PC Magazine: A Time of Transition

The news broke today that PC Magazine will no longer produce a print edition and will focus totally on their very popular network of sites.  While some past PC Mag employees may find this to be a sad passing of time, I think it is the right move.  We are long past the turning point when the web became the primary information source for technology information.  And, tech advertisers have embraced interactive media, custom media, events and other ROI based marketing tools while essentially abandoning print trade advertising.

I was the Marketing and Research Director of PC Magazine from the mid 90’s until 2002, and when I left the print issue was in deep decline.  According to this article from paidContent, 70% of the brand’s revenue now comes from online sources.   Printing several hundred copies of a monthly magazine makes no sense when people really want the information online.  A few weeks ago I wrote about how media companies had to make the web the center of their universe, not print, if they wanted to survive.  This move by Ziff Davis Media is a foreshadowing of what we will see during 2009 as the recession forces the hand of media companies.

I am glad that I got to be a part of publishing history.  There were a couple of years where we ran more print ad pages than any magazine in the US and once booked over $7 million in a single issue.  PC Magazine was incredibly profitable and influential in the tech industry.  Working with talented people such as Michael Miller (see his blog on the closing here) was like going to publishing grad school.  Most of the people I worked with at PC Magazine have gone on to very successful media careers.

Looking back, I remember the day that was the beginning of the end.  We were at one of our regular meetings at Dell and they told us they just started selling PCs over the web and were grossing nearly a million dollars a day.   At the time companies like Dell and Gateway were running 10-12 expensive ad pages an issue to present every SKU they had to our readers complete with 800 numbers to purchase.  With the advent of their online stores that ad commitment would be coming way down.   All they needed to do was drive web traffic.  It took roughly ten years but the web finally killed the magazine.  I wonder how many other tech magazines will follow their lead.  Most of them have just a handful of print ads from the big players.  I say, let it rip, go 100% digital/online and move on before you get left behind.