Marketplace, a public radio business program, questions the health of the magazine business

Last week, I was called by a Marketplace reporter.  As a public radio addict, I spend hours a day listening to my local station and hours a week listening to podcasts of public radio programs. Whenever anyone asks me if the magazine business is dying, I always say “no form of media dies — look at radio.”

I consume all sorts of media.  The fact that I buy and check out e-books from my local library doesn’t mean I don’t also buy and enjoy hard-cover books.  I pay for my daily print newspaper and consume news on their website.  I stream television shows and watch live-broadcast network television. (I will say that I no longer subscribe to any cable or satellite television–but I still consume content on my television screen).

So imagine the richness of the experience for me when a very smart young radio show reporter called me to ask about the health of the magazine business.

Have a listen (or read the partial text version online) of the story they produced.

For you magazine folks, there is nothing new here.

But I am happy to think that radio and magazine organizations share an approach.  We produce content in old/primary form, but we also place it into many digital forms.  For magazines, that can be blogs, webinars, e-newsletters, etc.  And it seems both radio and magazines are in a resurgence of delivering their content at real, live human events.

Better we learn from our radio colleagues that our music colleagues!