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Slate: Sports Illustrated is broken, but here is how to fix it

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Double Down, Oct 31, 2007.

  1. henryhenry

    henryhenry Member

    i've never understood this. please explain.

    the older demo has money. younger demo does not.

    older demo buys more expensive things than younger demo.

    why is older demo poison?

    the obsession over younger readers baffles me. yes, i can see the point about generating future readership. but if 'future readership' is of no value once they turn 40 or 50, why bother?
     
  2. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    The reason to obsess over the younger demo: Eventually that younger demo will have money and they'll be the driving force. When they're in control, they may not go back to SI because they were never there to begin with.

    SI can still serve the YouTube generation AND do right by the Baby Boomers.
     
  3. henryhenry

    henryhenry Member

    you're caught in a catch-22.

    you say "eventually the younger demo will have money..''

    but by that time they're old. and supposedly not important.

    that's the premise you are starting from.

    how can it be important to snag younger readers because eventually they will have money, if you don't care about older readers when they DO have money?
     
  4. Monroe Stahr

    Monroe Stahr Member

    SI's problems go a lot deeper than this. You can't even get past the table of contents in this week's issue without reading that Ben Roethlisberger plays for the "Stealers." You'd never see a mistake like that in the Good Old Days. It's just a much more careless publication now.
     
  5. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    The presumption in the ad world is that the older demo already has its buying behavior set -- it knows what works, what doesn't work and what it wants, from past experience and use. It isn't swayed by advertising the way the young demo is. Young demo hasn't formed its buying habits yet, so ads can make a difference.

    At my age, no amount of slick advertising is going to make me buy a Chevy. I'll buy it based on product improvement (if any) from the sleds GM has sold for years. But if I'm 25 years younger, maybe a cool ad gets me into a Chevy crossover SUV, at which point I learn a hard lesson after GM already has my money.

    Now, I think that's just stagnant thinking by advertising. They need to get better at reaching and persuading people who allegedly are set in their ways. If I'm a client, I want to go after the people who have the most disposable income today. And if I believe in my product, then I want to choose an ad agency that can get my message across regardless of someone's past habits.
     
  6. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    This illustrates what Frank Ridgeway noted previously here, the difference between distinctive and fake voices. Whenever I see a Gary Smith byline now, I know I'm in for a heavy cosmic experience in which Fred Quarterback's choice of polo shirt and decision to shower vs. bathe all means something deep and momentous and, probably, influenced by his daddy or his grandpappy on mom's side.

    Wasn't it Freud who said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar?" I don't want to always have to pack a lunch and a couch and a hankie, or take a deep breath before reading something long and dense that starts out, "You open up the refrigerator and see it: Boiled ham. You think about the sandwiches you toted to school back in fourth grade, through the rain and the sleet and the . . . " Enough.

    Unless a writer mixes up his voices the way a pitcher mixes up his offerings, it starts to become self-parody. Like William Shatner's "singing" style.
     
  7. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Why does SI have to be hip? When I started reading it as a young boy, I wasn't hip, and I don't think the magazine was. It was good.

    And is hip even hip anymore?
     
  8. So Gary Smith has a "fake voice"?

    Wow. Tough crowd here.
     
  9. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    Gary doesn't have a fake voice. I don't agree with that at all.

    But I do think, sometimes, he fakes his own voice. If that makes sense.
     
  10. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Look, I know it's Gary St. Smith here on this board, and that he could buy me and my dog several times over. I admire a lot of his work. But how comes a lot of us schlepps can be told to "pick our spots" in terms of writing, while letting other stories "come to us", yet he can swing from the heels on every article he writes and we're supposed to automatically genuflect whether he makes contact or not?

    Deep meaning in a sports story is a device, and any device can be overused. I didn't mean to toss a "fake" label on him or anyone else, so I guess I meant more like Double Down just noted. I prefer to read stories where the writer leads me on a tour and shows me the story as I see it, rather than someone who stands in front of me and, lecture-like, tells me exactly what he determines the story is.
     
  11. Monroe Stahr

    Monroe Stahr Member

    Maybe the answer for SI is to come out with multiple editions each week, each aimed at a different age group. Then the magazine wouldn't have to try to be all things to all people. I wonder if what I'm suggesting is even feasible. I mean, publications come out with regional editions, why not editions aimed at the various demographics?
     
  12. wickedwritah

    wickedwritah Guest

    It's already done, IIRC, with Time putting out different versions of an edition -- same editorial content, different advertising -- based on income level.
     
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