What do You Want to See in a Mac Magazine?
Magazine circulation is down pretty much across the board, but the Mac press has picked up on how this affects Mac magazines in the US, such as Macworld and MacAddict. Many of you know that I am a regular contributor to Macworld, so this is obviously a worrisome trend for me–if the circulation keeps plunging, I’ll have less work. So what would you like to see in a Mac magazine? How do you think these magazines could improve?Mac magazines, like other computer magazines, are no longer the 300-page tomes of the 1990s. (Though remember how much of those 300 pages were ads.) Times have changed: you have access to more information on the Internet, and you can get it much faster. Even here on Kirkville, I occasionally publish articles that are a month or two ahead of magazines, because there is no layout, printing, distribution, etc.
But is that the only reason for users to buy or subscribe to fewer magazines?
It’s a tough balancing act to publish a magazine–I see it all the time when working with editors on article ideas and when writing. You need to choose subjects that are appealing to enough people, but not too simple; you need to write for “average” users, though some columns (such as Macworld’s Geek Factor, which I contribute to often) can be for power users.
But you can cover more “obscure” topics, and, surprisingly, these topics may be the ones that hook readers. I wrote two articles for the Playlist web site, and then combined them to make a single Macworld article, about classical music on the iPod and with iTunes. (They covered material similar to this article on Kirkville.) While this was not a wildly popular article–classical music fans are not the core Macworld readership–one editor told me they had received lots of positive e-mail about it, and, for many readers, it was “the article of the year,” or the one that would convince them to re-up their subscriptions.
Another thing to remember is that magazines provide much more editing and tech editing than most websites. No Macworld article gets published without serious editing, both for information and content. Most articles get tech edited (reviewed by another author who verifies the technical correctness of the text), and all get carefully copy-edited before layout, and proofread after layout. Many websites–not those run by magazines, which use the same procedures for web-only articles–have articles that are merely written then tossed up on-line, without any other verification to ensure quality. This can often lead to erroneous information, and poor writing, though this latter attribute doesn’t seem to bother many readers. Sigh…
This raises an interesting question: what exactly should a magazine like Macworld contain? What types of articles do you want to see in such a magazine? (Even if you don’t read Macworld, I’d appreciate your comments.) As it stands, Macworld, like all computer magazines, has three types of articles: reviews, how-tos, and overviews of tools or types of activities you perform on your computer. Some of these articles appear in columns, which provide familiar landmarks from issue to issue (the Geek Factor, Working Mac and Playlist columns are three such examples in Macworld). But what else could these magazines offer?
Part of the change in the magazine landscape is, as I mentioned, the Internet. Macworld is already abbreviating its review sections, publishing one-paragraph summaries of reviews in the magazine and pointing to complete reviews on its web site. In a way, this makes sense: they can get the review up on the web much faster, and have a reminder in the print version of the magazine, for those readers who do not check the web site regularly. Remember, a majority of readers probably don’t check the web site often, if at all; there are a great deal of computer users who don’t care about the latest .x update to a program, or the newest features available in the most recent system update. After all, millions of Mac users still don’t run Tiger: they’re using Panther, Jaguar, or even OS 9.
So what do you think? If you subscribe to a Mac magazine, what would make it better? And if you don’t subscribe, what would get you to do so?
Posted: 4/18/2006 by kirk | Filed under: Apple & Mac OS X | 6 Comments »
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For me, the articles I read first feature novel ways to use programs I have to
do things that I didn’t know could be done, or didn’t think of using those
programs for.
Stuff like that makes me want to set my magazine up next to my machine and
try the tips out.
Probably the best circulation builder for your magazine would to feature
prominent celebrities on your covers using their macs, and inside have an
interview or article about them. A Macworld featuring, say, George Lucas on
the cover standing in front of an array of G5s might draw in casual newstand
readers. Same goes for just about any movie star, famous author, etc.
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-=-Ron Evry-=-
Creator of ‘Mister Ron’s Basement’ podcast on the iTunes Music Store
http://slapcast.com/users/revry
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Well, that might attract eyes – and might be interesting for a while – but I’m not
sure it will resolve the larger issue of what types of articles will sell more copies.
Though I wouldn’t mind interviewing Nicole Kidman or Jodie Foster about how
they use their Macs….
I buy Mac Magazines primarily to read the reviews and learn new tips and tricks that I can use on my Mac.
I really enjoy the Q & A section in the MacHome magazine. They cover a wide range of topics sent in by readers and provide helpful answers. MacWorld does publish some very useful and interesting articles too though. I really enjoy the articles they publish on addressing sick Macs or resolving well known issues. I particularly like their software reviews as well.
I also like the articles that make you want to grab the magazine and run to your Mac to try out what was just covered. Anything that covers new or novel ways to use my exisiting hardware/software is great.
The one thing I despise is the excessive amount of advertisements and their placement in MacWorld.
In MacHome, I open the magazine and immediately see the publishers note, followed by the index for that issue, then my regular features. I have to turn 3-4 pages in MacWorld just to get to the index and then have to flip through 2-3 more pages of full page ads to get to the first feature (the Editor’s Desk). MacHome has articles and reviews on almost every single page, with the exception of 4-5 pages at the end of the magazine.
I do realize that magazines survive and pay salaries on these advertisements but I am sure MacWorld could find a better way to do it.
I like the celebrity idea and think it would work provided the interview isn’t just a fluff piece. I want to read about what problems they might have had and how they used Macs to fix them. What innovative uses have they put the Mac to?
Maybe I get to be in too much of a hurry and gloss over instructions, but I have yet to access the on-line CD properly (the CD that accompanies the newsstand version) and that is making me think twice about renewing.
Those articles that delve into neat things you can do with various software always are a hit with me. When I’m looking to buy, the reviews are great, when I’m not, I don’t bother.
I have been reading Mac magazines for many years. I always read the news and
new product sections but I only read a few of the featured articles that are
relevant to my Mac use. I do like the regular contributors as well. Mostly its a
time thing and people have less of it today. I have noticed that in some of the
sectors in which I work in people prefer an accessable website to provide them
with industry news. They then log on first thing or read the website’s e-mail
newsfeed to keep up to date. I get the MacWorld feed but I also read the
magazine and visit other Mac rumour sites.
What do I want to see in a Mac magazine? MACS.
I used to spend several happy hours each month reading my new MacWorld from cover to cover and back again. But these days, hell, I couldn’t tell you the last time it took me more than 20 minutes to glean every friggin useful word out of an issue of iPodWorld.