1. Trends and Strategies in the Creative Industries – CC3201 Individual Paper Manou Lourens – 319142 Introduction The assignment for week 8 is to write a research proposal for the question my group and I selected a couple of weeks ago. The question we chose to do research on came from Sofie Spindler. Sofie Spindler is an art director from Amsterdam and she asked us the following question: Is the medium really still the message and have digital media and interactive media influenced and pushed and rein ventured the structure of the classic magazine format? In this pitch I will be the owner of a research company that excels in academic research for the creative industries and I will write this proposal for my client and to the board of her company. Literature review In this literature review I would like to analyze the benefits and disadvantages of printed and online magazines in relation to the main question: Is the medium really still the message and have digital media and interactive media influenced and pushed and rein ventured the structure of the classic magazine format? For magazine publishers, the Internet represents both an opportunity and a threat. First I will discuss the benefits of printed magazines. A magazine can be seen as a promise. A promise which is trusted and always surprising. A magazine is often called ‘a good friend’. This makes a magazine a good environment for advertisers and their promises. The magazine is an essential part of a media plan. The unlimited spreading force, the ability to transfer emotions and the strong reader-magazine binding (NUV, 2009: 11). Printed magazines offer a lot of opportunities to advertisers. From split covers until inserts and perfume tips, from transparent or fluorescent covers until sealed samples and added gifts like bags or shawls. Adding little books is popular and gives the advertiser a good opportunity to connect editorial content to a outline of products and services and offers (NUV, 2009: 12-13). -520701663702433320242570 ‘Scratch ‘Endless and sniff’ creative opportunities’ The new generation reads fewer printed magazines and spend more time to online media. Online magazines may be digitized, they can be reproduced and distributed at roughly zero marginal cost (Shapiro and Varian, 1999). Magazines are still popular among females, elderly people, higher educated people, singles and young parents (NUV, 2009: 14). Reading printed media (as main activity in spare time) participation and pastime, population 12 years and older 1975-2005 -444562230 Source: SCP (TBO 1975-2005) Now I will discuss the benefits of online magazines. By offering digitized magazines, producers can increase sales and attract new customers all over the world at little extra cost. Consumers may read the electronic magazine usually for free and will not buy the printed magazine. ‘The more content the publisher offers online, the more likely consumers are to substitute electronic content for paper content’ (Simon, 2007). Offering more electronic magazines may exacerbate the ‘cannibalization’ of printed magazines. On the other hand, not offering online magazines may result in consumers switching to different online magazines. In order to resolve the dilemma between printed- and online magazines, publishers must consider an important question: How will their digital magazines affect demand for their printed products? It is critical for firms to understand whether online magazines are compliments or substitutes for their traditional magazine format (Shapiro and Varian, 1999). If the firm’s digital complement its traditional magazines, then offering free content can be very beneficial. But, if online magazines substitute for traditional magazines then the threat of cannibalization makes electronic magazines a much less attractive proposition. Proposal for further research In this proposal I will offer further research on the question: Is the medium really still the message and have digital media and interactive media influenced and pushed and rein ventured the structure of the classic magazine format? This proposition is important to complete the answer to the question about new media and the traditional magazine format. I will also include methodologies used by authors that have addressed similar problems. In my literature review I discussed the benefits and disadvantages of printed and online magazines and in this proposal I shall convene these outcomes too. If we simplify the main question we get this issue: What happens to the demand of printed magazines if magazines launch a website? This question is empirically analyzed in ‘The Effects of Website Provision on the Demand for German Woman’s Magazines’ by Ulrich Kaiser. In this analyzation some models for differentiated product demand are estimated on panel data covering the period 1999-2000. The outcome of this issue is that website provision does not significantly affect magazines’ market shares. Printed magazines that launched a website faced a lower price elasticity of demand than competitors that did not go online (Kaiser, 2001). The magazines’ website contents shows that websites are used to provide the information of the printed magazine and advertise current print issues. This is also an outcome of my literature review about compliments or substitutes. I recommend the analyzation of Ulrich Kaiser, because of the wingspan of the period of investigation. In one year a lot can be measured and by using panel data the conclusion of the research can be seen as deducible and reliable. In many ways, new electronic communication technologies have brought about unprecedented changes to the magazine industry. ‘The interactivity, immediacy and limitless space provided by the Internet have rendered the Internet an ideal medium for online publishing’ (Peng, 1999).From this point of view I want to propose a research theory about the increasing or decreasing popularity of printed and online magazines. First, I will analyze the printed magazine circulation and prices from several great woman’s glossies from 1990 until the upcoming five years. In this way I have an overview from twenty-five years and I think this will be enough to formulate a trend in this creative industry. In the nearby future I think printed magazines will still be existing, because of the many benefits I already discussed in the literature review. The prices are also very important because of the increase or decrease of printed magazines. I think when the price of a printed magazine reduces, the printed form is not very popular anymore and I want to investigate if this will happen and when. After analyzing the magazine circulation and prices, I will have a look at the magazines which have also posted their magazine online. In this way I hope I can exclude some printed magazines from the