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Re: Magazine Production's New World Order - emedia and Technology @ FolioMag.com

bosacks — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:50:01 -0000

BoSacks Speaks Out: Magazine Production’s New World Order
By BoSacks

There are two things I would like to point out today in reference to your article Magazine Production’s New World Order. The first is that I forecasted the demise of the traditional production department in a white paper in 2005. Being a senior manufacturing guy most of my adult life, I hope you can appreciate the pain I felt and still feel when I forecasted that concept. There are many times I wish I wasn’t right and this is one of them. I have dozens of friends who are still battling to produce magazines and have the great honor of being in a traditional production department. The sad truth is that the old style of craftsmanship of that type of profession is a dying concept.

Nobody on the publisher’s side of the equation needs to truly understand the complexities of manufacturing a magazine any more. It is an algorithm and a true commodity now. An agreed upon set of numbers and specific conditions. The quality has now been reduced to the range of a mere statistic. This is not necessarily a bad thing and the quality of on press results are staggering, but it is also a change worth recognizing.

Everything that can be automated will be automated. You can name any function you would like in the old production department, and it can most likely be distilled down to a database of one sort or another. The responsibilities of the production department that haven’t been dehumanized yet will be transferred to other departments that still require human intervention.

I truly grieve to tell you all this but I believe it to be true.

The other thing this article mentions is virtual proofing. That too will disappear. It is a fad and a crutch and we do not need proofs. A proof proves nothing. The conditions and sophistication’s of the modern printer does not actually require a proof. Perhaps that sounds strange or even overly trusting of our printing partners. It is neither. They can and will do it.

Let it go and save the money and the time. If not today, than soon, we will not require any proofing whatsoever. Direct from your design department monitor to the printer. A complete set of numbers and data to that will be reproduced to everyone’s satisfaction. As unusual as that may sound it will soon become a reality. At the very least think over these concepts and send me your thoughts on why I might be wrong and where you disagree. I am always open to honest dialog.

Re: A printer that doesn’t let its legacy business get in the way of its opportunity business

bosacks — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:17:42 -0000

Rex: Great catch while scanning a PR. I couldn't agree more about Quad. I was one of Quads very first customers when they had one terrible old press. From that an empire was built. Not on the iron but on a vision. Harry was amazing and his vision still runs very deep in the company. I've recently toured one of the plants and as you well know the "chemistry" and the belief is still very tangible. You can touch it in every employee.
Bob Sacks

Re: Consumer Powerhouses Unite to Reinforce the Power of Print - Consumer @ FolioMag.com

bosacks — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:32:57 -0000

BoSacks Speaks Out: On the Power of Print Campaign

Once again into the valley rode the Fortune 500. Once again, into the breach they ride feeling the need to defend the pious honor and value of print. Once again, they completely miss the damn target, this time by a mile, a 90 million dollar mile. I am not saying that as an industry there aren't things that we should be doing to put a finger in the leaking dike. But the dike still has integrity and is still holding back a vast sum of print revenue and print advertising. I am saying that what we do needs to be smart and well targeted. This campaign isn't.

I guess my complaint is their marksmanship. There isn't any. The people who put this campaign together to protect print don't have a clue what they are doing and who to aim at. It is also clear that the instigators of this campaign don't use the Internet or any digital component therein. I say print has much integrity and life left in it, but you wouldn't know it by this desperate ad campaign.

The campaign claims to target advertisers, shareholders and industry influencers. Well listen up my friends, you just insulted them all. The media buyers live in a digital world. When you bellow in one of the ads that, "The Internet is fleeting. Magazines are immersive," every media buyer knows that is pure bunk. It is the Internet that is immersive, and the kids that buy the ads and spend the advertising money know it. They live on Facebook, twitter and hundreds of other social network sites and programs. You display an utter lack of contemporary culture and knowledge. You show your dotage at every opportunity. Don't attack your customers where they live. Media buyers live on the web and only visit magazines. And in my book, visiting is OK and can still be very profitable, but not if you try to tell them that they live in a fleeting, soon- to-be-evaporated world. That is a lie.

