"The news, as we’ve come to say in this craziest of years, is shocking but not surprising. Publishers face extreme challenges today. Typical magazines have staffs and offices and a tremendous amount sunk into fixed costs, while advertisers have a zillion other ways to reach customers and readers have a zillion other (free) choices. In Darwinian capitalism, a publication has to respond to these challenges or it will die. A small, narrow-focused book owned by a giant corporation—especially one whose flagship was until recently the National Enquirer—has the odds stacked against it, as titles are bled for “efficiencies” while expectations are ratcheted unrealistically higher."
My simplistic take:
Facebook, Google, and Amazon suck (using that word intentionally here) all the advertising dollars out of potential advertisers for niche publications, including regional magazines like Northwest in Motion. If this trend continues, fitness publications are going to die, and as the author mentions we're going to end up with clickbait pablum from publications like Men's Journal.
To keep Northwest in Motion alive and well, we're experimenting with a few different things.
You may have noticed that we have added "affiliate advertising" from relevant brands. If you end up buying from one of them via a click on Northwest in Motion, we get a small commission. Thanks for buying online this way!
We have also expanded our popup retail footprint from trail running and cyclocross races to King County's trail system. Kudos to the City of Bothell for being willing to work with us on this experiment.
Our retail philosophy of "bringing the shop to the people" looks like a viable business and we're aggressively though organically expanding our scope. By next spring the vision is to simultaneously have multiple popups along the trail system, and at "rainy day" partners' bricks and mortar locations popular with recreational athletes.
What are your thoughts?
