I received an interesting comment
In case you don't read any of the admittedly few comments I receive on the Rep Life, I am publishing the latest below. Some food for thought about agencies. Note that it isn't only niche magazines that feel this way, even mid-size and large books have been known to circumvent the agencies. A subject for a future blog I'm sure. For now enjoy this message from an anonymous publisher...
Reppy...Hmmm, somebody sounds a little lonely.
you did touch a few nerves, and now I am going to touch a few more...I am sure this will cause a shitstorm, (well, perhaps only a little shitstorm) but here goes...
I run a small mag...circulation is at 20,000 - we are worldwide. Most of our circulation goes to the USA and most of our advertisers are US based.
We are super niche and it's a flat organization. Me. I farm out the design work, but other than that, I handle it all.
I have built this magazine by being extremely focused. I am very adamant as to I let in the magazine and have refused to run ads if they don't fit with the mag. I'll repeat that: I have turned away ads.
Over the last year, I have started to realize that I am not that interested in working with ad agencies either. We are not listed in CARD, SRDS and I will not reply to RFP's.
When it comes to niche publishing, publishers need to look at their magazine as a valuable brand...and the more influencial the magazine, the more protective they should be.
It's pretty obvious that unless you have oodles of cash, there will be very few mass market mags starting up. However, niche publications will continue to blossom....some will thrive and some will die. The way agencies are paid means that small niche mags (with small billings) require the same kind of traffic as big mags.
It's in an agencies best interest to work with BIG numbers.
I am working in an alternative universe. We are about small but significant numbers.
Quite frankly, I am not interested in dealing with people who have very little understanding of what the mag represents.
To put it another way, I am ONLY interested in working with my community. I am protective of what I have built and I see no reason to let ad agencies in.
Again, this probably won't work for most magazines. (I am talking about consumer publications, by the way) However, if you're a niche magazine, this maybe the only
way to really differentiate yourself and to really drive your readership wild...as I do.
posted by Reptile at 11:24 AM
4 Comments:
Ekkk!
I work at a small magazine, and we would never survive with this attitude! Our phone/website rings/hums with requests for advertising info from small companies to big ad agencies. We welcome them all, and yes we too are a very niche market trade publication. If you don't want an agency's ad dollars great...more for me.
Eeek right back at you...
and as for being lonely, well, I think you may have missed the point.
I am talking about building a brand...and not filling up a magazine with ads that take away from the brand...that weaken your message to the reader.
It's an extreme position, I know...but it works for me.
More pie for the rest of us!
(reptile sorry if I submit this twice, my IE crashed while I was sending, so not sure if it made it through)
How about an agencies take on this thread. I find the comments about agency compensation to be far from the truth, let alone fair. Regarding the comment “agencies only wanted to deal with high cost media…” , if that were true, magazines would never even make a media plan. Heck I could burn through a $10 million budget in 5 minutes just on TV.
Secondly media or even vehicle selection has nothing to do with compensation levels. The original “commentor” states “the way agencies are paid…” I’ll assume you are referring to a commission basis. Let’s assume that archaic compensation system is still common across the board, it would make no difference if I went with high cost or low cost medium. If the agreed upon rate was 5 points, it doesn’t change with what I buy, it’s still 5 points at the end of day.
Finally smart agencies do not work on commission anymore. If they do it’s a small portion of their compensation package. Retainer Fee’s provide a more stable revenue base and better reflects the cost of actually running a clients business.
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