The Return of Print?
More and more brands are relaunching their print magazines to capitalize on an upsurge of interest in physical media
Editor’s Note: To JMM’s Drake University journalism crew, welcome back to campus. May your fall semester be full of capitative storytelling, easy-to-get sources, and snuggles with Griff.
Last year something unthinkable happened—well, other than Taylor Swift fans causing a minor earthquake in Seattle. Vinyl record sales officially topped CD sales for the first time since 1987, fans snatching up over 6.1 million albums. Sure, those numbers are nowhere near the 180 billion audio streams fans guzzled, but it’s a continued sign that a growing number of people want to hold, touch, and engage with real physical media.
In fact, physical media is in the middle of a moment of sorts. Plenty of folks are realizing that while technically all things digital are forever—your Ice Bucket Challenge video will never go away—some things are ephemeral. Netflix can pull down your favorite show without notice. Apple can pull back that video purchase whenever it wants. You never really own those ones and zeros— and you sure as hell can hold it in your hand. So, people are buying vinyl records and cassettes and Blu-ray DVDs, all of which saw increased sales over the last year. And some publishers are betting they’ll buy print magazines too.
In the last year, several brands have relaunched their print runs. Nylon returned earlier this year after ending its print edition in 2017. Saveur did as well. Country stars Eric Church and Morgan Wallen put Field & Stream back on the newsstand. Elle returned from its four-year nap. Complex announced it would relaunch its magazine, though it hasn’t actually hit shelves yet. And now comes word that even Playboy wants to get back into the print game, producing an annual title set for release this coming February.
But while print used to be the pillar of a media brand, holding up a vast empire of events, digital content, and brand-extension products Atlas style, it’s now the artful design in your latte foam—that little extra flourish that makes something you already love just a little better. Need proof: Just look at the recent New York Times story about the relaunch of a monthly print edition of The Onion. The satirical stalwart hasn’t had a physical presence since axing the last of its print editions in 2013. But now the new monthly newspaper edition is seen as a way to keep digital subscribers loyal to the brand, a perk that you can add on to your existing $5 a month subscription to the site.
And there’s something to that idea. Holding a magazine or newspaper in your hands is a completely different experience than scrolling online. There’s a sense of rhythm and discovery, a new idea or story with each flip of the page. You run into information you didn’t know you wanted, expanding your world in ways intentional searches never can.
What’s even better? Someone did that on purpose. Magazines are intentionally curated—something JMM thinks the world is sorely missing. In the before times, when print ruled the media world, editors figured out what was worth your precious time and what wasn’t. In the digital age, you drink from the infotainment firehose, hoping you gulp something you like. You’ll sit on the couch for hours hoping to find something to grab you. The irony: A recent study showed that scrolling through your social feeds actually increases your sense of boredom rather than alleviates it. If attention is the new currency, curators can help you make better use of it.
Of course, this small resurgence of print isn’t lifting all boats. Time magazine recently announced it was laying off 22 staffers, its second round of layoffs this year. The legacy brand is focusing on core growth areas—climate change, health, and AI—while fighting the hefty headwinds of decreasing advertising and lower traffic due to significant changes in search and social algorithms.
And they’re not alone. Plenty of other brands have shed employees in hopes of finding a balance between the cost of creating engaging content and the need to squeeze out a profit in a difficult marketplace. Print is now a luxury product, which makes it perfect for the niche brands listed above. “We want to be like vinyl,” an editor at a small travel magazine recently told JMM during an interview. And that’s great for the folks who love exploring the world just by holding some glued sheets of paper in their hands. But like vinyl, if you can’t make a premium off the sale of print or drive revenue in other spaces, then no amount of nostalgia for physical things is going to make the cost of producing a magazine worth it.
Fight the Power
In the last year, tech writer Corey Doctorow’s idea of “enshittification” has spread across the web, the term becoming shorthand for the quagmire of suck the internet has turned into. The premise is simple: companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple all created products that originally were good for the user, serving them the content and goods they wanted. Once locked into using those tools, though, Big Tech has twisted them to no longer work for the user but work first for other businesses in the form of targeted advertising, and then for the companies themselves to milk the most money possible out of both you and their corporate clients. The result is a web that doesn’t work for anyone other than big tech companies.
In a speech two weeks ago to Defcon 32, the annual hackers convention in Las Vegas, Doctorow not only gave a keynote address that broke down the three tenants of “enshittification,” he also introduced a new term: twiddling. It’s when the algorithms take over, screwing everyone out of their hard-earned cash or, worse yet, conspiring to keep people from getting paid in the first place. They use tools like TikTok’s “heating tool,” which can push one account into millions of extra feeds, to juice up a space in the app to attract more users and more content creators, creating a trend out of nothing, before removing the heat and leaving folks high and dry.
