Lessons from the magazine industry

The NY Post recently featured an article about the decline of magazine sales.

In 2011, overall newsstand sales of magazines declined by 10 percent, capping off three straight years of decline. Magazine publishers are currently faced with a shrinking industry, and many are indeed turning to digital sales. 45 percent of magazines titles are now in digital format.

 

One quote in the piece caught our attention in paticular.  It reads, “If you’re not thinking about how to creatively destroy your business and recreate it, you’re in trouble because someone else is thinking about it.”  It is a good lesson for college stores to hear and consider.

The magazine industry is undergoing transition and upheaval as organizations try to bridge the gap from traditional paper to new electronic formats -- formats that are still somewhat "in development."  The changes reported in the story are not unlike those facing other industries along a spectrum:  the newspaper industry, the music industry, and the college textbook industry or publishing in general.  The traditional core products and revenue generation models are changing and those wishing to survive must learn to adapt.