As a former magazine publisher, my mantra was always “create dialogue with readers” — even before online 4k technology made this easier to do than in print. Contests, quizzes, self-paced learning, and yes, “reader-generated content” were a regular staple of my pages to engage readers. FastCompany has now taken that concept one step further, converting their content brand as a magazine into a social networking site featuring, yes, user-generated content.
Magazines and other niche publications are uniquely positioned to help passionate people engage in conversation about their passions. Is FastCompany’s approach really new — or are they just taking advantage of today’s tools to keep doing what they’ve always been doing? Magazines like Epicurious have community-like features, but FastCompany puts function (networking) before content. A novel approach.
FastCompany and other magazines may have caught on too late. Blogger Spencer E. Ante recently posted statistics for the top U.S. social networking sites (source: Comscore) showing that they are already seeing a slowdown in users and engagement. He wrote: “The pain is not just a MySpace problem. It seems to be an industry-wide issue. The total audience of U.S. social networks seems to be stuck at a low-to-mid single-digit growth rate, while the engagement metrics are falling for just about everyone. Time spent on Bebo.com has been sliced in half over the last four months, while Friendster’s time spent has plummeted nearly 75 percent in the same time period. Overall, minutes spent per site fell five percent in December 2007 compared to the year-ago period.”
What I don’t see in Ante’s stats, however, are the targeted, niche entities like FastCompany. If FastCompany is fast and good enough to attract its core readership to engage in its site, it and other magazines may capitalize on growing disenchantment with “generic” social networks.
Recently in Online Journalism Review Robert Niles made similar observations regarding ethnic magazines. Niles says his ideas are equally relevant to niche publications: “People can find plenty of places online to vent, speculate and insult one another in flame wars. But informative, respectful communities are precious things, and participants take great pride in them. They will help you protect them, and will help you promote them, with grassroots, word-of-mouth marketing.”
What magazine doesn’t want that?
