Good News...Bad News...Good News!

First the Good News!

Friday was a good day here at BrandVenture.

We landed a new project assignment…and it’s a good one!

We are going to team up with a couple very cool creative folks to define the best opportunity groups and strategy for the release of a 2010 version of The Whole Earth Catalog.

Rodale, the publishing company that is our client, sounds like a super group too.

Rodale has a great portfolio of work including magazines like Prevention, Organic Gardening and Men’s Health and past bestsellers like An Inconvenient Truth and The Intellectual Devotional.

The very fact that they are taking the steps to “unravel the personas, behaviors and aspirations of key audience groups” is something that many marketers today don’t do.

But then again, the name of the new release is The Whole Green Earth Catalog…now that’s right in line with where the public mindset dwells.

Now the Bad News…

“Time, Inc., the nation’s No. 1 magazine publisher said it would close Cottage Living magazine and its Web site, citing the worsening economy and the impact of the weak housing market”

That was an AP release dated Thursday, November 20, 2008.

Seems that Time, Inc. is doing a bunch of reorganization in “shedding hundreds of jobs and streamlining its management ranks.”

Some of the players in the media world are going through tough times. Publishers of magazines that have been around for a while are having to rethink and reposition the publications.

And home magazines are no exception.

Time Inc.’s Southern Living has shifted to a cheaper format and Conde Nast’s Home & Garden magazine also shut down recently.

No question that the readership base is going through generational shifts and the dynamic of what the media sells is changing.

The article goes on to say that ad pages in Cottage Living fell 9.1% in the first nine months of 2008 and newsstand sales fell 14% during the six months ended June 30th.

Sometimes you do have to wonder just what seems to drive the way management thinks.

Yes…there have been declines in sales…but is shutting down the publication a knee-jerk reaction of the times or a true assessment of where the publication has gone and where future opportunity resides?

I bet you can tell that I have been a fan of Cottage Living magazine!

In addition to reading it, I have showcased the publication in presentations I make to clients about market trends in housing and generational trends with space.

Like it or not, the size of future housing is going to get smaller and the drive to balance and integrate High Tech with High Touch is on the rise.

Boomers can recall the Sears Home that their parents bought, GenXers quest warmth and style in their cocoons and Millenniums easily blend the cottage look with Ikea cheap chic!

The bad news is that the BIG companies out there like Time, Inc. have management that makes stupid decisions.

How “chicken and egg” are the financial challenges they face today?

Oh well…

So now it back to Good News!

If you read the press and listen to the political discourse, boy the economy and future is bleak!

If the BIG three American automotive companies shut down, then where will we find cars to buy?

If the banks shut down, where will Americans put their cash?

With the department stores in trouble and the malls going under, where will we shop?

The good news is simple…there are a bunch of market needs that the BIG boys cannot provide for anymore that the entrepreneur and innovators can grab.

Having worked at Time-Warner, I can tell you that there are a lot folks that make up the corporate ranks that seem to have gotten very used to the cash flow.

And to a large extent…too much so!

I know this much…over a million people are going to be “not happy campers” when they receive notice in the mail that their Cottage Living magazine subscription is being replaced with issues of something else.

It was not a magazine that the readers subscribed to...it was the experience it provided that they sought and desired.

Hey… seems like the roadways are opening up with opportunity…call me and let’s journey!