After its negotiations with Meredith Corporation collapsed, Time Warner decided that it will spin off its Time Inc. magazine group into a separate public corporation — as it previously did with Time Warner Cable and AOL. This will leave Time Warner with two giant entities: its television networks (including CNN, TNT, TBS, and more) and its film and TV entertainment divisions (including Warner Brothers).
This is definitely the end of an era — and further indication of the changing landscape for print media.
As the Associated Press reports: “From Sports Illustrated to People to its namesake magazine Time, Time Inc. was always an innovator. But now when the troubled magazine industry is facing its greatest challenge, the company Henry Luce founded is struggling to find its way in a digital world. Time Warner Inc.’s decision to shed its Time Inc. magazine unit underscores the challenges facing an industry that remains wedded to glossy paper even as the use of tablet computers, E-readers, and smartphones explodes. Although the new devices might seem to present an array of opportunity for Time Inc.’s 95 magazine titles, many publishers have found the digital transition troublesome. Digital editions of magazines represented just 2.4 percent of all U.S. circulation in the last half of 2012, or about 7.9 million copies, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.”
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That’s pretty shocking news, I haven’t seen something like this before. I’m a journalism major so I’m aware of all of these changes that are happening in the field, and this is just another. To be honest, I’m not sure if this is a positive or a negative, but it’s definitely a sign that journalism is evolving to digital forms of media, where the money is along with television. I just hope these magazines continue to come out in some form.
I’m surprised that Time inc. is having difficulty at keeping up with the times and using digital forms of media. It seems like digital media should be easier to create and not nearly as much work to distribute. With all of it’s television networks and entertainment divisions I would think that they would be ahead of the game and would be contributing to the digital revolution.
Thanks, Joel. XC,s C
🙂
Time Warner’s decision to spin of Time Inc was probably long overdue. Rather than taint its reputation as a leader and suffer losses it chose the safer route. The economic model in place isn’t working as advertising companies aren’t willing to pay as much for the print or digital versions of the magazine; as reported by npr. For every tablet bought, there certainly aren’t enough people subscribing to the magazine… The ads are put in place to reach as many people as possible and since there has been a significant decline, what could justify spending so much. Can we foresee the end of an era? Certainly if the magazine makers don’t pull out the big guns….
I find the decline of the print industry as a sad and dramatic consequence to the technological era that we continually move deeper into. There is no feeling like picking up a physical copy of a magazine or even a newspaper. Reading on an electronic device just does not cut it.
Time Magazine set a standard for journalism, I don’t know how it could possibly transfer into online forums. As stated in the article, different sized screens with different resolutions are a drop in the ocean of the ever-transforming technology era. If the diminishing of print publications begins with a highly credible magazine like Time, where will it end?
The reason for print media market declines currently is the digital media market is growing rapidly. People tend to get information and read news on line for its convenience and cheap. It’s take so long for print media to update and publish new issue, so people may not prefer to choose traditional print media.