Worship Leader Magazine thoughts
This was originally posted over at TheWorshipCommunity.com and I’m adding it to my blog as part of Randy’s Watercooler Wednesday.
Wow – what a crazy day of blog collisions that started out a few months ago and came to a head yesterday on several sites.
Tuesday morning Alastair (the original blogger) emailed me and the other commentors on his original post from a few months ago to let us know that Julie from Worship Leader Magazine had commented on his thoughts and that we may be interested in reading them. I re-posted her comment as did Mandy and Joel. And then things took off – we fired a whack of emails up and down the east coast yesterday talking about WLM’s reaction and how people were responding to the discussion as it was posted on our blogs.
One of the things that I said to that crew was that the “divide” is now gone between customer and company. In the old days I bought a product, told my friends if it was good or bad, friend either bought it or didn’t. But the company generally could figure out what public opinion was concerning their product based on sales – increasing sales, positive opinion and vice versa.
Today, sales probably aren’t a good indication of public opinion. WLM may be doing just fine (or at least think they are doing just fine) with subscriptions, advertising, pay-to-place on the SD CD (Fred – $2500?? Seriously??) but obviously they are NOT connected to the public opinion concerning their magazine. Obviously they are NOT connected to a huge portion of their audience and potential customer base who live and interact online.
For those of us who blog, consider ourselves at least mildly technologically savvy and are able to use Google, by the time an article shows up in WLM it is old news for us. By the time ANY print magazine is featuring new tech, new gear, new software, etc etc we’ve already seen it online, downloaded a demo, figured out if it works for us or not, posted a review, recommended the product to other people who may be helped by it or completely trashed it and told people to stay away – all of that BEFORE the review hits newsstands.
Again, it’s a whole new world. From the sounds of things today, WLM had a bit of a wake-up call over the past 18 hours and will be taking some of these comments to heart to discover what some next steps might look like for them.
Great post—I guess I felt these things about WLM (subscriber since 1998-99 Vol.7) but never had put them on paper.
Keep me posted.
Jim
I like to think I’m mildly tech savvy but I don’t
think I use the web to my benefit in all situations.
Sometimes I need to talk to my local reps etc. to
find out the scoop on certain products.
Maybe I’ve missed the jist of your post??
Nice post Chris. You’re right about the divide not being there anymore. Nice site too by the way. I usually read via google reader.
Jim – check through the links and you’ll find some amazing discussion.
Paul – all I was trying to say is that often print media thinks they’re reaching a certain audience when that audience is sometimes a few steps ahead of them.
Alastair – good to know someone is reading :)
Yes – I agree with you!
Thanks everyone for your comments. A little clarity…..I don’t think that you could classify my thanking everyone for their input as “a wake up call.” I would like to add a little context. I am an editor that values highly our subscribers. And although Worship Leader has been publishing for 18 years, and is a growing publication in a market where literally hundreds of publications are folding everyday (including this month CCM), I still mourn when one person doesn’t renew. Call that compulsive, but even though we have a VERY high renewal rate, I still chase after every person to gain wisdom and insight into things we can do better. Leaders are learners, the minute we stop learning, we should just turn in the keys. What you all have been throwing back and forth in terms of feedback wasn’t a surprise, but rather I wanted to dig for maybe more of a gem then simply, “should I renew” nah, I don’t like it anymore……call me silly but even thought its not easy to hear tough feedback, I am one to ask for it, because its always helped me grow. But I would like that to be represented truthfully. It wasn’t a cry for help, it wasn’t a wake up call, it was a sincere thank you for your willingness to engage me so that I can learn! And with that, I am going to ask that if you have specific suggestions on how we can improve either Song Discovery or Worship Leader you email me at editor@wlmag.com, I answer every email personally. And would welcome yours. Worship Leader has a very loyal readership, as does Song Discovery, but I do recognize we can no more be all things to all people, than you can as worship leaders. There will always be people unhappy with the styles on SD, or the articles in Worship Leader, but maybe just maybe if I hear from that person directly I can learn from them. I stumbled upon the blog because someone in my intern team did a google search, and told me about it. All of my team warned me not to engage, but I am not one to shy away from engaging our customers (or ex-customers), and to be honest, I think sometimes it is easier to comment on a blog then go to the person directly and tell them why their product met your needs or it didn’t. You all are my favorite group of people, you are early adopters, you love the web, you frequent youtube, myspace, facebook, and other blogs of interest – but that isn’t the vast majority of worship leaders. We are still working with some to put their CD in the computer and enjoy the enhancements! Its a work in progress. Thank you for inviting me into your world……
Julie Reid
Executive Editor
Worship Leader Magazine
Julie – Thanks for the comment.
I replied in a big email to Julie’s comment and will probably post that early next week. This is a great discussion!
Ditto to Julie … thanks for clarification, and being there. I’m glad you “engaged” against the warnings of your team. You are absolutely correct in noting the difference between the “early adopters” and LOTS of your other subscribers who wouldn’t have a CLUE what a “blog” really is!
Fred
“all of that BEFORE the review hits newsstands”
Ditto on that bro – I felt like a lot I was reading was old news.
That’s pretty cool that Julie Reid stopped by your blog as well. I have to say simply seeing the senior editor engaged in a blog discussion ups my opinion of WL by 2000%.
This one to Jim….I completely agree on the print media comment. Every year I go to a huge show in NYC, called Folio (its secular) but I learn about 5 years ahead of much of what Christian Publications are doing…..last year we implemented a custom designed peer to peer network (blogs and all), and the year before digital edition, and so on. Every year we innovate based upon cultural norms, not Christian Cultural norms, because we have an ethos as a company to be progressive. Not sure if any of you have checked out the free http://www.songdiscovery.com the go to community link and you can build a profile….then surf around. I know lots of bloggers that are in there, and its really been cool to see the networking that has been going on as we help our mid to late adopters catch up a bit. I think why many print publications have failed is because they haven’t started doing things like webinars (something we started a year ago), online learning, conferences (a touchpoint with the customer),we had 1400 last year, we will have 2000 this year, online interactive environments, digital editions, enhanced media, et. All of these are critically important, and we must move beyond the page…it isn’t an either/or – and experts believe it won’t become that as many predicted years ago; but rather it is a both/and. Some people like all of their information on the web (many of you), some people like a mix (print and web) like me, and some people like all print (many of my worship leader friends).
So we try and do all of that….at the end of the day though its about the content you put into all of those media channels. If it isn’t any good, there is not getting around that. To that end, we have to work to make sure we are giving leaders “more of what they need to lead” regardless of where they are on the spectrum of adoption AND, church size, style of worship, etc…..we can ALWAYS get better at that!
Blessings,
Julie
Julie
Thanks for the “clarification”. I guess my point about WLM was that early on it was the only river of freshness that I was drinking from (in a very traditional church). Over the years I can see how I’ve grown and found other streams. The law of diminishing returns is always at play (from my Eco classes) but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like the mag or my SD (believe me-my wife knows how I guard all 66 of them!) I guess it’s just not the “ah ha” moment that I had almost 10 years ago.
I appreciate all the innovation. I was there @ National Worship Leaders and will be again this year with our team..so I’m behind ya!
Thanks for engaging us