In the just released FAS-FAX for second half 2005, Business 2.0's total circulation jumped 12.3%. What this is attributable to is anybody's guess. We'll need to dig up a pink sheet and find out if it's bulk copies or the real thing. Anybody have a pink sheet out there?
So we're raising our survival rate for Business 2.0, but we are still skeptical and cautious.
NEW SURVIVAL RATE FOR BUSINESS 2.0 = 25%
* Latecomer in an overcrowded field.
* Newsstand sales, the lifeblood of this category, not up to expectations.
* Cover price cut from $3.29 to $1.99 to stay competitive.
* Magazine size shrunk.
* Layoffs.
* Ad agency WPP says OK! owner Richard Desmond owes him millions from helping launch US edition (Guardian).
SURVIVAL ODDS: 10%
* Formerly one of the worst titled magazines in recent memory -- eCompany Now.
* The forgotten business magazine of the Time Inc. empire.
* Thought of in the same category as another barely-breathing dot-com relic, Fast Company.
* Is this still the must-read of smart, young CEO's and CMO's?
* Numerous redesigns to keep up relevancy.
* Web site merged with Fortune, Money and FSB.
SURVIVAL ODDS: 15%
* #3 magazine in a dying category.
* Paper-thin from lack of ads.
* Owner Mort Zuckerman's $10 million write-off of Radar helped balance USN&WR's losses.
* How many copies dropped off in dentist and doctor offices are counted as circulation?
* Nine employees laid off in fall 2005 for "repositioning" into investigative publication.
SURVIVAL ODDS: 30%
* Publisher's father-in-law, former #2 for Ross Perot, is bankrolling the magazine, but one wonders for how long.
* No buzz.
* Is it men or women on the cover?
* Low sell-through numbers, according to Mediaweek and the publisher won't confirm or deny.
* Changed mind about increasing frequency in 2006.
SURVIVAL ODDS: 20%
The only major magazine to launch in 2002, Budget Living seemed ripe for our times with a post-9/11 nesting theme and "cheap look chic" ideal.
UPSIDE: Advertising Age named it "Launch of the Year" in 2003, steady circulation growth.
DOWNSIDE: founding editor left, Real Simple and Lucky move in, flat ad pages, National Magazine Awards in 2004 and 2005, cheap didn't look so chic anymore when the economy began rebounding.
PLUG PULLED: February 15, 2006
The beginning of the end is here.
Although many are still in denial, the golden age of magazines is over. Advertising is being sucked like a vacuum cleaner to the Internet and television. Newsstand sales are in free fall and there's no sign of stopping. Junior would rather IM and download music than read a magazine or a newspaper. Time inc. is laying off and taking buyouts.
There are some magazines which simply have no excuse for existing anymore. Even if the world of publishing was as peachy as a Good Housekeeping cover, they just do not have a reason to live.
And there are some magazines which, as good as they are, are bound for the padlock, with poor unfortunate editors, writers and sales reps joining the unemployment line, wondering if there will be another job waiting for them. There are no buyers coming to the rescue in time, cost can't be done fast enough and poof, it's a sad demise.
We dedicate this blog to those magazine which look like they may be joining that Great Trashbin in the Sky, polybagged onto the River Styx, with blow-in cards a one-way ticket to oblivion.
Who will survive and who will feel the reaper's scythe? We will post our likely suspects, but we welcome all suggestions. What do you know that we don't? What do you think of our likely suspects? Post your comments, and let the Reaper know who is a goner.
Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen!
