Submitted: The Two Sides Team October 22, 2013
In a workshop sponsored by the Magazine Innovation Center and Publishing Executive, Meredith Corp. CEO Steve Lacy said: "Industry-wide, except in some very vertical publications that create time-sensitive information, [tablet readers are] 2% of the audience. And don't let anyone fool you with other numbers because it's not true."
via IPDA News – 9 October 2013
In a workshop sponsored by the Magazine Innovation Center and Publishing Executive, Meredith Corp. CEO Steve Lacy said: "Industry-wide, except in some very vertical publications that create time-sensitive information, [tablet readers are] 2% of the audience. And don't let anyone fool you with other numbers because it's not true. So, I would love to get out of the paper business, but we don't have 100 million women rushing our corporate office telling us no more print. They in fact like the print, they in fact like the Web site, they like the tablet if they're traveling, and if they're in the grocery, they want a recipe from Allrecipes on their smartphone. So guess what? They want it all. And what we have to do is figure out an efficient way to maintain that connection and try to find some way to monetize all that digital content we're creating, the vast majority of which is not monetized in our industry today. He also said that Meredith's sales, on an absolute (not percentage) basis, are up more in print than in digital. He noted the scale of its Allrecipes Magazine launch (500,000 circ rate base), and said "we've never sold orders as easily." he said that the myth that print is dying is largely based on titles that cover time-sensitive information, many of which are indeed challenged. "But most of us are not in that business; we are in the enthusiast area, where evergreen content, can be very easily extended across platforms," he said. More of his comments at link below.
Mr.Magazine