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Goodbye Broadcasting Magazine

The irony is that the advertising depression that's hurt broadcasting, cable, and all media has claimed the life of the publication that reported on those things:

Trade publications such as B&C and Multichannel News were traditionally mailed to thousands of industry professionals for free. Publishers made money by selling advertising, but trade publications from most industries have been facing challenges selling print ads.
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There was a time when the trades could count on the industry to buy ads that paid the bills. With the industry it covers struggling, who's left to buy ads?

People want their news for free. The companies that report the news require money to provide that news.

www.newscaststudio.com

Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News to cease publication

Venerable broadcast industry news publications Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News are both shutting down ... Read More
www.newscaststudio.com www.newscaststudio.com
 
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sdwulfdawg said:
When I was in high school, I was always so excited when I would come home and my copy of Broadcasting Magazine had arrived.
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When I was in high school, I couldn't afford a subscription to Broadcasting. (IIRC, it cost about $300 a year in the '70s.)
 
Kemosabe said:
When I was in high school, I couldn't afford a subscription to Broadcasting. (IIRC, it cost about $300 a year in the '70s.)
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You're right. The headquarters building was on Desales Street in DC. I used to walk over there and pick up a copy every week. There was a box in the lobby.
 
TheBigA said:
The irony is that the advertising depression that's hurt broadcasting, cable, and all media has claimed the life of the publication that reported on those things:



There was a time when the trades could count on the industry to buy ads that paid the bills. With the industry it covers struggling, who's left to buy ads?
Click to expand...

In the past few years, I've seen "advertising slump" turn into "advertising recession" and now "advertising depression." All of these terms imply a future recovery. But what if there is no recovery? What if American business has discovered, en masse, that it has been wasting money on advertising, especially in physical and linear media like print and radio/TV, for decades and have no need for it going forward?
 
Kemosabe said:
When I was in high school, I couldn't afford a subscription to Broadcasting. (IIRC, it cost about $300 a year in the '70s.)
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I was fortunate that my college library (1970s) had it as part of their magazine selection. Back then I read it mostly for info on new station applications, station sales, facility and format changes, and call letter assignments.

When I went to work in broadcasting there was usually a copy laying around that I could read on my lunch/dinner break.
 
Kemosabe said:
When I was in high school, I couldn't afford a subscription to Broadcasting. (IIRC, it cost about $300 a year in the '70s.)
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In 1972, Broadcasting was $20 for a year, and three years for $50. By 1978, it was $35 for a single year.
 
TheBigA said:
You're right. The headquarters building was on Desales Street in DC. I used to walk over there and pick up a copy every week. There was a box in the lobby.
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I didn't even know it was still a thing. I subscribed a few times, and saw it at stations I worked at. I subscribed to Radio and Records for a year, I think I got a :student rate" of $100. It was cool getting a perk with R&R with many issues.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
I was fortunate that my college library (1970s) had it as part of their magazine selection. Back then I read it mostly for info on new station applications, station sales, facility and format changes, and call letter assignments.

When I went to work in broadcasting there was usually a copy laying around that I could read on my lunch/dinner break.
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I loved the "For the Record" section. This was when new FM stations were popping up in more rural parts of the Midwest, so I could see how the dial was filling in. (This was before 80-90.) I also would go over to the university's law library to read Pike and Fischer. This is where I kick myself for not paying attention to my own interests and inclinations. If I had, I would probably have ended up as a communications attorney, instead of trying to make it in radio news. But the paths we travel in life can sometimes have many twists and turns.

Some of the Taishoffs' editorial stands were a bit annoying (if regulation was so bad, why did radio and TV prosper from it so well?), but they put out a quality publication.
 
Thinking back, my first Broadcasting subscription began in 1958. I was an AM DXer and followed rage FCC changes. I became interested in the business and, reading the stories, started visiting stations and hanging out at one. All from reading that magazine.
 
Was the Broadcasting Yearbook published in recent years, I wonder what the price of that became? I got my last job through Broadcasting magazine. It was a federal job and perhaps the worst one ever. Between the Broadcasting Yearbook, Broadcasting magazine, and the SRDS, you could find information you would not find elsewhere, and a lot of it was made up including spot rates & staff members. There were even stations listed that weren't on the air yet, or would never be
 
MadMan said:
Was the Broadcasting Yearbook published in recent years, I wonder what the price of that became? I got my last job through Broadcasting magazine. It was a federal job and perhaps the worst one ever. Between the Broadcasting Yearbook, Broadcasting magazine, and the SRDS, you could find information you would not find elsewhere, and a lot of it was made up including spot rates & staff members. There were even stations listed that weren't on the air yet, or would never be
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Broadcasting Magazine: BROADCASTING MAGAZINE - Business magazine from 1931 to 2002
Broadcasting Yearbook: BROADCASTING YEARBOOK - Station and industry directory 1935-2010 (Ended 2010)
SRDS "Spot Radio": SRDS - Spot Radio Rates & Data media buyer guide
 
MadMan said:
Was the Broadcasting Yearbook published in recent years, I wonder what the price of that became?
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The last issue on David's website was the 2010 edition, although I fuzzily recall him telling me a few years ago that he had more recent ones in his possession that he had not yet scanned. (There was some legal hangup, IIRC.) There are four issues of something called Complete Television, Radio & Cable Industry Directory which apparently was the successor to the Yearbook (according to a note at the top of page vii of the 2017 edition, which is the last one on the site).

I could not find a price quoted anywhere in that publication, nor did I find one in the 2010 Yearbook. Sorry.
 
Were Broadcasting and Editor & Publisher, which covered the newspaper industry, published by the same people? They were very similar in look and substance, both their weekly editions and their yearbooks. I used to read both in college and in my early years in the newspaper business, even though I'd long since decided I'd rather work in print than in radio or TV.
 
CTListener said:
In the past few years, I've seen "advertising slump" turn into "advertising recession" and now "advertising depression." All of these terms imply a future recovery. But what if there is no recovery? What if American business has discovered, en masse, that it has been wasting money on advertising, especially in physical and linear media like print and radio/TV, for decades and have no need for it going forward?
Click to expand...
The last I checked (there are articles on the state of the advertising industry out there) the advertising industry's revenues are flat since 2012-2015 or so, when accounting for inflation. So the advertising industry itself isn't doing terrific compared to decades past. Consequently, you may be onto something.

Also, online retail platforms don't need to reach out and advertise, if you're already going to their platform, because they 'advertise' in house, on their own platform. No external advertising required.

I think that the effect of the internet on all forms of commerce is still playing out, and what we're seeing is that playing out in action.
 
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