New Day for Media?

About a month ago, Surfline acquired Water Magazine. Surfline got their start by giving surf reports via phone call-ins is now a multi-media company. They have a website with a huge following—a key to a successful magazine—and now they have an established magazine as well. Usually, it’s the other way around—you establish the magazine, and then build a kick-ass site to go with it.

With having two successful media businesses under their belt, what does this new, expanded, Surfline mean to the other surf magazine brands? Will they have to step up their sites to match Surfline's? Surfing and Surfer Magazines have a surf watch site in place—WaveWatch—will they have to focus on this and make it better than Surfline’s?

Or, does all of this just mean that Water is going to become a better magazine since with Surfline; they now have expanded resources backing them? Does it become a print or a website war?

Comments

[Cameron Olthuis]

Well old media is dying so a print war at this point probably wouldn't be the best strategy for any of these media companies.

As far as I'm concerned the surf industry is extremely weak when it comes to media companies having a successful online presence. I still think it's pretty wide open for someone to come in and dominate the web for action sports.

The way I see it; surf forecast sites are just a small piece of the pie that will make up a successful online media empire. These companies need to focus on more well-rounded strategy that consists of multiple properties and 'social' shouldn't be forgotten.

I think what will happen within the next few years is that the old media companies will start buying up all the hot web properties. They'll do this because they suck (lack of better word) at building audiences online and will be left with no other choice if they want to remain in existence.

I predict Surfline will be acquired in the next 2-3 years.

[gnarmy]

I agree a ton with what Cameron says. I think that print media is def dying out and these companies will be looking to social media websites to keep them going.

A site that I think is going to be at the forefront of the future of action sports is www.actionprofiles.com. They have a great concept and over 10,000 members I think. Once this catches on with the rest of the industry, it will be pretty cool.

[matt]

First off, www.actionprofiles.com will NOT become a major player(or noticable player) in the action sports web race. They have been at it for a while now and are unknow but to a few. They burned some bridges in the process as well. Malakye.com has a much better ability to branch out into a social/news site for this industry since they have a solid working buisness plan, industry relationships and are willing to go the extra mile to work/partner/contribute to get the job done.

Now to print media. It's not dying but it is on a path to some consolidation. People are tactile by nature. The web will never be able to deliver the same feel that a mag can. When was the last time you printed a page from Surfer, ING or T-World's website and taped them to your wall? Groms have been doing that since the first mags came to print 40+ years ago. When was the last time you dragged your lappy out to the beach to read the latest post of a surf trip to some far off local..? Not going to happen.

We will see mags buy other mag, mags buy websites, websites buy mag, etc... But all of this will simply open up the next door for the guy who starts his own mag or the girl to start her own site.

Just because Nike bought Hurley doesn't mean that there will never be another surf brand to come out of a beach town garage. These actions are good. It's part of a natural growth cycle. The action sports industry is still in it's infancy; the original growth is still wth us on many levels. Some of these will die off and others will take their place.

Let it happen, it's all good.

[fred]

Print media is going to die...not because kids don't read them....but because its a terrible way to advertise. It doesn't matter how cool the pictures look in a magazine...the internet is a more effective way to advertise. Why does google make so much money? Its not because its cool, but because it works...for advertisers.

The only way old media companies will survive is to evolve...offer advertisers what they want, higher ROI and better data...thats what google gives them.

[Bob]

Matt brings up a great point. The problem with print advertising is that there is no accountability. What magazines have to realize is that they are basically editorial knowledge and ad sales. It doesn't matter if they publish in print, online, or even in video.

New technologies are starting to emerge for advertising in video, for example, that provide a lot more data for advertisers. And not the crappy user-generated video, but full-length, DVD quality, free to download, ad-supported video.

...Shameless Plug Alert...

My company, NossaTV.com, for example, allows advertisers to select their audience based on anonymous demographic and behavioral data (teens who watch surf films) and essentially pre-qualify the audience, then we dynamically insert the ad into full-length, DVD quality video from leading independent surf, skate, snowboard, and ski filmmakers.

All the ads are clickable and trackable and you get an anonymous database of who responded and who didn't respond that you can use to plan your next campaign.

Magazines aren't going to go away, but they will have to evolve. With technologies like ours, they are going to be able to aggressively push into high-quality video and sell ads into our system and become mini networks which will mean more and better content for all of us.

We are already working with companies like TGR, Flow, X-Dance, and a couple of magazines who are looking to expand into publishing video. We currently have over 80 full-length films that are free to download and a ton of the trailers for the new ski and snowboard films for this fall.

[Mike]

I think the key word to really focus in on is "Multi-Media", and I don't mean that in the traditional sense but think multiple media platforms.

A company with a diverse multiple media offering can help translate advertising messages for manufacturers across many platforms. Years back there was an interesting dot-com start-up. Started out as Gotcha.com and then became Bluetorch. There model was print, tv, web and events. A really interesting and viable concept but two things led to its demise. One, a bad management team and two, the one-stop shop idea was a bit ahead of its time and could not be sustained long enough to catch on.

I think Surfline is headed in that direction and the upside, they have strong management and a solid long-term strategy. Keep in mind that they also have a direct tie to Covered Images, a photo agency started with Aaron Chang. That business will play into the whole enchilada.