Source: Speech at the 8th World Printing Congress
This article is a speech by Mr. Thomaz Souto Correa, editorial consultant of Abril Group, at the 8th World Printing Congress held in Cape Town, South Africa at the end of January this year.
——The future of the magazine depends on the future of reading. That is the trend of reading habits all over the world, including books, newspapers and magazines.
——The printing industry such as newspapers and magazines has begun to reform itself in size, layout, and content to attract young readers, because these are the places where new electronic media take away readers.
——Another future development trend of the magazine depends entirely on the impact of various functions of technology on the printing industry.
good Morning!
It is a pleasure to stand here and announce to everyone that printing will always accompany us. On the other hand, I must also honestly tell you what I have seen happening around us and the impact these trends may have on our industry in the near future.
But I am also happy to talk about the future, because the direction of development is becoming less and less likely to be as we expected. Consumers tend to make decisions on their own, not paying much attention to what we want them to accept.
The mobile phone is a recent example. We never expected its full functionality. Three years ago, no one could predict that it would have such a powerful function in such a short period of time.
The device originally used to receive and make phone calls is now used to send and receive emails, take photos, take photos and then send them out by email, watch movies, listen to mp3 music or radio, watch the latest news, send and receive text messages or multimedia messages, and act as Satellite navigation devices, palmtop computers, voice recorders, and ... books.
Young Japanese girls read Romance from the small screen on their phones. understand? They are young enough to read on such a small screen. So where is the future of the magazine?
The future of magazines depends on the future of reading, and the future of reading depends on the future of our readers. Let us divide the consideration into three blocks or three trends.
Three trends
1. Current situation
2. Thoughts on the future
3. The challenges faced by printers, publishers and editors.
1. Current situation
First look at the current situation. How much do we know about readers in the mainstream market today? Everyone knows that the circulation of traditional newspapers is decreasing, or it is stopping growing. Some people have already begun to try smaller layouts and have also succeeded. This can represent that the large paper newspapers are old and antiquated, and have disappeared with the older readers.
On the other hand, free-form or paid popular tabloids are attracting younger readers because such newspapers are denser in information, more concise in text, easier to read, and easier to digest. It can almost be said to satisfy the dreams of all readers of all ages around the world: short articles and large fonts.
The pioneer of the Metropolitan Daily, the Swedish Metro International Company (Swedish Metro International Company), claims to have 15 million readers every day in the world. Most of the readers are young people, and they do not read other newspapers.
Towards a small layout and news-intensive direction, newspapers are transforming. In order to keep a place in the media market under the aggression of real-time information and more and more entertainment activities.
Similarly, magazines are transforming. Everyone must have noticed the change in the cover of Newsweek. They are no longer news magazines. Of course, they still report major discoveries in war, politics, and science, but the focus of their reports has shifted to topics that are of interest to readers. They are no longer headlines, but are part of everyday life for ordinary people: medicine, headaches, diet, religion , Yoga, meditation, financial investment, etc.
At the same time, the magazine is also trying out new layouts. In Europe, the so-called "bag size" has brought unprecedented success to women's magazines. Like the tabloids, the streamlined size has also attracted millions of new readers.
In Europe and America, the new advantage of women's magazines is to take shopping as a starting point. They put it bluntly the edited catalog. The first such magazine was "Lucky" magazine issued by Conde Nast. Edited in a magazine way, everything displayed on each page is a commodity, and each commodity is marked with the price and the address of the store.
Despite editorial controversy, whether it is a magazine or a catalog, more such "bag-sized" publications have been seen in the European and American markets.
How can magazines develop? The undeveloped markets of China and India also have great potential for development, and they have also become the new favorites of international publishers.
If price barriers can be crossed, another developing region is the developing country. In countries like Brazil, I believe the same is true in South Africa-there are great opportunities for cheap magazines. But it's really cheap.
A few years ago, we published a magazine in Brazil, the price of which could not be lower, which is equivalent to five cents of US dollars. At that time, more than half a million copies were sold every week. Later, we had to increase the pricing, and as a result, the circulation of the magazine was less than half of the original.
We really hope that a more stable economic environment can increase sales. Because the research results show that the reader is not used to buying other magazines, but he cannot afford it.
Despite the small circulation, there are still opportunities for magazine growth in the undeveloped niche gap. Every area of ​​human interest will have segmentation themes. I once read an American magazine called "Fire Captain"-this magazine is not for firefighters, but for the captain ...; and in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I saw a magazine that was completely written Chicken.
The only thing the two magazines have in common is the element of fire, but they are also the best example of the degree of division. It can also be said that this is a tradition that has continued since the invention of the special magazine—the division of the readership. The advantages of magazines are also everywhere, and all have a place.
The good news part ends here, because we are going to talk about some of the future vision of the magazine.
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2. Thoughts on the future
Unfortunately, I have to go back to the Japanese girl to watch the Romance part on my mobile phone. When I read this story, I was particularly alert to the information about the decline in book sales in Japan. In the same story, a publisher interviewed said that he hopes that by reading on a mobile phone, teenagers can become readers of books.
Um, sorry, but I do n’t believe they will. It is more likely that they will face the screen more and more in their lives: mobile phones, video games, computers, TVs. I personally think that paper only plays a small role as a print medium in their lives.
They still read magazines, newspapers and books, but only for a while. Once technology develops so that the quality of electronic devices is comparable to ink on paper, paper will be replaced. No need to doubt: this day will come. When? no one knows. But technology is changing with each passing day, and the speed of our steps is beyond our dreams.
Earlier I said that large-format newspapers may be disappearing with older readers. Every day, what I call a "paper reader" disappears. Every day a new electronic reader is born. As technology advances, they play, look at electronic and digital devices as soon as they are born – let us pray, and read is one of their colorful activities.
Twenty years later, will readers read from paper? Probably not. Magazines and newspapers have published electronic versions, and in addition to the printed version, new functions have been added.
Electronic panels have been improving. The new device will revive the concept of e-books. When the e-book first came out, it was far ahead of its time, and now it is taken for granted. There is a small library and newsstand in your portable panel. Built-in dictionary and search engine using hyperlinks.
Watching TV and movies from this gadget may also come true. It will also be your computer, PDA, mobile phone, who knows what else?
On the way to this future, newspapers and magazines discovered that although the Internet was a terrible adversary, it was a helpful ally. Because the Internet is continuously broadcast 24 hours a day, online websites allow newspapers and magazines to be continuously updated.
News, exploration, research, forums, full text of interviews or speeches, various services, etc. As far as newspapers are concerned, you do n’t have to wait until the next day or next week or even next month to see the contents of your favorite publication.
Readers use our brand on paper and online. As time goes by, we will know what they like to read on paper publications and their needs on the Internet. In other words, they will help us define the future. As you can see, there is still a future for paper publications, but it is certain that there are far fewer than today.
There is a possibility that paper objects will become selected magazines, which may look more like picture books, two pages and two pages to appreciate, just like today's past feelings.
Or it is very cheap, and the target is still on low-income markets. By the way, cheap does not mean poor or ugly ...
So, as you can see, for the editors and publishers present, the good news is that editors are not dead, publishing is not dead, and paper publications are also not dead. But it also faces completely different challenges.
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