“Platforms can play games with every part of their business logical, in highly automated ways, that allows them to quickly and efficiently siphon value from end users to business customers and back again,” he said during the speech, “hiding the pea in a shell game conducted at machine speeds until they’ve got everyone so turned around that they take all the value for themselves.”
Ultimately, his speech is a great if cynical breakdown of the current state of the internet, where a few monopolies rule, and we seem powerless to do anything about it—unless we push for regulation and competition across the web. And if we don’t: Well, get used to things getting shittier and shittier.
Another OpenAI Deal
Proud Chat GPT pappa OpenAI announced another partnership with a legacy media company last week. In a press release on its site, OpenAI unveiled its partnership with Conde Nast, home of Vogue, Conde Nast Traveler, Architectural Digest, and Bon Appetite.
Like previous Preferred Publishers deals, the new partnership with Conde Nast allows Chat GPT to stay up to date on the latest fashion trends and luxury destinations while Conde gets an undisclosed amount of cash in its pocket and guarantees its content will be surfaced by SearchGPT, the OpenAI search engine currently being slow-rolled out.
In a letter to Conde staff posted on the publisher’s site, CEO Roger Lynch positioned the deal as a way to get ahead of technology changes. “Over the last decade, news and digital media have faced steep challenges as many technology companies eroded publishers’ ability to monetize content, most recently with traditional search,” he wrote. “Our partnership with OpenAI begins to make up for some of that revenue, allowing us to continue to protect and invest in our journalism and creative endeavors.”
(Note his dig at traditional search, a.k.a. Google. See “enshittification.”)
This is just the latest in a series of deals OpenAI has inked with publishers including Dotdash Meredith, Time, the Associated Press, News Corp., and more. Several other companies, most notably the New York Times, are suing OpenAI over copyright infringement, while three authors recently filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging its AI model Claude was trained on copyrighted material.
Summer Lovin’
The hot months have been good to Drake journalism students. Over the last several months multiple contests have released their results. There’s a lot of bling to go around.
The big one: Drake ended up 5th in the Hearst Intercollegiate Writing Competition, which pits 105 AEJMC-accredited j-schools across the country against each other. That’s a big deal. And what’s even bigger is that we’re the only small private school to place in that competition, and the only one of two private schools to make the cut in all five intercollegiate showdowns. That’s a pretty big hell yeah, all thanks to three writers—CJ Younger (’23, MMJ), Julia Jennings (’23, Mags), and junior Lincoln Roch, who has since relocated to the University of Colorado.
But wait, there’s more. The Associated Collegiate Press released its spring Clips & Clicks awards. Drake did pretty solid there, particularly in the Best Feature Story category, where we flat-out dominated:
Best Magazine Cover:
First Place: Lily Echenrode (’24, Ads, GD), Gen Zyn, Drake Mag Spring ‘24
Best Magazine Page/Spread:
Second Place: Paige Minor (’24, GD), “Music & Politics,” Drake Political Review Spring ‘24
Third Place: Paige Minor, “How to Protest Like the French,” Drake Political Review Spring ‘24
Fourth Place, Maddie Kruse (’24, GD), “Tea Time Treasures,” Drake Mag Spring ‘24
Best News Story:
Fourth Place: Mack Swenson (Senior, MMJ, S&R), “Drake's Budget: How Did We Get Here?” Times-Delphic
Best Feature Story:
First Place: Sarah Jamil (’24, MBM), “A Generation in Crisis,” Drake Mag Spring ‘24
Third Place: Nate Eisenmann (’24, MMJ, BChem), “What Silence Actual Sounds Like,” Urban Plains
Fourth Place: Eve Loehrer (Soph., SCom, GD), “All About the Drake Greenhouse,” Times-Delphic
Honorable Mention: Tori Soliz (’24, MBM, DMP), “The New Satanic Panic, Urban Plains
Oh, and let’s not forget that the College Media Association released its list of Pinnacle finalists last week. Alongside the Pacemaker and Hearst Awards, the Pinnacles are one of the top student journalism awards in the country. The winners will be announced at the joint ACP/CMA conference at the end of October. If the list of finalists is any indication, we’re in for a good night.
