SMB Nation magazine moves to an all-digital format
I just had a telephone call with a longtime industry leader in the SMB community, and I told him that, after seven years in print, SMB Nation magazine was evolving to the digital format favored by readers everywhere. Beyond the traditional arguments for digital content we all know, such as environmental concerns, there are however, even more compelling strategic reasons I want to share with you here regarding this change.
SMB Nation magazine hit a high-water mark of 54,000 print readers who represent the SMB reseller community (VAR, consultant, Geek, computer guy/gal). Moving forward, we intend to grow the readership even more with the ever-expanding reach of digital media. We can touch those for whom we didn’t have full contact information for in the past. This includes happy new communities such as telecom resellers and agents who are cloud ready.
Fewer Is Better?
Recently, Channelnomics broke a story that CRN, the fabled print magazine adored by yours truly, intends to cease print publication in the June 2013 time frame. That decision by a well-respected industry leader validates that same decision we’ve made. That is to be available in a more contemporary and constant digital format. I submit that it’s not a loss, but rather, an evolution. People are getting their information in different ways, which leads to my second point.
I call it the airline aisle test. Just a few years ago, I would walk the long aisle of an airplane during flight and observe just one or two e-book readers (say an early Kindle). The rest were reading traditional books printed on paper! Fast-forward to today, and you will witness exactly the opposite. It’s hard to find a single printed book on a plane. It’s nearly the same with magazines. Folks are synching their Kindles to download USA Today, NY Times and subscribed magazines between flights.
Mega trends
Did you hear the one about Saturday mail being discontinued in the U.S.? The proposed changed is to take effect in August 2013. Part of the reduced mail service is based on fewer print magazines being mailed. Toss in catalogs and junk mail decreasing volumes, and you get the picture. Times have changed, and we’re right there with you, Kindle in-hand.
Speaking of mailed magazines, a leading analyst who writes for THE LARGEST TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE in the world recently confided he gets annoyed when his own magazine arrives in the mail. He doesn’t want to read it. Rather – he wants to peruse the digital format. I’m just saying!
I’d like to also submit for your approval the economic theory of shifting supply curves. If a change in technology (digital content) results in a fundamental shift in the supply curve (not just a change in quantity supplied along the existing supply curve), then boy howdy, we have a fundamental change in society. Bottom line: Roll with it as even Atlas can’t put the old supply curve back where it was!
Next, a well-respected editor, Howard Weaver, is a friend of mine from my childhood in Alaska. Howard was the longtime editor for the prize-winning Anchorage Daily News. In fact, Howard was on the teams that won not one, but two, Pulitzer Prizes for public service reporting. In his amazing new book “Write Hard, Die Free: Dispatches from the Battlefields and Barrooms of the Great Alaska Newspaper War,” which I read as an e-book, Howard spoke towards changes in technology impacting print newspapers. You can purchase Howard’s work here.
MovIng Forward!
The flight to digital gives us amazing flexibility resulting in more consumer choice. For example, should we increase the frequency of our publication to better-serve our readers? Should we encourage more reader submissions? Can we become the community voice that highlights each and every user group meeting along with our ongoing columns and feature stories?
Hopefully you will see where I’m going with this. There are many possibilities presented by digital that were never possible with print. Our best days are ahead of us!
Catch more stories in the 7-3 Issue of the SMB Nation Magazine, now available for viewing via page-turner and PDF formats here!
