saying goodbye
As I (OK the entire world was talking about it) shared yesterday Child Magazine closed their print publishing operation today. Lots of lessons learned (many of which have the word COOKIE in them)> For me, the big take-away was the striking difference between the cold, hard statistical dump of an obit from the WSJ (death does not come cheap) vs. the over-analytic prose (they tried, they really tried) of a final farewell from the NYT…
Take a look:
WSJ:
Meredith to Close Child
In Print, Keep It Online
March 28, 2007; Page B4
Meredith Corp. said it would close its print version of Child magazine and maintain the title as an Internet product. The move will result in the loss of 30 jobs, said a spokesman for the Des Moines, Iowa, magazine publisher. Another 30 jobs throughout the company will be eliminated as a result of realignment and restructuring. Meredith, which publishes 25 subscription magazines and owns televisions stations and Web sites, said it would record a $3 million severance-related charge. It said it also will record a charge of $7 million to write off the assets of Child magazine, mostly deferred subscription-acquisition costs. The last print edition of Child will be the June/July issue.
NYT:
New York Times
March 28, 2007
Child to End Publication, but Web Site Will Continue
By LOUISE STORY
As goes Life, so goes Child.
The Meredith Corporation, a book and magazine publisher, said yesterday that Child magazine would be printed for the last time this spring, although the magazine’s Web site will continue to post original content. The company announced the move as part of a broader restructuring that will eliminate 60 jobs, 30 of them at Child.
The strategy is starting to sound familiar in the magazine industry. This month, Hachette Filipacchi said it would stop printing the American version of Premiere, the movie magazine, but keep its Web site. And Time Inc. said Monday that it would cease publication of Life, though it will make the magazine’s photograph archive available free online.
Meredith said that Child’s Web site would become part of a parenting portal that will have its debut in July and include Parents, American Baby and Family Circle, three of the company’s other titles.
Child lost a substantial number of readers last year and faced competition from new titles like Cookie, an upscale parenting magazine introduced by Condé Nast in late 2005. Child’s circulation fell 18.5 percent last year to 740,534 paid subscribers in the second half of the year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
“Cookie’s going after the same market that Child was always trying to go after, and they’re doing it better,” said Kelly Foster, senior partner and print director for MindShare, a media-buying agency in the WPP Group.
Parenting magazines, like wedding magazines, have the perennial challenge of finding new readers once the target audience stops feeling the need to subscribe. These days such magazines must also compete with the Internet; in the case of Child, some readers now go to sites like BabyCenter.com for information.
Subscribers to Child will be able to choose whether they want a refund or to receive Parents magazine instead, said Patrick Taylor, a spokesman for Meredith. Meredith bought Child and other titles from Gruner + Jahr in 2005.
Note to self — Louise Story gets to cover my demise!