Oh, and the other tag line from yesterday's report – "We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines." Oh Really? Perhaps you missed the report that the web is now the 2nd most trusted place for news – second only to TV. Perhaps you missed the news that 57% of the webs social media users are over the age of 35. Perhaps you didn't know that Facebook has more than 400 million active users, and of those active users, 61 percent of Facebook's users are middle-aged or older.

All I am saying is that the campaign is a total waste. Exactly to whom is it directed and exactly what are your expectations on an ROI? Is this the campaign that will save the nation of print?

Look, I love print and have been deeply involved in it for over 40 years. It is a beautiful technology. It still has great merit and worth. We will survive by being what we are – useful, informative, reasonably priced and unbreakably transportable. We have the best editors and writers on the planet and have the ability to band together thousands and sometimes, hundreds of thousands, of like-minded readers to our brands on a regular basis.

More or less that is who we are. You may think I have over-reacted, and perhaps that is so. But I firmly believe that attacking the web and the future of information distribution is, at best, terribly misguided.

The Internet is not going to go away, get smaller, nor become irrelevant.

Re: Nice effort, but the Mag+ app deserves a Mag-

bosacks — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:21:10 -0000

Rex: I greatly enjoyed your post about Pop Sci. As you might expect I don't agree. Well, not completely.
Is it the most cutting edge of a new magazine design, presented in a truly new and provocative style? Well no.

Is it a noble attempt in a new frontier? Here I say, yes. It is innovative and different. It is not a boring clone of a print product but an experiment in design on a touch tablet. Others will stand on the shoulders of Pop Sci, but the parts of their design that worked we will all learn from and the parts that didn't we will learn from too.

For me I liked the attempt. While some of it was a bit confusing as to navigation, I forgive them. In print your directional compass is basically two directions, forward into the book or backwards. On the new touch screen it is at least four dimensional, do I go up from here or down here, or should I go somewhere else? This is totally new "stuff."
The Wall Street Journal is the same way. No two pages seem to navigate the same way. Sometimes you scroll down, and sometimes you scroll sideways. There is no consistent map yet to the tablet process. Right now I love that part of the experience. There is yet no right way to do things. It seems to me that your proposing that there are immediately and apparent wrong ways to do things as in the Pop Sci issue, I must disagree. Was it a home run? Perhaps not. Was it a double with a man on first...yes.

Re: Nice effort, but the Mag+ app deserves a Mag-

bosacks — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:13:33 -0000

Rex: I'm trying to read as many new mags and newspapers on the ipad as I can, and still keep my day job. Wait a minute, reading as many new mags as is possible on the iPad is part of my day job. I have gone through many and I see such tremendous and wonderful potential that I will admit to you and your readers that I am inclined to be very forgiving and very hopeful. If I can combine all that I have seen and experienced so far, I would have to state that I have been very near the future. I can smell it and taste it and I like what I see just ahead.

Re: High Times Looks for Ivy League Talent - mediabistro.com: MediaJobsDaily

bosacks — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:47:33 -0000

To add to your story I think you and your reasders might like to know that THC as in Trans-High Corp is the active ingredient on Pot.

Just a little side-bar of info from one publisher to another.

BoSacks
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Re: Qualcomm's Mirasol displays pushed back to 2011, Pixel Qi breathes a sigh

bosacks — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:35:34 -0000

I don’t understand the problem. Have any of you all held the mirsol product? I have been to several publishing trade shows and I have seen this product in action. Reflective epaper color readers are the next logical and important step in the evolution of e-readers. To complain about delays on our journey to the obvious next future seems absurd. It probably takes dozens of various companies learning to working together to put out any product of genuine worth. I don’t want it as fast I want it right.
Even the lofty iPad had delays.

