The team at In Style Magazine will be relocating for two weeks to work in a Perspex pod at Westfield Bondi Junction (in Sydney). According to Mumbrella, the idea behind this it to bring the magazine closer to the public.
Does this sound dubious to you? How fascinating will it really be to see people working on computers or making phone calls? If they are holding glamorous photo shoots in public, will this really bring the magazine closer to the public or simply reinforce the divide between most people’s everyday lives and the increasingly bizarre world of the glossies?
In Style magazine is one of our better sellers. I do not mean to have a go at them personally, but rather, question the tactics being used by mainstream magazines to remain relevant to our lives when the competition through other forms of media has exploded. Perhaps more fundamentally, can they ever overcome the decline in circulation and advertising that they are currently experiencing?
Is the mainstream magazine model long term viable? Is mag nation right in focusing more on the niche magazines as the future growth driver of an industry under pressure? What can mainstream magazines do to remain relevant in our lives with increasing complexity and time demands? The idiots who proclaim that print is dead are simply put, idiots, but no one can deny that the magazine landscape will be different in 10 years time.
hah–Grazia UK did the same thing at Westfield in London last year. B-O-R-I-N-G.
Yeah we know. It was at a Westfield in London as well, so this is where the idea must have come from.
Interesting that a number of mainstream mags have just tweeted us to tell us that they can remain relevant, but no one yet has told us HOW…