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Attack of the Killer 3D magazines

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

First there was Avatar, then Playboy in 3D, then Desktop and now in the space of a few short days, we’ve had Sneaker Freaker 3D, the Socceroos vs. New Zealand on 3D TV and now… Nuts.

Yep, the UK lads mag per excellence has continued this fine and noble tradition by presenting some of the most eye-bogglingly large breasts ever delivered in three dimensions. (Well, okay, actually it’s two dimensions and they look a bit blue and red and you have to squint a little bit, but it’s definitely something approximating 3D!)

What’s next… Cakes and Sugarcrafts in smell-o-vision?

Posted in Magazine Industry | No Comments »

Mag Nation is trying to take down “da man” – want to help us?

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Apparently we are not the only ones selling magazine subscriptions online in Australia and New Zealand. Thanks Gran. Without your online vigilance, I definitely would never have heard of Poo-Subscribe and BumShop.

Ok, now I know it is really immature of me to refer to my competitors using the words poo and bum. There is nothing inherently wrong with them after all. They are not bad people. They are just… well… not me. And every dollar spent with them is a potential dollar not spent with mag nation. And they are rich and I am poor. So I don’t like them. And immature as it may be, it is still fun to dis them.

As good and sophisticated as we think we might be online, we are never going to be a match for their huge budgets and teams of staff. When you Google most Aus/NZ magazines, they come up first in organic search, and the masses who should be buying from us (because we are way cooler) end up clicking on the top link and buying from them.

How are we to compete? Our stores kick arse over their stores… wait… in fact they don’t have stores (says me smiling and poking out my tongue). But the one big thing that we have that they don’t is you!

Can you help us? Please? Pretty please? We will also try to reward you and make it worth your while. We believe in mutual loving after all.

If any of you have a favourite magazine (and if you don’t, I question what you are doing reading this blog in the first place), perhaps you could review it on your website / blog / online space. It would have to be a genuine website / blog / online space because the key component would be to fill it with content rich key words (thanks for that technical term Ollee) and link it through to the landing page of that particular mag on our website. Or if that is too much work, perhaps just a link on your blog roll with anchor text something like “mag nation has the best magazine subscriptions – much better than all those other pretenders”. Ok, maybe just mentioning mag nation and magazine subscriptions might be enough.

Apparently Google likes in-bound links. Maybe, just maybe, we might be able to erode some of their organic search market dominance. In return for all your efforts, we would name you a mag nation VIP. Other than sounding really really impressive and winning you amazing kudos at parties, it would also get you lots of other really cool benefits. We just haven’t worked out what they are yet.

What do you say friends? Are you willing to aid and abet our attempts to take down da man? Please give us a shout if the answer is yes and we can talk turkey!

Posted in Magazine Industry, The Inside Story | 15 Comments »

The Volcano and Global Connectedness – Even we’re impacted

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

There is not a single expletive that can alleviate the frustration I am currently feeling. You would think that mag nation being a small geographically focused business would be somewhat immune to a fricking volcano somewhere in Iceland… wrong.

We import a hell of a lot of magazines direct from Europe and bring them in by air freight. While the chaos amongst international air travellers has now been well documented, what about the hidden cost to trade. If a small business on the other side of the world is affected, what are the global ramifications?

Those unfamiliar with our business might be forgiven for thinking that the effect on us is minimal, but this volcano will have a major impact on us. So many of our sales are skewed towards international air freighted titles. Moreover, we import these in directly, and pay for them up front. In other words, we have already paid for many goods that are now languishing in a warehouse near an airport on the other side of the world. Again, not a major deal for many retailers as these products can normally still be sold. However, in our case, by the time the current issue of Vogue Paris arrives in our store, the next issue will be arriving on its heels. Our customers will buy the most recent issue, leaving the one that got delayed to gather dust.

On top of this, we have thousands of subscribers who are expecting delivery of their latest air freight issues. We have proactively contacted all of these customers, explaining that the delays to air travel also mean delays to cargo transportation. There is a massive back log in Europe, and as it starts to clear, magazines will be lower on the priority list (we think they represent an essential good, but the powers that be may not quite agree with us!) All subscribers will all get their products, but the cost to us in lost over the counter sales and the cash flow implications will be large.

As an aside, did any of our local suppliers proactively reach out to us as one of their customers to convey the delay of product that they might supply to us? No. Are we the only ones in the magazine industry who communicate with customers???

Anyway, all of this has served to remind me just how interconnected the world is today. It is one thing to know this in theory, but another thing altogether when it starts to hit your wallet and impact your business. Damn volcano.

Posted in Magazine Industry | 4 Comments »

Frankie is Australia’s fastest growing magazine

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

We were really pleased to learn recently that Frankie is officially Australia’s fastest growing magazine.

