Kudos to Golf World on one of the best magazines they have ever printed. From a strong Jerry Tarde editorial to a revealing Dave Shedloski story on golf's uncertain future with politicians in Washington DC, the March 16 edition is what we call in journalism a "contest magazine."
Although I wish the Arjun Atwal cover story would have been a little more revealing, I understand how difficult it must have been to get Atwal to speak openly and honestly about his situation.
Golf Digest has been losing more and more in the way of good journalism, so it's good to see that Golf World is making is up for it.
Condé Nast, the publisher of upper-end magazines such as Vogue and GQ, is suffering from a decrease in advertising revenue, and according to a rival executive who used to work there, the company hasn't been making the wisest financial decisions. Keith J. Kelly of the New York Post writes:
"They are having the worst year of any publisher," said one rival executive who once worked at Condé Nast and said the company's recent cuts of 5 percent each on expenses and staffing isn't enough.
"They are overstaffed and overpaid. They should have cut back 20 percent when they cut back five," this person said.
Interestingly enough, the only magazine under the Condé Nast umbrella to experience growth was Golf World.
The ads haven't been as visible as they were around the New Year, but it's clear Condé Nast is trying to deflect this downward trend by attracting a younger audience through their marketing efforts on social networking sites like MySpace.
Golfweek hyping their re-design above (first appeared on Golfweek.com around the new year).
Golf World advertisement below (appeared in January 19 edition of magazine)...
I'm sure many of you have noticed the omnipresent Golf Digest banner advertisement that has surfaced on the Web. It makes sense to me that it would be on a site like the New York Times above this Thomas Friedman piece (below)--but it never occurred to me that they would want to appeal to a MySpace audience (second picture below).
It's clear that Condé Nast is attempting to appeal to a younger demographic. I wonder though: How many of the millions of users who log on to MySpace each day are interested in fixing their slice?
Publications like Golf Digest and Golfweek aren't going away anytime soon. But as more and more newspapers are laying off newsroom employees, there is less golf coverage in general.
Ryan Herrington notes in the July 11 edition of Golf World (sorry, couldn't find a link to the story online):
Two decades ago, there were about 30 full-time golf writers at U.S. dailies, now the number is less than 10 and dropping.
Sadly, as the actual newspaper size begins to shrink, Ed Sherman of the Chicago Tribune says the golf section is the first to go in the sports section...
I've already felt the squeeze and I know it is going to get much, much worse. In our paper, what are they going to cut: Cubs' coverage or golf?