I am very anxious to get my hands on a working reflective full color e-reader, but I’m willing to wait.
As to the few posters here who suggested that a reflective screen doesn’t really matter, I don’t agree. I have had the ipad since day one and there have been too many times that it was useless because of glare. I was at a publishing conference in Chicago just yesterday and tried to show a group of editors the “coolness” of Flipboard on my ipad and totally couldn’t. It was late afternoon and we were inside in a hotel and the sun made my ipad a useless paperweight that I didn’t need to be carrying and trying to describe Flipboard, when I should have been showing Flipboard, was useless. It’s the old adage…. A visible picture is worth a thousand words.

Re: Qualcomm's Mirasol displays pushed back to 2011, Pixel Qi breathes a sigh

bosacks — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:39:16 -0000

I don’t understand the problem. Have any of you all held the mirsol product? I have been to several publishing trade shows and I have seen this product in action. Reflective epaper color readers are the next logical and important step in the evolution of e-readers. To complain about delays on our journey to the obvious next future seems absurd. It probably takes dozens of various companies learning to work together to put out any product of genuine worth. I don’t want it as fast I want it right. Even the lofty iPad had delays. I am very anxious to get my hands on a working reflective full color e-reader, but I’m willing to wait.

As to the few posters here who suggested that a reflective screen doesn’t really matter, I don’t agree. I have had the ipad since day one and there have been too many times that it was useless because of glare. I was at a publishing conference in Chicago just yesterday and tried to show a group of editors the “coolness” of Flipboard on my ipad and totally couldn’t. It was late afternoon and we were inside in a hotel and the sun made my ipad a useless paperweight that I didn’t need to be carrying and trying to describe Flipboard, when I should have been showing Flipboard, was useless. It’s the old adage…. A visible picture is worth a thousand words.

Re: The Magazine-Media Identity Challenge - Tony Silber - Blogs Association and Non-Profit @ FolioMag.com

bosacks — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:57:08 -0000

Tony:
I applaud your questions and observations in this article The Magazine-Media Identity Challenge. We are indeed at a across-roads of industry soul searching. There are still executives and pundits that declare that if it ain’t on paper it ain’t a magazine. They are sadly very wrong.
A magazine is not product relying on solely on a paper substrate but rather a compilation of reading and visual material circulated in any format that the reader requests, only one of which is paper. This open-source information distribution model reasonably terrifies those who can’t envision a way to make a decent living other than the dead tree path that got them lucratively this far.
When anyone with a moderate amount of prescience, if not just simple common sense, looks at the data they can see two divergent revenue tracks. The traditional track is headed south, while the digital track is headed north. No one knows how far either will fall or grow but the trend lines will not be stopping anytime soon.
I fully understand the trauma that this causes our industry brethren to quake with fear and self-analysis when everything they know or knew is now if not wrong it is at least suspect methodology.
Telling them that there are multiple billions to be made in publishing on either format for decades to come does not soothe the fear or pay the bills. For in all truth, not a one of those with the identity crisis at hand is concerned as much about their printed title or association, but rather about how they the person will pay the bills, and that can be a reasonable fear for those who just can’t understand the fundamental changes at hand.

Re: Mikael Blomkvist and Millennium magazine would be all over Kindle Singles

bosacks — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:25:24 -0000

Rex:
I always enjoy your blog and I enjoy it even more when we are on the same page. (no pun intended)
Two days ago I publicly vented about confused and over designed iPad magazines. I hope you had a chance to read it. The gist is just as you describe. The substrate is irrelevant and ease of use is paramount. It is and has always been the words that are important. All this “comfort” and “cuddling” with dead trees is ridiculous. I was lounging happily at least six or seven years ago with my first Palm Pilot. It was then that I learned that any collection of well written words could transport me just as quickly as a paper platform. In fact, the truth was that once transported by words, the experience is exactly the same, whether I was reading scrolls, vellum, books, magazines or pixels.

Re: At Dealmaker Summit, Execs Imagine the Media Company of the Future - Tony Silber - Blogs Consumer @ FolioMag.com

bosacks — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 10:17:52 -0000

There are several insightful quotes here. I think my favorite observation is “There's no second operating system. There are no alternate standards. In media, as we're moving toward being more like tech companies, we have to be thinking like software companies too."
I wrote an essay perhaps printed here in Folio several years ago, I wrote about the importance of “Owning the Turf.” That is clearly more important now than ever.

