Ron Nurwisah, Boy Reporter

Obviously magazine companies aren’t doing that badly considering five very big ones, Conde Nast, Meredith, Hearst, Wenner Inc, Time, all have $90-million lying around to spend it on advertising why their print products are so fantastic and you should totally stop reading blogs and websites and all that online crap to read precious, precious magazines.

I’m going to repeat that figure again. $90-million. For print ads. This is after one of the big five (Conde Nast) had their belts forcibly tightened by McKinsey, shut down a bunch of titles, including the beloved Gourmet. I am sure those laid off staffers totally appreciate this responsible use of funds.

The ads are appearing in around 100 publications in print. Which to me is preaching to the converted at its finest. Why not take that cash and spend it on improving your websites. I’m looking at you Hearst, Esquire deserves better. Or at least spend that cash online, where apparently all of those readers have buggered off too (which apparently they haven’t).

I agree with paidcontent.org’s Rafat Ali here. This is a $90-million middle finger to the online teams at these publications.

Oh, well. Here’s their chipper little video.

Kat Tancock, who writes the useful Magazines Online blog, wrote this brief post about the care and attention of your web staff.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the latest CSME mixer at Bar Italia, with speakers from Homemakers, Today’s Parent and The Hockey News. One of the best takeaways was from Jackie Kovacs, deputy editor of Today’s Parent. And it was a simple one: “Love your webbies”.

Kovacs’ analogy? “Your website is like your Quebec. It’s part of the family, but distinct.” A fun analogy, and an apt one.

It’s a huge topic and seeing how Kat and I are in similar situations I thought I’d throw in my two cents. It’s five points, so lets call it a nickel. (more…)