executive
Let's talk about selling. Specifically, let's talk about the sales of magazines (subscriptions, etc.). You see, while newspapers have started to change the way they sell subscriptions, magazines, generally, are still being sold the same as they have done for the past 50 years ... and it's time to change that.
In this 40-page report, we are going to dive into the deep end of this. But, if you want the short version, it's simply this: Don't sell magazines. Sell what is in them.
So let's talk about what I mean by this, what the problem is, and why this is important to change.
I want to start this article by taking you to Sweden. I was looking at a Swedish newspaper recently, and I noticed that every time I went to a different page, I would get an ad for a magazine.
And, well, let me show you what that looked like:
You see the problem here?
All of these ads are identical. They have the same approach, the same message, the same style, and the same offer.
This is the old model that I talk about. Take [whatever] magazine, and then get a free gift if you subscribe to it. And this is the kind of thing we have seen for 50 years. When I was a kid back in the 1970s and 1980s, this was exactly how they were sold.
But also notice how they are not talking about the magazines at all. Sure, you can see a tiny image of what the front cover looks like, which gives you a general, albeit very vague idea of what it is about, but other than that ... nothing.
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Baekdal is a magazine for media professionals, focusing on media analysis, trends, patterns, strategy, journalistic focus, and newsroom optimization. Since 2010, it has helped publishers in more than 40 countries, including big and small publishers like Condé Nast, Bonnier, Schibsted, NRC, and others, as well as companies like Google and Microsoft.
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"Thomas Baekdal is one of Scandinavia's most sought-after experts in the digitization of media companies. He has made himself known for his analysis of how digitization has changed the way we consume media."
Swedish business magazine, Resumé
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