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After 9/11, things changed and in publishing Lucire print, [Jack Yan] was looking for more advertising. However he wasn't expecting much crossover. "Ninety-five percent of our audience is from outside NZ. We have L'Oreal, Chevrolet, Sony and Gillette on the web, but these are booked from the US. NZ was untouched as far as we were concerned."
Can sitting at a screen replace the pleasure of losing yourself in glossy pages full of gorgeous people and unaffordable stuff? And can a laptop on the coffee table ever look as good as a magazine?
Think ease of access, say the online publishers. Think cost efficiency plus the ability to get specific information and relevant content at speed - and interact with others on the same wavelength.
But hang on a minute. For many women, magazines represent escapism and some 'me time' indulgence at home, says FCB media manager Anne Lipsham. "Online usage peaks during the workday so whilst audiences are definitely there, it's in a different environment and potential mindset."
Online magazine publishers are upbeat; none more so than nzgirl's Jenene Crossan. Launched in December 1999, the site www.nzgirl.co.nz had over 190,000 unique visitors in July and served around 800,000 page impressions. "We have 55,000 members and are growing at 2000 new members per month, with most of the traffic in the 22-26 age group," says Crossan.
From day one, nzgirl aimed to create a magazine that an audience would come back to daily. While that goal has remained, the focus has become much wider. "We're about becoming a lifestyle brand, not just a media brand." (The company now has its own clothing, jewellery and cosmetics ranges and has recently opened its flagship store - the first of five planned.)
Well, video didn't kill the radio star, and according to John McClintock of the MPA, his members are not feeling the heat from online competition.
"It was not long ago the market was suggesting the continued development of the web would have a massive negative impact on magazines. It's clear from the latest ABC results that magazines can hold their own in a tightening economy."
And, he says, magazines are well positioned to work hand-in-hand with the online publishing environment. "Publishers who position their title to go online will do so to ensure they increase market share for the tactile product. They'll provide additional - not replacement - benefit, to advertisers and readers."
This has created two distinct online magazine strands - the online extension of a print publication, and the purely online magazine.
For print magazines, going online provides another opportunity to engage with readers between issues, says Fairfax Magazines gm Lynley Belton. "We have websites for both Cuisine and NZ House & Garden as a complement to their hard copy publications. The House & Garden website was launched in conjunction with the TV show and provides three ways for readers to enjoy our content and to interact with us."
Belton doesn't see the purely online publications as a threat. "Our focus is to become platform-agnostic and to provide content in many forms to suit readers' needs at the time they choose to access our publications." And she doesn't rule out the possibility of publishing a purely online title.
But online publishing has to be about more than replicating a printed magazine in digital format says Matt Cowie of Deltarg, publishers of www.lookout.co.nz. Consumer expectation of the two mediums is entirely different, he says.
"For a consumer to spend time online there needs to be a greater level of rele-vance to maintain their interest. This is greater than in print media. The consumer is savvy - they will see through it if the channels aren't planned and executed independently."
For most of the titles with a foot in both camps, the print version came first. Littlies magazine was first published in 2004 and went online www.littlies.co.nz in October last year. Business manager Campbell Williamson says they're audited by NetRatings. "A couple of months ago we cracked 15,000 monthly UBs and we might crack 20,000 for August."
Littlies aims to be NZ's complete parenting website with articles covering the full parenting bit, a forum for online chat and an online shopping directory of products and services for parents, babies and small children.
Jack Yan, publisher of NZ-based international online fashion magazine Lucire, www.lucire.com has bucked the trend. Lucire was launched online in the late '90s; the print version arrived in the bookstalls in 2004.
Yan says it was never intended to be a single-medium publication but the decision to go to print was largely about money. "Remember we got online early - too early to make any money." Initially he says, there was a mad rush for online in the US and they established themselves very quickly. "To this day we remain strong in New York as a brand."
But after 9/11, things changed and in publishing Lucire print, Yan was looking for more advertising. However he wasn't expecting much crossover. "Ninety-five percent of our audience is from outside NZ. We have L'Oreal, Chevrolet, Sony and Gillette on the web, but these are booked from the US. NZ was untouched as far as we were concerned."
Jane Gwynne is the new girl on the block with 24/7/Girl www.247girl.co.nz an online magazine targeting teenage girls. The magazine is part of a bigger relationship programme using web, SMS, email and direct mail which Gwynne says means being more membership driven than most magazines.
"We're also going for more engagement and interaction than a quick read. So far our average session is around 10 minutes." And with 1000 girls signed up and 2000 unique visitors in their first 10 days, things are looking good for 24/7/Girl.
Once online there are challenges aplenty. Williamson says it's essential to keep content fresh so visitors return to the site, and to keep up with evolving technology. "And balance that against staying at a level computers are able to view."
He instances a recent ad that used technology that was so advanced it would have severely restricted the number of browsers able to view it. "We worked with the designer to change the ad into a different format that had no less of an impact but meant the majority would be able to see it."
Attracting advertisers to an online magazine is also a challenge. "It doesn't walk in the door," says Littlies' Williamson.
But Crossan reports a significant change in the attitude of media buyers over the past 18 months. "We're seeing a much broader base of advertisers and agencies using online as part of their media mix. The beauty of this change is that it's not just about bolting online onto the end of the campaign, but seeing true integration online as part of the wider media mix." She cites the recent Sunsilk campaign incorporating an online quiz publicised across all media as a great example.
The degree to which online magazines are of interest to advertisers is primarily dependent on their reach and coverage of the target audience, says Tequila md Mike Larmer. "The same science applies as with any other media. But they suffer from the fact that people can judge them using criteria normally associated with traditional printed titles."
Online mags, he says, fulfil a different role. "Remit is more focused on providing a vehicle for consumers bonded by a mutual interest to get involved with the host and each other. Consider www.nzgirl.co.nz against any women's title you care to mention. The former provides an opportunity for a specific segment of NZ society to interact on a number of levels - leisure, social concerns, health, shopping and so on, while the latter offers primarily a passive entertainment function."
Proximity iD md Angela Day believes there's still a lot to learn about online media. "It's up to agencies and publishers to help educate marketers about the opportunities." But, she says, you only have to look at media spend data to see that NZ is following the global trend of increasingly moving into the online media channel.
"A lot of people find it hard, mainly because they don't understand it. But this is changing." And, says Day, it's as much about brand awareness as it is about click-through rates. "One of the biggest things is it allows marketers to measure their campaigns more accurately. The data regarding click-through rates, number of hits, page impressions and so on, can be measured more effectively." In general there are more figures around these online magazines so things are more quantifiable, she says.
FCB's Lipsham also highlights the measurability factor. "Advertisers are becoming more savvy and recognising online advertising as a key opportunity to develop databases for ongoing marketing." She says in an increasingly accountable market, it has the benefit of being extremely measurable, to the extent that advertisers can now track click throughs from advertising to their site to see if it converts to a sale.
"We usually see online working best as part of an integrated campaign working in tandem with mass media which drives brand awareness and online call to action and acquisition."
Lipsham notes it's interesting to see stand-alone sites replicating a magazine format, proving very successful without the credibility of an existing print brand.
However, Larmer predicts online-only will be dominated by the stronger print titles "The print titles are not stupid and they will leverage the online space just as successfully. If they don't, they lose out."
((c) 2006 Profile Publishing Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand, and can not be used without prior permission of the publisher.)