How can a weekly entertainment magazine compete when its information is being seen and consumed on a daily basis online. And while subscription may have dropped in 2008, EW says publicly that they have no plans to drop their print edition. The challenge is that subscriptions will continue to drop as their consumers stop renewing. In fact their audience seems to prefer consuming their content on the web, as their traffic their actually grows. Consumers may enjoy the content that EW offers, but their consumption patterns are changing and so must EW.
First, stopping a print subscription does not necessarily mean stopping a digital subscription. Using digital readers like Kindle and Sony will save printing costs. perhaps consider bundling your subscription with others in your family of "magazines" and offer a free reader with a 2 year subscription to three digital mags of the consumers' choice. Bundling has worked for the cable industry, it might just work for digital magazines.
Otherwise, the path seems clear. EW, like the Christian Science Monitor before it and others soon after, will be announcing the end of their magazine subscription. With online competition from its own web site as well as others like Perez Hilton and TMZ, delivering the latest entertainment news on demand, technology is killing the print edition.
Sure makes sense to go digital-only. PC Magazine has already done so with Zinio.
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