After Gawker ripped off yours truly from the concept right down to the artwork (some e-mails arrived saying I shouldn't be surprised), the Reaper is taking a good look at what their readers are nominating for prime dirt nap candidates in 2008.
The problem with this onslaught is that you have to separate the magazines that these posters personally want to see die from the ones which are in real trouble.
NOT GOING ANYWHERE: Cookie? Everyday With Rachael Ray? They both have some degree of success and despite some people leaving at the latter, it does not make one bit of difference. Parenting still makes a bundle of cash in a stalwart category.
MAKE OR BREAK THIS YEAR: Radar. Despite raising its rate base and frequency slightly, it has to pick up more advertising since every issue has been as thin as a rail. You can definitely put Portfolio in this category too. All the advertisers in the world won't mean a thing if there are not enough readers by the end of this year. TV Guide is becoming more and more irrelevant as its longtime hardcore readers get older and older with no new audience coming in. TV listings are the golden goose, but once you can find them online and in the newspapers, that goose is going, going, gone.
SHOW ME THE MONEY: Spin is still hanging in there with barely decent ad numbers, but who is buying it? The new owners bought is for the same price as a Big Mac, but how much more money will they invest? It has to be in the red.
LONG TERM PROSPECTS ARE QUESTIONABLE: Money is the personal finance category granddaddy. Although it shifted to a more "feminine" touchy-feely approach a few years ago, they are right in the web's crosshairs. Personal finance information proliferates the Internet like out of control weeds. The stock market moves at such ups and downs, that a monthly title couldn't possibly be on top of it (that's why there's the backup CNNMoney.com). I can definitely see the day when Money folds into CNNMoney.com. Not in 2008, but certainly down the line.
However, the very first personal finance magazine in line for a likely Reaper visit is Kiplinger's Personal Finance. No formidable digital strategy, which is practically a death sentence owning a personal finance magazine in this day and age. They are number three in the category, which always makes them vulnerable.
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