Defining modern media

As the editor David Remnick recently said, readers don’t want dumber, cheaper versions of legacy media. So how are magazines embracing new channels, creating new revenue streams, developing new products, working creatively with advertisers and generally s

IT’S FAIR to say that for most of the 20th century, magazines have had it pretty good. Internationally renowned titles like Time, the New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Marie Claire have been capturing huge audiences (and advertising dollars), while in New Zealand, titles like Metro, North & South, Cuisine and New Zealand Geographic have helped shape the country’s media landscape.

But with the rise of the internet, a shift in consumer habits and a change in economic structures, the magazine industry has faced an increasingly uphill battle, fighting off a plethora of troubles from falling readership and circulation to increasingly disinterested advertisers.

The emergence of the digital sphere has been a killer for some traditional publications as the old adage of ‘adapt or die’ has played out across the developed world. A number of newsrooms and editors initially scoffed at the thought of fledgling technologies like the internet and mobile phones upending a decades-old system like print media. But most eventually came to the consensus – often reluctantly so – that they needed to embrace the online world. Facebook, Twitter, e-newsletters and online advertising all became essential components of the digital transition checklist.