And a note to Mr. Hanley. Times are changing very rapidly now. His construction demographic didn’t have smartphones recently, but I believe that he will find that they do now, and increasingly so. As a long time liaison to a rural local Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, I can attest to the fact that I have seen the rapid change take place, and most contractors in the field, now have smartphones. It is a simple matter of business smarts and the need for customer satisfaction. The contractors feel the pressure from their clients to stay in touch.

Re: A Curious Commencement Speech, Brought to Butler Students By TIME - Stefanie Botelho - Blogs Editorial @ FolioMag.com

bosacks — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:08:12 -0000

Bravo! Stefanie. Maybe it was Casey Stengel and not Rick Stengel
who was up there?

It seems like this case falls under the folling quote: “I
know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure
you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” By Robert McCloskey. Yes that about cover it.

BoSacks

Re: Great example of the third rule of marketing with content: Keep it simple

bosacks — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:05:58 -0000

Rex:
I'm keeping my message simple. That was great fun. Many thanks.
BoSacks
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Re: Red, white, blue on blue

bosacks — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:22:22 -0000

Thanks Rex.. nice shot, nice sentiment. As a former volunteer firefighter and more recently a fire Policeman.... I appreciate the thoughts for all those do the most amazing and honorable jobs on the planet. They are a wonderful and rare breed indeed.

Re: The future of media business models is a bike ride away

bosacks — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:30:29 -0000

Rex:

Your ramblings are another man’s doctorial thesis. Feel free
to ramble and rant any time you feel the need. As to your advice here, I agree
completely. It is an out of the box thought and many “wanna be’s” in media will
understand the words but not the complete power of the idea.

Perhaps my agreement comes from providing decades of
community service, such as elected politics, volunteer fire companies, libraries and other large scale local
participation. Although I have been a volunteer in these processes, I never
forget my businessman’s hat. I always view all my work from a business
perspective and although I don’t seek profits in that kind of service it doesn’t
escape me that there could be profits made from similar for profit
institutions.

Those are my quick ramblings on your topic.

Re: I see clouds over New York news

bosacks — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 10:17:15 -0000

To Jeff and All:

Sometimes when you are living through a transition period,
it is hard to forecast the next level of sustained stability. Media and what media was, is not what media
will be, which is obvious to us all as we watch the changes happening around
us. I have no fear that the great metropolis
of New York will be under-covered. What
Jeff might mean or perhaps agree to is that NYC will be under-covered by
traditional standards. I suggest that those standards no longer apply. There is
more information available today about New York than ever before, and we the
reading public are still adjusting to the new information sources out there. I
have always believed that both nature and business abhor a vacuum. If there is
a dollar to be made by covering any and all aspects of New York live; be it
political, social, sports or other; that dollar will be made and the people will
be informed. It is the transition that makes us all uncomfortable, but the
trending direction is more information, not less. Even media credibility will work itself as it
does in print. Truth is substrate indifferent.

BoSacks
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Re: 3 journalists quit N.Y.’s Register-Star after colleague is fired

bosacks — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:24:37 -0000

What most of the dialog here is lacking is perspective.

After 40 years in the publishing industry, I can say with some certainty that
the episode here is not an isolated incident for the Register Star. There has never been an attempt at “fairness” when it comes to reporting political stories in the Register Star. Democrat
Senators get page three at best, while Republicans get page one above the fold. If there is a chance to malign a Democrat, the management of the Register Star will do so with gleeful abandon. The current situation is an example of them creating a negative story where there isn't a story at all. Of course they are entitled to be what they are, a political rag.

I am no longer a resident of Columbia County, but I was a two term town councilman from the area. I speak with knowledge on this subject both from the perspective of a life-long journalist and a successful politician.

The bottom line is that it is their paper and they can do as they please. They can intentionally misinform, slant events and lie to the public as much as they wish. It is not surprising that reporters of integrity who know the inside story have decided to abandon the deceitfulness of sad and pathetic journalism.

