The End of an Era

Print is (near) dead, trade shows are on life support
Most people know that I ran DV magazine, DV Expo, and the like, for ten years.  From there I went on to AV Video, and with the help of a very talented team, turned that into Studio Monthly and StudioDaily.com.  Back in the day each of those magazines were easily doing 160+ pages per issue, with about 60% of those pages going to advertising.  Yes, because they are trade publications and offer free subscriptions to those that can fog up a glass, um qualify, they run their business from advertising.  Creating an editorial environment that can separate advertising form editorial (also know as Church and State), proved to be a challenge, but always paid off in the end.

The world has changed.  Publishing has changed, and the models that support a successful publishing business have also changed.  Many of my favorite magazines in this market, and others, are no longer able to deliver what they used to.  It’s not their fault, there isn’t enough ad revenue to support it.  The lack of advertising supporting print means that there are ultimately fewer pages to read.  As a publisher you may only get 12 issues a year, and of course you need to cover everything.  When times and markets were flush with cash, you simply printed more pages and made the 2 page review, a 4-5 page review.  Gone are those days, at least in print.

Online of course is much different, we can electronically “print” another page at will, without the printing, postage and associated costs of ink, etc.  If a review needs to be 12 pages long, it can be without costing and arm and a leg.  In fact, multiple online pages provide more advertising inventory by allowing for more page loads.

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