Maghound Sales Lackluster, But Should We Be Surprised?

An article over at MediaWeek lets us know that Maghound (Netflix for the magazine industry) is off to a relatively slow start:

"Maghound has been negligible as a source of
sales—below 1 percent in some cases—participating publishers
say."

From our perch, it’s not overly surprising. While the concept is certainly cool: mix and match your magazines, the execution is still old school. It takes a while for your first issue to show up and for changes to take place (if I’m wrong, Maghound is welcome to comment). So you’ve got the technology of Netflix on the front end, coupled with the "your magazine will show up in 4-6 weeks" on the back end to deal with.

But more so than that, the Maghound concept seems to fit when readers are saying they’re not overly loyal to a brand, and there’s already a pretty decent product for that: the newsstand. On the newsstand, I can be as disloyal as I wish, and not have to wait a few weeks to get the content.

Here’s the thing: Maghound could fix the "old school" distribution problem easily. How? Just provide digital editions of the issues. In this manner, people could make their selection NOW and read their updated content NOW. Let the digital edition serve as the buffer while the old school circulators mail the printed copy. Heck, let the readers have both.

While that might seem wasteful, consider the fact that article says that Maghound plans to "ramp up marketing efforts" in the coming months. So it stands to reason that if they’re willing to pay a lot of money to promote the product, spending a little to cover up its biggest weakness could be a smart strategy.

Your move: If readers wait several weeks for their first printed issue, send them a digital issue immediately upon subscribing. You’ll build brand loyalty from the minute they want it – not starting several days down the road.