Video Magazine Tries to Keep Finger on Fast-Forward Button

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Launched when the VHS and Betamax video cassette formats were duking it out for supremacy and mom-and-pop rental stores ruled, Video Business magazine is fighting to stay relevant in an age in which technology seems to be passing it by.


Reed Business Information’s 25-year-old Los Angeles-based trade weekly, heavy with Top 10 lists and reviews of upcoming releases, has expanded its technology coverage and now provides more breaking news on its companion Web site. But Kevin Davis, the new home entertainment group publisher who arrived two years ago to overhaul Reed’s online offerings, insists there’s still a place for the print edition.


“As the video business faces challenges, so do we, and there’s three options pack up and go home, squabble with advertisers over market share, or innovate,” said Davis, who became publisher in September. “It’s basically innovate or die for us.”


As a controlled-circulation publication mailed free to a select demographic, Video Business doesn’t necessarily have to increase circulation as much as demonstrate to advertisers it’s reaching the right audience, including key decision makers in the stocking of products for rental stores or general retailers such Wal-Mart and Circuit City. The publication, which doesn’t release circulation numbers or breakdowns, also is read by Wall Street analysts and entertainment industry professionals.


As independent retailers close or merge, the magazine has reached out to more mass retailers who sell rather than rent videos, often in conjunction with their home electronics products. It also is targeting more industry executives who are involved in developing their company’s video products.


And to appeal to advertisers hemmed in by today’s smaller marketing budgets, the Sept. 9 print edition launched a less expensive advertorial section to appeal to those who can’t invest in a full-page display ad for their latest release.


The video industry challenges causing the magazine to lose many of its core readers are numerous. The magazine’s Jan. 2 edition reported that consumers in 2005 spent 3.2 percent less on combined DVD and VHS rentals, down to $7.8 billion. DVD rentals grew more than 16 percent to $6.69 billion, but that’s significantly off the 40 percent growth seen a year earlier.


Sales of inexpensive DVD box sets of popular TV series have resulted in fewer trips to the video rental store for the latest film release. As a result, independent retailers have fallen to chains that are losing market share to Internet mail order services, which are looking over their shoulder at video-on-demand. With high-definition DVD and wireless video on the rise, and more films than games now available on the Sony Portable Play Station platform, both studios and retailers face a confusing array of video formats to produce or stock.


“Technology is both an enabling and disrupting factor,” Davis said. “We’re going to best serve our retail-centric reader by helping them understand the implications of what is happening so they can make better decisions about where to take their business.”


Reed Business Information is a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.



Classified Jobs


Craigslist.org and other online sites may be siphoning away classified advertising from newspapers, but not all classified ad readers are jumping ship for the Internet at least, not job hunters.


Three out of four job seekers still use newspapers to look for employment, according to a report published by The Conference Board.


The survey of more than 5,000 households found that while most people looking for work use both newspapers and the Internet, only a minority of people use the Internet alone.


“You keep hearing that people are going to stop reading the paper someday, but someday is not 2006 and it’s not 2016,” said Ken Goldstein, the Conference Board’s labor economist.


The Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Newsday, reported that classified advertising revenues in November were up 1.6 percent, driven by an 8 percent gain in help wanted and real estate reflections of the continuing strong jobs and real estate markets.


Goldstein said that newspaper classified sections are not the cash cows they used to be, but said he expected they would remain a steady source of income in the next decade.


And though more advertising may transition to the Internet, a big factor in the continued use of print classifieds is the unwillingness on the part of job seekers to pay for or register for services online, as well as the physical portability of a newspaper.


“Some people said they liked the newspaper because they could just fold it up and carry it with them,” Goldstein said. “Internet job sites like Monster.com and Hot Jobs are still struggling to make money.”



This and That


Los Angeles-based Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. has sued National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, seeking to recover $50 million in liability coverage the company claims it is due to cover judgments. Gemstar contends its coverage was paid through Oct. 10, 2002, the same year that an audit revealed Gemstar, under a previous management, had overstated company revenue. El Segundo-based satellite TV provider DirecTV Group Inc. will soon roll out a DirecTV 2Go service for portable media players and a new high-definition digital video recorder. Starting in the first quarter, customers can get top programs from NBC and cable networks, USA, SCI FI and Bravo, within hours after they air for 99 cents through the new DVR.



*Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 232, or at

[email protected]

. Staff reporter Anne Riley-Katz contributed to this column.

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