Editechial

It’s been in the works for the past four years and we are now only a few months away from its launch.  Maghound is a Time Inc. property that is positioning themselves to be the “netflix” for the magazine industry.  Four years ago when this project started I would have said it had promise, however one has to wonder, with the current declining state of the magazine industry, how much traction this type of service will really have.

PaidContent, who released the story, had this to say, “The pricing: three titles for $3.95 per month; five titles for $7.95; seven titles for $9.95, and $1 per title for eight titles or more. Then titles that have a non-discounted traditional sub rate of around $19 or more per year are considered “premium” titles and will have an extra $2 fee per month..which means the likes of Economist, The Atlantic, New Yorker and and others would cost more…and surely will inhibit some of the potential growth. But thankfully, Maghound will retain complete rights to member names in order to keep customers from getting saturated with direct mail and e-mails from multiple publishers at the same time, the story says.  Will it work? This is probably an idea at least 5-7 years behind its time…the mass market that would have paid for this has already left the station a long time ago. For niche magazines, which tend to be premium priced, this would prove to be a bit too expensive.”

Obviously it is a thought provoking initiative, I personally still buy magazines on a regular basis, however the periodical market as a whole is diminishing on a rapid basis.  And considering that Netflix is having to find online solutions in order to augment their distribution, it makes me wonder if this is still a viable business model.  They may capture a portion of the market share temporarily since the economy may be forcing magazine subscribers to look at cutting their monthly costs, however in the long run I think they will be losing more customers than they will be gaining them.  Let’s remember that Netflix was able to gain their dominance in the market by being the largest online advertiser for years in a row, they essiantially “bought” market share and customers.  I don’t believe that Maghound has the type of funding that Netflix had and I believe this overall model is a day late and a dollar short.