Prior to TV, radio was filled with sit coms, soap operas, and variety shows. TV came along and did these better so radio turned mostly to news, music, talk and call-in shows. TV also caused movies to move towards things that TV couldn’t do, like wide screen Cinemascope and colorful epics like Ben Hur.

The areas where print might still viable is the “impulse buy” with the gossipy celebrity cover or the “How To Make Your Man Beg You For More” teasers, and the magazines where visual quality is important like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ and National Geographic. But how many high quality publications can continue to attract a large enough audience to be produced in a profitable manner?

Unfortunately, the experience of online music has shown that consumers value low-cost and convenience over technical quality.

I might be dumb on this but how does National Geographic do it? I grew up with them and still continue to be a loyal fan and by the way, get very inspired by some of the beautifully done ads they run, photography of course included.

John Harrington blog has advertising and a large following.

For the photographer who wants to concentrate on photography and not “selling” lectures, gear, classes, software, books, etc, etc…what is the answer?

http://www.josefhoflehner.com/

Josef Hoflehner, is an Austrian photographer who publishes his images under the Most| Press imprint. His son designs the books, he sells them direct through his site or through Amazon. His prints are represented by several galleries and he has created a nice following for people who enjoy his images. (I own one print and most of his books)

I prefer Josef’s approach to that of “be a star to other photographers” approach that seems to be in fashion right now. It just seems to me to be more substantial than reviewing equipment, or being a PR person for a camera company or having your name on testimonials about gear.

Just a thought about another approach to generating income.

Many magazine publishers just don’t have any respect for their viewers. I believe (in many cases) they’ve made the decision that “good enough is good enough”, and the reader is too dumb to notice.

Of course, if that was the correct approach, THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER wouldn’t be going out of business too.

So where does that leave us? Still needing to find a way to get paid as photographers while also finding a way for readers/viewers to pay, directly or indirectly, for content. Maybe we should raise taxes by $0.01 on the dollar to allow some of the lowest paid workers on the planet (teachers, photojournalists) to do the critically important job that they do without needing to consider becoming yet another wedding photographer (or whatever the teacher equivalent is).

It sounds so simple and easy but I think it can come down to many differnt ways and strategies – differnt for each magazine.

Permission marketing is a term used in e-marketing. Marketers will ask permission before they send advertisements to prospective customers. It is used by some Internet marketers, email marketers, and telephone marketers. It requires that people first “opt-in”, rather than allowing people to “opt-out” only after the advertisements have been sent.

I think we should pay attention to Seth Godin’s most recent advice…

Thanks Rob… This is a good wake up call!