While this definitely wasn’t news to us (have you seen just how many copies of Frankie sit in the ‘Our Favourites’ section at the front of our stores?!) the official word came via the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation’s figures which reported that this standard-bearer of sassy, independent girly cool grew by 31.6 per cent in the year to December.

The release of these figures certainly marks an important point in Australian publishing, where an independent mag, founded in 2004 by two 25 years olds and edited out of a one-bedroom flat in inner-Melbourne is only slightly lagging behind established giants like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.

Smart, inspiring and undeniably girly without bothering with stories on diets, orgasms and sealed sections, it seems that Frankie has flourished by simply sticking to its path and striving to provide an intelligent and altogether more focused alternative to some other more… vacuous magazines out there vying for the attention of the same demographic.

Which is not to say that there’s anything wrong with features on diets and orgasms and ‘drive him wild’ sealed sections… it’s just that after the fourteenth or fifteenth time they can get a bit predictable*.

Viva Frankie!

* We strongly recommend that you still buy all of these types of mags -preferably from us of course :)

Posted in Individual Mag Titles, Magazine Industry | 4 Comments »

Issue 31 of Monocle… upside down

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Monocle issue 31 arrived a few days ago.

It features a fascinating report on the state of the Turkish media, an interview with France’s most revered artisanal butter manufacturer, a tour of one of Helsinki’s most up and coming neighborhoods and more of what you’ve come to expect from this standard bearer of international lifestyle porn.

One little hitch, though; it looks like some copies have been affected by an error at the printing stage. Which is to say, the covers has been attached the wrong way… which is to say that the magazine is, well… upside down. Totally functional, maybe ever so slightly disorientating and maybe a collector’s item to boot?

Posted in Individual Mag Titles, Magazine Industry | 1 Comment »

More nude models than you can, um, poke a stick at

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

At some point in the last couple of years, it seems to me that an invisible consortium of high-end fashion magazines had a top secret meeting in a cave on Skull Island where they collectively decided that actual clothes would, henceforth, become pretty much an optional extra at fashion shoots.

This, of course, has led to a range of absolutely memorable moments for us, the mag-reading public (ala Agyness Deyne in 032c, Natalia Vodianova in British Vogue, Milla Jovovich in Purple Fashion… actually, just about everyone naked in Purple Fashion) but all of these have been eclipsed today, with the arrival of… issue number three of Love Magazine.

Naomi Campbell, Kristen McMenamy, Daria Werbowy, Amber Valetta, Kate Moss, Lara Stone, Miranda Kerr, Jeniel Williams and more of your favourite models, bona fide, 110% in the buff, full blown birthday suit action.

Love magazine issue 3

Call it a desperate appeal to readers in an era where print publications are going out of business in droves, call it gratuitous nudity or even call it pornography but it remains to be said that it does sell a lot of magazines.

(The curious can have a closer look here or we’ve got limited copies in our stores from today.)

Posted in Individual Mag Titles, Magazine Industry | No Comments »

Are magazines more for boys or girls?

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Are magazines more of a girl product or a boy product? Most people I speak to seem to think mags are more skewed towards girls.

This perception tends to dominate because the biggest selling mags happen to be for women, and as a result, we see more advertising and branding for these titles. They are also more sensationalist in nature, focusing more on gossip and celebrities. These are undoubtedly more female orientated.

Women buy more mags, but there are probably as many titles targeted towards men as there are towards women. If I had to guess, women would buy in greater volumes, while men would buy a greater range.

Interestingly, we see a small bias towards female customers when it comes to subscriptions. This becomes more pronounced at gift giving times such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day. We would have thought that males would buy more gift subscriptions than women, as it is a more stereotypically female item, hence lending itself to be gifted. However, perhaps the top of mind factor is in play here, where people give gifts based on what comes to mind with regards to what they would like to receive.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, we will see our gift subscriptions increase in volume. I wonder if this year girls will continue to out-subscribe the boys, or whether the boys will wisen up to the joys of subscriptions?

Posted in Magazine Industry | 2 Comments »

Why we’re not afraid of the iPad

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Apple iPad and iBooks

As you’ve no doubt heard from a slew of other, far more reputable news sources, Apple yesterday announced the release of the iPad; a portable, full colour tablet device which on the face of it, looks like it’s going to shake up not just the computing industry but TV, gaming and publishing as well.

As the New York Observer reported late last year, Time Inc., Conde Nast and Hearst have all signed a deal to sell digital mags in a kind of iTunes for magazines and books and which Apple revealed yesterday will be called, you guessed it, iBooks.

Are we worried? Actually, not a bit.

We’re obliged, of course, to carry the Time and Newsweeks of this world but they are by no means our bread and butter. A vast and overwhelming proportion of our sales are for small-run, collectible, niche titles like Sneaker Freaker, Lula, Purple Fashion, Self Service and Dumbo feather… that is, beautiful tactile printed objects.

