Four Reasons Why Layoffs Won’t Slow Publishers’ Digital Growth…

FOLIO ponder if publishing layoffs will affect digital growth. Here’s four reasons it won’t:

1) It hasn’t, and the trend is usually your friend. We recently reported that October was our biggest month ever and though our sales team certainly deserves some credit, most of it goes to publishers’ realizing that digital magazines represent a cost-effective way to increase circulation while reducing costs.

2) Speaking of reducing costs, most digital initiatives do. Make no mistake: fully featured video production and other solutions can put a dent in online media costs, but more often than not, your digital dollar goes further.

3) Consider the alternatives: Invest more in print - a medium where costs are increasing? Not likely. Hunker down and wait for things to get better. That’ll work, a little, for some companies, for a while. Not long-term, though for anyone.

4) The tail might already be wagging the dog. FOLIO writes: "Layoffs at Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Fast Company, forced its standalone online group to merge with its print department." However, the actual press release says this: "Koten said that in addition to cutting 20 staffers, including three
of 12 executive committee posts, he would merge Mansueto Digital
into its two print departments, and that sales and editorial
staffers would handle digital as well as print." So if everyone is going to be doing digital and print work, how does this insinuate that digital won’t grow? All things equal, shouldn’t the cheaper, more immediate and more multi-faceted medium win?