Business Management - Industry Trends

In August, Consumer Reports started generating more revenue from digital subscriptions than from print—a feat that must make it the envy of the print world struggling to make that transition. Even more amazingly, Consumer Reports has enjoyed success on the Web without losing print subscribers—those have held steady since 2001 at around four million.

Consumer Reports started its Website in 1997; by 2001, it had 557,000 subscribers. That number has grown to 3.3 million this year, an increase of nearly 500 percent in 10 years.

Subscribers who sign up for access to the Web site pay $26 for a year

The issue, of course, is supply and demand. While some may disagree on the precise numbers, there is little doubt that demand will decline next year. The supply side is much more complex. Will coated mills chase prices lower?

View the year’s hottest magazines, newspapers, (broadcast and cable) TV and digital media brands. The hottest properties overall—Time, The New York Times, CBS, AMC, and Facebook—are an elite class of media powerhouses that take chances and embrace change with proven results.

North American prices for coated paper will decline and more paper machines will be idled next year, according to a leading industry analyst. Even supercalendered paper, currently in short supply, could see declining prices by the middle of 2012, Reel Time Report editor Verle Sutton said in a webinar recorded a few days ago.

Sutton’s forecast runs counter to the brave talk coming out of the mills and the more bullish analysis from rival forecaster RISI. He noted that his and RISI’s 2012 price forecasts are as much as $120-per-ton apart. Sutton, always the iconoclast and often spot-on with his predictions,

Even as more readers switch to the convenience of e-books, publishers are giving old-fashioned print books a makeover. Many new releases have design elements usually reserved for special occasions—deckle edges, colored endpapers, high-quality paper and exquisite jackets that push the creative boundaries of bookmaking. If e-books are about ease and expedience, the publishers reason, then print books need to be about physical beauty and the pleasures of owning, not just reading.

“When people do beautiful books, they’re noticed more,” said Robert S. Miller, the publisher of Workman Publishing. “It’s like sending a thank-you note written on nice paper when we’re in

The good news? Publishers on both the consumer and b-to-b sides are more satisfied with their digital editions than last year when Nxtbook first conducted the survey. However, there is some growing frustration as publishers continue to struggle with how to actually monetize digital editions.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents are “aggressively moving forward” with mobile devices, up 25 percent from last year.

Meanwhile, 25 percent say they plan to move to these devices, but feel no rush; 6 percent say they’re uncertain if their digital magazine needs to be on these devices; and 5 percent say they’ve decided to not worry

According to Epsilon Targeting, despite direct mail’s reputation for being “old school” or expensive, it is the top choice of U.S. and Canadian consumers for the receipt of brand communications in almost every category. Among the findings, 50 percent of U.S. consumers and 48 percent of Canadians said they pay more attention to postal mail than e-mail.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. has signed on to become a “premier advertising partner” in the Meredith Engagement Dividend program, which provides advertisers with a guaranteed increase in sales performance for their brands advertising in Meredith’s industry-leading portfolio of women-focused magazines.

When American women want inspiration about entertaining, redecorating, staying fit or raising kids, many turn to the 21 magazines published by Meredith. Near-term challenges in the print-ad market have scared some investors away from Meredith. After growing 11% in the year’s first half, the company’s magazine ad pages dropped 8.8% in the second half. Management continues to have a weak outlook for the fiscal second quarter.

Meredith is attempting to combat the slide through new advertising and marketing programs. “Because of the balanced portfolio we have in place, we continue to feel very confident about the future,” says CEO Stephen Lacy.

Amazon announced this year that, for the first time, its digital books had outsold paper books. This trend of going digital does not hold true for all books. While many popular consumer books have successfully made the switch into the new format, textbooks are still widely read on paper.

Textbooks are gaining, though, as publishers take advantage of the popularity of tablets like the Kindle and iPad, expanding their catalogues and offering products like rental digital books that expire after a semester or two.

The potential for digital growth is leading publishers to experiment with products that stretch the boundaries of traditional