MediaVidea

Why some media properties thrive and others don’t

Today, when print publications are under severe pressure from online media properties (mind you, newspapers are still big cash cows), some magazines are in fact reporting increased number of ad pages, in the United States and across the Atlantic.

The secret sauce is niche.

Steve Rubel quotes The Washington Post saying that ‘that the term newsweekly is really moot in this day and age.’ General-purpose newsweeklies such as Time and Newsweek are under enormous pressure.

I guess the user might be thinking, “I can get better general purpose news looking for free at headlines at Google news and its likes."

Among the newsweeklies, The Economist thrives because it aims at a focused audience – exclusive news analysis for moneyed people.

The niches magazines that thrive are aspirational titles such as Vogue, GQ, and others which are forever displaying the ‘in’ look and the ads like to transmit that cool feel as well.

I read somewhere that computer magazines are also under pressure from the freely available technical information online - Digg is a potent aggregator of computer news and advice lowing from an endless supply of bloggers and news sites.


Let us take this niche-idea further - online.

The success of focused sites such as Engadget (gadgets), Treehugger (Environment–friendly) instructs prospects online publishers to look for lucrative niche/sub-niches.

Idea:
What are your thoughts on an Ohmynews-type Citizen journalism site devoted to design and fashion?

posted by Pramit Singh @ 4:40 PM