Counter-Intuitive Marketing
I’m prejudiced (since I love dead-tree publishing in all its forms)…but…as Elissa Altman notes, “it is no surprise that the counter-intuitive is what bubbles to the surface.”
The reason traditional publishers are having problems is that they’re thinking…traditionally. MUST Sell LOTS of ad pages. Large print runs. Mass marketing mediocrity (Is it me…or have “women’s magazines” all started to look alike, with the same articles?) Grudgingly (and badly) participating in the online world. (“Those damned bloggers!”)
And then there’s the new thinking. Focus on niches. Just-in-time printing. Incorporate the Web from the beginning. Two examples:
1. Canal House Cooking. High-style quarterly publication for people who love to cook and appreciate quality (and will pay for it.) Instead of going the traditional publishing route, with all its pitfalls, they’re managing their own destiny – from printing to marketing.
NYT: Along an Old Canal, Artful Neglect Finds A Home
“…by designing and photographing it themselves, then outsourcing the printing to China when every local printer they approached turned them down flat, the women hope to both make the numbers work and preserve the publication’s homespun qualities. They have about 400 subscribers so far…”
Make that 401, as soon as I finish writing this post. (And, you can probably imagine what I’m thinking about those clueless local printers.)
2. Flea Market Style They’re focused (title says it all.) They’re starting with a blog. They’re only printing as ordered (minimum 25 copies.)
Here’s hoping somebody will resurrect Gourmet, with the new thinking. Just let me know where I can send my money.
Read More: Elissa Altman, Taking Back The Cookbook
Related Post: Eating Their Children At Conde Nast
View the Blog Roll