analyzation, which makes it a little bit easier to continue my research on the development of printed and online magazines. Then I will look at the data the website was registered. This comes in handy when I want to investigate the trend in relation with printed magazines and online magazines. Thereafter I will investigate if the distribution of the printed magazine decreases when the magazine is also posted online. If this is so, I will do a survey among woman in the age of thirteen until fifty, because I think this is the target glossy magazines want to connect with. When the conclusion of the survey is that woman began to read the magazine online, the next question I want to investigate is: Why do woman read the magazine and is it better to read the printed version or can it also be red online? I think this is one of the many questions which will appear when I will do this analyzation of printed and online magazines and I think the outcome will be very interesting. The conclusion of this analysis can be positive or negative. By this I mean that printed and electronic magazines can be complements or substitutes, which I mentioned already in my literature review. Financial proposal This financial proposal will include a research on what it would cost my client to hire me for the proposal I noted above. First I need to mention that the research program I developed takes a lot of effort and the investigation and elaboration will take some years. The first couple of months the junior researcher will be busy analyzing the printed magazine circulation and prices from several great woman’s glossies from 1990 until the upcoming five years. I don’t think this is done in two months, so I suggest it will take the junior researcher four months to find and organize these kind of data. The price of the printed magazines is also very important to conclude some facts out of this first analazation. This task can also be done by the junior researcher, because I think it fits with the circulation from several great woman’s magazines from 1990 until the upcoming years. These prices will also be added to the other data. After analyzing these first data, I would hire the next researcher. This medior researcher should be given the task to analyze which magazines have also posted their writing online. The medior researcher will use the first outcomes of the junior researcher in his investigation. The medior researcher will also record the data the website was registered. This second task will take about two months, because the medior researcher is using the data from the junior researcher. The third investigation would be done by the senior researcher. The senior researcher will investigate if the distribution of printed magazine decreases when the magazine is also posted online. This third researcher will also use the results of the second researcher. I would like the senior researcher to do the survey among woman in the age of thirteen until fifty. This researcher is the most experienced en will make a good conclusion out of all the collected data. I think the third researcher needs 5 years to do this investigation to make a substantiated inference out of the analyzations and collected data. The junior researcher shall work on this research program for four months times 40 euro’s a hour, so his salary will be calculated like this: 10 hours a day times six days a week times four for one month times four to have the salary after four months. 10x40x6x4x4=€38400,- The medior researcher’s salary will be calculated the same way, only his salary is higher and he will work shorter on the program: 10x60x6x4x2=28800. The senior researcher’s salary will be calculated on a yearly base, his salary is also higher: 8987620x5=44938100. Management summary In this management summary I will clarify the outcomes of my study on the question: Is the medium really still the message and have digital media and interactive media influenced and pushed and rein ventured the structure of the classic magazine format? For magazine publishers, the Internet represents both an opportunity and a threat. A magazine is often called ‘a good friend’. This makes a magazine a good environment for advertisers and their promises. The new generation reads fewer printed magazines and spend more time to online media. It is critical for firms to understand whether online magazines are compliments or substitutes for their traditional magazine format (Shapiro and Varian, 1999). If the firm’s digital complement its traditional magazines, then offering free content can be very beneficial. But, if online magazines substitute for traditional magazines then the threat of cannibalization makes electronic magazines a much less attractive proposition. Critical reflection To start this critical reflection I would like to say that it was not an easy topic and main question to do research on, but I think I did a reasonable research proposal. I spend the most time on the literature review, because I would like to investigate if new media pushed and rein ventured the structure of the classic magazine format. In the literature review I have analyzed the benefits and disadvantages of printed and online magazines. The outcome of this investigation was that online magazines can be compliments or substitutes for their traditional magazine format. I think this is a good conclusion and we do not know what the future will bring, but I think the printed magazine will still be a fact for some years. It was hard to find appropriate sources for my investigation about the future of the magazine format and I believe that the ten scientific sources that had to be used are not achievable. The proposal for further research is far from complete and I think that in a further investigation I would have chosen some leading magazines to do my analysis on. But maybe this is not possible, because some magazines do not already exist for twenty-five years. I tried to make a good financial proposal, but I have no idea if the amounts of money are near to reality. To end this critical reflection I would like to say that I found it interesting to write a pitch this long and I hope it is in account with the practical requirements. Literature list Peng, F.Y. & Tham, N.I. & Xiaoming, H. 1999. Trends in Online Newspapers: A Look at the US Web. Kaiser, U. 2001. The Effects of Website Provision on the Demand for German Women's Magazines. University of Southern Denmark - Faculty of Social Sciences; Center for Economic and Business Research (CEBR); Centre for European Economic Research. Nederlands Uitgeversverbond (NUV) 2009. Handboek ter bevordering van tijdschriftreclame. Amsterdam. Simon, D. 2007. The relationship between print and electronic content in the consumer magazine industry. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.