We were a little pressed for time yesterday, since our presence was requested at Minnesota Magazine Day. This is an annual to-do over at the Hyatt, hosted graciously by the Minnesota Ad Federation. It consists of a “magazine grab”—basically a shopping spree for most major titles from Hearst, Fairchild, Conde Nast, and the other big nationals. (Also any locals you haven’t already seen.) If you’ve paid the admission fee, you grab as many magazines as you can manage to carry—which is great for doing research, we’ve found.
Then there is lunch and a little motivational speech or two. Yesterday’s speakers included an executive from the Magazine Publishers of America, and the keynote came from People Magazine publisher Paul Caine. The usual bromides were uncapped. The song was upbeat, in the key of heavy flattery. National magazine professionals love to come to Minneapolis to compliment us on our terrific advertising climate. Indeed, this is a great town for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the presence of some of the nation’s best advertising houses, some of the nation’s most solvent ad-buyers, and not a few enthusiastic readers of magazines. We’re getting a little tired of hearing how great we are, actually. While the local publishing scene gets some respect—smart people here not only read magazines and buy ads in them, they also happen to make a few good titles, too—we think it’s not quite sufficient to our desserts.
Each year, the pep talk rarely diverges from the same script. It’s almost comical to hear about how healthy and vital and beloved magazines are, coming from the mouths of people who sell national advertising in them. And yet, the rule doesn’t usually apply in the opposite direction. You should buy an ad in an Advance Publications property, but Advance Publications isn’t all that interested in returning the favor.
What we mean by this is that the national publishing and advertising communities basically syphon off our money and our creativity without a lot of direct local inputs. Anecdotally and scientifically, it has been proven many times over that good local publications have emotional value to local readers that a national cannot touch. Despite the brilliant local print environment, national advertisers count the Twin Cities outside the top-ten advertising markets in the nation, and therefore do not buy ads in magazines or newspapers here. (Virtually none. They may occasionally make a buy in a title that is part of larger national pool, like Village Voice Media.) Take a look at Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, even Seattle—there are numerous terrible publications in those cities that sell national advertising like it’s going out of style.
It is frustrating that so many ad-buyers still make their decisions on the most artificial bases—a periodical’s reach in terms of raw circulation numbers. The magazine industry is allegedly trying to gather its eggs into one basket in order to promote all magazines—rather like the Milk Board pushing milk. But these sorts of campaigns will disproportionately benefit the largest publishers as long as ad-buyers look no further than the top line of the ABC Audit.
Yesterday, we took note—but not advantage—of the Audit Bureau of Circulation’s traditional donation to the festivities. It is a cash bar. They are happy to offer all the usual medicines, for a nominal fee of course. You’ll forgive us for saying that this begins to look like the equivalent of a “kick me” sign pasted on the ass of an entire industry, but maybe especially the local yokels.
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