Finding A Niche

I just finished a tough 24 hours. About 8:00 PM last night, I realized my house was heating up. The air conditioner was running, but not cooling.

Believe me--Texas in the summer is not the place to be without AC. By 3:00 AM this morning, my thermostat was sitting at 90 degrees--the maximum reading. I slept less than an hour overnight.

I have a whole new appreciation for the pioneers of yore. Also for my air conditioning repairman, Heath, who arrived just after 10:00 AM. He took a reading inside my house of 99 degrees (It got to 105 degrees today outside). One hour and $30 later, I was back in business. Thank you, Lord. I tumbled into bed this afternoon and slept the rest of the day away on blessedly cool sheets.

There was an interesting article by Andrew Hampp in The Columbus Dispatch about two weeks ago. On the surface, it seemed to be contradictory of current trends about people reading less. However, it's actually an excellent example of the long tail in operation again.

"Despite the popularity of the Internet, magazines are enjoying a heyday. About 20 are launched each week in the United States, serving everyone from hopeful mothers (Fertility Today) to the owners of obscure pets (Modern Ferret)."

According to the American Society of Magazine Editors, more than 21,000 consumer and trade magazines are in circulation--an increase of about 5,000 since 1990. Advertising revenues for magazines reached an all-time high in 2005 of $23 billion, up from $17 billion in 2002.

Hampp says, while general interest magazines are dying, niche magazines are driving the industry.

Early casualties of the new Internet environment were news magazines. "Since 2002, Time and Newsweek have laid off employees throughout the world, having seen circulation and readership slowly evaporate."

Industry experts were quoted, saying that readers expect to get their news faster than print media can provide it. Instead, those news magazines are making "the switch from print to all-Web formats."

Meanwhile, Chris Anderson's The Long Tail is surfacing in print media as well. Remember Anderson's central thesis: "Technology is bringing an end to the blockbuster and replacing it with a proliferation of specific products."

"'Culture has always been diverse; we just didn't have the vehicles to get it out there,' said Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine." He describes monthly magazines as filling "the sweet spot" between the Web and a book. "It has the relevance of the moment of the Web, but the depth . . . of a book."

Nina Link, president of the Magazine Publishers of America, said that the industry is reflecting the American search for identity. People form communities, and the niche magazines are perfect examples of these specialized communities--"whether you're a bass fisherman or a scrapbooker."