Re: Moving from 'Magazines' to 'Media' - Bill Mickey - Blogs Consumer @ FolioMag.com

bosacks — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:45:35 -0000

What is the number of automated buys in that on-line data? Seems to me that would be an important statistic.

Re: Goodbye, American Business Media - Tony Silber - Blogs B2B @ FolioMag.com

bosacks — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:10:36 -0000

I see here that my friend Tony Silber, is “pining for the fjords” as I believe Monty Python once put it. He is discussing the end of the American Business Media association. This is unfortunately a common thread in the publishing meetings business. I can’t address other industries, but in ours the heyday of mass meetings and large networking is as gone as the fjords. We should try to recapture the lost opportunities and the great value to our careers.

The first time I spoke at a production focused, publishing convention in Florida there were at least 400 executives present. I am pretty sure it wasn’t my yet-to-be developed notoriety that filled the room. Speaking now as a senior member of the publishing community, “those were the days.” The meetings were a wonderful place and way to meet old friends and make new career-long associations, while covering topics that were critical to our success, not only as executives, but to our industry as well.

In 2007 I penned the following which I am reprinting in
part, because it seems as relevant for us today as it did then:

"Do any of today’s executives really understand tomorrow’s publishing universe? This is a brutal question that this industry must face. It is or should be on everyone’s mind. Here is a sampling of some thoughts bouncing around inside my head: What kind of leadership should we seek today? Will we recognize publishing 10 years from now? Will the jobs and responsibilities then be the same as those we have today?

Now, we are leaving the early stages of this already decades-long second publishing revolution. The Internet and its companion technologies have eliminated many of the multiple steps in the publishing cycle and opened up vast areas of less-expensive systems and methods for distributing our content.

The sophistication of information distribution is improving exponentially. Our former clients and advertisers are embracing emerging new channels and following consumer trends
at lightning speeds. Everyone is seeking a one-to-one relationship, which is very difficult—but not impossible—for a dead-tree publisher. The deeper the niche of your product, the greater the appearance of a one-to-one relationship."

So what does all that mean to you and your job? Is there any stability on the horizon? The answer is “yes” for some … and “no” for others. If you are in the right place at theright time and you have the proven skill set, there are plenty of years of
productivity left for you. But you must stay ahead of the technological curve.

So, now I’m back to the death of American Business Media and
how you stay ahead of the technological curve. Well, one way used to be to go to industry functions to keep up-to-date with current trends and changes in the industry and at the same time get to know your fellow players. As much as these values remain important to your companies and your careers, industry attendance has, indeed, greatly diminished from the old days. And I, too, pine for the fjords.

Re: ALM Eliminates 35 Positions in Edit and Production

bosacks — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 13:14:49 -0000

I feel compelled to vent on a subject where I freely admit I don't know all the details. And truthfully, my observation is not really about a single company, although the ALM news story in Folio prompted this long-felt reaction/observation. It is an industry analyst's view of a phenomenon I have viewed over an extended period of time with much chagrin.

I might be off base here, but for an industry that lives and dies on the written word, I have never understand the long standing emphasis of continued layoffs of writers, editors and reporters over the last few decades. I agree that production jobs have so radically changed that they being part of the layoff scheme make perfect sense to me. So much so, that I wrote an article six years ago about the demise of production manufacturing as we knew it, when it comes to magazines. I suggested way back then that other departments will absorb and distribute the former responsibilities of the once totally necessary and mighty production departments.

But editors and writers? They are the central core of our franchise and their continued mining for good thoughts and meaningful words that have value to the consumer is what we as an industry do/did best. Isn't it part of a self-fulfilling prophesy of a downward spiral of our industry that we can't seem to produce enough great words worth paying for, for the industry to sustain itself? Why is there such a focus to dump the word makers, the written thought leaders of our industry? Why is it in moments of on-going crisis that they seem to be the most expendable and the first in line to go?

