EZ E-Zines

Hi Everyone...

How's it going? I'm really curious to hear your thoughts on our e-zine guest speaker. I thought she was really great and her business model is just a part of the brilliance the web is bringing out of the media. The fact that she's alumni should also be really encouraging.

At any rate, my ears perked up when she mentioned one of her competitors charges up to 150K for an online ad run of a dedicated email........ I thought that was completely bananas! How amazing is that to get paid so much for a few taps on the keyboard.

Earlier this week I had a meeting with an editor from NY based lifestyle e-zine (electronic magazine). We've been corresponding via email and they've asked me to submit some pitches to them for LA stories.

The meeting did not go at all as I expected...at least on the surface. I thought she'd be staying with some friends in LA and we'd meet up at starbucks....where we'd each buy our own coffee and she'd tell me about the 200 people that read her site and explain how she wouldn't be able to pay me at first..yada...yada..yada..

Quite contrary, we met poolside a luxurious hollywood hotel...where she and her staff were staying (all in separate rooms.) She couldn't say enough about their growing subscriber base, currently about five HUNDRED thousand worldwide ....and how well they are able to pay their writers for quality stories. She even asked me if I wanted to stick around for a massage. I had to take a raincheck on that....but needless to say I was impressed.

I'm thinking...first of all; since when do online magazines PAY their writers? You would think most of the new online magazines were working out of a garage somewhere...and encouraging people to write for "exposure." It's a cute site... but I had no idea it was a full out full time career for the editor and her 4 person staff. Obviously the online world is changing(for the better). Apparently these sites are becoming more and more mainstream and with their low overhead it appears they're growing more profitably than ever.

The popularity of e magazines are bound to have some effect mainstream media and traditional advertising. Instead of a multi channel sales models like stores and ecommerce counterparts, magazines are now becoming multi channel media models. Every major magazine has a website...everything from luckymag.com, to style.com (the home of vogue and w). Then there's the pure play models like thetipjar.com, dailycandy.com and julib.com who are working on almost a pure profit platform compared to the cost of printing and distribution. p.s. do you all remember what "pure play is?" it will be on the final...but I digress...


Ok, so I'll get to the point....I need your opinions. Do you all think that an online magazine website supports the physical magazine in the same way an ecommerce website would support its brick and mortar counterpart? The major reasons that we've learned that people don't shop online is because of shipping charges and the inability to see and touch/try on the product. Also, we've learned commodities with standard specifications like (cd's and electronics) and digitized content (such as itunes and e books) are the web's top sellers. All things considered what are your thoughts?

In a multi channel media model ex. lucky and luckymag.com do they still work together to support each other? Or, would one be satisfied with reading luckymag.com and forgoing the subscription...since you really don't need to touch/feel a magazine...or do you? Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, right?

What are your thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of having a magazine website and a physical magazine? Do they compete too heavily or cannibalize each other? Also do these or how can these magazines use their sites to support the physical counterpart and total business?

Thanks for posting your thoughts....very curious to hear what you think.... One paragraph on any of the above points is fine...I'm sure this will be a fruitful discussion.

R Harvey