However, I would start by saying that advertising in magazines is falling off precipitously. It didn't fall off as quickly as it did in newspapers, but it's catching up. Magazine advertising in Canada is down 50% plus. In fact, the advertising in 2016 is actually falling off faster than it did in the economic slowdown of 2008-09, so it's catching.
It's not because advertisers don't like magazine advertising. It's that they have to play across the whole ecosystem and they have to take it from somewhere, and they take it from where they have been traditionally spending it. The environment right now is that we are under enormous pressure with the decline of print advertising. That's our biggest threat.
The reason magazine advertising works is a two-part one. First, it's the only medium where the consumer actually likes the advertising. If you were to ask a woman if you could give her Vogue magazine with the ads or without the ads, she would say that it has to be with the ads. You're not going to get that in television, you're not going to get that in radio, and in newspapers they don't care that much, but advertising in magazines is considered part of the content. It's welcome. That's number one.
Number two, the relationship between a magazine and a reader is a long-term relationship. It's one on one, with a single reader and a single editor, and they form a relationship that lasts a long time. They either love the magazine or they don't. You will know this, I hope, from your own behaviour when you say that you really love one magazine and are not so fond of another one. You fall in love with a magazine, with the narrative arc of the magazine, the conception of the magazine, the judgments and the choices that the editor makes, the way the stories unfold, and the usefulness of the magazine. All of those things create an emotional connection, a loyalty between the reader and the magazine, driven by the vision of the editor.
That loyalty and that environment are very helpful to the advertisers. It's why the advertisers will choose to be in some magazines and not in others. As you pointed out, it's a niche medium, so advertisers will choose the environment of a magazine that's appropriate. If they're selling shampoo, cars, or banking services, whatever they're advertising, they'll choose the environment that they think works best for them. What they love about magazines and what's powerful about magazines is that openness of readers to the advertising as part of the content, and the emotional connection, the sort of warmth around that experience, as opposed to an interruptive experience.
