Monocle Magazine

Over the last two weeks, I got to attended Internet Week and Advertising 2.0. At both these events one central question kept coming up: how to save the news and magazine business? I heard a lot of good and bad ideas that ranged from allowing premium access on web sites where people pay for some content to turning leading news papers into public properties like the NPR. Got me thinking about one media property that seems to run counter to every major trend: Monocle Magazine.

I first heard about it when a professor of brand strategy mentioned it to me. My initial take on the magazine was that is was overly pretentious and lacking in real substance. However, on giving it a second chance, I decided that they were in fact  pretty innovative and differentiated on multiple dimensions.

Content

In an age where traditional investigatory journalism seems to be dying in favor of pithy, punchy stories, Moncole invests heavily in sending their journalists and photographers to conduct extensive research on stories and to pick stories that are unique (innovation in Estonia, high-culture in Abu Dhabi, natural resources in Mongolia). This old school, on-the-ground, fact- based, long-form journalism is a breadth of fresh air amidst the cacophony of self-indulgent Tweets and poorly written blogs I find myself mired in. I also like the way in which content is organized: Affairs, Business, Culture, Design, Edits and the fact that they shun celebrity (the writers are not very well known). Also, their articles almost always focus on the notion of unexpected quality — stories about a 100-year-old Wisconsin shoe company that’s a luxury brand in Asia, to a lighting maverick changing the world of engineering are typical.

Customer

Your archetypical economist reader is probably male, older, over-educated, bespectacled, not terribly cool and works in a bank.

Your archetypical GQ reader is probably male, aesthetically inclined, educated enough, stylish, fashionable, mildly superficial and perhaps slightly insecure about  his intelligence.

Monocle is Economist + GQ. What is interesting to me is that they are not only going after the intersection of these two groups, but probably play on the insecurities of both groups as well i.e. smart people who want to seem hip and hip people who want to seem smart!

Distribution

Physical circulation of newspapers and magazines have dropped significantly over the last year. Monocle’s  business model is centered around the palpability of their physical product. The magazine is designed beautifully and is even considered a collectors item by some of their die hard fans. If you miss an issue, back issues cost double! Unlike most magazines that are available in supermarkets, convenient stores etc. Monocle makes sure that their distribution channels  are consistent with the overall brand image. For instance, when I was at the Design Museum last week, I found it in the Museum store.

Price

It is expensive! Priced at over $120 per year, it is more than than twice as expensive as the price of the median magazine in a similar category (factoring for frequency of distribution as well). Furthermore, while most magazines give you a discount when you subscribe for 12 months, Monocle charges you extra!

Business Model

Lastly, are they in the magazine business or in the lifestyle consumer products business? The magazine serves as a product catalog for Monocle branded hand bags, pens, T-shirts, wallets etc. They even have physical stories around the world (New York, London, Tokyo, LA)  where  you can shop. Magazines should never enter the retail business but hey… thats what they told Apple!

I would to love to look at their financials to see if their vision translates into $$$. However, I do give them points for attempting to disrupt the magazine business by….being a magazine.