In the Words of Bob Dylan
Whether this new spin on mass media will work or not, only time will tell. Whatever happens, it is clear that TIME must once again reinvent itself. According to MediaMark, TIME’s circulation has fallen by 13 percent from 1988 to 2002. This hit, however, is one of the least detrimental in the news magazine business. Currently, TIME is the most profitable in the news magazine industry. However, since TIME is a part of the Time Warner magazine empire, and can offer advertisers group packaging, it may never have to withstand the technological blow in the way Newsweek or U.S. News might. TIME and the news magazine industry are struggling to keep up. TIME’s consumer and advertisers’ demands to reinvent itself in this technological age, while still maintaining its core news magazine appeal, are apparent in MediaMark studies. Trial and error may be the only formula holding a solution for this slump. Needless to say, the times, they are a-changin’.
Article comments
1 - Kevin Eagan
Interesting read. My wife has a subscription to TIME and I must say, I'm disappointed in its news quality. It seems like it's trying too hard to be "hip," and it shows. I wish they'd stick to in-depth world news coverage, because that's what makes TIME great. If I wanted to read about pop culture issues, I'd stick to the Web sites and magazines that deal with POP CULTURE not TIME.
2 - Steve Ellwanger
Greetings. I handle public relations for Mediamark Research & Intelligence. While MRI does collect consumer readership information about magazines, it does not issue the kind of "analysis" cited in this story. Quite often, someone obtains MRI data and uses it to write a report, issue a press release, etc., but MRI does not issue reports on individual magazines. It collects data and sells them to its clients.