Considering the struggles of the nation’s daily newspapers, it’s worthwhile to highlight any print publication making strides toward providing a personalized product. Mine, a venture from Time Inc., promises to be “my magazine, my way.” Consumers create an account online and select five magazines from Time’s stable of publications, and Mine becomes five magazines in one – the best of content from all of your favorite subjects, delivered to you each month.
And, it’s free for five test issues. Sounds revolutionary, right?
Not so fast. I recently received my first issue, and it didn’t live up to my expectations. After perusing it, I’m unclear if Time’s endgame is to get me to subscribe to Mine, or to the publications from which I selected content. The publication reads more like a teaser or sampler. The content is light and quick, with only an article or two from each publication I selected. There’s no depth or flow to draw me in like a good magazine does; in fact, Mine is only 35 pages. There is little compelling photography.
It’s more likely that the purpose of Mine is to provide advertisers a platform to deliver personalized ad content. Mine is peppered with personalized advertising from Lexus, the issue’s sponsor. For example, the ad copy tells me that “Adam Foldenauer, when you’re driving from Midlothian to Virginia Beach, you can use more cargo space…” Seeing my name is 50-point ad copy grabbed my attention, but it struck me as gimmicky.
And here’s another gripe: Shortly after I received my first issue, I received an email apologizing that my first Mine may be inaccurate due to a technology glitch. No one said mass customization was without its challenges. And they were right about the mixup: I signed up for Sports Illustrated, but there were no sports. Instead, I got an article from InStyle about how to buy the perfect jeans (which my wife, Christy, enjoyed).
If you have a variety of compelling content like Time Inc. does, this concept could work nicely with some retooling. Assuming Time has developed a cost-effective short-run printing solution, Mine should offer more customization within topics, and then actually deliver engaging content. Here’s an exaggerated example: Allow me to build a magazine that has only SI’s NBA coverage, Golf Magazine’s tips on short game improvement, any Travel & Leisure piece on Hawaii, and any Food & Wine article on grilling recipes.
And as for the ads, how about matching products and services with my preferences and interests that I disclosed when I signed up?
Now that sounds like a mass-customized magazine consumers would make theirs.
Sign up for Mine here - looks like only the online version is available now.
Glad you picked up on this one Adam. Agreed that the idea is great but the Time/Lexus execution leaves lots to be desired. I’m an ex-UR alum and involved in a tech-media company that builds personalized magazines on a much more granular level. Check out the URL above if you are interested.
In my opinion one of the major reasons for the recent demise of what one could call established print magazines is that all info is now so easy to find. ‘Google it’ has become a colloquial term. A usual (print) magazine is limited to narrow topical content but has the advantage that it is portable, although I have taken my notebook to the ‘john’ quite often.
To me the future lies in online search, and not in being fed what a magazine editor seems relevant.
For what it’s worth, here are some magazines that recently ‘died’:
Domino, O at Home, Country Home, Cottage Living, Home, House and Garden, Mode, Teen, Plenty, Radar, Men’s Vogue, Cosmo Girl, Golf for Women, Arthur, Map Magazine, EBay Magazine, Jewish Living, Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), Games for Windows, and even Playgirl.