REPORTS OF THE DEATH OF MAGAZINES ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED

Here's one LinkedIn, Facebooked, Twittering PR maven who echoes Richard Wanderer's belief that magazines are not quite dead yet. And I have to say that it's really refreshing to hear a voice of optimism amidst all the naysayers who bellow with such certainty that the age of the magazine has come and gone.

For all its faults - particularly with its business model - the magazine still does a lot of things better than anything else. It still analyzes the news better than anything else. It still has the ability to get in-depth better than anything else. It still, in its purest and most exciting forms, has the ability to enlighten (and to engage) us better than anything else. It still attracts the finest writers in America - more than any other medium. And - not to sound arrogant - those writers are true journalists (not "citizen-journalists"), who are trained to observe, report objectively, and search for the hidden facts. And, who - even though most of them, because of layoffs, are now doing the job of two, or even three, people - still do it damned well.

In addition, I think magazines still have a kind of excitement to them, a kind of excitement that the web - despite its 24/7 news cycle - cannot yet match. When I walk out to the mailbox and see one of my magazines in there, I know that I'm going to have an hour or two of good reading, written by good writers, and tailored to my taste. And I know that it's going to be an hour or two without any flashing e-mail messages or (hopefully) phone calls...an hour or two, in a quiet place, just for me.

I want to make the point, as well, that not only do I still read magazines, but, as President of a Public Relations/Marketing firm, I pitch them regularly. And they still work pretty damned well for me. Many people, still, like to hold the printed word in their hands, not only read it on a screen. Many people, for better or worse, still ascribe more credibility to something they read in print than something they read online. Many of my clients, still, believe that magazines are just as important - or more important - than the web. And many of them - still - are more satisfied with the results of exposure in print than with exposure on the web.

So, hopefully, to paraphrase Mark Twain...reports of the death of the magazine are greatly exaggerated.

Steve Winston
President, WINSTON COMMUNICATIONS
(954) 575-4089
steve@winstoncommunications.com
www.winstoncommunications.com