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In Search of Stability

Posted on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 at 12:14 PM

In the news: How are magazine publishers faring in Q1 of 2019?

With fears of an impending recession on the rise, publishers are doing what they can to shore up in advance. Beth Braverman of Foliomag.com reports that Q1 of 2019 saw publishers trimming staff, putting up paywalls, and investing in data. Of the industry-wide layoffs she writes that "the pink slips reflect the industry's precarious position as it adjusts to a new world of data-driven advertising, digital-native audiences and continually shrinking newsstand sales."

But it isn't all doom and gloom in the publishing world. Even if a recession does hit in the near future, all hope isn't lost. "Outlets that can reach niche audiences, have a high-quality product and have found ways to monetize their data are finding new ways to thrive," says Braverman. Click here for the full article.

Also Notable

"Content" = Junk?

Like many other publishers, the New York Times is exploring new frontiers in content delivery -- from TV and podcasts to an upcoming food festival. But, reports Kali Hays of WWD.com, the news publisher shies away from the "content" label. Publisher A. G. Sulzberger tells WWD that the term is "'a useful word for junk -- the junk you shovel onto YouTube and Facebook. What we do as journalists is fill a void. Content is cheap, and that's why the Internet has gravitated to it in a marketplace of shrinking margins." Hays also reports that the Times is also launching a new suite of advertising tools that won't track readers' search histories. Read the full article here.

Onboarding to Attract Talent

Publishers are revisiting their onboarding processes, or lack thereof, to retain staff. They're often competing with larger media companies (e.g., Netflix, Facebook, etc.) with the resources to implement elaborate onboarding programs. But, as Lucinda Southern of Digiday.com notes, "publishers on razor-thin margins ... have spent up to a year, plus decent sums, on headhunter fees to find the right senior leader." Larger companies such as Condé Nast International, she reports, are rolling out onboarding apps for new employees that begin pushing information to their phones a month before starting a new job and throughout the first month of employment. Read more here.

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