How avocado-munching hipsters are strangling the magazine industry
A magazine seemingly for “mundane people with extraordinary lives”, Bauer Media’s Take 5 took home the top prize at Mumbrella’s Publish Awards. While the win may have been a shock to some, editor-in-chief Paul Merrill sits down with Zoe Samios to explain the ongoing appeal of the real-life title, if it has a future, and the challenges media buyers pose to both adland and publishers.
Paul Merrill is the man who launched the search for “Australia’s sexiest wall” and once described his UK readers as having “three different kids by three different prisoners”. But he is also one of Australia’s most experienced magazine editors known for his ability to generate controversy and publicity in equal measure.
Now, he’s at the helm of Bauer Media’s award-winning weekly real-life magazine, Take 5, and he believes advertisers and media buyers alike need a reality check.
The Take 5 and Lucky Break editor in chief – who was part of the award-winning team which took home the top honour at the Publish Awards – tells Mumbrella it’s “criminal” magazines are being neglected by major advertisers, especially given brands aren’t getting value for money when advertising with Facebook and Google.
Look at that cover – the click bait of print.
And yet another magazine publishing dinosaur, who blatantly disregards his own plummeting readership, somehow decides the younger generation are to blame for not seeing the benefit in paying ridiculous amounts of money for a page in a redundant media platform, that will maybe be glanced at once or twice, offer no trackable analytical data and will be an unpleasant experience to acquire the ad. Talk about extraordinarily mundane!
So many pull quotes in one article… And you still got it right. Nice one, Zoe! 😉
AKA
“Mr Ford and his coca cola swilling cohorts are strangling the horse and buggy industry”
“These media buyers are the avocado-munching Eastern suburbs hipsters who are completely out of touch with Australia”
yet also:
“In a magazine people like the ads”
“this year you can win two front teeth and it’s genuinely literally, you win two front teeth because a lot of people have dental issues.”
Online is where it’s at. A magazines reach can not be accurately measured. By investing in online we know every dollar spent and how effective it was. Nothing young and stupid about that. Magazines aren’t coming back sorry ?
“There are too many 23-year-old media buyers who have never bought a magazine in their life,”
– Exactly, however this doesn’t just apply to 23 years old media buyers. It applies to all demographics who are NOT buying magazines.
This is first degree head in sand, fingers in ears stuff indeed – and I like and see value in print. The pool of options to advertise with has gotten larger while the range of brands that fit such a print magazine has gotten smaller. This publication sounds perfect for reaching rural gb’s 60+ without internet access by the sound of it… great media option for that campaign I’m booking for bingo at the local rsl.
Zoë
It’s ‘smashed avocado’ please and have you ever heard of Frankie, Smith Journal, Monster Children, Monacle, Black & White, Broadsheet, and pretty much so on ad infinitum….
I can’t keep up honestly
Facebook is 2012 not hipster
Print is hipster
Sounds like this bloke is trying to justify his own pay packet.
As a senior adland professional, this article is garbage.
Print is a great medium for some campaigns — no doubt about it. And the format is a better experience.
The challenge is editors can’t seem to get people to pay for their content and get the circulation they need to justify the ad dollars.
Evidence? Print advertising is bloody thriving in the UK — on the Shortlist Media model. Australian magazine executives seem to ignore their circulation stats and look at who is doing well overseas and just seem to whine about how they’re not appreciated.
Boring. Sort out your channels, get us the audiences and then we’ll pay for them. And not a minute beforehand.
Hard to imagine a publisher or editor being more out of touch with reality than this. Good luck!
This is a man who clearly doesn’t understand digital one bit or digital offerings. In fact, he comes across as completely ignorant – slamming online advertising when his own company has a digital arm.
Can we just fast-forward to the part of publishing where men like this are taken out to pasture and those with a vision and direction on how people consume media nowadays take the helm?
With people like this leading the charge, it’s no wonder Bauer is in the state it’s in.