Which is to say that most of the magazines we sell are not than the kind of throwaway newsprint titles that this device may end up replacing.

More than anyone, we’re aware of how wasteful the magazine industry is; every week we send back hundreds of unsold magazines to our distributors where they’ll be pulped. This kind of slash and burn approach is at best unsustainable and at worst, completely wasteful and absurd in the year 2010. (I mean, this is meant to be ‘the future’, right? If we’d had our way, the iPad would have surfaced closer to 2001 along with jetpacks, ray-guns and teleportation devices.)

We hope that the arrival of a portable reading device such as the iPad will stamp out a huge proportion of the unnecessary waste created by the publishing industry, but by no means we do we see it spelling the end of the magazine format as we know it. 

Just as sales of vinyl LPs continue to steadily rise in the face of downloads and (dwindling) CD sales, we see a promising future for niche printed media and we look forward to being a part of that for years to come.

Fittingly,  London based Newspaper Club goes into public beta today. These guys are set to launch on-demand newspaper printing for individuals and groups wanting to print as few as five newsprint papers or as many as five thousand for a comparable per unit price.

Posted in Magazine Industry, The end of print | 4 Comments »

Why many magazine retailers don’t care about Christmas

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

A lot of retailers do a massive proportion of their overall yearly sales at Christmas. For some, it is the only month in which they make money. Christmas subsidises all the other months of hardship and toil.

Magazines are quite different from this perspective. Traditionally, magazines are not really thought of as a Christmas present. How can you buy for your girlfriend a copy of Vogue Australia in early December when the next one might come out in a few weeks time? Also, many people see magazines as pedestrian. Not the sort of thing that excites when unwrapped. Overall, magazines are seen as a selfish purchase and not the ideal gift.

While this may be true for newsagents, mag nation loves Christmas. We are a gift destination. It is not the mainstream titles that attract people, but those hard to find niche mags that almost replicate the giving of a book. And often at half the price.

Don’t get me wrong. Magazines for “self” also spike at Christmas, especially as people want to stock up for the beach, the plane, or wherever else they may be going, but gift purchases drive our volumes leading up to the holidays. If you have a designer friend, the specialised choices we offer are endless. If you are looking for that perfect something for a fashion fanatic, gaming fiend, petrol head, or tattoo enthusiast, we have just the thing. And these niche publications catering to all these special interests are often unusual, as well as works of art in themselves. Quite different to the stuff you will find in the mainstream locations.

In addition, subscriptions go nuts over Christmas. The idea of giving a loved one a gift that keeps on arriving over the course of a year is quite cool, and immensely popular.

Which is why Christmas is so important to us, compared to most mag retailers. They don’t stock the niche titles which drive gift destination traffic, nor do they offer online subscriptions via a dedicated subscription website.

Christmas reminds me of just how different we are from so many others in this industry. Perhaps this is why we are growing in the magazine category while the others are slowly retreating from it…

Posted in Magazine Industry, The Inside Story | 1 Comment »

Frustrations

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

We are about to open our 6th store. Actually, given we have closed two mall stores in the past, this will be the 8th store that we have opened. You would hope by now that the process would be somewhat streamlined.

Well, it is from our side, yet it remains ridiculously bureaucratic to do something as simple as secure supply of magazines into our new Sydney store. With two of the three main suppliers, it is all plain sailing. We have long term relationships with them, they understand what it is we do, and when we open a store, we simply tell them to start stock piling mags for us so that when we open the doors, we start with a decent range. Our range obviously builds over the first few months as new titles come in, but at least we can showcase something impressive on day one.

However, with one of the three major Australian magazine suppliers, we have to apply for supply and fill in details more relevant to a newsagency. They then have a meeting at irregular intervals during which they decide on whether to approve all applications before them. Until this meeting takes place, there is no way that magazines from this particular supplier can be put aside in a stock pile for delivery prior to opening.

In practice, it means that we will open the doors to our first Sydney store (in King St, Newtown – near Missenden Rd) and be without some standard, mainstream magazines. The Sydney public does not know us as well as the Melbourne public, and our credibility as magazine specialists will be at risk when customers’ first impressions have them asking questions about where are some of our bread and butter titles.

I called this one supplier, but there is no way they will bend the rules and allow common sense to prevail. We are not a new, tiny mum and dad operator. They know us. We have history with them. They know our business model and appreciate what we are trying to achieve in reviving the magazine retailing industry. So why can’t they help us? Because bureaucracy gets in the way. Our application will be approved. They know what titles we want. But they cannot preemptively stockpile for us. We will open without putting our best foot forward in terms of our magazine range. We will get there in the end, but in the meanwhile, I am one very frustrated magazineologist.

Posted in Entrepreneurial, Magazine Industry | 3 Comments »

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