Friday, March 21, 2008

Get over yourselves

Finalists for the National Magazine Awards have been announced prompting Dylan Stableford to rightly point out how New York centric they've become. (Full post here.)

Actually, nothing new there. And in fact the awards point out a number of flaws in today's magazine industry:

  • Instead of worrying about how to attract more readers and to become more relevant the industry is instead patting itself on the back once a year.
  • The awards tend to given to those magazines and subject matter that mean something to editors in New York. The reality is that the rest of America's interests rarely match those living in New York.
  • Readers don't care about awards. They care about good content. I am willing to bet that winning this award has NEVER resulted in a magazine making more money or increasing circulation.
It's time to get over yourselves.

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