Funny, magazines that I consider to be "better" are those with fewer ads; more information, less crap.
t On 1/4/03 11:49 AM, Mike Johnston wrote: >>> You know it's bad when the commercials have an intermission. Like when they >>> say, "We'll get back to the program after the rest of these messages." >> >> That's a good thing. It's a sure sign that the networks are selling all >> their time. Good for the economy. Good for me. Good for you. > > >> From what I hear, the networks AREN'T selling all their time--hence the > large number of commercials for its other television shows. Those are > space-fillers, not revenue-generators. > > Whenever you want to get a handle on the health of a magazine, count its ad > pages--but remember not to count the ads for the magazine itself, its > spinoff products, its contests etc., and ads that are likely to be freebies. > In the case of photo magazines, ads for photo shows are usually trades; ads > from contributors may be part of the contributors' compensation; and ads > from known friends of the publisher are probably gifts (for instance, Gordon > Hutchings is a boyhood friend of Steve Simmons, publisher of _View Camera_. > You can bet that the persistent ads in _VC_ for Hutchings' book on pyro > should not be counted among the advertising assets for any issue of _VC_). > > Also, multi-page ads from discount houses are usually heavily discounted. > The more advertising a single client buys, the less it pays per page. And > that goes for issue-to-issue advertising, too. > > When I took over at _Photo Techniques_, the ad content was down to 12 3/4 > pages in the issue before my first one. I think the highest one of my issues > ever sold was 27 pages or something like that. Maybe it was 25. I don't know > what _Photo Techniques_ is doing in advertising right now (haven't seen any > recent issues) but it probably isn't 25 pages. > > --Mike > > P.S. It would be less than honorable for a past employee to reveal business > secrets of a past employer, so bear in mind that ad content is something > that's there for all the world to see. It's no secret. All publishers use > it, among other things, to keep tabs on the health of their competition. >
