I 100% agree David, magazines will never die (unless by some miracle Sony come up with a good Ebook reader replicating the full page on a nice, thin, flexible tablet size piece of technology) due in no part to the fact that full page ads are part of the genetic make-up of a magazine.
I'm sure plenty of ads drive readers nuts, but when an ad is targeted and serves the audience it helps the magazine - Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, GQ etc all thrive with massive amounts of full page-ads - much to the annoyance of some, but to the delight of the main reader.
Try replicating those ads on the web - Skyscrapers, Leaderboards and Pop-ups, no matter how well targetted, or how much creative went into them, pale in comparison to the impact from a full page or double page spread.
That being said, I'm an emedia guy (ex-print) and I think the 2 mediums (plus video, podcasts etc) will live side-by-side for many moons to come.
JB
Jason:
I couldn't agree with you more both on the role that ads play in the reader's experience of a magazine, or the impact of all that ink on paper.
It's interesting, too, that print ads (and most banner ads) don't interrupt the reader's experience with the media, but are part of a usually seamless whole, whereas television and radio ads (and pop ups and interstitials) are a complete interruption of that experience.
There is an exception--some of the magazines you mention run spread after spread after spread between bits of editorial. I find that generally less effective. But then again, I'm not in the market, usually, for fashion items.
E-paper will make a difference in how magazines are delivered, but I don't think it will change the fundamental value of the way editorial and advertising works together in a magazine to create a complete reader experience.
David
Commenting by HaloScan
