FMA Luncheon Explores Role of Digital Mags in the Publishing Industry's Green Initiatives

The 'greening' of the mag industry continued in this lively panel discussion.

By Chandra Johnson-Greene
Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The FMA tackled the increasingly popular topic of "going green" today at a luncheon in New York City, which explored the various ways publishers could be more environmentally responsible, whether through offering digital editions, switching to recycled paper or altering direct mail campaigns.

Jeanniey Mullen, global EVP, CMO, Zinio, told attendees about a study the digital magazine company conducted where customers were asked why they preferred digital magazines over print. While a few years ago, the environmental impact was the #7 reason for customers, it went up to #4 in April. Mullen says the company is curious to see what the rank will be next year.

Mullen added that the advent of digital readers, such as Kindle, were introduced into the marketplace much quicker than expected—a positive for the media industry—and that it will not only cut down on the use of paper, but will also change the way readers view magazines. "We will have this new kind of digital customer, "she said. And we'll be able to marry this new digital technology with the historical, high quality editorial and market it to this customer."

Mullen also described Zinio's new initiative that she says will "increase awareness" and hopefully get customers to not just see the convenience of digital editions, but also the positive effect they have on the environment. Launched in September, GoReadGreen.com offers each visitor a free one-year digital subscription to one of 200 titles. If the customer then decides to purchases additional subscriptions, a portion of the proceeds will go to planting trees.

Mark Spellun, editor-in-chief and publisher of green lifestyle title Plenty, says as the green revolution grows, so is does the magazine. After four years of targeting shoppers at upscale markets like Whole Foods, the magazine will now be on the newsstand at Wal-Mart.

Plenty also has plans to work with larger magazines to take advantage of advertising opportunities as well as spread the green message. “The [green] space is slowly becoming dominated by larger marketers,” Spellun said. “And we envision ourselves as being a partner with larger magazines to accompany that growth.”

In regards to what circulators and fulfillment managers can do to help reduce their company’s carbon footprint besides offering digital editions as an alternative to print, there’s still much to be figured out. Attendees expressed their frustrations at being able to find a greener alternative to polybags and questioned how economical it would be to reduce or alter their direct mail campaigns.

Plenty keeps its amount of direct mail campaigns to a minimum, Spellun said. The company is also in talks with Wal-Mart to eliminate the magazine’s blow-in and bind-in cards at its stores in order to reduce waste and perhaps “to encourage people to buy the magazine on the newsstand as opposed to subscribing,” he joked.