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The power of exclusivity
I recently received a press release from a company highlighting the power of the internet compared with the demise of magazine advertising. Interestingly, the company had sent the press release to the editors of printed magazines. How I laughed at the irony.
Actually, it's not a laughing matter. It shows a complete misunderstanding of basic economics and the media in general. Beware such arguments.
Naturally, printed media is loosing market share to the internet: usually for the right reasons, sometimes for the wrong reasons. As a believer in innovation I would expect and welcome this shift.
However, every time you take one item of printed media from the market, the remaining items become a tiny bit more ‘special'. Continue this process and ‘special' becomes ‘scarce' and ‘scarce' ultimately becomes ‘exclusive'. As one moves along this path, commodity-based sales turn into negotiated deals and value rises.
I say let the internet become a commodity and let print be special. To highlight this further I recently reviewed a long list of websites, working backwards in date order. I was fascinated to discover that as I worked back in time an increasing number of the sites were unavailable, presumably having gone bust.
I encourage you to keep learning about print's evolving capabilities and apply the benefits where they add value. Where possible, build on print's exclusivity in today's increasingly digital world and charge accordingly. Believe me, the upside of this recession will come, let's not waste it.
Jon Barrett
Editor
