Biz magazines that think outside box show print isn't dead

Chicago Tribune business columnist Phil Rosenthal looks at the business magazine field and notes that new editors such as Robert Safian at Fast Company and new issues such as Conde Nast Portfolio show that print publication still have a place in what is increasingly becoming an online world if it can adapt and come up with new ways to attract readers.

Rosenthal wrote, “Some things are meant to be savored. The trick is to not wind up under a pile on the nightstand or buried at the bottom of a briefcase in the meantime. One suspects targeted readers are more likely to be on the go from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. than the old 9-to-5. Their time is at a premium.

“‘We have to make it fun for you,’ Safian said. ‘A lot of the established business magazines are work. They’re boring. … They’re about how you can make as much money as you possibly can this quarter, whether you’re a company or an investor.’

“They target ‘the reader as a shareholder, or you the reader as an employee,’ said [Portfolio editor Joanne] Lipman, who came to Portfolio after developing the Wall Street Journal’s weekend edition.”

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