Great minds wonder alike

Great minds wonder alike
: Once again, I found media kismet with Simon Dumenco.

I was just in a newsstand on 42nd Street (no, all those newsstands are gone now) staring at the MTV magaziney thing and wondering first, whether this is the future — temporary magazines that come and go — and second, how any publishing company could afford to do that, creating things and then killing them and creating them again.

Simon was wondering the same thing and thinks this may be the future:

The lesson to be learned is that magazines may increasingly need to become temporary brands

3 responses to “Great minds wonder alike”

  1. Scott Avatar

    It’s likely that there will be more temp mags, but they’ll be the ones that have a lower cost of entry and other brand enhancements a-la ESPN, O, and MTV. Is a CNN magazine possible?
    Does Yahoo still have a mag?
    I wonder, could a newspaper start an independant mag without being overly competitive in revenue (I’m not talking supplements like NYT mag is, but something sold only separately)?

  2. hugh macleod Avatar

    A good media brand transcends its delivery vehicle. The MTV brand can be anything now- a TV station, a magazine, a can of soda, a line of clothes.
    Invest in a new brand that was limited to just one media format (i.e. the magazine)? Nein Danke.

  3. Tim Avatar

    What about all those fan magazines and instant promotional ones, like “The Gulf War” or “The Osbournes” …. you know, magazines that are one off publications that provide intense amounts of info, fan posters, etc for interested buyers.
    Also, cooking publications, especially Australian cooking magazines that my mother loves…. transitory titles, very targeted to the whims of the market…