Feature Magazine of the Year, Division II:
Drake Political Review, Fall ‘23, Madeline Crawford, EIC
Best Editorial Design, Division II:
Princess Hart (’23, GD), “Accessibility in Cities,” Drake Mag Fall ‘23
Paige Minor, “The New Space Race,” Drake Political Review, Fall ‘23
Best Headline, Division II:
Emily Zeller (Senior, Ads, GD), “Triggering Change,” Drake Political Review, Spring ‘24
Best Magazine Contents Page, Division II:
Lily Eckenrode, Drake Mag Spring ’24 Contents Page, Drake Mag Spring ‘24
Best Magazine Cover, Division II:
Lily Eckenrode, Drake Mag Spring ’24 Cover, Drake Mag Spring ‘24
Paige Minor, Drake Political Review Fall ’23 Cover, Drake Political Review Fall ’23
Best Magazine Entertainment Spread/Page
Maddie Kruse, “Spring Drinks,” Drake Mag Spring ‘24
Paige Minor, “In a Barbie World,” Drake Political Review Fall ‘23
Best Magazine Feature Page/Spread, Division II:
Princess Hart, “Accessibility in Cities,” Drake Mag Fall ‘23
Paige Minor, “The New Space Race,” Drake Political Review, Fall ‘23
Best Magazine News Page/Spread, Division II:
Paige Minor, “Ukraine: The Forgotten War,” Drake Political Review Spring ‘24
Best Sports Feature, Division II:
Lia Reichman (’24, MMJ, Hist), Madeline Cisneros (’24, MBM, Writ) “The Pressure to Preform,” Urban Plains
Best Coverage of Diversity, Division II:
Sarah Jamil, “The Gender-Affirming Oasis of Identity Salon.” Urban Plains
Best Coverage of Faith, Division II:
Sadie Jones (Soph., MMJ), “I Can Have a Spiritual Journey,” Drake Mag Fall ‘23
Best Feature Story, Division II:
Sarah Jamil, “A Generation in Crisis,” Drake Mag Spring ‘23
Nate Eisenmann, “What Silence Sounds Like,” Urban Plains
Best General News Story, Division II:
Andrew Kennard (’24, MMJ, Writ), “What Can a City Do When Its Sister Is In Trouble?” Urban Plains
Pull the Wagon
The Times-Delphic is looking for a distributor. Every Wednesday morning you’ll make sure all the racks on campus are full of the latest issue of TD. You’ll also grab the few leftover copies of last week’s issue, tally those for each location, and report that info to the TD’s editor-in-chief Mack Swenson to refine distribution. Oh, and you get paid a little bit too.
For more details and to apply, reach out to Swenson at mackenzie.swenson@drake.edu.
Internships, Fellowships, and More
• Lessing-Flynn wants a marketing copywriting intern. The Des Moines marketing agency wants you to work 10-15 hours a week. You’ll start work in late September and work through December with the possibility of extending through the spring. No word on pay, though there is compensation. For more info and to apply, click here.
• Strategic Elements wants a fall communications and public affairs intern for its Des Moines branch. The gig runs Sept. 1-Dec. 15. It’s a hybrid gig, meaning you’ll have to hit the DSM office every now and then. But for $20.50 an hour that’s worth it. Apply here.
•Greater Iowa Habitat for Humanity wants a marketing intern. You’ll help with social, of course, but also work on email marketing and digital media strategies. You need to work 15-20 hours per week. Pay is $13 an hour. The gig runs the entire school year. Even better, you’ll be helping a great cause. Apply here.
• Warner Bros. Discovery just opened several academic-year CNN internships. The positions include working for the National Desk, The Lead with Jake Tapper, Underscored, The Row, and more. The positions run from October to April, require 16-24 hours per week, and are hybrid, meaning you need to live in Atlanta or New York during your time with CNN. All positions are paid, and credit is also available. Interviews are being conducted throughout August. For more info, click here.
• Iowa PBS is looking for a fall graphic design and emerging media intern—but you have to be quick. Applications close today. You’ll work out of the Johnston, Iowa, office. You’ll be paid $12 an hour (this is public media, after all). Apply here.
• The Chicago Tribune is looking for a general newsroom intern. You’re expected to work 40 hours per week, so you’ll need to take the semester off. You’ll cover major news like any other reporter. Applications are due Aug. 30. Get more info here.
Got a Hot Tip?
Do you have some essential info or did you have a hell of a great internship experience like Maria Heath (Sen., PR)? If so, then let JMM know by sending that juicy news on over to jeff.inman@drake.edu. JMM will treat it like this great video on the first day of police training for Des Moines’ latest recruits from Zoe Sadauskis (’24, MMJ, DMP) and tell everyone about it.
Finally, why you should capitalize your hashtags.
This is quality!