech-reporting staff. More »

2:40 PM on Wed Mar 19 2008
By Jackson West
426 views, 2 comments

death of print

Phones dead at Red Herring

NICK DOUGLAS — The silent death of Red Herring continues as the Silicon Valley magazine, now defaulting on a loan, slips into the night. Says a reader: "Another sign of RH's imminent folding? Every number at RH seems disconnected - maybe they didn't pay the bills?"

5:07 PM on Fri May 4 2007
By Nick Douglas
1,364 views, 7 comments