Business Management - Industry Trends

In the last couple of cycles, it has become increasingly common for campaigns to ask for a contribution before they hand over a yard sign. The driving force behind this trend is cost saving, but there are many other benefits. With that said, there are also some potential downsides. A few things campaigns should consider when contemplating whether to pass the hat:

Breaking with tradition will mean hurt feelings. Many long-time volunteers and activists have come to expect free yard signs. I have literally been screamed at, had doors shut in my face, and been told that asking for donations

Each of the big four comics publishers (DC, Marvel, Image, and Dark Horse) have committed to releasing every issue of every comic for digital download on the same day that the physical comics ship to retailers. Why is “same date delivery” important? Particularly when casual readers don’t necessarily rush out every Wednesday to pick up their comics fresh off of the UPS truck?

It’s more symbolic than anything else. The true significance is that the distribution of digital columns is no longer going to be selective or strategic. In music and books, you can freely assume that anything you can buy

Entrepreneur Magazine has ranked Fastsigns International as the top franchise in the sign and graphic category for the second year in a row. The company opened 20 new locations in 2011 and expects to finish the year with 27 new franchise agreements signed.

Far from killing off the book, the digital age is proving a boon to innovative publishers and authors, many of whom are using new technology to breathe life back into old ideas. Here, we survey four of the most interesting ventures.

Magazine publishers are demanding explanations from GfK MRI after its fall magazine audience report showed more than two-thirds lost audience versus a year ago, many of them by double digits. About 70 percent of the 220 magazines measured were down, according to MRI.

Big decliners included Wired, down 22 percent to 2.5 million; Bon Appétit, down 17 percent to 5.8 million; O, The Oprah Magazine, down 10 percent; and New York, down 14 percent.

One publisher, whose title saw a double-digit audience decline, fumed, “Magazines with robust readership are showing declines, and magazines with significant digital platforms are not seeing those

Paper consumption in North America is declining. This is a structural decline, and not just a cyclical decline. That means we can’t expect paper demand to “return to normal” when the economy recovers. This is the new “normal.” That point is not in debate, though experts do differ on the rate of decline.

According to the most recent wave of Affinity’s American Magazine Study surveys, there are now 15 magazines generating larger digital audiences than print reader numbers. For some of these brands—like WebMD the Magazine, ESPN the Magazine and Food Network Magazine—it may come as no surprise.

Some Popular Mechanics subscribers got something extra with their November issues. The issue was bundled with an outsert from Hewlett-Packard that greeted them by name and showed a scene specific to their hometown. Inside the issue was a 16-page insert that gave readers locations where they could buy HP products near their homes.

As for the results, 3 percent of the 300,000 subscribers who got the customized issue entered the contest, which is in the ballpark of the response rate for direct mail. But of that 3 percent, 85 percent clicked on the QR codes in the insert.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced Tuesday that he will push for legislation to create an online, open-source library to reduce the cost of course materials for college students across the state. Under his proposal, materials for 50 common lower division courses would be developed and posted online for free student access. Ordering a paper copy would cost $20, compared to the $200-plus price tag that some books carry.

The book publishing industry bristles at complaints of rising costs, arguing that advances in the digital realm have already reduced the cost of books for students nationwide.

There’s a simple way for North American mills to prevent the prices of coated paper from collapsing next year, the “Paper Guru” pointed out recently. Simple, but it won’t work. Responding to last week’s Dead Tree Edition article about the possibility of declining prices, Jack Miller wrote, “Uncoated freesheet producers have reduced capacity, balanced supply and demand, and maintained prices.”

“With U.S. coated mills still under cost pressures from pulp and chemicals, and with margins where they are,” he suggested coated mills might take out capacity to keep the market in balance. But what works for uncoated freesheet will be hard