The death of the magazine
The Detail - A podcast by RNZ
Magazines are facing extinction by internet. Are they special enough to save? The last magazine shops are shutting - they're going the way of video and record stores. But like vinyl, will there be a renaissance? There's nothing like leafing through the pages of a gorgeous, glossy magazine. But those days could soon be over, judging by plummeting readership figures and mass closures. Five years ago, the publishing industry sold around 16 million magazines a year in New Zealand. Now it's down nearly 40 percent, to 10 million. Nicholas Burrowes from the Magazine Publishers Association remains upbeat about the situation, but that's his job. He denies his industry is facing a cultural death. "I think it's wrong, because I think anybody who's tried to predict what's happening in media in the last 10 to 20 to 30 years has never got it right. A lot of magazines are still being sold. It's not like, we've hit some bottom - we have a future."In spite of that optimism, last year the Magazine Publishers Association had to cancel its annual conference, posting on its website that "the board acknowledges the tough times, the cost to publishers of airfares, accommodation, taking key staff away from the business for at least a day is difficult to justify". Most would agree there's no comparison between leafing through a publication with high production values and poking your finger at a screen. Beautifully produced medium format photographs printed on quality paper, or those same pictures turned into pixels? There's no contest. However there's one commercial advantage those publications just can't beat. Although the equivalent content on the web might be fuzzy or colourless - it's largely free. Just like "video killed the radio star", as the old Buggles song would have it - the internet has been quietly gutting print magazines. "There's nothing like holding a good magazine in your hands and opening it up and seeing a great photograph, or a great article by somebody that you really want to read about," says Jim Wilson.Wilson is an avid devourer of mags. A gold-plated connoisseur. He estimates he's bought and read tens of thousands of titles. "I get a lot of poetry magazines because I'm interested in poetry. I get a lot of Volkswagen magazines because I'm interested in Volkswagens. And I also get some political-type magazines like Prospect, out of the UK."Wilson, who used to run an arts magazine himself, subscribes to the New York Review of Books, Harpers, the Atlantic and the London magazine - which has been going since 1732. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
