Government, Publishing and the Infinite Game

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By See Tshiung Han

When I think of Vision 2020, I think of the business model of Multi-Level Marketing. The scenarios that get us to the end result are not fully formed. Rather, they need to be talked about endlessly. We can’t hoard favored predictions, a good business plan takes into full account where we are in the present moment. The government isn’t commited to finding out what the present moment signifies. People bemoan that the government’s policies are good, but implementation is poor. Perhaps this reflects a larger problem in governance, that the policymakers are disconnected from the infrastructure that enforces policy.

Economist Dr. Jomo K.S. says on The Fairly Current Show that Malaysia had been focusing on growth over the last decade and, as a result, has run a fiscal deficit. “If you constantly are pro-growth,” he says,  “in the sense of constantly running a fiscal deficit then you are constrained when you really need the resources and this may be a problem the government may face in the current period.” This makes me wonder how far-reaching the 9th Malaysia Plan was. It boggles the mind how the government seeks to create self-sustaining industry without any policies to encourage sustainability. But to be fair to the government, I think we are struggling with the concept of sustainability as a country.

I’ve been thinking about setting up a magazine over the past few years. I’ve talked to people about publishing, but a lot of what I’ve learned has come from conversations with a friend of mine who helped set up GOOD magazine and James B. Kobak’s How To Start a Magazine. This has lead me to some useful observations about the publishing industry and entrepreneurship. In turn, this may yield something useful on sustainability too. Your mileage may vary.

Magazines are ad-driven. Publishers aren’t selling magazines to readers, they are selling their readership to advertisers. The higher the readership, the higher the rates a publisher can charge. This puts a greater emphasis on advertising than on editorial content. Pick up any magazine off the racks and compare the number of editorial staff to the number of marketing staff. Many publishers ride on the reputation of an existing brand (like VOGUE or TATLER) that already has a large readership. Some publishers use their established publications to generate buzz for their new ones. In general, it means creating a big audience as fast as possible. What I find, is that a big and fast audience doesn’t stick around after all the promotional events are done. Magazines are having to change their marketing strategy month-to-month in an effort to maintain their readership levels.

How do you emphasize editorial content over advertising? Build it into the business model. Increase the revenue that comes from magazine sales to reduce your dependence on advertisers. (Say 20% - 40% since you want to keep dry, financially speaking.) Build this into the business model too: take the time to cultivate readers. Readership needs to be grown, like a garden. The content and the ads of a magazine should reflect its readers. Increasingly these days, this means building a community around a magazine: aside from the paid professionals whose work it is to put the magazine together, the readers themselves responding to the magazine; the two groups working together, generating content and, in turn, value for the magazine.

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