by Larry Eder
Folio Magazine is the magazine of record for the print publishing industry. It is my first read of the month, and I have copies that are twenty years old. The print publishing industry has gone through terrible times over the past three years, that is a fact. What was not as apparent to some is this; while print publishing would drastically change, the value of, especially specialty publications would increase, if the medium could do two things: find a way to resonate with a new generation, and include some of the lessons from integrated media in an updated print media platform.
Lo and behold comes a story in Folio, sent to me by the chairman of our parent company, on an insert featuring a video in a farming trade title.
The publication, with 17,000 subscribers, worked with the advertising client to make sure that the cross section of their readers and the clients data bases focused on potential buyers of the cow pharmaceutical. Here is the video of the insert and how the video screen which played up to four different videos worked. http://www.foliomag.com/2010/meredith-title-next-insert-video-ad-print-magazine.
The insert was heavy on postage costs and doubled the insert costs, as it had to be inserted by hand. In our industry, it could be a great way to promote a new track facility or field technology (good for high ticket items), or a footwear technology.
What we are finding, since the Winter of 2010, is that our readership numbers in print and on the web are continuing to rise, as our readers refer to the print titles for time less information, and the digital or web for the time intensive information, such as calendars, results, updated news. Video is being twittered, ‘Face booked’, pushed on page view basis with screens on each page, it was just a matter of time before we saw such an innovation in print titles. Comments? Let me know, runblogrun@gmail.com.
