Print media needs to evolve to stay relevant

People continue to talk about the “death” of print media.  And although I don’t think print is dead, there are a lot of carcasses which makes for an ominous landscape. (Recently shuttered magazines include Gourmet, Southern Accents, Domino, Green Business, Oprah at Home, Teen, Metropolitan Home and more) With more and more content available for free online, it’s making it difficult for print mediums to carve a unique space for themselves.  And even more difficult is creating a business model that garners similar profits as the traditional one.

One publication making some daring changes is Forbes.  In an effort to adapt and stay relevant, Forbes redesigned the magazine and is changing the way it creates its content.  In fact, Forbes.com will be utilizing a vast network of bloggers who will actually be able to publish straight to the Web, rather than going through copy editing.  That is a huge shift for a magazine of Forbes stature.   In fact, they have already been criticized, noting that the content quality may suffer and thus start to erode a brand that has been more than 90 years in the making. Not surprising, social media will play a huge role in promoting the website and the brand. They are planning a steady stream of posts and links to social sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

I think it’s an innovative approach and I just might start subscribing! Read Associated Press article here.