The Two Real Reasons Magazines Are Losing Subscribers

The New York Times website presented a viewpoint that highlights so much of what is wrong with major magazines.  The article is Led by Celebrity Titles, Magazine Newsstand Sales Slide. The author, Christine Haughney, essentially blames the availability of the internet and social media for massive drops in news stand sales rates for major outlet magazines including Time, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour. Nonsense. These major outlets are losing sales for two blatantly obvious reasons:

• Lack of Trust
• Too Much Smut

Lack of Trust

Think Time is telling the entire story? – Image from wattsupwiththat.com

If a magazine would like their pool of subscribers to include the broader intelligent population of the U.S., that magazine might want to consider providing at least some attempt to tell an entire story. We’re not talking journalism of medicine level details, but we are talking about basic journalistic integrity. Well Time magazine does anything but demonstrate that.
With yet another blizzard tragically pounding my hometown area, I’m sure we’ll be entreated to another full range of Global Climate Change garbage. Time is fully onboard with that agenda. That agenda is clearly a full court press to cripple big oil in favor of green technology. The heavily funded agenda has nothing to do with saving the environment, hugging polar bears, and protecting fish.  It’s all about lobbying for money in their battery, solar, wind technologies.
Bold statement? How can I claim that? I assert that because if the agenda were truly an environmental enthusiast agenda, then Time would at least occasionally grace their cover with pictures like this rare earths mine in Mountain Pass, California.

Think Time will have California’s green energy solution on their cover? – Image from CNET.COM

What? California, the land of left-wing-green-loving-environmentalist-Democrats has mines? Ummmm, yes. You haven’t seen that on the cover because that would go against their premise that oil is bad and “green” is good. My Buick Enclave is killing the planet but their Toyota Prius is saving polar bears. Time isn’t going to lead their cover story with a real investigation of green tech.  Care to find out what makes the permanent magnets necessary behind alot of green tech?
Smart people want to find out. Inquisitive people want to find out. In 2013, everybody can instantly find out what is going on. Faster than Glenn Beck with his trusty chalkboard, we can Google things like Prius, Leaf, and car batteries, and find pictures of rare earth mines (like this link on CNET) and details about Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide batteries. The information is right there. It’s easily available on CNET. It’s on Wikipedia. Heck, go to Mining.Com and find out all you ever wanted to know about mines here and across the world. Good luck finding that on the cover of Time magazine.
We’re going online because Big Media isn’t providing the information offline.

Too Much Smut

So Christine Haughney continues in her article with the disappointing numbers for “young women’s magazines like Cosmopolitan and Glamour”. Let’s stop there for a moment. What “Young Women”? Which ones are supposed to be reading Cosmo and Glamour? Have you seen that smut lately? I sure as heck don’t want my young daughter looking at either of those.  Those magazines are hyper-sexed piles of garbage.
As a parent, you can barely walk your kid down the grocery check-out aisle without being assaulted with smut and trash. It’s at the point where I’d prefer that they stare at the impulsive rack of gum and candy. At least they can work that junk food out of their system and brush their teeth. The other stuff would rot their soul.
Decent people are getting tired of having their basic values trashed at every turn. We’re certainly not about to allow money to be spent on that kind of garbage. Yes, I did say “allow”. Real parents enforce rules. If you want to run one of those open-minded-everything-goes households, that freedom is all yours. Just don’t complain to me when it ends up in the gutter.

Two easy fixes: Integrity and Family Values

This is one my sterner pieces. I acknowledge that. I’m putting the raw tone here so that maybe one of those marketing execs will receive it as actual customer feedback. These magazine publishers are putting out covers that are insulting and revolting to an increasing number of us. The solution is to courageously get some leadership to apply two easy fixes.

Demonstrate integrity

Practice actual journalism. Ask questions. Challenge Bush AND Obama. Go ahead and grab attention with a strong headline but at least try to be thorough.

Respect family values

Put out a cover that a normal family would not mind their ten-year-old seeing in the grocery checkout lane. Unfortunately, if you think it’s ok for your ten-year-old to see the latest Cosmo cover, then I can’t help you.

A huge market awaits

Here’s the big market tip: There are a bunch of educated people with money who don’t mind paying for good information. Look, we cancelled our subscription to the local paper but we pay much more for Investors Business Daily. It’s not the cost. It’s the quality. Respect us and we’ll support you. We promise.

Robert (30 Posts)

Robert is the developer of KloodIn and is from Virginia Beach, Virginia. He brings the viewpoint of a 20 year career in the U.S. Navy, a Masters degree from National Defense University, and a Bachelor's Degree from the U.S. Naval Academy.