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SLATE.COM GETS A FACELIFT
Slate debuted the biggest site redesign in the pure-play publication’s 17-year history. Slate.com now leverages a responsive design with new content features to please more than 17 million unique monthly visitors [09.23.13— “Slate Rolls Out Responsive Design Website”]. Some of those readers, however, did not agree the change was for the better.
“If you listen to Slate, their redesign is the greatest thing since flat screen monitors,” writes naught_for_naught on Foliomag.com. “If you read the comments of the users—it’s a disaster.”
“The redesign is as viewer-unfriendly as can be,” writes Sparky on Foliomag.com. The site is “ugly, lacking features that used to be available and full of bugs. I’m going to start reading it zero times a day.”
WOMENS MAGAZINES LOSING FANS?
Many magazines have long chosen to concentrate on gendered audiences in order to better target readers. But that decision is running into trouble with readers as some titles move into more generalized coverage [08.27.13—“In the Battle of the Sexes, Men’s Magazines Win (For This Female Reader)”].
“Women’s magazines have two audiences, the young and those with high discretionary income. I’m neither,” writes deidrew on Foliomag.com. “The magazines I love mostly skew gender neutral—Smithsonian, New Yorker, Fast Company, Archaeology. Women’s magazines still act as if looking beautiful is a woman’s highest attainment.”
“I too fell off the bandwagon of women’s mags in my early twenties, settling instead for GQ, Premiere and others,” writes Valerie Stimac on Foliomag.com in agreement.
USPS AND MPA BATTLE OVER EXIGENT RATES
As the USPS looks to pave a road toward solvency, print periodical publishers are preparing to argue against what they believe to be an unfair additional financial burden [09.04.13—“Magazines Ready Offensive as Possible Exigent Rates Near”].
“I can only believe that many in the publishing industry are living in a delusional state,” writes Al DiGuido on Foliomag.com. “The USPS is giving the industry another KICK in the butt to move away from this antiquated and dying delivery model and embrace digital.”
VetthePress disagrees with the sentiment, writing, “print is not dead” on Foliomag.com. “Savvy publishers need to embrace digital while simultaneously serving a premium quality print publication.”
THE PAYWALL DILEMMA
The Nation’s choice to test different paywall options provides an interesting look at a mixed bag of strategic successes and failures. The case study of the publisher’s decision-making process ultimately opened up constructive dialogue weighing the pros and cons of paywall implementation [09.25.13—“ Winning the Paywall Debate”].
“There are far too many negative aspects in the current digital age to support paywall or metered content for traditional publishing models,” writes Dave Blankenship on Foliomag.com. “Locking down your brand’s best opportunity to interest [a] new audience or achieve breaking viral content wins based on relevance and timely reporting is not the solution.”
“Valuing content and readers is a great approach to digital publishing, and one which many publishers seem to ignore in favor of advertisers and metrics,” writes Phil Whomes on Foliomag.com. 