The best place to tell secrets may not be while speaking to a room full of journalism students at New York University. But that’s how Keith Blanchard, Wenner Media’s executive director for online media for Rolling Stone and other magazines, released the news that they plan to launch a MySpace-style social network around the Rolling Stone brand.
Andrea Feczko, one of the students in the class, saw her chance to break a story and promptly did so. Her professor, Patrick Phillips, then emailed a bunch of major bloggers with the news.
Feczko says the social network will be separate from the main Rolling Stone website, and will include “best of” lists with user voting.
There may be one problem, though. The Rolling Stone audience may be too old to get into the social networking scene. Feczko says only one person in her class actually admitted that they ever read the magazine.
I thought April 1st was a few weeks ago… This is quite funny though.
Yeah it sounds just so old and unappealing, and I’m 34. I don’t see it exactly taking off. But good luck to them.
I don’t think they really would need that many people to make it worthwhile. Get any decent music conversations going, along with a huge library of reviews, and you’re bound to refer some music sales.
It might not be the biggest, but it’s a no-brainer way to get some money out of their exisitng work.
Awesome, the old media money is rolling into the space. Its going to be fun days ahead.
Keep up the great work mike and nick
I don’t understand why companies announce what there going to do. Why not just do it.
good to hear. i do hope they revamp the main site, though, since imho their site has always been just terrible.
Companies like Rolling Stone need to work to add valuable features in exchange for a revenue share with major social networks rather than continuing to create new social networks. The proliferation of social networks is unwise, especially in so many unnecessary niches.
Companies announce investments as signals to the market and competitors. it can improve their probability of success by reducing competition before it even exists.
Visions of dad dancing at the disco …..
Seems a risky strategy for ‘grown up’ brand but if RS puts more stuff out there as part of social network I’m sure it’ll find takers. Good luck to them.
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I remember when Rolling Stone was “must read” as a teenager. Now that other magazines have done a better job being provacative and serving niche’ markets, Rolling Stone is an afterthought. The analogy is PERFECTLT analogous to old websites not updating to newer trends and technology and then getting caught behind the horse and wagon instead of upon it.
#7 After launching iJigg in January, we were contacted by Rolling Stone’s chief marketing officer’s office and had a phone conversation with them. So they are certainly trying something here.
We did point out to them that they aren’t helping themselves by using bulky rhapsody on their site for music.
April Fools?
Rolling Stone’s reality show on MTV absolutely bombed. Why? Delusions of demographics. Fact is, they are in much the same boat as traditional newspapers. Their readership has aged with the publication — its 40 years old now. I’ll bet its average reader is 45ish — hardly a fertile social networking demo. Of course Wenner knows this but is stubbornly (however admirable) courting the youth demo. No chance. That ship has sailed.
As for Rolling Stone itself, let’s be real. It has become a political publication reflective of its cultural/political roots. Modern music fans don’t look to it as a music authority. They need only ask (via IM, email, or myriad social networking sites built around music) “friends” for the “what’s what” in music. Rolling Stone is aging much like the famous band beariing its name — kept alive by sentiment.
If Rolling Stone does this well they could have a chance to revitalize the value of subscribing - and of their brand more broadly.
Social Networks are evolving to be more open and interactive places (see Marc Canter’s recent discussions about Digital Lifestyle Aggregators).
A few years ago I proposed, but did not end up working on it, that a company with a lot of very niche magazines create dedicated social networks for those publications. Linking deeply to their customer database, to their advertisers, and to their rich archives of content (as well as to the ongoing process of writing new stories and covering the industry). These were very niche publications (think Optometrists) and I still think there is a very good business there for both the publishers and a software provider to provide technology and services to them.
For Rolling Stone my advice would be:
- leverage your subscribers - make it very very easy for them to start using the social network (i.e. use something on their label as their access for example, pre-populate their profile based on info you have, give them visable rewards for things such as Years they have Subscribed).
- deeply integrate the rich archive of content you have - especially content that may not just have been in the magazine (recordings of interviews, photographs that didn’t make it into print, searchable archives of reviews, tour dates etc)
- do not ignore the value your advertisers create in the magazine - and integrate them directly into the network. Not as an afterthought but as another stream of content and resources. Make it really, really easy to access all the ads & offers (i.e. offers of free music from a service like emusic - make sure the offer from the magazine is available easily online as wel) Get metadata for things such as when records are being released, for links to label’s websites, band’s myspace pages etc (this also points out - don’t be afraid of the rest of the web or the other social networks - link back and forth between them)
- respect your audiance and KNOW IT. You should (you being Rolling Stone) know the actual demographics of your readers. Design accordingly. Respect them and do not either talk down to them, or design only for a subset of them (i.e. don’t design the network for teenagers - unlikely to be your current readership)
- make the network open to non-subscribers, but give special notice/prominence/benefits for subscribers (and afterall since you now sell a subscription for very little - I think $10 or so don’t make it too high of a burden)
- LISTEN to your audiance. Make the social network more than just readers talk to each other (though that’s really valuable) - make it readers talking to you, to your advertisers, to the music industry at large. Give people lots of ways to interact, to see their voice being acknowledged
- take this conversation back into your print publication - and outward to the rest of the web.
- Music is a multiple senses businesses - so integrate music, audio, video as well as print and photos into the network. Strike deals with lots of sources for embedable videos, for downloadable music, for music co-discovery (pandora, lastFM, etc)
- consider also focusing on the other strengths of Rolling Stone - your history of covering American culture, not just music (and your long tradition of high quality, long form journalism). Remind people of this, reemphasize it, break out your archives (and btw pay the authors or their estates when you do so).
Now, will they listen?
Who knows?
Shannon
- founder/organizer MeshForum - http://www.meshforum.org an annual conference on the study of Networks, including social networks
rarrrr let’s see which customers could they steal from. myspace perhaps? or match.com
spirited commentary on the subject here:
http://mog.com/david_hyman/blo.....atest_news
Thanks for the post again. There are lots of social network site & one is better than other. Lets wait for another best one.
~ RaJ
http://www.suggestusability.com
I don’t remember ever subscribing to Rollingstone magazine but they kept coming to my door EVERY WEEK! It’s not an easy read since their writers are some serious hired “guns”. I don’t think teenagers will ever read this. It has too much depth. I do see it becomes industry critics centered social network for music, politics and movies. It has potential.
They have delusions of grandeur…
- I can say this -
- Done light weight (kinda like a startup) it might have a chance -
- But they are probablty thinking “Lets throw some money at this internet thing …etc ”
- that is not going to work / becuase they are old media - and that is that.
- They need to hire CEO’s from another music community and also from another music selling model -
One word: mog. It has been done/is being done. I’m just sayin’.
everybody and their uncle has a social network. hell i have one too. they need to partner, partner and partner. what i have learned from building my own social software is that people don’t want another site, and another login to remember. if they were smart they would use another site’s api to let people login and play without a lot of hassle.
g.
http://www.buythatlocally.com
Zaid, your comments on Rhapsody on the web being “bulky” are completely wrong. It’s a really light web-based application. True the premium service has a client, but many of the features of the client are available on the web at rhapsody.com. I actually found it pretty cool that I can read a review at RS.com and listen to the CD for free on the site.
RS is about as relevant and edgy as People Magazine’s “Picks & Pans” section…
Yes, as mentioned before, there are already sites like this. Mog. Music Wiki’s/social sites. Communities within MySpace. I think RS missed the train already.
I’d be interested to hear what Rolling Stone is going to do to set themselves apart and entice it’s crowd to use social networks.