I have thought it most strange that the salespeople who can't seem to successfully sell our products as they did in the past are the last to go. What is the chance that we have had the success formula backwards, and that for a successful 21st century business the sales teams need to be reviewed and revamped first, long before the wordsmiths, the very core of what we do, are dismissed? What is our business anyway? Don't we actually sell words?

Josh Tyrangiel, the Editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, said a few years ago, "The digital era exposed the folly of past publishing practices . . . Those old titles didn't just die, they died because there were better things out there. . . We must change the value proposition. We want to actually earn the 5 bucks a week."

I'm sure that the MBAs running our corporations large and small have their legitimate reasons for continually firing reporters, writers, and editors as our front line of expendable solders, but an industry that has lost 46% in the continuing falling newsstand sales and 16% decreased subscriptions in just five years, seems to point that another battle plan might need to be considered. I suggest the following: How about actually improving the damn product?

Re: On the “Free Fall” in Media Advertising - Tony Silber - Blogs B2B @ FolioMag.com

bosacks — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 10:36:45 -0000

There is a critical question not asked here that leads down a few important tangential paths. I think what is missing is the following question: Who is now doing well in the Media? If there is someone doing well what do they do that others do not do? What services can they or do they provide that others do not.

From my perspective nature and business abhor a vacuum. The dollars that are escaping the BtoB universe are rapidly reappearing
elsewhere.

You can pick your metaphor and the actions of business throughout history. Buggy dollars didn't disappear they went to autos. Telegraph dollars didn't disappear they went to the telephone. BtoB dollars didn't disappear they went elsewhere.

Re: Media Execs Present United Front at Association of Magazine Media Conference

bosacks — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 10:31:20 -0000

We as an industry declare to anyone who will listen that 90%
of our revenue is still print revenue. So I am wondering why is it that nowhere
in any industry convention or meeting do we discuss the actual print product? Something like, print efficiencies, best
cover practices, how to create the best headlines, or secret newsstand success
stories? If 90% of our revenue is derived from
print, why don't we ever talk about that part of our business anymore? To me it
seems a simple question. Or have we so
absolutely perfected the print process that it no longer requires any
discussion whatsoever?
BoSacks
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Re: Publishing Industry Guru Bo Sacks Shares Tips for 2014 Success

bosacks — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 10:28:51 -0000

NICK: Interesting comment “And that's much easier
said than done” … yes exactly that toughness to consistently develop valuable content is one of the reasons why there is so much failure.

If it was easy everybody would be a successful publisher. I’m pretty sure everybody still wants to be one, but the success rate isn’t very high. This is Darwin’s Law of the “Natural Selection for Publishers”

BoSacks
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Re: A Publisher's Perspective on the State of Fulfillment - Katelyn Belyus - Blogs Audience Development @ FolioMag.com

bosacks — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 13:50:44 -0000

BoSacks Speaks Out: This is an outstanding rant by my new hero of publishing rantdom, Katelyn Belyus. I had the very same
conversation or, at the very least, one very similar with a fulfillment specialist just last week. Katelyn is right in that there is much we need to do for survival in the off-line media business. Publishers with parochial attitudes and fiefdom mentalities will not help us maintain our franchises. Benjamin Franklin was correct when, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, he said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

Off-line media needs to unite like never before and share their successes and modern methodologies with each other

Re: Why print endures

bosacks — Fri, 16 May 2014 16:00:01 -0000

There was a time when print was the least expensive, least complex way to reach a mass audience. Now print is the most complex and most expensive way to reach a large audience. It is a fundamental
shift from the way things were. Add to that the enormous cultural shifts in information gathering and distribution, and print has an even bigger problem.

Finally consider that the public has only a set time for reading anything.

More information delivered in unlimited ways doesn't add to the time people have to read. In the last report that I saw print received 6% of the media time, while TV got 42% and radio received 9%. The internet got 20% and rising, with mobile. on the rise too. The internet/mobile was the only media category to be continually rising. Time spent in the other categories was dropping.

The trend is inescapable. So print will not die but it won't ever again be the predominate way that people read. There will still be billions of revenue in print, but it will also be at best 1/3 of what it once was by 2020.