Magazines: Why Ad Pages Won't Ever Fully Return

brandpluscontent:

“Marketers are also applying stricter tests to all their efforts and, influenced by our rising on-demand culture and economy, seeking faster and faster results. Jim Spanfeller, outgoing president and CEO of Forbes.com, feels this is what’s hurting magazines.

Digital media is increasing the demand for instant accountability, he said, even though it falls short in many ways itself. “I’m not saying magazines don’t work, just that it’s hard to measure,” he said. “One of the reasons is they [accumulate] so slowly. Depending on the frequency of that magazine, the audience can [accumulate] over six weeks to three months. Measurement is a dicey thing to begin with. But it’s also hard to have patience for that long.”

I’ve been making this argument for a while - meaningful metrics are the enemy of old-school advertising. That said, the most meaningful metric, actual increase in sales, remains relevant far longer than clickthrough ever will.

christinebeardsell